Blue Gender

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For criticism see Criticism of Blue_Gender
Blue Gender
ブルージェンダー
(Burū Jendā)
GenreHorror, Mecha, Romance
TV anime
DirectorMasashi Abe
StudioAIC
NetworkFlag of Japan TBS
Flag of the United States Cartoon Network (2003), FUNimation Channel & CoLours TV (2006-)
Flag of the United Kingdom Sci-Fi
Flag of Hungary A+, Animax
Flag of Romania A+, Animax
Original run10 October 1999 – 31 March 2000
Episodes26
Animated film: Blue Gender: The Warrior (movie)
DirectorKoichi Ohata
StudioAIC
Released20 November 2002
Runtime~120 min.

Blue Gender (ブルージェンダー Burū Jendā?) is a 26-episode anime created by Ryousuke Takahashi (of Armored Trooper Votoms and Gasaraki fame) broadcast in Japan from 1999-2000. Blue Gender was created by the Japanese animation studio, AIC and is distributed in the United States by FUNimation. In 2003, Blue Gender was released on American television as part of Cartoon Network's Adult Swim, though it had originally been planned for Toonami, and was thus edited to remove its graphic violence, nudity, and sex scenes. There is also a compilation movie (Blue Gender: The Warrior) available on DVD. The series was also shown on the Sci-Fi Channel in the UK in 2002-2003.

Contents

Plot

In the near future, Yuji Kaido is an average guy diagnosed with a serious disease (the "B-cells") and is put into cryogenic stasis until a cure is found. He is woken up in the midst of a raging battle between armored soldiers and insectoid beings called the "Blue" which have overrun the Earth.

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

The group of soldiers are from an orbiting space colony called Second Earth and were ordered to recover "sleepers" around the Earth. Among them, the soldier Marlene Angel develops a strong bond with Yuji while they try to get to Second Earth. On the journey 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 Yugi.

On their journey all of the soldiers are killed, except for Marlene, causing Yuji to fall into a deep depression as he sees the destruction around him and his own inability to save those he cares about. Eventually, in Russia, Yuji and Marlene come across another group of soldiers and they succeed in getting back to Second Earth.

Upon arrival, Marlene and Yuji are separated, and Marlene is sent back into training. She rebels and is bent on finding Yuji. When she does, she finds he is being trained to use a new Armor Shrike (A.S), 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 make up of the Blue.

After much training, Yuji and Marlene return to Earth with two other "Sleepers" named Tony Frost and Alicia Whistle. Tony is a non-experienced A.S pilot but, his B-cells are very adept giving him great A.S skills. Alicia is only a young teenager with no combat experience and not much sense as to what is going on around her. They and the other forces of Second Earth battle the Blue. They become successful at destroying a few of the largets nests before they head back to Second Earth. However, the battles begin to have an effect on Yuji which concerns Marlene.

Shorty 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 doesn't seem to care. As the "Sleepers" are carrying out their mission, a battle on Second Earth between two factions is being waged. Seno The Military which takes control of most of the stations of Second Earth, and the High Council which escapes to the medical station. During this time 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.

She heads down to earth in search of Yuji, but when she finds him his B-cells are already beginning to activate and he begins to go berserk. After struggling and fighting with him, Marlene is finally able to get through to Yuji and help him overcome his madness. Meanwhile Tony and an unkwoing Alicia have also abandoned the remaining grounds forces. The troops have to 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 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 eliminate the threat of Tony, and manage to free Alicia's mind after injuring her and the Blue, though Alicia is inadvertently killed after Rick was slaughtered by a Blue and she ventured back to Tony to die with him as the military detonates the medical station.

After the decision by those of Second Earth to abandon earth, Yuji becomes depressed and contemplates his existence, wondering what he has been fighting for, why he was woken, why he can't save his friends (Joey near the beggining, Tony from his madness, and Alicia from Tony's brainwashing) and what is truly Earth's will. However, Marlene again eases his mind.

Yuji decides to return to Earth to once and for all find out what is Earth's Will. 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 who seems to be surviving in that area. The nest seem impenetrable at first, but eventually find an entrance thanks to 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 like 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 is destroyed when its citizens revolt. All through out the world, long stings 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.

Main characters

  • Yuji Kaido (海堂 祐司 Kaidō Yūji?) - He worked at a gas station in the near future until a life-threatening disease (later discovered to be B-cells) required him to be put into cryogenic stasis so that his state would not worsen. He awakens in the future to find that the Blue have destroyed everything he knew. He then begins his journey to Second Earth, learning to defend himself and others on the way. His mental state changes greatly during the series, as he sees more of the ruined earth and meets all the people left behind. Voiced in Japanese by Kenji Nojima and in English by Eric Vale.
  • Marlene Angel (マリーン・エンジェル Marīn Enjeru?) - Orphaned at the age of ten because her parents were killed by the Blue, Marlene was one of the few lucky ones to make it to Second Earth. Since then, Marlene has dedicated and trained herself to defeat the Blue. Though seeming very cold in the earlier episodes, as time progresses, Yuji opens up Marlene's emotions. Towards at the end of the series, she conceives Yuji's child. Voiced in Japanese by Hōko Kuwashima and in English by Laura Bailey.
  • Tony Frost (トニー・フロスト Tonī Furosuto?) - Another sleeper brought to Second Earth before Yuji. A very powerful sleeper, Yuji strives to improve himself to be able to beat Tony. Tony seems to have no emotion, and is set on destroying the Blue. It becomes apparent in later episodes, however, that he sees himself as a Messiah when his B-cells initiate, and has his own plans for the fate of humanity. Voiced in Japanese by Hiroyuki Satō and in English by Jerry Jewell.
  • Alicia Whistle (アリシア・ウィッスル Arisha Wissuru?) - Another sleeper on Second Earth who is paired with Tony. She immediately gravitates towards Yuji, seeing Marlene as an obstacle to a relationship with him. She is very young and often naive. Her death is one of the many that troubles Yuji. Voiced in Japanese by Miwa Yasuda and in English by Lisa Ortiz.
  • Seno Miyagi (セノ・ミヤギ Seno Miyagi?) - A high-ranking member of the science division on Second Earth. He suggests that Marlene and Yuji are kept together in order to get the best results from Yuji in the sleeper program. Not agreeing with the High Council's leadership of Second Earth or its reckless use of the sleepers, he eventually forms a group called The Arc, which would later overthrow the High Council's "government" on Second Earth. Seno would subsequently become the leader of Second Earth, but only for a brief time, as the station was destroyed in a civil war at the end of the series. Voiced in Japanese by Katsunosuke Hori and in English by Kyle Hebert.

Secondary characters

  • Joey Heald - One of the pilots sent to earth to retrieve the sleepers. Joey has a positive attitude no matter what the situation is. Joey is the first person who gets close to Yuji. In one of the earlier episodes, Yuji accidentally sees Joey and Marlene are about to have sex before a big battle. Marlene later explains that Joey and she were not in love, but were trying to feel alive because they could be killed at any time. Voiced in English by John Burgmeier.

Episode guide

  1. One Day
  2. Cry
  3. Trial
  4. Agony
  5. Priority
  6. Relation
  7. Sympathy
  8. Oasis
  9. Confirm
  10. Tactics
  11. Go Mad
  12. Progress
  13. Heresy
  14. Set
  15. Calm
  16. A Sign
  17. Eclosion
  18. Chaos
  19. Collapse
  20. Versus
  21. Joker
  22. Dogma
  23. Soliste
  24. Compass
  25. Adagio
  26. Let Me

Differences from the movie

The movie, Blue Gender, The Warrior has some differences from the series. In short, these would be:

  • scenes from the series are ordered differently, and sometimes given new meanings; there have even been created new scenes to comply with the story in the movie;
  • MANY characters from the series are completely left out; this includes, but is not limited to, from the main cast, Tony and Alice; Rick has a much shorted appearance and does not seem to feel anything towards Marlene; strangely enough, expendable characters like Yin appear in the movie too;
  • the Blue appearing as "the Boss" of the end of the series, becomes in the movie just another Blue that Yuji takes care of; furthermore, in the series, Yuji is not aware that many (if not all) of his acquaintances die during his new life, and this may be because he has much fewer emotional ties, and that is, in a strange way, due to the fact that less people die in the movie, although some of them more violently;
  • Miyagi is different in the movie, and considers himself sole responsible for what happened to Yuji and the others; he does not have the strength to fight the system, considers himself a part of it and eventually commits suicide; it is unsure if this stops the falling of the sphere's inhabitants morale and eventually saves the space station;
  • in lack of Tony to become the antagonist, Yuji turns on that way, considering humans are just as dangerous and annoying as the Blue and thus turns against both; it is not shown in the movie why this happens, or if it has to do with the Earth's plan for humans shown in the series, or if it even exists in the movie.
  • The endings are totally different: while the series' leaves no room for interpretation, the movie's is very vague and unclear.
    • As explained above, the ending is totally different: Yuji develops Tony's control over the Blue, but is not made to go crazy by him, but on the contrary, he gets saved by this - this might show that in contrast with Tony, he is able to control the Blue, and not be controled by them; the station is apparently saved by Miyagi's sacrifice; the situations apparently will continue in the same way, and it is unsure what the outcome of the war will be, if the Council will find someone similar Yuji (especially with Miyagi gone and all the samples destroyed), or if Yuji and Marlene will become a new species to inhabit the world;

Trivia

  • The scenes in which direct sexual relations have been presented between Yuji and Marlene were bigger reason of controversy for the series than the abundant violence; some lesser knowers of the phenomenon have even called the series a hentai because of this;
  • On the Romanian anime forums, an avatar depicting Yuji has been kept for more than 3 years by a member, Iusty.

External links

References


Adapted from the Wikipedia article, "Blue Gender" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Gender, used under the GNU Free Documentation License.
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