Blue Gender Movie: The Warrior

Publisher
FUNimation / MVM
Country of origin
Japan
Format
Film
Running time
100 minutes
Year
2002

Blue Gender Movie: The Warrior

By otaku_kei
29th Jun 05

The history of TV series to movie edits is a bit patchy as far as the anime scene is concerned. Some have been good but flawed (Rahxephon), some have been well edited (Macross Plus) and some have been an experiment in mediocrity (Neon Genesis Evangelion: Death & Rebirth). Blue Gender Movie: The Warrior will unavoidably be caught by these comparisons, and in many ways that is as unfair as comparing any of these shows. Yes condensing 26 episodes at 25 minutes a piece into a 2 hour movie will mean that many subplots are all but ignored and there will be those out there who will condemn such editting, but some shows may still be able to have a coherent plot drawn from this editing process.

Blue Gender follows the story of Yugi as he awakes from almost 30 years in cryogenic sleep to an Earth that has been overrun by monsters known to humanity as the 'Blue'. Earth has been rendered uninhabitable by this invasion, and now the remnants of humanity hide in orbital cities sometimes making brief forays down to the surface in the ongoing war against the Blue. Yugi is picked up by one of these assault units who are rounding up al the 'sleepers', but before they can make it to the relative safety of orbit they are attacked. Forced to flee across the globe whilst looking for another extraction point, they lose more and more members of the assault squad as they go.

Having never seen the TV series I came to this movie with an open mind hoping for nothing more than to be entertained for a couple of hours. And on that basis it delivers whole-heartedly. From the brief synopsis above you can probably derive a hint that this film is reminiscent in certain ways of 'Aliens' or 'Starship Troopers'. That analogy I would say is the closest you are going to get if you want a quick recommendation for this film. This film is action packed from the start and does not let up at all. But due to that same reason there are a lot of things that are barely touched upon and will leave the viewer with the knowledge that there was more to see. For fans of the TV series I would suggest this film only for the completists amongst you. But for everyone who missed out on this release the first time round, for whatever reason, then this film is an enjoyable evening in that should give you some idea as to what you have missed. I know it has inspired me to go check out the series and see what the full picture is like.

R2 DVD Notes

Features: English Language 5.1; Japanese Language 2.0; Englid Subtitles; MVM Trailers

Release information: OUT NOW

Notes: MVM have finally brought to the UK the final part of Blue Gender - an edited down version of the TV series story. Answering the bleating complaints of the sub only fanatics MVM have also been good enough to provide a Japanese language track for this release, a deficiency of the TV series release. Both language tracks were great and I ciould detect no problems with them. Visual quality is of the high standard that we have come to mexpect from MVM (and their DVD authoring partners Madman). Extras we are provided with are MVM Trailers only.

-- otaku_kei 29th Jun 05

Blue Gender Movie: The Warrior Images