Anime Review: Blassreiter

I said I would review this for everyone when I noted it was on sale this week. I had to check it out myself to see if it was worth the $44.99 to get (Episodes 1-12).

It is 24 episodes long and is set in Germany. It has a lot to do with Motorcycles which makes on wonder if it was financed by one of them. The title of the series literally means "Pale Rider" and it was put out by Gonzo.

It pretty much starts of with a motorcycle race that ends badly when a Demoniac attacks some of the drivers. The Demoniac was actually a dead lady that came to life as one of these creatures. It gets even more bizarre when this creature fuses with one of the bikes (these guys are called Amalgams). The creature ends up chasing one of the main characters named Gerd. Just when you think it can't get worse, another rider shows up that looks like another Demoniac, but this one takes out the other Demoniac.

Demoniac

We end up seeing Gerd in a accident right after this fight. As it turns out, he lost his ability to walk, so he can no longer ride. A hot female doctor comes along and offers him a pill that will "fix" him. So of course after loosing everything he takes the pill and ends up being able to transform into one of those monsters. Makes you wonder now about the other guy who showed up on the race track.

Take the pill Gerd

Just another pretty face pushing pills

Gerd as the White Rider

There is also a military/police group that is fighting them called Xenogensis Assault Team or XAT for short. As it turns out, one of Gerd's former race buddies named Hermann is on that team. Hermann has some crossed feelings when he see's Gerd is the White monster.

Gerd does encounter the Blue Rider that also seems to be fighting the Demoniac's. We find his character can also change back to a human and may even be from an entirely different dimension.

 Blue Rider

Comments:

Opening and closing songs are well done and picture collage is well choreographed. The is definitely a lot of CGI in this as the fight scenes show. They do tend to get fairly graphic when fighting as well. I think there is too much human interaction with relationships at times. We see several parts that are just each of the characters interacting in the story that does not always make sense.

I think the story is a bit over worked with too many cross characters that really have no need to be in this.The graphics are really stunning, but other than that, I can leave it on the shelf.

It gets pretty predictable at times because you can follow the actions fairly closely. I am planning on continuing to watch just so I can understand who this mysterious Blue Rider is and if he is from some sort of demon dimension or something.

Because of this, I am not planning on purchasing it. It is to "OK" for my tastes right now.

Overall Rating: C