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SUMMARY

Yuji Kaido has been diagnosed with an incurable disease.  He decides to become a "sleeper" until a cure can be found.  He is placed in suspended animation for what he hopes is a short time.

One day, he is violently awoken from his slumber.  He finds himself in the middle of a fight between giant monsters and armor clad humans.  When a giant power suit appears, he runs away in terror, only to find his fellow sleepers dead.

Rescued by Marlene, the power suit driver, he quickly learns what has happened.  14 years ago, monsters called "Blue" appeared, laying siege to the Earth.  Humanity has been forced to migrate to space, and fight a loosing battle on the Earth.  Marlene tells him that her mission is to bring him to the space station, or else.

Now, they have to survive long enough to get there.

DVD VISION TEST

VIDEO: The video quality is pretty good.  The transfer is sharp and clear, with full and vibrant colors.  There was some light wrinkling, and edge enhancement, but it does not detract from the overall presentation. 

AUDIO: The Japanese 2.0 had a fuller and stronger sound than the English 2.0. There is a richness that the English track lacks.  Yet, the English 2.0 had  better directionality.

EDITS: The best of both worlds.  Thanks to the use of multiple angels, you can watch the open and close with English titles, or the original Japanese versions.  No edits to the episodes have been made.

EXTRAS: Quite a bit in the extras department.  First up is bios on the characters, and on the English voice actors.  There is the original Japanese TV promo commercial, clean open and close, along with a 1 minute montage of rough sketches.  You even get an audio commentary from some of the English voice cast on episode one.

WIDESCREEN REVIEW

STORY: Perhaps not one of the most original stories in the anime world, it is one of the most intense.  Katsumi Hasegawa's flair for the dramatic combined with director Ryosuke Takahashi (Gasaraki) awesome "mecha action" really keeps you on edge.

ACTING:  I can't really say much about the acting.  The characters are not exactly the most in depth characters you will meet.  Marlene is cold and emotionless, and Yuji always screams.  Both sets of voice actors play these parts exactly the same.  Perhaps in the later volumes, they will get a chance to stretch their acting muscles.

FAN SERVICE: Well, other than Marlene naked in the closing credits, nothing exciting in the fanservice department.

CONCLUSION:

Welcome to the invasion of planet Earth, again.  Like so many aliens before, the Blue have found that the Earth is the perfect hunting ground.  Not only do they get to eat people, but any kind of raw material they can find.  They turn their food into energy, and fire a destructive bolt of energy out their ass.

If this sounds like a comedy or "Tremors" rip off, it isn't.  The is the world of "Blue Gender", and it is no place for wimps.  To survive, you need more than your wits, you need big (and I do mean BIG) weapons to just hold your own against the Blue.  If you are lucky, you simply die.  If not, you will wind up a ball of human popcorn.  

The hero (if you can call him that) of our story is Yuji, a regular joe in the middle of hell.  He is always scared, full of self pity and doubt.  He whines, complains, and pouts. Not a very heroic character.  Yuji's attitude doesn't get any better as he learns that all of the sleepers are viewed not as human beings, but mission objectives. 

The other main character is Marlene, the definition of "cold hearted bitch".  She has no time to help Yuji adjust to his new surroundings.  Her friends die, and she doesn't even bat an eye.  Hell, I bet that if Yuji gets to be too much of a pain, she will pop a cap in his dome.  I can't blame her cool attitude toward Yuji.  Marlene and her team have been told that if they don't bring back a "sleeper", they will be left behind.  That would make anyone pretty cynical.

While the story doesn't progress much, there is a lot going on.  From fighting the Blue to the mystery of the sleepers, each 25 minute episode is like a min-movie.  There are plenty of "Oh DAMN!" moments to go with the awesome mecha battles.  After the DVD was over, I felt like I had been with Yuji and Marlene, fighting the Blue.

In many ways, this is the anime version of "Apocalypse Now".  We have our hero, on a journey across a war torn world.  Along the way, he meets a diverse group of soldiers, each with their own quirks.  I was surprised that the ADR script didn't have a "I love the smell of napalm in the morning" line for one of the pilots.

There are some interesting looking designs for the mecha and the blue.  The helmets the pilots wear look a lot like death head skulls.  When the Blue open their mouths, they have a very "vaginal" look about them.  These designs and the superb animation really makes this series stand out.

Blue Gender is one intense and great looking series.  It starts off with a bang, and just keeps rolling along like a freight train.  There is lots of action, plenty of death, and enough of a "gross out" factor to keep gore hounds entertained.  If you liked "Gasaraki" but got fed up with all the mysticism, then pick up Blue Gender vol 1.

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