Blue Archive the Animation Episode 4 Discussion

Kayoko talking is ASMR in itself
Where did "swimsuit" come from lol
So here is the bank robbery I've heard so much about XD
16:09 Love Aru's expression here

I'm actually so happy that Handyman 68 won't have to worry about money for a while. I hope they have more interactions with Abydos from now on.
I'm still mesmerized by the ED, it's so well made. Especially love the parts with first-person perspective.

Ani-one subs aren't really that good though, I wish Crunchyroll or Hidive licensed this.

Unrelated to the episode, but related to the game: (JP server) So I spent all my pyroxenes pulling for Nagisa because because she's limited and every site I've seen was saying that she's really good and I can use her in many places (didn't get her after 100 pulls, got some nice 2* characters tho). Then they suddenly announce the rerun of frickin Ako. It appears that I'm still wet behind the ears about gacha games, I'm not pulling anything before the announcement of the next banner ever again (and maybe I shouldn't pull anything unless I can spark 🤔).

I never liked Mutsuki. She's so goddamn annoying. Apparently a lot of people like mesugaki and she's loved by her fans. I can't relate to them but more power to them.

I feel like animation is getting worse after every episode and I can see why anime watchers are getting confused about everything. It's like they're moving the plot too fast but not explaining what's happening on screen at the same time so I can't help but feel the whole episode like a big nothingburger.

To be completely honest, the first volume doesn't have the strongest story, heck, it's confusing to read even in the game back then. I know it's kinda hard to believe but later volumes are better, but those are still far far away depending on the order the studio is adapting it.

I never liked Mutsuki. She's so goddamn annoying. Apparently a lot of people like mesugaki and she's loved by her fans. I can't relate to them but more power to them.

I feel like animation is getting worse after every episode and I can see why anime watchers are getting confused about everything. It's like they're moving the plot too fast but not explaining what's happening on screen at the same time so I can't help but feel the whole episode like a big nothingburger.

To be completely honest, the first volume doesn't have the strongest story, heck, it's confusing to read even in the game back then. I know it's kinda hard to believe but later volumes are better, but those are still far far away depending on the order the studio is adapting it.

@Yuu_Kanzaki Yostar's lack of involvement is really showing lol, this is mostly a Candy Box studio production, whom were responsible for the weakest episodes of Arknights S1. Yostar's too busy cooking for Go Go Loser Ranger it seems, though I predict they'll come in and give us perhaps 1 truly high quality episode for BA.

Vol 1 just isn't that strongly written, you end up appreciating it more for the character moments like this episode or the eventual plot thread that finally picks up.

I think some people who are thinking the anime is going fast are forgetting how things went down here honestly.


But yeah me personally I found vol 2 to be more fun

Even then it's still fairly weak imo. It's just not that good.

Volume 1 is good..

@LotteWeiss I swear. Did everyone truly bash vol 1 this much all the time or are they just coping because of how the anime is turning out?

Vol 1 is good. Like really. A lot of people claim it's boring or something but the story literally goes at breakneck speed. Like it takes 10min to get to P68 introduction and like 25min to the bank heist and like 40min to in the game if you don't count the gameplay component. Like the story goes so fucking fast in the game it makes the average visual novel looks like the most bloated and slow thing that exist. If anything it's just the anime that is slowing it down.

Literally what are these comment of abydos being boring? You'd think it's just SOL talking 24/7 but it's literally fully packed of thing happening left and right. It must be from older player that had the story locked behind campaign or something which was removed when I played the game.

Just re-read vol 1 in one sitting guys. It's fine. It's good.

@Thai777 Volume 1 is the quintessential Blue Archive volume. It's fun slice of life with some antics thrown in and a shade of something more serious. I think people who dislike volume 1 probably won't like Blue Archive in general.

I don't think this part is exactly true, it very much so depends on why someone doesn't like vol 1 or doesn't consider it as good, that could be for a multitude of reasons, I'm not going to advocate for skipping it like others before, but I also do think it definitely isn't among my personal favorites,
Blue Archive itself has a lot of different stories and each has a different flow, I don't think someone who dislikes vol 1 would dislike vol 2(or later)
Vol 1 is still their earliest work, and their writing ability got better over time for sure.



I don't dislike Vol 1, but I do still think the writing got better near the end and in later volumes, issue is people who are complaining about anime moments(beyond questionable at times animation) are just complaining about vol 1's plot in general, see the above mention of things going too fast, if you play the game alongside the anime it's not going fast at all

@Tiau

I'm not saying Vol 1 is amazing or anything but I disagree with saying the writing get "better". If anything Vol 1 is just very simple, it's not necessarily worse or better than later volume. If you read Vol 1 it's literally a very straightforward story like it goes in one direction with no other conflict or side tracks . It's all about Abydos debt from start to finish.

I also disagree with the notion that Vol 1 get better near the end. The end of vol 1 is simply the payoff from the buildup from the first part. The first part is not even boring, like I wrote there is P68, the bank heist+Hifumi and . It's good fun, it's not as if nothing is happening and it's padding time.

What the other volume does more than vol 1 is adding a more complex conflict with more character introduced and multiple thing happening at the same time. In my opinion that doesn't make it better, it's just different.

If anyone is complaining about the plot of the anime it's not vol 1 overall plot at fault, it's the anime inability at conveying the plot that is the problem. The overall feeling anyone should get from vol 1 is "I don't get everything but it's fun hijink. Hopefully the Abydos' situation get better" until the plot start going in the 2nd half. If anime-only don't feel that it's the anime fault for being unable to convey that.

@LotteWeiss

I agree completely. All volume have their strength but they all follow the same pattern you wrote. Fun SOL antics with some underlying conflict that come into action later.


I agree if you talk about the game only but it's a bit different for the anime. The anime kinda portray the world quite differently. It's not stated enough but the overblown number of big animal walking around is unique to Abydos but it's shown very weirdly in the anime. They are oversized and don't give the same feeling as you'd have when looking at the game sprite. In the game it looks silly, downright weird. In the anime they toned down the animal feature to look more like oversized plushies which just give a different worldview. I also feel they put too many of them in episode 2. Abydos is supposed to be getting more deserted yet there's such a big population of oversized animal.

Because such background animal characters will be less prominent in other volume it might give a different feeling from vol 1.

Then we can just agree to disagree then, because even something as simple as Sensei's involvement in the overall story is much more improved in the later volumes in my opinion.
But this is just it, you might not think its boring but plenty of people I've spoken to in this fanbase outside of this site might beg to differ,, but this comes down to preferences. And I still do not agree in the slightest that someone who doesn't enjoy vol 1 will have a hard time enjoying the other story beats, especially when the cast changes between them because someone can simply just not find Abydos interesting but find a different school more interesting



You are also forgetting the commonplace thing going on with anime watchers where they think they should understand everything and be explained all the little details, if people can't accept that show isn't going to expose itself then there's nothing you can do but rewrite the story.

@Tiau It's just that at its core, all of Blue Archive, with the sole exception of volume F which is a very small part of the story compared to everything else, is slice of life antics with a shade of something more serious in the background, just like volume 1. If someone just is not into that they're going to have a hard time enjoying the story.

Then we can just agree to disagree then, because even something as simple as Sensei's involvement in the overall story is much more improved in the later volumes in my opinion.
But this is just it, you might not think its boring but plenty of people I've spoken to in this fanbase outside of this site might beg to differ,, but this comes down to preferences. And I still do not agree in the slightest that someone who doesn't enjoy vol 1 will have a hard time enjoying the other story beats, especially when the cast changes between them because someone can simply just not find Abydos interesting but find a different school more interesting



You are also forgetting the commonplace thing going on with anime watchers where they think they should understand everything and be explained all the little details, if people can't accept that show isn't going to expose itself then there's nothing you can do but rewrite the story.