The Weekend's New Show

Just one new show added this weekend. That means Blue Gender is the best new series of the weekend. It's also the worst.

Blue Gender

Episodes: Four 23 minute episodes
Clips: None
Studio: FUNimation
Rank: C+
This is the first anime show I've seen that is truly epic in scope. We're in the year 2031, and a race of big insect-like aliens called "The Blue" have taken over the earth, with a predictably dire impact on the human race. Some humans have taken the battle to outer space, while other human survivors live in the cracks of a post-apocalyptic world. So I like the setup, and the storylines really take advantage of this scope, with the four episodes posted covering everything from "warrior training to battle giant bugs" to "little girl needs saving."

But for all that, the series didn't really grab me. I think anime is most successful when it draws on deep-rooted japanese culture to bring a fresh twist to tired old storylines and art. The drawing on Blue Gender is sub-par, reminding me more of GI Joe or Battletech than most of the other artful anime that's out there. The story, while different from other anime I've seen, didn't strike me as something too different from what the American cartoon factory churns out on a semi-regular basis.

Yours;

The.Hulu.Man