Hynavian

I’m not a fan of mecha or series where characters control big robots, spaceships or anything that encapsulate characters and can be piloted. Aliens leave a very bad impression on me as inter-galactic space battles and time travel were ridiculously portrayed in series that I have caught. Look at Birdy and her galactic travel! Look at those lame aliens in Kashimashi Girl Meet Girl and look at those robot battles in Kannazkui no Miko! Oh, by the way, is there a need for robots at all for Kannazuki no Miko?

However, the anime for Blue Drop changed my perception of aliens.

I actually first started off with the manga, which is a mistake because I have only a word to describe my whole reading experience – weird. The plot was bizarre and the alien behaved and acted out of the box strange and it was just like what I expected of plots with aliens – incomprehensible and ridiculous. After that I decided not to read the other 2 stories (Blue Drop has 3 different manga) because being hit once by a weird ball is enough. However, on Sleepy’s recommendation, I decide to give the anime a try.

The first episode was bizarre, creepy and boring. A school girl strangling a transfer student for no reason, school girl creeping out to some warehouse location in the middle of the night, school girl eyes shine blue and then some gigantic machine appearing out of nowhere…I almost dropped the series but I persevered and I’m glad I did so.

Angst, lots of angst for a new transfer student!

The plot revolves around Wakatake Mari’s encounters with Senkouji Hagino. On Mari’s first day at school, Hagino strangles her out of the blue and when Mari complains to others, none believed Mari because Hagino is well liked by everyone. The thing with Hagino is that she’s an alien and in her home planet, there are no males. So we have that fatal attraction thing on-going between Hagino and Mari.

Senkouji Hagino aka Ekaril

Hagino changes to become more human-like and opens up emotionally to Mari. There’s that trust between them as Hagino trusts Mari enough to introduce her ship (Blue) and her fellow alien crew mates like Tsubael to Maki while Maki trusts Hagino enough to spend the night with her. To recap, there are no males in Hagino’s planet so she’s dangerous in a way. :-)

Tsubael rocks!

Azanael (above) has bad ass attitude problem while Onomil (below) is all forgiving

The later few episodes were painful to watch as I learn of all the dirty on-goings in war and that Ekaril (Hagino’s real alien name) was caught in situations where she wasn’t provided with an option. When I got to the point where aliens were planning to invade Mother Earth, I already knew the outcome all thanks to that strange Blue Drop manga that was set after the alien invasion. It was as if I was watching a play where I knew that it was only a matter of time before the inevitable arrives, thus 「天使達の戯曲」 is rather fitting as the anime’s title.

Some of the scenes are breath taking!

The OP and ED are nice to listen to but not good enough for multiple repetitions. Personally I feel that stark symbols like gulls fit the spirit of the show. I like the short OP scene where Hagino’s ship emerged from the clouds as I find the images to be clear and powerful to the extent that it’s memorable. From the melodramatic OP, one can already make a guess as to Hagino’s outcome in this series. Be prepared to be depressed if you’re going to catch this.