Glass Maiden

What can one expect out of a pure action/sci-fi, such as we have here in Cystal Blaze? Good fights, interesting technologies, and the same things we've come to expect out of basically any anime: good characters, plot, and in some cases, a great soundtrack. With these as our guidelines, how effective is Crystal Blaze at presenting its story and themes? Well, like attempting to use Earthquake on a Flying-type Pokemon, its not effective at all, except under very specific circumstances. Let's start off with the basics in what Crystal Blaze does well. Its not all that much, but if you're looking for something withaction, you can probably enjoy this series. Don't misunderstand me though, for this is not the pinnacle of Action Mountain. For a huge fan of such a series, Crystal Blaze is an adequate anime. Its one that you'd be able to spend your time on without thinking afterwards that you'd have been better off throwing your time down the garbage disposal. Its soundtrack isn't exactly stellar, but it gets the job done without actively detracting from the events that are unfolding. While not commendable, it does what its supposed to do and doesn't get in the way, so it's impossible to fault it there. The story with the animation is much of the same. This, however, is where the praises must end, for Crystal Blaze does not warrant any more positive feedback than its already received. Other than its okay action sequences and passable soundtrack and animation, Crystal Blaze doesn't have much else going for it. Primary amongst these faults is, unfortunately, the plot. In regards to both its Sci-Fi aspect and its general storytelling aspect, Crystal Blaze falls flatter than the paper the storyboards were written on. Folks looking for a decent Sci-Fi should look further, as even this primary building block of the series fell into poor management. The secrets that the viewer wonders about since the beginning of the series are never properly answered, save a few vague "explanations" that only really serve to add more questions to the blazing fire that is the viewer's curiosity. The characters are, somehow, even more mismanaged than these facets. Here, we have "Rags Town", a place where people go to forget their pasts. One expecting well-developed characters with strong backstories should turn away and run now, or otherwise attempt to tackle this monstrosity. With such a setting in "Rags Town", Crystal Blaze is perfectly set up to give not one, but all of its characters wonderfully moving or tragic backstories--and can be, in a way, expected to do so. What motivates these people? Why are the here, and why do they stay? In the end...we never know. Any such backstory is shoved into one montage at the end of a middle episode, and even then, it only really gives a basic, barebones backstory for one character. Even with such a setting, Crystal Blaze proceeds to completely abandon any promise for developing its characters, leaving them as action-character stereotypes to further along its weak, cliche-filled plotline. So in the end, is it worth watching Crystal Blaze? The hard truth is...probably not. If you're a fan of action series in general, you could give this a shot and you may find it entertaining. Its not a gem, but you may enjoy it. If you're just looking for a quality, well-made anime with strong core elements, I'm afraid you'll need to keep looking. Overall, its not a complete loss if its got exactly what you're looking for...but don't expect to be blown away.

This was a pretty good anime overall. The plot is interesting, and the story doesn't drag on like some other anime's. They could have made the plot a little bit more complex, but they didn't. The characters are alright, but they don't really go into detail on their lives, like some other series out there that only focus on characterization and no plot. But it is an "action" anime so that is understandable. There's a couple "extra" characters in it that are really useless but the series isn't long enough for them to get on your nerves. I personally liked the nurse and doctor themost out of this series. The rest were space fillers lol. The animation is pretty good, since it's not such an old series. The opening and endings aren't all that bad if you don't mind jazz sounds.

1)Intro/Synopsis Rags Town is the garbage dump of Japan. The place where people who want to forget their pasts run to. In this town, where the rules strictly forbid asking about the past or getting to know people, there is small detective agency called S&A Detectives. The story revolves around Ayamana, the inseparable pair of misfit wannabe detectives, the case Manami takes on impulse, and the trouble that arises from it. On the case they find a woman who is abnormally hot, and who is being chased by a bunch of women with guns. After being dubbed Sara, the detectives try and figure out just whatis going on with her. At the same time, all over town teenage girls are burning up and turning into glass. The government is covering everything up, but the detectives, as well as a nosy reporter and the local police, are determined to find out what is happening. 2)Plot Crystal Blaze follows the story of Sara, a young woman who’s being pursued by an evil organization. This is just the beginning of the cliches folks, I hope your prepared. What’s the twist, then? She’s a biological superweapon capable of localized devastation and nearly invulnerable to attack. Despite that, she’s still just a perfectly nice girl that wants to live her life. She ends up in the protection of a detective agency, and naturally the two groups start trying to outmaneuver each other. In the process, they discover a huge coverup and factory to produce these weapons, including an even more powerful weapon 3)Characters Sara aka HW9 is a Nice Character with a good amount of character development as the entire plot mainly focuses upon her.Like Sara, the rest of the cast is pretty much a bunch of stock characters. Shu is the main protagonist of the story, he’s a ladies man who’s quite aloof and only concerned about conducting his business.I really like Shu coz he is Charizmatic and exudes Style and Precision in his actions throughout the Anime. Akira, his brother, is the nice guy that does most of the footwork for the agency as well as the House Chores. Manami is a high energy tomboy who will honestly grate on your nerves a bit in just a few episodes and she has secured a place in my Top 5 Most annoying Anime characters. Ayaka is the exact opposite, she’s very quiet and withdrawn. Porilynn is Shu’s cross-dressing boss who has his thumb over the pulse of the town through an immense security camera network.He is one of the Main attractions among the Cast,a good friend of Shu and offers a nice Comic relief.Sophia,a Crime reporter cum journalist is definitely one of the best characters in the anime who gives an emotional perspective to the storyline. And finally there’s Sensei and Monica, the lecherous doctor and his assistant. 4)Animation The animation is Pretty good and all the characters are well drawn but need a little Getting Used To kinda feel..The backgrounds are decently detailed and this is all we would expect from this kind of series. 5)Choreography The overall choreography is incredibly well done But I felt that the direction in some of the show's more fast-paced scenes could use some tightening up. There's nothing more annoying than a gunfight where everything pauses for a key exchange of dialogue, and you're left wondering why the rest of the participants should have suddenly decided to hold still and stop shooting. 6)Music-Op and Ed The music really deserves a little Praise here and Succeeds in successfully capturing the Mystery cum Suspense vibe throughout the Anime. I really enjoyed the Opening video song very much. 7)Perks(A word Coined by Me to indicate all the Out of the Box strategies the Animation Studios use to attract the Viewers such as Fanservice,and use of References from famous Anime). Shuu, the head of the detective agency, may not be a conscious homage to Ryo Saeba from City Hunter, but it has to be said that there's a haunting resemblance. Both of them earn their living as freelance tough guys, they both carry huge revolvers, and they both go through women like popcorn. Shuu even drives a classic '80s car.There is very minimal fanservice and far from being called Ecchi. 8)Final verdict So with all these cliches, this series must be absolutely horrible, right? Well, not quite. The story follows a fairly predictable course of events, but there’s little moments of surprise that managed to make me rewind and look at th scene again. All of the characters grow to a decent degree by the end of the series, except for Manami, who is eternally annoying as sin. The balance of action and story filler is pretty decent, I never felt like the series was dragging, nor running too fast, which is pretty good for a 12 episode series. And, well, it’s just entertaining, and sometimes that’s what matters. pretty well paced out right up until the end were it seemed a bit to rushed so I didn't really care for that but at least it easily tied up all the loose ends up rather nicely into one little episode. It's no Black Lagoon but it is a decent detective/scifi show that tosses in a little fanservice and a little dark humor The bottom line, is Crystal Blaze is just decent; you can tell they were trying to do something here but just fell short. It’s definitely not a series that breaks new ground, but it does have little glimmers of greatness. The art style feels a little awkward at first, but it grows on you. As the series progresses, it naturally gets darker to match the overall tone of the story. And as I mentioned before, I waited three months for the conclusion. So if you’ve got the time, give it a chance. 9)Review Score Introduction-8/10 Plot-12/20 Characters-18/20 Animation-12/15 Choreography-8/10 Music,OP and ED-12/15 PERKS-7/10 OVERALL SCORE-77/100 or 7.7/10==Great!!