Crystal Blaze discussion thread

[something]

Ugh, this is the show with the official site that loads some quicktime movie that completely destroys Firefox. >_< And when I restart, tabmix plus loads my previous tabs, which brings up that page, which crashes it again, over and over and over... until I give up and load a different tab session or start from scratch. Hate! Grrr, this show better be AMAZING to make up for it, or I'll be pissed.

By the way, why does ANN list the main title of this as Glass Maiden and Crystal Blaze as the alt?

Ep 1 thoughts will go in a reply to avoid having spoilers in the root post.

ANN (http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/anime.php?id=9318) entry.
Official (http://anime.biglobe.ne.jp/crystal-blaze/) site (not the one that hates me... at least, I think so. I refuse to click again and make sure).
Schedule (http://cal.syoboi.jp/tid/1355/time) for airing dates and times on various stations.

Note
As usual, please try to follow these three easy forum courtesy habits when replying:
1) If you're the first person to post about an episode in any given week, please respond to the root post (this post) and indicate in the subject line which episode you're posting about.
2) If someone has already posted about an episode before you, please respond to that post (or a relevant reply to that post). Keep in the right subthread.
3) Don't use the blue "Post Reply" button because it causes your reply not to correctly inherit the subject line of the post you're replying to. Just click "Quote" to the post you want to reply to.

Thanks.

[something]

Episode 1:

- A girl runs through a field, pursued by something unseen. It pounces, she screams. A homeless man by a fence sees her just as she bursts into flame and turns into crystal. Get it? Get it? A blaze! And crystals! And she's, like, a maiden of glass! ...>_>
- OP is meh, but that's because I don't like that sort of music.
- I guess even glass tits are off limits, because there's much glare on her breasts. Police arrive on the scene the next day and we find out this is the fifth case. One officer jokes that aliens probably did it, and suddenly the glass girl shatters and disappears.
- Then to a detective agency, one of those quirky types run by quirky people who solve quirky cases. Like finding a pet turtle. Manami, Akira, and Ayaka are the ones we meet. I especially like Ayaka. Manami is pissed that she gets all the small time jobs.
- Akira tries to call another member, his older brother, the boss. The request they just got is dangerous, but Manami grabs Ayaka and drags her along, trying to beat everyone else to it. Finally Akira gets a hold of his brother... who is busy lying in bed with a naked woman, being "manly" or something.
- Manami and Ayaka arrive, but are in way over their heads. The representatives for the client they're meeting are quickly killed by some women, and the 'cargo' escapes - a nekkid girl, who proceeds to kill half the attackers in short order.
- Boss arrives just in time to save everyone, letting Manami and Ayaka escape on their motorbike while glass chick and Boss get in his car and try to shake their pursuers.
- And glass girl has been naked all this time, as they rely on copious smoke and shadows to cover the bits up.

The weirdo who requested the job arrives with Akira, and Ayaka and Manami come later. Weirdo is surprised to see the cargo is a naked girl, and tells Boss (Shuu) to keep an eye on her until he he can work something out.

::shrugs:: This show is very... "there". It just kinda is... is something. I almost don't have a reaction at all. Other than loving Ayaka, anyway.

[WeirdlyGruesome]

::shrugs:: This show is very... "there". It just kinda is... is something. I almost don't have a reaction at all. Other than loving Ayaka, anyway.
I kept thinking of City Hunter meets the X-Files.

I like the jazzy opening.

[HitokiriShadow]

Not bad. Ayaka is amusing and she and Manami made an good pair. The story is a bit weird but interesting. Overall, it was okay. It's not particularly good, but its decently entertaining and probably worth at least another episode or two.

Er, why does the ANN entry link go to Gundam 00? :sweat1: Here (http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/anime.php?id=9318) is the real one. And apparently this takes place in the Middle East according to the ANN entry. Yeah, right, seemed a lot more like Chicago to me...

[something]

Er, why does the ANN entry link go to Gundam 00? :sweat1: Here (http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/anime.php?id=9318) is the real one.
Heh, fixed. The base example I copy/paste from was from the second Gundam 00 thread and I must have missed changing it. Surprised I haven't done that before.

[pianocello]

So no one here finished this to the end? I guess Manami must have scared off all the viewers? All was it Poriryn?
Crystal Blaze is a show that I was kind of hesitant to watch since most people had problems with an annoying character here. Anyhow, I watched it all and while it wasn't something great, it was still watchable and had its moments.
Having been annoyed to the point of nausea by Rito in To Love-Ru, I'm glad to see in this show that none of the males are freaked out by the not-so-infrequent instances of nudity. The male lead reminded me of Ryo Saeba but I would have prefered to see more exciting gunplay by him. And the one important death scene of one of the protagonists was handled well and emotionally. I liked how they had such an extended epilogue but whatever happened to the nurse (or did I miss something?)
There were some flaws. I thought the climax wasn't climatic enough and the glass loli lacked any character development (having seen a risque pic of her in Megami, I was at least expecting some character development). The characters in this show are okay but I think there's a serious problem when the most outstanding character in this show is the dog who steals every scene he appears in. Unlike some of you though, while I didn't like her, Manami didn't annoy me as much since she was at least aware that it was her fault that things happened and on at least 2 occasions, she had appologized for her behaviour. Nothing against trannies but I could do without some of Poriryn's flamboyant behaviour (I certainly didn't need to see him take a leak or showing a panty shot). :depressed::angry:

[HitokiriShadow]

So no one here finished this to the end? I guess Manami must have scared off all the viewers? All was it Poriryn?

No, it was just disinterest. I watched the second episode and just didn't really care much about what was going on and had better things to spend my time on.

[cjed]

So no one here finished this to the end? I guess Manami must have scared off all the viewers? All was it Poriryn? ...

No, I finished it, but it was overall below average (for shows that I watch, anyway). It didn't have a great plot, I didn't much like the characters, and the animation quality was consistently low to poor. Err... so why did I finish it ? I thought it started off OK, and by the time I'd seen 4 or 5 episodes I prefer to finish series unless I really don't like them (Avenger springs to mind as another example of poor shows I finished).

[Jen526]

I liked it quite a lot. Sometimes it's nice to have just a solid, serious drama/adventure that plays straight through from start to finish. Nothing flashy, but refreshing in its straightforwardness.

That said, I do think the series would have been drastically improved if they hadn't focused so much on Manami/Ayaka. The setting and adult portions of the story had a fair amount of potential for a good story, but it was way sabotaged by all the angst and hissy-fitting from Manami. There was way too much "Ayamana does something stupid and causes trouble" in every other episode.

(Personally, I quite liked Porilyn, though. :) )