Quite recently I’ve been thinking about another anime series that I saw not too long ago. I guess mainly because I saw the complete DVD set of the series in a store a couple weeks ago, and because someone asked me about it just recently. So for this post I’ll be covering a little old-school anime called Blue Gender.
Plot: Upon learning that he has an incurable disease, a young man named Yuji Kaido voluntarily has himself put in cryogenic stasis in the hopes that a cure for his illness will be found. But years later, when Yuji is finally revived, he awakens from his deep frozen sleep to a living nightmare. The Earth has been overrun by a race of giant carnivorous insects known as the Blue, and what’s left of the human race is hanging on by a thread. Yuji’s only hope for survival is a young woman soldier named Marlene Angel. And as the two of them fight to survive, they learn before long that Yuji’s condition may be the key to humanity’s salvation.
I stumbled upon Blue Gender by chance one day as I was browsing through the anime selection on Netflix. After reading a tiny bit about the show’s plot online, I decided to give it a try. It turned out to be quite a thrilling series. I don’t think Blue Gender will ever be considered great art, but they simply don’t make anime like that any more. It was a fun ride, and the kind of anime I had been searching for at the time.
Pros: Despite coming out in 1999, Blue Gender feels like something that came out in the 1980s. Even the dub of the show’s opening theme sounds like a piece of 80s rock. And for me, I think that’s the show’s best quality. There were many times I felt like I was watching the original Terminator, or Aliens, or one of the Robocop films. Another good quality of the show is the solid development of its two lead characters. At its core, Blue Gender is pretty much a love story. It’s a love story with giant rampaging insects, but a love story nonetheless. The show also has a pretty compelling sci-fi story, and one that’s not bogged down with a lot of CGI like a lot of the sci-fi anime of today’s era.
Cons: I won’t lie. Blue Gender is a pretty dark series. It has a pretty upbeat ending, but the first few episodes are pretty depressing. But then this is an anime that’s set on a post-apocalyptic Earth, so it’s going to be a bit dark. Another thing about this show that might turn off some viewers is the violence level. It’s not extremely bloody, but some might find it a tad gruesome. One other quality of the show some people might not like that I should probably mention is that two or three of the episodes had to be edited a bit when it ran on networks like Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim, and not because of violence. Let’s just say you might want to make sure the kids are out of the room before watching. I mean it’s nothing intense, but it is a bit steamy.
Overall: The bottom line is that Blue Gender probably isn’t the anime for everyone. But for those looking for an old-school sci-fi anime with a decent love story and don’t mind a little violence and “other stuff”, I strongly recommend giving this series a try.
Rating: 3.4 out of 5 stars
