Back to Peko-Virus's Profile Peko-Virus's Profile

Lovely, fun, wholesome. There aren't many anime out there I could describe as wholesome genuinely, the story and characters of Blue Archive is incredible for this. While there are many darker storylines and there is plenty of conflict between students and schools, at the end of the day it's beautiful how well the story manages to portray its world and how all of the students have their struggles within it, while always striving for their best and wanting to find their place in it.

In terms of the anime adaptation at hand, I couldn't be happier. The animation, sound design, voice acting is pretty much perfect. ... The students are lovely and fun, and quite incredibly well realized to their game counterparts. The action scenes have some great animation, though that is, not to take away from the detail and expressiveness of the calmer scenes. The opening and ending are absolute bangers, as is the soundtrack which, despite featuring a few too repetitive parts, manages to weave the games soundtrack really well.

As for a little constructive criticism: The pacing is a little on the slow side at the start, deliberately I should stress, as in-game as well as in the anime you spend some time acclimating to the world and learning how it works with the academies, and getting a sense of how daily life is for the students, which taken as a story, a fan-service letter to anime fans, or as the start of a hopefully long series, with many slice-of life moments in this first arc, is exactly what it should be. Though despite it, I would agree that not much happens in the first few episodes in terms of story-heavy events, which might be a positive for some, but could have been better handled to perhaps appeal to a larger audience.

On more of a personal note, seeing some of the discussions of the site it is baffling and frustrating, with people saying they find it hard to understand the world, or how the students are somewhat impervious to bullets or some such... It is not necessary to have knowledge of the games story beforehand. Obviously it helps to clear up some questions and expand on some aspects, but anyone without the prerequisite knowledge, and doing the bare minimum of actually watching the show and paying attention will understand everything just as well as any game player, or a normal person watching the anime. Suspension of disbelief is pretty subjective but being unable to understand what is a simple and well realized premise is quite something...

Objectively - 7
Subjectively and Game fan - 9