Broken Blade

By: Robert Murphy

In a world where burning fossil fuels and using other common forms of power and engineering we use in the world today, Broken Blade shows us a new world where people are all born with the ability to manipulate quartz. This ability is referred to as magic and it is used for everything that people do in this world from moving vehicles to cooking, most everything used in the world you would need the ability to move quartz. Rygart Arrow however is one of the rare few who was born without this gift and is referred to as an un-sorcerer. Despite this though he will prove to be a crucial part in upcoming events as his childhood friends have been pit against each other through their warring nations, the new king of Krisna, Hodr and his wife Sigyn and his other friend Zess from the land of Athens Commonwealth. Rygart proves to have abilities that no other can possess as he pilots a golem, mech machine from the show that was made by the ancient predecessors of the age and hopefully put an end to the fighting before it begins. 

Now Broken Blade is hardly the first anime to display mech creations that fight one another, whether that be one on one or in mass conflict like the ones featured throughout the show. However, the mechs in the show are a bit more unique compared to most, where most mechs can simply preform great acts while being controlled by their pilots with the flick of a button or throttle, the mechs here are only as strong as the pilot inside. Magic is how mechs are controlled just like everything else in the world and you must be a strong magic user to be able to maneuver one. The machines are somewhat bound to physical limitations of the user and that's something I found to be quite unique, weapons and tools for mechs are put into categories of strength and tested to see what the average magic user could handle. Now while most of these machines appear to be clunky hunks of machines, visually they appear great on screen along with the other solid visuals of the show.

Most of the world we see is covered in dirt, dust and sandy terrain and that is perhaps due to some apocalypse that happen back in the time of the ancients that are talked about from time to time. This fact doesn't detract from the fact that the show is still visually beautiful when you look at the cities, characters and odd quartz creations you will see. Segway like devices, magic powered lighters, robots and other creations are interesting to see as you learn about how this world has learned to use magic in place of everything we use. 

These small enjoyable details though are what I bring up first because the rest of the show is nothing to be excited over. I had a hard time finding one character to relate to or remotely like in the span of the six hour long episodes and I settled for the blood thirsty General Borcuse because he was the only one who called Rygart out for his poor abilities. Rygart is the classic underdog character and reminded me a little of Naruto especially when you look at Zess and how he looks and acts just like another Naruto character Sasuke. And while there is nothing wrong with the underdog angle, the character should eventually turn into a hero you admire but Rygart never proves himself to be someone I would want to model myself after. He continually makes the same mistakes over and over and his dialogue consists mainly of cocky bragging and yelling at the top of his lungs during battle for no reason. During the final battle, which drags out for thirty minutes longer than it should, I wished he would have lost and that it would just be over just for his unbelievable annoying lack of skills. He honestly should have died about ten times throughout the show. 

As for the story, things are fairly forgettable much like the characters in it. Hodr is the absent minded leader who when you see him try to seriously rule and make political decisions you feel the same lack of interest he displays towards the situation he is in. The other side doesn't do much better as we meet part of Krisna's leaders and they discuss the battle plans against Athens but these characters are just thrown in and never develop, one of them is Zess's older brother and the show tries to squeeze some awkward family moments out of it but not enough is done with it to amount to anything. Mostly all the story amounts to is the various battles that take place on each side, one side starts to win and then the other side starts to win, a few conversations are thrown in and then that's it. What really irks me though is how Athens soldiers talk constantly about there dwindling number of golems that they can use but somehow they get a hundred new ones to use in each fight, there never seems to be the massive shortage that they all freak out over. 

In the end, there is brief enjoyment when you think about the tiny bits of creative ingenuity that went into the world and maybe the five seconds where the mech battles are appealing but that is about it. The story or lack there of has many plot holes and the underdeveloped characters that make up the story don't give you any reason to want to keep paying attention to the story. There are also brief moments of potential nudity, that's where the TV-MA rating comes in but it's nothing but titillating moments of pantie shots and suggestive lingerie scenes from Sigyn. So what you're left with is a very poor attempt a fantasy story that has some minor appeal going for it but nothing else. 

Good:

- The mechs are both unique and provide for some okay action scenes

- The show has some visual appeals to it

Bad:

- Characters are all underdeveloped and uninteresting

- Rygart is by far the worst protagonist I've seen in a long time 

- Absence of story and what little there is is full of plot holes

Scully Rating: 3.0 out of 10