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This is not an anime, it's an animated sci-fi show. It does not conform to typical anime tropes and exposition is sparse and almost non-existent the first episodes, you need to pay attention to designs, environments and conversations to piece it all together.

Metallic Rouge's universe seems well built with a lot of coherence and internal logic that's not broken so far (something very rare in anime, typically protagonists break all rules). Sure the protagonist here is "special" but far from unique. She's as unique as the F-22 Raptor compared to a measly Cessna two seater, and that's as spoiler-y as I'll get.

This show does ... follow a lot of sci-fi tropes and is heavily inspired by the classics. From Firefly to Blade Runner you can feel the inheritance here. If my anime list was about science fiction shows, this would get a 9. It's not perfect and it's a bit rough, but it's fun, entertaining and makes you think, specially at the beginning.

If you're here expecting pretty animation and anime tropes, look elsewhere. If you're here for well built science fiction universe and characters, let's stay for the ride. I think the average anime enjoyer will have a hard time with Metallic Rouge, and that's ok. That's why I will mark this as Mixed feelings. But if you love sci-fi in general and not only anime, then you'll probably love this.

I think there are some pacing issues, specially with them wanting to go fast, then slowing the pace at the end. At the very least you will get a cool action sequence every episode and the universe's coherence is never broken, which goes against anime conventions.

Unfortunately, based on the ending alone, it seems a season 2 is unlikely but we'll have to see. I would love to see an episodice adventure buddies season based on this universe.

This is not anime. It's an animated sci-fi show.

Bought it blindly as it was the only volume 1 manga I never read at my local manga store. Thought it was going to be some sort of comedy, but it's actually a Harem. If you've seen the cover art for the anime, then SPOILER, it's a harem with 5 girls and one guy. Pretty typical.

If you're very much into romantic comedy with an above average clumsy but good hearted guy who's "chased" by a harem o 5 diverse and highly differentiated girls, then this is good enough to read through. I've seen the Quintessential Quintuplets with my wife (she even made me go ... to the movie theater to see the finale). So I can really say it's highly similar. I'd recommend the Quintuplets though, as it has a certain degree of mystery.

Unlike the Quintessential Quintuplets, this feels more slice-of-life-y as the only objective is to pass an exam. I can hardly believe there's 21 volumes of this, hope at lesat they go beyond the college entrance exam. Me, personally I'd rather spend my money on something else or even watch the anime.

I'm giving it 7/10 because even though it's not for me, I'm sure any fan of the genre would be able to love it.

I've read it translated to spanish, the Kamite manga version. So translation and the way dialogues are written were ok, so I did not have the same issue. I've seen others complain about the english versions.

This is a mystery drama, mainly revolving around two characters. I thought it was going to be a gore fest, but in reality it was 2 deaths every month according to the curse. Each death leaves some space before the next (a month), that way you can feel characters grieving for the departed.

I had bought volume 2 many years ago and loved the art style but soon forgot about this ... as I could not find the other volumes. Eventually throughout 2023 I managed to add all other 3 volumes to my collection and could finally read it whole from start to finish.

Biggest point to me is the art, drawings are very good, highly focused on faces and their expressions. Some getting used to the pacing, some chapters felt very long, with very little time having passed and other chapters had months passing. This could’ve been 2-3 volumes if we got rid of all the things that did not affect the story that much. Still, I saw a note at the end of volume 4 stating that there was a contractual agreement of making it to 4 volumes so that might be why volume 4 was quite a rush and great pacing compared to volume 2 or 3.

If you like some minor gore but not a gorefest and you like mystery dramas, this is a very entertaining read. Highly recommended.

SPOILERS AHEAD WITH MY ANALYSIS OF THE STORY

The curse that plagues group 3-C is one that affects the memory of seemingly the whole town (most can't recall anything about it) and also kills off one student and one person related by blood to some student. Like the "first" death, they might be the "pair" (mother and daughter) or like the second deaths (a brother and an unrelated student), the dead might not be related.

This curse is caused by the classroom having "another '' person, one who is actually already dead. So they need to figure out a way of finding who is the "another ''. (this metaphor actually works grammatically in spanish)

Last few chapters had a very good twist, so won't spoil it. If you start it and enjoy the beginning I think it's a must going all the way to the end. But be warned, this story is pretty much highschoolers being dumb and a couple of adults coping with that and trying to help (ultimately failing). Some complain how the MC was not warned to not talk to Mei but you can see how the classroom would be divided and be stalled by a bureaucratic process trying to decide what to do. If you warn him, you acknowledge Mei's existence. If you do not warn him, he might try to talk to Mei (which is what happened).

Still all that was useless and Mei was apathetic, since she was grieving for her loss (something we learn early on), hence the curse had "started" even though she was being ignored. So that strategy did not work. I believe this is the reason Mei talked to Sakakibara, she already knew the ignoring had not prevented the curse. So she was stuck not having a way to communicate her loss to the others.

This was my first introduction to BLAME! I saw it, didn't think too much about it. Then I saw the manga show up in spanish in my local magazine store, decided to give it a go and I was absolutely hooked. The manga is so much better.

After finishing the manga I decided to re-watch this and it was so much more enjoyable! This is truly a love letter to the manga. You have some of the main characters and the most interesting humans: electro-fishers. In the manga they were a little more badass as you saw how no one else was able to stand up ... to the Safeguard and then you saw these guys just pommel them up. The movie makes them look ok, but not great.

SPOILERS AHEAD
Something that is a bit bad about this is how Killy is constantly tiredtwo shots of the gravity gun and he needs to shoot himself up with some drug just to make a shot. Does not reallly make that much sense. A very cool thing was the factory, loved the idea of how the solution to all their poblems was just a walk away and yet they never printed out one of the collars to keep the safeguard back, they could´ve even printed vehicles, more weapons, automated sentries to take out the safeguard, etc. and all they managed to do was food, a body and the terminal.

I give it an 8 with mixed feelings because you truly need to be a fan of the manga to enjoy this, if you've not read the manga then best to stay away from this. I also do not rank it higher because it could've been so much more, the story had the pontential of giving us some more interesting machines/devices but it was pretty limited, probably due to budget.

Just read this, it's a quick read it's basically the characters from Knights of Sidonia viewing a BLAME! TV Show, it's ok if you're a big fan of both series.

Still it's very short, so might as well read it if you can find it. The most interesting thing is seeing Cibo in a weird design, but over this is a very BLAME-y chapter. Other than that there's not much to say, definitely a good extra easter egg chapter with a crossover, though I would've liked a more fan-service-y crossover breaking the 4th wall but it was just some charaters viewing TV. Don't take this ... as cannon though!

I just don't buy the setting, it's a 1km diameter hole with 20km depth and humanity has explored it for 1900 years and at even just 150m depth there's a lot to be discovered... just don't buy it. Seems like the story highly under apreciates human capacity.

There's also the fact that some pages that are borderline child porn with supposedly 12 year olds, totally unrelated to the story and don't even add anything at all. A couple points deducted for this unnecessary thing.

It's also interesting how the purpose of these slave-child-labor miners is to obtain artifacts which hold untold power and of which just the ... right one may change an entire country, yet they all live in precarious situations (kind of a reference to blood diamonds in the real world) and yet even with those riches to be had, in 1900 years nobody has been able to actually get them efficiently.

After 1 volume I just don't get the desire to keep on reading. There are better thought out stories elsewhere.

That said, this seems to be a story about a journey and in volume 1 the journey seems to have just begun, so take this as a grain of salt in what seems to be a long jourey down. If they cannot fully explore a 1km wide with 150m tall tube in 1900 years I just can't fathom how long they'll take to reach the bottom (20km). Real life people take 2-3 months to climb everest (around 8 km tall) so a realistic timeline woud be around half a year, but I have the feeling the characters will drag this on for many years as just this volume alone took place over around a couple of months or a bit less.

In the beginning it gives out Battlestar Galactica feelings, humans running away from an unbeatable foe. It is too much magic to be just sci f and to me it is more like fantasy in space. Magic goes anywhere from teleportation, telekinesis, telepathic communication, to a weird Deus Ex Machina, where a "tribe" became literal gods, though they were not. But oh yes, they were. So it's a mixed bag of lore, which feels contradictory, kinda very religious like.

Battles feel too repetitive, with some literally recycling animations for most of it. But in the end it is well made, though it does drag on. If ... it was at least 10 episodes shorter, it would´ve been better. Most of the battles feel like they have little to no stakes and in the end nothing was ever truly lost, so the protagonists got everything they ever dreamed of. In my opinion that is just lazy writing, but we'll leave that criticism with the source material.

If you are looking to get a BSG/Mecha/space battle itch scratched by viewing this, you might be ok to view it. But if you're expecting a masterpiece, good/original story and an overall good series, then this is one to skip. Last 7 episodes dragged on too long, ever since episode 20 you get an idea of what will happen in the end.

Starts well, ends slow.

Overall the first 11 episodes feel great, it's an episodic adventure with lots of walking where you explore the post-apocalyptic Japanese society and landscap together with the two main characters. I always love an anime that can be compared to the Hobbit or LotR, since those books are true adventures with lots of walking where a whole new universe is built up with each interaction the main characters have with the world itself and its inhabitants. Heavenly Delusion's world is truly something, though it borderlines the generic post apocalyptic sci fi story but does so with a good enough twist to be original,

Lots of questions ... arise when watching this, and the lore is almost all there with a few exception but it's all told indirectly and visually with two separate timelines. One timeline is basically flashbacks to characters that do pop up here and there in the main story so keep your eyes open and pay close attention until the end.

There's also a big LGBTQ+ question, and I feel it's done so in a very poor way. The author should've investigated more into this matter or just leave it out as it has very little impact and they do make a big deal about it, especially in the finale. Even then, if this quesiton was compeltely erased, the story and chaacters would stay 99% the same.

My biggest gripe about this anime are the last 2 episodes in which one of the two main characters fulfills one of their goals. The reward? NOTHING. There's no change for the party and at the end of episode 13 they are just as they were at the end of episode 11, no closer to the bigger goal and no closer to answering the bigger questions viewers might have.

In my book if a story has lots of pieces that do not have impact, then it's not a good story. As a whole, I cannot recommend this anime. It's just a poorly done story that's not worth your time.

As an episodic adventure, most episodes are pretty enjoyable and absolute great on their own. probably around 8 episodes were 10/10, the rest were either too generic or just a poorly done story.

The story is told very visually, meaningful dialogue rarely occurs. It is a very interesting concept really seen elsewhere. Most panels are more like architectural sketches of building-ridden landscapes, giving insight into what walking though Blame!'s world would be like. There are nooks and crannies with small gems everywhere, so it reading a panel might take much longer than a dialogue based manga (Ore Monogatari comes to mind where there are barely any backgrounds or landscapes)

The art style is very rough and dirty, character designs are even inconsistent. But the art truly shines in those artificial landscapes. If you're looking for character-driven stories or designs ... look elsewhere.

The actual story is pretty straight forward, but you stay for the journey. Similar to The Hobbit, this is a story about a guy (and his occasional party) walking the path towards a very straightforward goal, finding something.

I read the Master Edition which has 6 volumes with bigger pages and the last 2 volumes were my least favorite. Suddenly it all becomes about fighting and the most important thing of all, reaching the goal, takes place on only a couple of pages. The issue with the fighting is that because the art style is very rough, it can be hard to tell what is happening to whom. Some fight scenes I had to carefully indirect in order to decipher them.

In the end, this is a must read for any visual novel fan. The story telling is done in such a different way that is a great study case for a visual novels (comics, manga, etc) can be done in a radically different way than the mainstream.

Still, for me this falls short of other masterpieces (Berserk comes to mind), mainly for those last two volumes. In the end, the graviton gun wielding artificial and immortal super human will win and there are little to no stakes.