Blue Gender | Retcon_404 (Anime Retrospective)
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- Опубліковано 12 вер 2023
- Released in the late 90's Blue Gender is a mind bending, bug blasting mecha anime full of edgy violence, promiscuity and a bunch of other great stuff. Created by VOTOMS mastermind Ryosuke Takahashi, Blue Gender shares many themes with his prior works. Let's take a look and see if it stands up to it's impressive mecha pedigree.
-- THIS VIDEO CONTAINS MAJOR SPOILERS FOR BLUE GENDER --
Gaming Channel: / @retcon_404plays
#mecha #anime #review - Фільми й анімація
Asking once again for a retrospective of Big-O!!!!
I second this
Thirded?
Please yes
had potential but was boring lol. plus i hate people who wear the types of clothing that everyone wears in that show. why would you wear restrictive stiff clothing if you are fighting and stuff lol.
Oh I love big O !
those blue gender trailers used to haunt me as a kid who was just trying to watch dbz movies. always curious to see what happened in the show after finally finding out the name. glad to finally have solved one of the biggest mysteries of my childhood solved today, my birthday. thanks man!
Yoooo same fuxking thing!!!!
I still own a dbz vhs with that trailer. Nostalgia is hitting me hard right now.
I had the EXACT same thing happen to me too. Specifically I remember the trailer on my dvd of Cooler's Revenge. Scared the living hell out of 9 year old me.
Glad I’m not the only one here who experienced exactly this. Just finished the series. Now I can put the mystery behind me
I always found it hilarious how the stupid mechs always left the pilot's head exposed.
Blue Gender is one of my all time favorites. Its a wild ride and the mech desgins are as perfect as mech designs come. They are so damn good and down to earth. I would almost say they are better designed than Rotoms
"Lucifer's Hammer" is a science fiction novel by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle. It's essentially the precursor to all of the Big Disaster movies like Armageddon or 2012 - it's about the Earth being struck by the cracked pieces of a giant comet with a very long orbit. Most of the impacts are in the ocean, but the tsunamis and earthquakes wipe out a lot of humanity, along with almost all the coastal real estate. It has one of the most awesome surfing scenes ever put to paper.
Shrike is probably also a reference to Hyperion by Dan Simmons. Spoiler free, the Shrike is a 4-arm silver death machine. Blue Gender, the new mech has extra blades.
I read Lucifer’s hammer in 6th grade, (probably a book I shouldn’t have been reading at the time) but I’ll never forget the surfing scene. Something about the insaneness of it
"Rusty fuck tunnel" was the name of my college punk band
Cool my old band "soggy Love Pole" could have toured together.
Blue gender Heavily reminded me of the sci-fi, franchise, starship troopers
“… and Yuji and Marlene end up watching the sunrise together, cementing their partnerships…”
One huge omission there is that they make love (in the uncensored version), which is a big plot point as it marks a before and after. Unlike everyone else they have seen throughout the episode having sex just for the pleasure of it, at that point Marlene and Yuji are making love for the mutual feelings between them, a huge contrast from the mechanical purpose the rest of the humans do it in Second Earth and a major sign of humanity specially from a Marlene who was devoid of such feelings not long ago. Much like the episode in the mountain which marks a before and after in their initial friendship, this episode in Second Earth marks a before and after between them as lovers and a couple, and serves as a sign of remnants of humanity even in such a bleak world.
It also marks the last point before the Double Edge starts messing with Yuji’s mind, and sets up the motivation for Marlene to get him back till the end, and sets also the idea in the finale that through Yuji, Marlene, and others on Earth humanity will eventually flourish again.
That omission is why you felt the sex was juvenile, because the context was missing if you watched the censored version. The Toonami version just showed them watching the sunrise, but the uncensored version includes their love scene which changes the significance of everything before it. The show was making sex and emotionless escapism for everyone on Second Earth, and merely a momentary transaction between two people with no purpose, to set up the huge contrast when Yuji and Marlene, after everything they’ve been through, their mutual attraction, and their bond, finally make love and have the most natural and ‘normal’ moment in the entire show and everyone around them.
Well said. The uncensored version is the best version.
Also, Massive Attack's "Angel" song is used when Yuji is taken by... I forgot her name (the annoying teenager) when she takes him to the lower levels where everyone on 2nd Earth goes to smash.
I like how this anime world does not hold the main character's hand with OP powers. The world is harsh, humans are terrified and make a stand but are not winning. MC keeps seeing old friends and new friends due. Everything feels heavy. Also the meaning of the human cabbage balls is more heavy as they recognise friends
Blue Gender was a classic back in the day of Toonami (Sci Fi channel) and Funimation's early years of Anime releases.
The OP Song and END Song were fantastic to listen in Japanese original audio, so lucky to get a Anime CD soundtrack that had these two songs on it along with other Anime released around that time including One Piece OP1.
Man, Japan really likes Starship Troopers.
The one scientist guy is totally not Gendo.
Largely because of filesharing and fansubs I really started watching anime by the late 90's to early 00's. Which led to my grade-school self seeing a lot of mecha output specific to the time -- works like Blue Gender, Gasaraki, Brain Powerd, and Argento Soma. It was a pretty unique period for the genre as it turned out. One populated heavily with dark, near-future, dystopian, mind-screw, conspiracy-laden, quasi-mystical, metaphor-heavy kinds of narratives. A lot of mysterious phlegmatic girls and sunglasses-clad middle aged men who trade ominous statements with anonymous powerful persons over monitors.
In retrospect, it's obvious that they were aiming for Evangelion's success without really knowing how. With this being sort of Takahashi's niche I can understand why Sunrise turned to him but with Blue Gender and Gasaraki specifically they lacked that punch needed to make them particularly memorable. That was something Votoms had, with its immersive setting and gnarly aesthetic it pushed you to get past the dry or duller parts. In a post-Evangelion world especially, mecha anime really needed a cast that audiences could latch on to... and Takahashi simply doesn't do that.
One i remember watching was escaflowne. It was another one i liked. It doesn't get talked about much. lol
None of these shows were aiming for Evangelion's success. Tomino even publicly denied it and stated that Brain Powerd was in production before Eva even aired. The type of mecha shows you describe were simply just a product of that time period. It is very disingenuous and reductive to claim that these shows were intentionally following Eva's success just because you can find broad similarities between them, when in reality most of them were simply doing their own thing.
Argento Soma mentioned ❤
This anime was insane...... then I watched the blu-ray version and wad like I don't remember these scenes lmao
Is it different?
@Gumpinn like retcon pointed out the kid friendly one......... has no sex scenes the blu ray one is uncensored
@@sergjim2377 Ah i want the unsencencored one, ty for the heads upp. Definently gonna get some weed and bench watch this anime. It was way to long since i did that.
@@Gumpinn it's good
One scene that you glossed over, that I feel really drives it home about the place of sex and love in their society, is when Yuji saw Marlene and Joey smashing the first night, and after Joey died, Yuji accused Marlene of being broken up about Joey's death, and that she's hiding her feelings. Marlene corrects him and says she doesnt have any special feelings about Joey, she just needed his body for release that night.
Wasn't a fan of that scene. It's one i forgot about, till you literally mentioned it. x. x And yes she didn't care about joey. lol That is also true.
@@gohanangered9650that is what makes that scene great to establish the setting. Everyday could be your last in the world of monsters that eat you. Plus, their social structure is rly messed up.
@@Max501 Oh never said their current day structure wasn't a mess. It's just when people were starting to think of marlene as waifu material. For the mc and such. That's not exactly something they want to see. lol It's a scene they removed from later broadcasts of the episodes. Which i do remember that something seemed missing. Later on, when the series was doing rebroadcasts. Also i do miss watching that series. I miss some of those old days. XD
@@gohanangered9650 good thing I watched it uncensored.
@@Max501 Oh it wasn't even about it being censored. Everything else was left alone. Even the brutal deaths and such. It was just that scene that was left out. XD
I love how bleak and forlorn first half of this anime felt to point it was really cozy
Blue Gender mecha anime was an answer to Starship Troopers also dealing with giant bug wars
This anime made me a mecha fan. The best mecha anime ever made. Wish it was more.
Started rewatching this anime recently, your timing is always impeccable sir! Keep on rocking on.
Heard this show get recommended a lot, can’t wait to hear about it from this channel. Thanks for uploading this, I’m sure it’ll be great as always!
Observations of blue gender spot on. That first episode though is a real hook line and sinker
started watching this recently for the nostalgia a few weeks ago and didn’t get to finish it so Ty for the video!
I love learning about shows from your channel
You just earned yourself a subscription and ill likely sift through all your content over the next few weeks
Clicked this so fast, glad to see you upload as always!
Finally! Someone, anyone else, is talking about… BLUE GENDER!
I laughed so hard at this story synopsis xD you did it so much justice
This anime stuck with and spooked the crap out of me when i was younger, nice review. I loved that you used some old Mechwarrior 2 music around the 20 minute mark, i love Silent Thunder.
Another great retrospective from Retcon.
I haven't thought about this one in a long time (it was on Toonami back when I was in high school) but i remember it being absolutely fire.
So glad to finally see this retrospective.
There was a Blue Gender trailer on a 08 MS Team VHS I had and I was absolutely obsessed with it. That track "Dead Tech" used in trailer is engrained in my mind. I loved the show, but admittedly the second arc was a little forgetful for me outside of the battles with the Blue.
God I need a blue gender sequel or prequel. Such an underrated anime.
There's the ova
Muv Luv universe is basically Blue Gender but slightly lighter tone and its an entire universe and not just 1 series.
@@HelminthCombosThat one muvluv series kinda put me off the whole show. I couldn't stand how that american dude was getting brownbeaten into piloting a Japanese mech.
@HelminthCombos When I first watched Blue Gender in the mid 2000s I spent close to 2 decades looking for something similar that carried through on some of the themes Blue Gender didn't fully deliver on. It wasn't until I read the Mu-Luv trilogy in 2019 that I finally scratched that itch.
@@myduckisonqauck7227ah yes Mu-Luv Eclipse...the kick starter to Mu-Luv Alternative
Definitely 2am vibes haha.
I swear man your soundtrack selection is fire. I completely forgot about that Gash Bell Tag game.
This was my 1st video Ive seen from you die to suggestions and i think you did a good review. I will be watching more ^-^
I have a genuine love for this anime... I stayed up past my bedtime 1 night, saw the OP and episode where they watched the Sunrise and it stuck with me... Fastforwards many many years later I looked up what I could peice together from that ep and found it and still reference it to people.
The full switching of the roles of Yugi and Marlene is great. His change from the bubblegum chewing moralist that never saw or understood the hell that was waged to build his 1st world society, to becoming Death. To fight for the possibly to build it again was my favorite point of the show. Marlene's shift from, I was to raised to fight as a cog to make the machine work. Desensitized to everything happening around her, for if she hesitates even a moment, the machine will fail, the mission with fail and the entire war maybe lost. To actually having something to fight for and wanting to preserve it as she saw Yugi attempt to do for those dead men walking, culminates in the scene of her pulling Yugi back from the B-Cell fueled blood lust. That bloodlust Yugi rasionalized and accepted by reliving the scenes from the 1st 12ep saw as the only way they could win the war as save more people not just on Earth but those on Earth2 that never lived a full life. Which was why he liked Tony he killed more, he was saving more lives, doing more to build the future.
Now I wasn't too hot about the Gia environmental message but I kinda saw it coming and just accepted it was the 90s and it worked for an ending. However, the grand Scientist's plan to tell Earth2 that the singular purpose that they all lived for to fight the Blue and forget about Earth and just live here under Space Communism failing completely redeemed it.
Once again Thanks for the Review
I always wondered what happened in this series, since I never got around to buying it when I was younger. Nice video, thanks!
You have a double audio thing at 42:45 and I thought I was tripping out but it's there. Otherwise, dig the video and analysis of an anime I really liked watching growing up. Just a weird series to grapple with as a kid. Also, the ending song is a banger that is criminally too short.
Thanks for pointing that out, im still getting used to using Davinci Resolve to edit so I must have done something weird during editing. Glad you enjoyed the video!
I watched all of it on the different times of Toonami, but had to borrow the full series from ny GF to watch it without all the editing. My goodness the True Blue was way more intense, but I was into M.D.Geist and Twilight of the Dark Master, so it was right up my alley. Very crazy stuff, but a fun ride! Thanks for the review, I've been excited for this one since you had announced it.
In regards to Gasaraki, it's one of my favorite animes and the attention to detail is some of the best I've seen. However though it does get boring for most people. It's a military conspiracy anime with a lot of characters in closed rooms talking and talking and talking. The supernatural elements are also very strange too, but at the same time...good!!!! Supernatural stuff should be weird and confusing. It's just that you get like 80% conspiracy and military stuff in good detail but then the other percent is stuff about a strange power and alien like entity.
Not surprising, ghost in the shell, noir, .hack//sign were all from the same era and they're so exposition heavy
True that Sensual times are portrayed as a need to experience feeling alive because the entire world is covered with death and you don't know what day is your last in the story of Blue Gender.
Dude i loved rewAtching this show a few years back
Blue Gender. Man I was young enough to be creeped out hardcore but teensy enough to deal with it.
Talk about a mindfuck.
One of my all time favorites
HOLY SHIT I REMEMBER THIS SHOW. I could never remember the name of it though I watched it on toonami back in the day. Thanks for this I've been looking for years
For Alicia I feel like it is more of her portraying the most human person amongst the sleepers. Like she remained "the most human" up until her eventual end.
I remember when I was young, I bought the dragon ball, Z video tape movie of Broly the legendary super Saiyan, and one of the previews was of blue gender. I am mediately went and found it, and it has stuck in my mind ever since.
Thanks for the walk through, I really like this show and the DOUBLEDGE is one of my favorite Mechs. I agree with you at the end. The politics were a little dry and rushed. But great story none the less. Thanks and can’t wait for the next video. 🤙🏽🤙🏽🤙🏽
I remember seeing this show for abit on toonami back in the day. And then it just...disappeared. About 10 ish years ago I remember my friend talking about it so I decided to watch it. It's a good show, Marlene is likable and Yuji is decent. I believe there is a movie too that sums up the series and has an alternate ending(it's hard to understand).
The fact that you called Yung's death out as a youtube edit, showcased it, and then the literal sound cut-off into a youtube ad. Hilarious timing lol
Goddamn! I was literally thinking about this anime just a couple of days ago!
Thanks again for this one!
I would ask you to consider Gantz! in the future if you're interested in covering more non mecha but it might be hard to discuss and also be YT approved 😅
This one of my fav OG shows from Adult swim thank you
This is honestly always in my top 10 anime's I really respect this Anime quite alot it really accomplishes the atmosphere in this world in a very effective way.
This was so good when I was a kid, and I still love it especially the english intro music.
Would you ever think about covering anime such as Getter Robo? Fyi love this channel. This has become my place for all things mecha keep up the great work
This one goes out to the algorithm.
Always loved this show, & it's completely underrated.
man i remember seeing this on some strange anime streaming site when i was like 14, forgot about this one
Blue Gender was cool. It reminded me of Starship Troopers.
The Armored Shrikes are actually some of my favorite mechs to this day I don't think much comes close especially not in the sound effects department. In particular the long rifle is perfect. As a kid I also drew the parallel that the sleepers are basically just giga gamers XD
This show I remember that I came across 10 years ago and after finishing it I only left with these simple things in my mind: Yuji went from being a big baby in the first half and in the second he became an asshole while Marlene went from being a badass to a YUJI YUJI YUJI screamer in the second half. Also Laura Bailey voiced Marlene in the dub, meaning Lust from FMA was in a dark, horny mecha anime in the 90s and THAT is a victory lol.
I would love this. I never watched it back in the toonami days and would love a run through .
Saw someone say it but yes. BIG O ITS SHOW TIME!
I vaguely remember first being exposed to Blue Gender by watching a clip of it on a random old "Most gory and violent anime" video
One of my favorites i love grounded mecha.
Did someone say... ARMORED CORES???
I remember the trailer for this series on my DBZ Cooler's Revenge VHS
This reminded me to finish watching the series 😆
I've never seen this channel before.
"Hey there. I hope you like vaguely phallic bugs..."
This was the first anime I ever saw when I was a little kid staying up way to late and sneaking into the living room to watch Adult Swim at 2am. Along side Big-O, Trigun, and Cowboy Bebop, Blue Gender holds a very special place in my heart even though it’s honestly pretty mediocre as far as anime’s of it’s time go. Thanks for this video, I’m going to go back and watch this now for the first time in years.
I love this show. It's amazing. I watched it alone then had my friend watch it. I didn't spoil anything, and was watching him when the little girl silently gets ran over by the Blue. It was amazing.
Excellent choice. I honestly connect Blue Gender to extreme hopelessness and depression rather than boobies, guns and violence...but I still like it
Watching this in November
This was one of the first anime I got to watch. I think it was on netflix at the time.
Acid spiting monster bugs and open-faced cockpit mechs - name a more iconic duo
Lets gooo, perfect anime to watch now when srmored core 6 is released!
I know it sounds really unhinged but yeah sometimes deaths are just hilarious when they're not supposed to be. Like in Double Zeta there's a character death that you see coming for freaking ever and when it happens it's so over the top you can't help but laugh a bit
16:39 "Was that the stomp of '31!?"
9:11 and 9:15
Armored Cores and Newtypes. I was not really paying too close attention at the moment and it got me
That is an oddly specific description of the basement at 2:16 😂
Blue gender is one of my favourite animes that isn't really talked about. The beginning part, before they get to the ship, is the best part for me.
What a classic. I only watched this once when Netflix carried it over a decade ago.
DON'T STICK YOUR MANHOOD IN THE BUG'S FACE
Gasaraki has a very Patlabor the movie 2 vibe to it. Still one of my favourite late nineties series.
Blue Gender is an AMAZING anime.
0:26 mentioning Ryosuke Takahashi thought you meant the initial D character for a moment lol
Well, got a new anime to watch
MY PRAYERS HAVE BEEN ANSWERED
All the new characters being overwhelming and then killed off is the point. Yuji knows nothing of this new world and no one matters
If you haven’t seen Big O or Five Star Stories, you really should get on that asap!
One of the most intense anime (along with Grave of the fireflies) ever. I couldn't watch it anymore after the 5th episode.
2031?
With the way things are going giant murderous bugs wouldn't be much of a surprise.
LETS GOOOO
And sick pick for bg music and using Whispers from Front Mission 4 I have been playing my jpn copy of front mission 5 scars of the war. I'm going to stay hopeful for front mission 2. Front mission 1 remake leaves much to be desired
So underrated. I'm glad you're covering it!
Saw this as a kid in elementary school. All the episodes were on UA-cam at the time. Actually, I liked the show a lot, mainly for the mecha gore and the nudity. One of the few shows back then that made me realize henti was a thing.😅
I got a weird one for you, Armitage: Dual Matrix. Seems like one of those long forgotten works.
The stomp reminds of a similar event in another mecha series that also rhymes with stomp.
Just rewatched this show recently, came away with pretty similar feelings overall. LOVED the first half, something I can easily recommend to anybody who is a fan of that sort of apocalyptic setting and desperate struggle in the narrative. Definitely found the back half of the show to be way too interested in its' own setting, and found it to get in the way of actually telling an interesting story. At least there was a lot of fun for me to personally look forward to, as Rick (aka "That guy always trying to get into Marlene's pants") is voiced by Sean Schemmel aka goddamn Goku, and is doing the exact same voice. Got a lot of fun out of hearing a voice I associate with 'The Ultimate Manchild' just being an absolute horndog who is increasingly desperate to score with this one woman.
oh thats great! I only watched the subs so Ill have to go back and watch some of the Rick episodes in english.
They did Rick wrong!!
🎉🎉