Shameful Otaku Secret!

And his name that sat upon him was Gonzo

During the Spring of this year, Gonzo’s initial online streaming experiment began with two series: Tower of Druaga and BLASSREITER. Both shows were featured not only on Crunchyroll and BOST TV, but YouTube as well for an unlimited time. Tower of Druaga was pretty well-liked, and its twist ending caused some interest in Gonzo’s new properties. Then, of course, Panty Witches was a raging success of the dumbest kind. So what about Blassreiter, arguably the most “Gonzo-like” of the series?

Well, it doesn’t immediately stand out the way either Strike Witches or Druaga did. The series tends to slip into Gonzo’s comfort zone pretty quickly, and as such exhibits a quite a few of their typical problems. But it’s not without merit either — in fact, at times it was really engaging.

Story

Without getting too much into it, since part of the fun is watching the story unfold, Blassreiter tells the story of a human augmentation project — somewhere between Twenty Faces’ cybernetic super-soldiers and Gendo’s Human Instrumentality — gone horribly awry. The augmented monsters, called Amalgams, start running all amok in Germany on their way to destroy and remake the entire world. Through it all, the only people with the balls to try and save the world are some glorified cops on motorcycles.

XAT uniforms require cleavage, regardless of gender. I found this to be pretty progressive on Gonzo’s part.

Characters

The series gets a few episodes in before you finally realize who it’s actually about, and it’s not so much racing hero Gerd Frenzen (which you might think through two or three episodes) as it is XAT cops Amanda and Hermann. By the final episode, they’ve become fantastic leads. Amanda is the strongest female I’ve seen in anime in a very long time. If you’re looking for her to break down and need a man at some point, take your moe elsewhere — she stays on point for 25 episodes.

And, she’s a pink-haired looker!

Animation

Notoriously, a lot of people (myself included) ditched this show from minute one when they saw just how bad Gonzo’s trademark CG had gotten. It was like a video game had invaded my anime. But two things happened: First, it got better. The CG fight scenes between the dextrous amalgams were fast-moving and creatively directed. And second, I watched a couple Speed Grapher episodes and saw to exactly what level Gonzo will stoop if they don’t feel like animating a vehicle using cels.

CG motorcycles it is, then.

I mean, motorcycles are cool, right? Right?

The Gonzo Factor

Gonzo tend to try really hard to make their “adult” shows seem very “adult.” That usually means gratuitous violence and ridiculously amped-up sexuality (lol bewbs), combined in a way that makes everything feel decidedly un-adult. Rather than upping the sex-and-violence quotient, Blassreiter’s crew opted to use hopelessness, despair, religious themes, and insane amounts of character death to create something you might actually find somewhat mature.

Themes

Blassreiter’s characters struggle most with trying to maintain their belief systems and their sense of right and wrong in a jacked-up world where most of their friends have been needlessly slaughtered (sometimes twice). A lot of the characters are Christian and question their religious beliefs, and Zwölf is a church-operated organization, but Christianity is a theme that remains mostly unexplored. Ultimately, the characters like Gerd who become Amalgams cling to any belief, even if they doubted it during life, just to try to remain human as their basest instincts start to take over their minds.

Bottom Line

Blassreiter was part of an experiment for Gonzo. They’re not doing all that well money-wise, but they dumped 2 million USD into Crunchyroll, so something apparently worked (probably Panty Witches, actually…). [Edit comes in the form of getting schooled in my comments section — that money came in April so it's actually part of what powered this whole thing.] Considering more Crunchy shows this season and the off-balance amount of Gonzo stuff in Funimation’s iTunes store, these guys are going to be anime’s first real fixture on the Internet, for better or worse. The good news is, you could do a whole lot worse than Blassreiter.

If you like your anime dark and full of action, but without the over-the-top indulgences in sex and violence that Gonzo can be guilty of at times, give it a shot. I think it’s their best “traditional Gonzo” series in a while. And even if you’re just curious, you can jaunt on down to YouTube and check it out for nothing, so why not?

Is there proof in Gonzo’s pudding?

The experiment that animation studio Gonzo underwent in realtime, worldwide distribution of quick-subbed anime along with their channels — YouTube, Bost TV, and CrunchyRoll — was innovative, timely and all around a great idea. Maybe it’s not totally about “beating” the modern fansubbers, but it certainly didn’t hurt to take advantage of their primary tools (digital formats and online distribution) to basically make history. Thing is, the experiment is doomed to fail if you’re missing one key part: the show.

So was Druaga the right choice?

Background & Story

The Tower of Druaga is an old-as-the-hills RPG video game that I’ve never played, but that had to be a strike against the anime to begin with. I can’t think of a good fantasy-RPG-turned-anime, although there probably is one out there somewhere. Anyone? In the story, every year a bunch of treasure-seekers form parties in order to climb to the top of the titular Tower and stop a horde of monsters from plaguing humanity. Nothing too revolutionary.

So the story ingredients — focus on small-fry would-be hero, develop a rag-tag party, and defeat the big bad guy while beating smaller bad guys along the way — form more of a white bread than tasty cake. Pepper it with a romantic subtext (if not really a romantic sub plot), some familial issues, and a couple twists, you’ve got the makings for a potentially fun but not exactly engrossing series. Fortunately, Gonzo and co. didn’t stop there.

Despite being based on a typical foundation, Druaga seemed to refuse to be normal. The first episode was a total joke, more about parodying its genre of games than establishing a story (although it did get that done too). The joke was a little weird and out-of-context to start a series with, and it wasn’t 100% funny either. But if you stuck with it you got the chance to see more and more game reference and other weird parodiess: 8-bit sequences, cryptic joystick movements (back back left right left right), and hint books.

While the overall story arc may not be anything special, the way the writers weave seriousness, cute charm, and all-out parody with one another is, with few exceptions, consistently entertaining. A problem with consistency is one of the calling cards of any good Gonzo-bashing, so ease off. Besides, Gonzo bashing isn’t even cool anymore. It’s been cool for quite a while now to act indignant while defending Gonzo, haven’t you heard? I can’t really feel strongly enough to get indignant though, sorry.

I’m not sure I was totally prepared for the end. I guess that’s another bump for the skillful writing. Nothing about the end came out of the blue, as we got plenty of foreshadowing and hinting, but there was a real strength in execution that put viewers in the place of the dumbfounded characters. Not to mention, a small part of the OP that I called the best of the season finally made its way into story, but turned completely on its head. I don’t want to spoil, but suffice to say: the end is not really the end. A second series is promoted as coming in 2009, and that won’t come soon enough.

Animation & Music

Like I said, the OP was one of the best of the season for its fun-turning-to-dramatic tune, mysterious alternate-reality premise, and really clever way of displaying the credits. Incidental music is a little more typical of the genre though it’s sprinkled with game sounds. It’s nothing to write home about but enhances the show well enough and never gets in the way.

Some character designs are a little samey for my tastes, but they’re appealing. The main characters all have decent personality in their designs, especially cute female lead Kaaya and disgraced aristocrat magician Melt, with his perpetual stubble and pre-morning-coffee attitude. Just like the writing, the animation was very consistent. Then again, a 12-episode series really shouldn’t have any consistency problems. The one unfortunate thing is the computer-animated big boss monster in the final few episodes. Boy is it awful. The other show in Gonzo’s experiment, Blassreiter, suffers from the same wretched CG. It’s just terrible. I don’t know if I can say enough bad stuff about it. For a company that made some decent early forays into CG, Gonzo has not progressed much since. But overall, this is highly capable work from the studio, on par with some of their better stuff like Full Metal Panic!

The verdict

I actually plan on writing a whole post about the Druaga experience, so I don’t want to get into the Crunchyroll nonsense yet, I just want to talk about the show — because like I said, the experience and thus the experiment don’t matter for shit unless the show is decent. I’d have to say I’m impressed. For a series that started with a joke, it ended with real maturity (and a whopping cliffhanger). Gonzo haters looking for stuff to pick on will find it, I’m sure. Look no further than the CG. But Druaga stands on its own very well, and capably next to the studio’s successes like FMP! and Speed Grapher. Besides, if you take the YouTube route, you really have nothing to lose by checking it out. That goes for non-fans of fantasy, as well.

Bottom line, The Tower of Druaga will never be top-shelf anime, but it’s entertaining enough to recommend with few reservations.