Title: Battle Girl High School Blu-ray Collection
U. S. Distributor: Sentai Filmworks
U. S. Release Date: 7/24/18
Format: Blu-ray/12 Episodes / 300 Minutes
Genre: high school girl/action
Age Rating: 14+
Overall Personal Rating: C-
Synopsis:
The planet endures random attacks by alien invaders called Irousu. The team responsible for resisting the invasion are the high school girls who form the Hoshimori. They are all that stand in resistance to the destruction of their world. Their skill is developed at their exclusive school and their power comes from the Holy Tree. Team work is vital to their success, but when a new student joins the group, her advanced skill comes with a smug and angry attitude.
Something different is on the horizon, the beast are no longer the only attackers. Now a cloaked and hooded enemy has entered the picture. They bring to light the complexity of the universe and its connection to other parallel universes.
Commentary:
Originally the concept for Battle Girl High School is from an online game. I guess that might explain things. Now, if you wrote down the outline of the series, it sounds good, something I would find interesting to watch. However, in the detail and development the anime never went anywhere interesting. So, it’s not the premise, but what fills it out that was lacking. I never felt empathy or even interest in the characters. Somewhere in episode 10 I was a bit intrigued with the parallel universe, but basically I was just sticking it out, at first hopefully then only for the sake of an informed review.
Visually, the style, colors and costume design were the best part of the anime, but it wasn’t enough to make it worth watching. The animation was not as good as I’m used to. There were lots of still scenes with a panning camera views, I guess trying to simulate movement, was overly utilized. It makes for dull battle scenes that don’t invoke any excitement. And while I’m on that, the battle scenes were lame. Magically the student don their fighting outfits as weapons appear at their sides. Usually with one strike, poof the beast disintegrates. Here seems like a good time to mention there is no army or defensives or care taken by the population against the repeated monster appearances. Really? Doesn’t make sense. The elements of everyday life and battles didn’t even see to belong in the same animation.
With all the choices of anime out there now to watch, to earn out time, there needs to be something that stands out, wether it is concept, story, characters, fun, excitement, etc. Battle Girl High School just didn’t seem to have much to offer.
Overall Grade: C-
