Blue Archive The Animation review

Blue Archive The Animation adapts the first story volume of the 2021 smartphone game Blue Archive developed by Nexon Games.

Blue Archive the animation follows the story of the Blue Archive mobile game in 12 episodes, so don't expect any grand introductions or logical reasoning for the events of the anime.

The story revolves around the Abydos school district in the academy city of Kivotos. Abydos was once a prosperous commercial city, but a storm flooded the city entirely with sand, causing much of its population to abandon it. Eventually, Abydos School lost students, causing the school to acquire enormous debts.

Only the vice president of the Abydos student council remained: Hoshino and a group of girls who call themselves "The Countermeasures Committee" who are called: Shiroko (the main character), Nonomi (with a gentle personality), Ayane (the smart girl with glasses) and Serika who works part-time at a Ramen cafe.

All the girls use a specific weapon to defend the school from constant attacks by other groups of girls or other school districts (the reason for these attacks is not entirely clear), but little by little the girls start to save money to pay off the school's huge debt.

In one of these attacks, a group of girls calling themselves "Handyman 68" appear. They are a team with the dream of becoming the city's best outlaws, with the motto "One evil a day." They were hired by a client to take down the Abydos school district, but they failed and have money problems to keep up with the business.

With all these problems, Sensei, a teacher assigned to teach and help the students of the Abydos district, appears on the scene. He coordinates the group, and they discover that all the money they've been saving to settle the debt is going to Kaiser Corp., the same entity that has been working to wipe out the city and the Abydos school district.

But it doesn't end there, as the Kivotos student council and the prefects team also become involved in the battle against Abydos, but the fight is soon resolved because, theoretically, each school district is independent.

Given this situation, we see how Hoshino, the vice-president of Abydos, has kept a secret about the history and cause of Abydos's debt and its relationship with Kaiser Corp., which everyone is unaware of.

In short, I liked Blue Archive for the design and the voices of the characters, with a plot that "somewhat" parallels the game's story and doesn't attempt to explain the origin or bring closure to the events in the game's story.

If you enjoyed the game, then you'll most likely enjoy the anime because you'll see the female characters using their various weapons again but if you haven't played the game, just enjoy the ride, the girls and the shooting in the animation.