Buru Jenda

Plot synopsis:
In the year 2009, Yuji Kaido is an average young adult male diagnosed with a serious disease (the "B-cells") and is put into cryogenic stasis until a cure is found. Twenty-two years later, he is awakened in the midst of a raging battle between armored soldiers and insectoid beings called the "Blue" which have overrun the Earth.
The group of soldiers are from an orbiting space colony collectively called Second Earth and were ordered to recover "sleepers" around the Earth. Among them is the soldier Marlene Angel, who at first appears to be heartless toward others. On the journey to the space colony, Second Earth,Yuji meets many of the humans that were left behind during the evacuation due to limited resources. Standing orders for Marlene and the other troops are to consider any human survivors on the surface to be already dead, which greatly troubles Yuji.
On their journey all of the soldiers are killed, except for Marlene, causing Yuji to fall into a deep depression as he recognizes the destruction around him and his own inability to save those he cares about. During their travel to Baikonur space base through the mountains, Yuji and Marlene start to develop a bond that softens her sharp edges. Eventually, in Russia, Yuji and Marlene come across another group of soldiers and devise a battle plan to get back to Second Earth. During the operation to escape, Marlene is the last remaining pilot and completely overrun by the Blue. Just when Marlene is about to self-detonate her Armor Shrike, Yuji arrives. Determined not to leave her behind, he comes to her rescue with a team of supporters (service robots). Marlene is overwhelmed at Yuji's efforts to save her. This is a turning point for Marlene and her feelings for Yuji are quite clear for the rest of the series. During the shuttle flight to Second Earth, Marlene and Yuji expose their emotions for each other. Marlene and Yuji's scene is abruptly interrupted as a mutated Blue which hid in the shuttle attacks Yuji, critically injuring him.
Upon arrival, Marlene and Yuji are separated, and Marlene is sent back into training at the education station. Not knowing what happened after he was attacked, Marlene rebels and is bent on finding Yuji. When she does, she finds he has healed and is being trained to use a new specialized "sleeper"-specific Armor Shrike (AS) called the "Double Edge", a battlesuit that is much stronger than the originals used in war against the Blue. It is discovered the illness that Yuji is afflicted with is the key to help destroying the Blue and taking back the planet. He, and other "Sleepers", have "B-cells" which are also the genetic makeup of the Blue.
After intensive training, Yuji and Marlene return to Earth with two other Sleepers named Tony Frost and Alicia Whistle. Tony is an inexperienced AS pilot, but his B-cells are very adept, giving him great AS skills. Alicia is only a young teenager with no combat experience and not much sense of what is going on around her. They and the other forces of Second Earth battle the Blue. They are successful at destroying a few of the largest nests before they head back to Second Earth. However, the battles begin to have a negative effect on Yuji, who has very little regard for human life and is completely obsessed with being better than Tony at killing the Blue. Yuji's actions deeply concern Marlene and she begins to realize something is wrong.
Shortly after returning to Second Earth, the High Council orders the Sleepers on a second offensive against the Blue. Marlene is separated from Yuji once again, but in his current state he does not seem to care. As the Sleepers are carrying out their mission, a battle on Second Earth between two factions is waged. Seno, the head of Second Earth's science division, leads the "Ark" rebellion taking control of the military, lunar resource, and education stations of Second Earth. The High Council escapes to and retains control of the medical station. Marlene learns about the nature of the illness that put Yuji in stasis, the source of his abilities, and the source of the Blue Insectoids. They are a defense mechanism enacted by the Earth to purge the existence of humanity, and the B-cells that exist in the Sleepers could become a potential threat to humanity as well.
After the Ark successfully takes over Second Earth from the ignorant High Council, Marlene heads down to Earth in search of Yuji. When she finds him his B-cells are already beginning to activate, and he begins to go berserk as a killing machine. After struggling and fighting with him, Marlene is finally able to get through to Yuji and helps him overcome his madness by showing her human emotions and feelings for him (this is ironic because in the beginning of the series Marlene is the brutal military soldier and it is Yuji who uses his emotions to help Marlene realize her human sensitivity). Meanwhile, Tony and an unknowing Alicia have also abandoned the remaining ground forces. The troops fend off waves of Blue before escaping with the few remaining survivors. Tony and a now brainwashed Alicia also eventually return to Second Earth, but bring with them several Blue when they board the medical station.
When Yuji and Marlene return to Second Earth, they find that Tony plans to ram the medical station into the military station, which would therefore destroy the heart of Second Earth. He sees this as the "Grand Will of the Earth", in which he will become a "messiah" and cleanse the planet of humanity forever. However, Yuji, Marlene, and a group of other soldiers infiltrate the station, and manage to free Alicia's mind after injuring her. Later, Yuji and Marlene confront and eliminate Tony, while Rick (a close friend and partner to Yuji and Marlene) is slaughtered by a Blue. Alicia ventures back to Tony to die with him as the military destroys the medical station.
After the decision by Seno's junta to abandon Earth, Yuji becomes depressed and contemplates his existence, wondering what he has been fighting for, why he was woken, why he cannot save his friends (Joey near the beginning, Tony from his madness, and Alicia from Tony's brainwashing), and what is truly Earth's will. However, Marlene again is able to get through to Yuji; the two realize they need each other, and finally become lovers.
Yuji decides to return to Earth to once and find out what Earth's will is. After learning from Seno about a new migration pattern of the Blue, Yuji and Marlene take a group of volunteers and head to an area where a massive nest is located. There they find a group of humans surviving in the area. The nest seems impenetrable at first, but they eventually find an entrance with the help of the local people.
The entrance leads to a tunnel where the walls, ceiling, and floor of the cavern are composed of fossil-like Blue. The team finally comes upon a crystal formation in a massive cavern. A huge Blue is birthed from the gel substance sitting atop the formation, and kills everyone except for Yuji and Marlene. Yuji kills it and comes to the conclusion that the sphere will hold the answers he seeks. He sends Marlene, who is pregnant with their child, away to the surface to wait for him. He then gets a vision and can see what the Earth itself can see. Yuji comes to understand how mankind can live alongside the B-cells, and returns to Marlene.
Meanwhile, Second Earth's military station's citizens revolt against Seno. The station's personnel abandon the station for Earth via shuttles. Eventually a firefight erupts over the last remaining overcrowded shuttle, and the station is destroyed by a massive explosion. All around the world from former Blue Nests, long strings of coalescing energy ascend into Earth's atmosphere and form a ring. Marlene and Yuji watch this, realizing Earth is now a safe place to be, and look forward to the rest of their lives together as the sun sets. A final view of the Earth from space is shown with a slightly garbled narration, presumably by the Earth, stating, "Welcome to your next journey".

Tags: violence

Review:
Wake Up: It's the End of the World.
Yuji Kaido is an average guy with a problem: he's sick, and there's no cure.
Doctors simply don't know enough to fix the problem, but they can offer Yuji an amazing opportunity.
After reluctantly agreeing, Yuji is cryogenically frozen until a cure for his condition is discovered.
But things are very different when he wakes.
Tokyo (the entire Earth, for that matter) is in ruins, consumed by merciless, insect-like predators known as the Blue.
Pursued by the massive arthropods, Yuji is rescued by icy professional soldier Marlene Angel, a member of a military team assigned to recover "sleepers" like Yuji and transport them back to the orbital space station where humanity has taken refuge.
As the Blue hunt them at every turn and team members start to die, Yuji and Marlene will have to rely on each other to survive and to escape from the planet.This is an exceedingly well-made show.
The Blue are interestingly designed and frighteningly portrayed, the characters are likable (well, the good guys are), and the storyline never bores the viewer.
The general film "rules" about who can and cannot die (children are safe, noncombatants are safe, etc.) are not rigidly followed here, and the series is all the more suspenseful for it.There are a few issues, like a small amount of nudity that can jar you if you're not expecting it, and an environmental plot element that can feel somewhat preachy at times.
However, these aren't enough to justify taking away any more than one star.Blue Gender has a dark tone and its fair share of violence, and is not for everyone.
However, if you enjoy the genre, this is a visually and, I kid you not, emotionally appealing series that can be horrifying, exciting, and even touching..
Dark Anime.
I've seen a lot of anime, this is by far the darkest, most disturbing anime I have ever seen.
When I first saw the trailer for Blue Gender I got goosebumps.
It's really a fantastic series that has twists and turns around every corner that leaves you wondering what's going to happen next.
With the voices of Eric Vale (DBZ's Future Trunks) and Laura Bailey (Kid Trunks, Keiko Ukimura).
Word to the wise: Don't get too attached to any character, because there aren't any Dragonballs to bring them back.
I got attached to a few characters that were killed off pretty quick.
Also, the voice actors speak very low, so you might need to turn the volume up, but that captures the darkness about it.
All in all Blue Gender is a very unique and dark series that any anime fan would love..
Blue is Good.
Yuji Kaido is a normal 20 something with the rest of his life ahead of him but after coming down with a serious and strange sickness he decides to go into suspended animation until a cure is found.
Finaly in the year 2031 22 years after going to sleep he awakins to a nightmarish world no one could of expected.
Upon his awaking he is saved by a group of futuristic military squad know as the Sleeper Recvoery Team, equiped with the heavest of weapons and lead by the cold yet beatuful Marlene Angel.
Realizing the team is his only hope of survival and discovering now that the world is overrun by large bug-like creatures only known as the Blue.
Yuji must now find his own destiny and ends up on a path that may not only save or destroy himself but the hope of mandkind.
Without knowing who to trust on the real Earth or Second Earth(A Space station filled with survivors) Yuji turns to the only person who may be able to save him Marlene.
A very good show if you've seen Starship Troopers and liked it then check this out.
The best episode in the season is Episode 15 Calm.
In the episode you really get the feeling of sparks between Yuji and Marlene.
Emotionally Driven Cartoon.
I'm not really a big anime guy; in fact, the genre as a whole sort of repulses me.
Blue Gender really only piqued my interest because it was on Adult Swim's lineup around two, three years ago (back when AS was worth watching) and I caught a couple episodes.
I'm a total sucker for post-apocalyptic scenarios, and giant, mutilating bugs never hurt anything, so I recently got hold of the series in complete.
36 hours later, I'd watched the series from beginning to end; not so much because it was gripping (that's only partially true), but more because I'm a maniac.Blue Gender is driven not by the prototypical giant robot action Japan is (in)famous for, nor the horrendous monsters, nor even, for that matter, the dialog.
The viewer is compelled through Blue Gender by the characters and their subsequent emotional arrangements, more specifically the leads, Yugi and Marlene.
It's basically an epic, sci-fi soap opera with heavy metal and big bugs.Marlene is the ideal woman.
(Yeah yeah, she's a cartoon, "ew gross", get over it: that's not the point.
The point is the idea being conveyed by whatever layered ink it travels through:) Marlene portrays the aesthetic of an ideal woman: strong, self-sufficient, but irrevocably feminine.
I'd argue that she's more of a focal point for the viewer than Yugi, but Yugi is also a necessary component.Yugi is a bumbling, sometimes whiny character that often accomplishes incredible things.
This the viewer can appreciate and identify with; his relationship with Marlene, because of the viewer's identification with him, is the key in the ignition for this work.
The audience is propelled through the series hoping intensely he'll get himself together and snag this pristine idol of a woman.The interactions that follow the setup between these two are worth the 500-whatever minutes of moderate quality animation and dialog.The other characters, for the most part, are semi-interesting.
The atmosphere and setting are kind of cool; the creators do a pretty good job of portraying an insect infested planet Earth, but again, this is mostly beside the point.In this ultimately lonely life, people often underwhelm us.
I'm constantly disappointed by the trite selection of people placed before me.
Fiction provides a remedy to this, allowing us to construct a composite ideal of characters we'd like to know within the stage of our minds.
After all, the only difference between memory and reality is the level of detail.Anyways, philosophic drooling out of the way, I'm glad to say that this series instilled in me memories of a character I appreciate, and I'd endure double the length of these episodes, spotty details and all, just to glean what I have.On an end, this series has softened my harsh glare towards cartoons.
While I doubt I'll be browsing the Anime section anytime soon, I'm a bit more open to taking animation for the ideas it's portraying as opposed to the raw, intrinsic value of the animation itself.Oh, also, keep a keen eye out for the hilarious Engrish used in the animated computer interfaces...
This series had promise, but failed ultimately in its conclusion.
Which was weak at best.
In spite of its good story build up, I found this anime wasted a lot of time on over-dramatic shots of characters emoting over and over.
The theme of the story is thought provoking, about humankind destroying earth with our carelessness.
But the ending is carelessly put forward (which I found predictable), it needed a lot more thought to wrap it up.
I had hopes, but was sadly disappointed.
Princess Mononoke or Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind handled similar themes more maturely; despite not being 'mature' rated.
You may like it, try it out..
Robotech with sex and violence.
This series despite being less than perfect has it's share of moments.
The premise of the series is much like Robotech perhaps in the Invid storyline where a bunch of mysterious bug monsters have seized control of earth.
The monsters are truly disturbing and there are some heart wrenching moments in the series.
The truly spectacular part of this series is the emotional journey of the main character as he awakens in the future to find the world he knew destroyed and his desperate fight for survival.
Where this series is very different from Robotech is that it treats it's subject matter in as gruesome and horrifying a way as it rightfully deserves to be..
Insects of the giant type have taken over the world!.
This anime was rather good, it really pulled you in the first few episodes, however at a point it loses some of its steam and is just not the series I was expecting it to be.
Basically, the story starts off great as this dude with some mysterious illness is put into cold storage so that one day he can perhaps be revived when a cure is found.
He is awakened, but not to a bunch of doctors saying "We did it!".
No, instead he is awakened in a nightmare as the earth has been overrun with giant insect creatures, his only chance of survival a mysterious girl using some type of robot vehicle to fight off the many different creatures now seemingly intent on killing people.
This part of the story is great, seems they have some plans on using the dude to stop the creatures, his illness being the key.
A lot of people are now living in space and this is where the girl must get the boy so they can begin setting a plan of attack against the bugs in motion.
It is a really good series up to the point you sort of find out what the people with this illness are needed for and you ask yourself "what"?
I just never got what was so special about them, seems like they really had no special ability to me.
The series once it reaches the go back to earth phase kind of loses its luster that it built up in the very exciting escorting kid back to the spaceship part of the show.
I also never saw the last episode of this series so while I saw all the others I still feel incomplete when discussing this start with a bang series.
Just needed work on the second half of the show..
Undeveloped concepts and themes , weak dialogue , idea drought.
Some interesting themes are approached in blue gender.-A kind of 'Gaia hypothesis' viewing the earth as a single organism and humanity as a kind of cancerous cells.-The conflict between the desire for new technology and the potential disastrous impact it can have.-Human evolution.There are also a slew of common sci-fi tropes, powered exo-skeletons, bug eyed monsters , A GI Jane with a soft heart , cryogenic sleepers woken into a strange future , to list but a few.Many of these ideas are introduced early on yet the series is more character than idea driven.
A common technique used within the show is to introduce the viewer to several new characters and then kill them off quite brutally and often without warning to drive home the reality of the warfare.
Unfortunately this , through overuse , becomes quite expected and although the idea is to communicate to the viewer that "anyone can die" the two primary characters are clearly with us till the end.
The rapidly rotating cast also doesn't allow us to empathise with or begin to relate with any other but the two leads.This is unfortunate because although Marline is a , mostly ,likeable and consistent character , Yuji's emotional flip flopping becomes rapidly irritating.
His character ranges anywhere from a comatose terrified adolescent to a fearless killing machine.Given that the series seems to degenerate as it progresses and that several new developments are only revealed in the last few episodes .
It seem as though the scriptwriters rapidly exhausted ideas and moved onto new ones.
Within the show this is often explained away by a new revelation that the blue are "evolving" or by some weak plot hand-waving.
Is the core idea that war is a kind of personal hell (as several character express)?.
Is it that humanity is being punished by the blue (a possible analogue for disease or disaster) for their unchecked expansion and environmental destruction?
Is it supposed to be a warning about the dangers of unchecked scientific advance?
The desire of humanity to rule the earth?
Or as I believe "a tale of sound and fury , signifying nothing."The ending is .
I really fail to grasp how the pregnancy revelations , new age 'earth-spirit' interactions and violent conflict on 2nd earth were supposed to be taken but to me they read as , 'wrap it up , don't worry about the neatness , just get it finished'This review may seem excessively critical to some but when Blue Gender is viewed in comparison with other Anime in the sci-fi genre it seem trite and shallow.The dialogue is the typical cliché ridden machismo that military sci-fi suffers from, coupled with the terrible 'romantic' dialogue between Marline and Yuji.My review gives 4 out of 10 for the decent level of animation for its time, the use of light and colour as well as some inventive camera work at points.It also gains points for at least raising some interesting themes though scores low for failing miserably to explore them.Despite showing some promise, I bestow the worst criticism I can on Blue Gender.
Its not worth watching..
The best anime i've seen to date.
About a week back sat down to watch the blue gender without having really high hopes.
But i was impressed with the first episode and how it goes, Everything i wanted to see in a anime or a movie or TV series was there, the action , the survival horror with aliens , science fiction, nice story line with good characters that spread far and wide through out entire 26 episodes.
I've seen many anime's but this one is exceptional.
I loved it so much for many reasons and i will re watch it many times because of it's good ending.
I loved the ending, never left any loose ends, it was all over in a good way.
That's something you don't get in anime everyday.
I am a type of guy who loves to finish off things whether it's good or bad it has to end without loose ends and Blue Gender does it in a grandeur way according to my book.Id say if you are a type of person who is looking for a good action filled anime with science fiction plot, awesome characters and robots and best of all a clean good happy ending after all the struggle.
Without a doubt i'd recommend you to go ahead and see it.
Only spoiler i am putting in to my review is that this has a "GOOD HAPPY AWESOME ENDING".
that's all, rest you go ahead and find out..
Exciting and emotional 'bug-hunt' anime.
When Yuji Kaido is diagnosed with an untreatable condition he is put into suspended animation in the hope that one day a cure will be found.
Twenty two years later he is awakened but it isn't because a cure has been found!
He discovers that the Earth has been overrun by creatures called 'The Blue' and a group of heavily armed soldiers is intending to transport as many 'sleepers' as they can to Second Earth; an orbital space station.
Amongst the soldiers is one called Marlene and she is the series second protagonist.As they make their way to spaceport, faraway in Russia, they must confront numerous Blues and inevitably take heavy casualties.
Getting to the space station isn't the end of their troubles; once there Yuji learns why they wanted the Sleepers and finds himself in the vanguard in the struggle to retake Earth from the Blue.I watched the opening episode of this series years ago and didn't think too much of it at the time so dropped the series but wanting something new to watch I decided to give this a second chance I'm glad that I did as I quickly found myself gripped by Yuji and Marlene's struggle against the Blue.
These to protagonists were pretty good as their characters developed nicely during the twenty six episode run; secondary characters also get some development meaning that we care for those who are killed along the way and there are quite a few of those.
The action is pretty solid and fairly gory at times anybody who has seen a 'bug hunt' film like 'Starship Troopers' will know the sort of thing to expect.
As well as quite a bit of gore there is some sex and nudity although it is fairly tame if you are old enough to watch the violence it shouldn't offend you!
The animation is pretty good especially in the action scenes even if there are the occasional 'shaky still frames' rather than full animation.
Overall I'd say this is well worth watching if you like bug-hunting sci-fi.These comments are based on watching the series in Japanese with English subtitles..
One of the best.
I can say that this is one of the best anime I've ever seen.
Too bad that it's a bit lax in the last episodes, but over all it's excellent.
Character development is very good, and it inspires a lot to attach to them.
Too bad, because most of them are dying quite fast.
Marlene is maybe the most important character, and I am sure that for a lot of watchers she can be the ideal woman.
Yuji is the main character, and he goes through some memorable adventures, along with Marlene.
Though, the movie is not so good, it actually spoils all the story development, in fact in contains not more than ultra condensed series, without very important explanations and introspections.
That's why i highly recommend the series, which take from me 5/5, and forget about the movie.