Blassreiter Episode 15

By: Chris Beveridge
Review Date: Friday, July 25, 2008
Release Date: Saturday, July 19, 2008

Every show needs a little love from the Knights Templar, right?

What They Say:

Joseph and Amanda are caught and taken to the headquarters of Zwolf, a mysterious institution that meddles in forbidden science. Among its members called Apocalypse Knights are people whom Amanda knows well, and this deeply disturbs her. The Apocalypse Knights manipulate specially developed ultra-weapons and easily take down the horde of Amalgams that had previously given XAT such a hard time. Amanda is more enraged rather than stunned.

The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
After two episodes where we got to know the origins of some of the apparently key characters of the series, Blassreiter gets back on track in the present by moving Amanda and Joseph forward into a new situation. This is pretty much a given considering the way things have gone since the attack on the XAT headquarters, but it once again throws the show into brand new territory without much to hold onto. What makes it almost comical is that we get introduced to a big new secret organization that’s been around for eight hundred years and is ready to make their big move.

Being picked up by this organization known as Zwolf, formerly known as the Knights Templar, Amanda and Joseph are thrown down two different paths. For Joseph, he’s reunited with Sasha once again but he’s more disappointed than anything else at the way she’s gone within this group and what she’s done to herself. For her, she’s simply trying to do what she feels right, even if it means giving him options that would make him rather powerful and a part of a culture she’s not entirely fond of. The two of them face off in a very relaxed manner in the midst of the research they’re doing on him and it’s all rather awkward on both parts as their motivations aren’t entirely clear at this point.

The more interesting, and amusing, storyline is that of Amanda as she’s given what seems like a publicity tour of the Zwolf organization. It’s fairly obvious that they’re trying to draw her into the organization, which is amusing considering that they went to so much effort to destroy XAT and all of its members. The history of Zwolf isn’t gone into much detail, but we do get a pretty good idea that they are the big mysterious organization in the background with lots of money and power. So much so that she’s told at one point that the group is an entire generation ahead of everyone else when it comes to technology and such which makes them ideal for dealing with the Amalgams. Of course, that begs the question as to why they haven’t done much yet and what they actually are doing now that the attacks are becoming so much more prevalent and widespread.

In Summary:
The shift in locales, settings and characters once again provides an upheaval for an already chaotic series. The introduction of a super secret group isn’t necessarily a bad thing, nor unexpected after the events that lead to the end of the XAT organization, but it is comical to see the group to be a present day incarnation of the Knights Templar. That must make some history buffs roll their eyes a bit. The use of Amanda as the central character for us to focus on again is a welcome change after a few episodes of Joseph being the primary but it does lead me to hope that they’ll both become central together as they deal with all the new revelations. Much like every other episode of this series, I have no idea where Blassreiter is going and it’s still having a very hard time making me care about it. It continues to be an almost fascinating train wreck in some ways, which is saying a lot after seeing the chaos that was Speed Grapher at times.

Review Equipment:
Dell Inspiron 1720 Laptop Running Windows Vista