The spice must flow!

Blue Drop is off to a great start, introducing its two main characters by building animosity between them, yet subtly bonding them together by a force you could only call fate, all on a sci-fi backdrop disguised as a normal school drama. There are so many possibilities to consider in terms of how plot and character will develop, Blue Drop has seemingly infinite potential.

Wakatake Mari has spent the past five years living with her grandmother, but suddenly it was suggested that she be sent off to boarding school. Mari protested but her grandmother insisted that there are things that she needs to learn that can’t be taught in home schooling, and although Mari doesn’t understand now, someday she’ll realize that leaving is a necessary step in her life. But that time is far off, and for now, Mari is annoyed that she’s being forced to attend boarding school, sulking all the way there. But suddenly, she sees a flock of birds gathering around a beautiful girl standing out on the ocean shore.

Mari’s annoyed attitude quickly returns when she arrives at the school, Kaihou Academy. It’s a school that prides itself on strict discipline, training its students, who are mostly rich ojou-sama types, to be polite and ladylike members of society. But for Mari, who has had little experience dealing with other people, let alone figures of authority, does not adapt well, coming off very rude.

When the administrative paper work is done with, the principal invites Mari to look around the school, which is empty because its the students’ day off, he calls a random student who he sees outside, Kouzuki Michiko, to show her around.

However, despite Michiko’s sincere efforts, Mari has no interest in touring the school, saying that she has no intention of staying for much longer, and running away.

Meanwhile, Mari’s butler(?) explains to the principal and staff members that Mari used to live happily with her parents until a tragic incident about five years ago, that brought an abrupt end to their lives. Mari’s grandmother tried her best to support her after that, but it became apparent that supporting Mari would likely become impossible soon, worrying about her future, her grandmother sent her to Kaihou Academy.

Elsewhere, Mari stops running, coming to the realization that she has nowhere to go even if she does run away. Accepting her fate, she sees her butler off and is left to Michiko to be escorted to their dormitory.

After Michiko shows Mari her room, she tells her that she’ll have an opportunity to introduce herself to the rest of the girls living there at dinner and leaves to find the dorm rep. Suddenly, another girl enters the room to greet Mari, much to her surprise it’s the girl that she saw on the way to the academy, the one standing on the shoreline. Mari was entranced by her and seems genuinely happy to meet her again, changing her attitude from cold and apathetic to warm and friendly, doing her best to befriend the girl, who introduces herself as Senkouji Hagino. But when the two shake hands, a violent image of a flaming village appears in Hagino’s mind and as if not having control of her own body, she begins to strangle Mari. Eventually she snaps back to her senses and lets her go, but Mari has no idea what brought the assault on and angry is an understatement for the feeling she’s left with. She yells at Hagino and storms out of the room.

With the faint hope that there might be something to live for at the academy gone, Mari is left sulking. Michiko approaches her and tells her the story of her life at Kaihou, how it’s filled mostly with rich girls from well off families, that her family isn’t as grand compared to the others, how she got in on a fluke but had the full support of her family. Michiko insists that Kaihou is filled with nice people, hinting that if she gave it a chance, Mari might come to like it as well.

Mari is eventually convinced to give it another shot and that night, introduces herself to the rest of the girls at the dorm at dinner. But when Hagino, the student head of the dorm, comes up and extends her welcome to Mari, she slaps her hand away, refusing to accept her after what happened that afternoon. When Hagino plays dumb about it, Mari is infuriated and throws a glass of water in her face. This causes a bunch of girls to jump up and come to Hagino’s defense, getting in an all out fight with Mari. Mari holds her own in the fight, but when she reaches for a ladle as a weapon, an upper year student comes in and stops the fight, sending all those involved back to their rooms without dinner.

Mari sits alone her room, hungry and annoyed, when she hears some noise outside. Looking out the window, she sees Hagino sneaking out of the dorm. She follows her to the lake and ends up seeing an unbelievable sight, Hagino summons a gigantic spaceship from the depths of the water.

First Impressions

Out of all the series that I’ve seen so far this fall season, Blue Drop is the one that interests me most in terms of storyline. An alien girl comes to Earth as reconnaissance for an invasion, wiping out an entire village leaving a single survivor and five years later meeting that survivor, who ends up making her doubt her mission and becoming attached to the human race. Certainly more original than the infinitum of generic harem. Though I haven’t watched Ef: A Tale of Memories yet, which might be a worthy competitor in terms of originality.

What I’m looking forward to most with Blue Drop is how the relationship between Mari and Hagino will develop. There’s a lot of hate between the two right now, but Mari was noticeably intrigued by Hagino when she first saw her, and the two will undoubtedly end up as friends. Hagino is probably aware that Mari is the survivor of her attack that wiped out an entire village those years ago, and subconsciously she tried to kill Mari in order to protect her cover. But for whatever reason, she didn’t. I can’t wait to see what happens when Mari recovers her memories, at that point Hagino will have to make the decision to do her duty or protect her friend, likewise, if Mari finds out that it was Hagino who was responsible for the incident, she’ll have to make the difficult decision to either forgive the person who was responsible for killing her family or letting go of the past and treasuring her new friend. Oh the possible drama that could come from this series.

There’s also the possibility of yuri, since, you know, the setting is an all girl school, and there are already signs that the girls are sexually confused and see nothing wrong with being attracted to other girls. I’ve been starved for yuri ever since the Marimite OVAs ended. Bring on the MariXHagino!

Man the harpoons!

The animation in Blue Drop so far has been pretty good. The backgrounds are very well done, having a sort of pastel drawn feel to them. Although the first episode didn’t have much in terms of fluid animation sequences, that brief montage of the flock of birds flying around Hagino shows that if there’s the need for some higher quality animation, they’ll be up to the task. Character designs were a little weird, the proportions of the face, most notably the eyes, were a little off at times. But it’s a nice change to see semi-realistic character designs in the torrent of big eyed, rainbow hair moe blobs. Though I WTF’d at the dorm head pictured above, someone, kill it with fire!

Music = meh as usual, I didn’t even bother listening past the first couple seconds of the OP or ED.

I’m hoping Blue Drop capitalizes on the massive amount of potential it has to be a great sci-fi-esque drama. They need to focus a lot of time building Mari and Hagino while slowly prodding the plot along, but if they can pull it off, it’ll be a masterpiece. It looks like they’re on the right track for now, so I have pretty high expectations for the series.

Damn, it’s getting harder and harder to decide what series I’ll be blogging this season. Only Clannad is set in stone, leaving two more series that I can pick, but between DCII, Myself; Yourself, Blue Drop and Shana II, I’m having a hard time deciding what will fill those slots. And I haven’t even seen Bamboo Blade, Kojika, Ghost Hound or Ef yet! ;_;

~ Shirukii ~