blue reflection ray feels like something that exists completely in spite of the world around it.

i had a pretty good idea that i would like this show - its one champion i know is someone whose opinions i respect more than most other people on the planet, and i'm on a huge magical girl kick atm - but i don't think i expected to end up loving it like i did.

the thing i appreciated the most about blue reflection was its willingness to not resolve things, to understand that you can't really fix deep-seated problems with a few kind words. those can help, but the game makes a point of showing that the underlying sentiments that drive those things linger, sometimes for comedic effect and sometimes for drama.

ray, then, is in many ways the natural sequel to all this, in a way that makes me wonder what, exactly, the actual blue reflection 2 is going to be about. what does it mean to want to - to try to - help someone whose problems are beyond your ability to meaningfully affect? when your attempts to fix things can only be seen as condescending, useless, or even actively harmful?

its a theme that hit me quite hard. i have a bad impulse to respond to a problem presented to me in a manner of "how do i fix this", to try to help even when help is not wanted. there's a lot in here that felt very...reflective, for lack of a better word. which makes it all the better that the show handles this with a lot of respect and care.

it is pure melodrama, but that's the engine that drives magical girl works, and it is extremely good melodrama. this quite simply, and quite quietly, has one of the best and most well-rounded casts i have seen in any anime. there isn't a single weak link in the bunch: even those who might seem like they might not have much going on compared to niina yamada - instantly a personal fave - slowly reveal themselves to have compellingly contradictory inner lives with a lot of fiercely troubling emotions that hurt others in turn and are...ultimately exceedingly reasonable and rightful for them to hold. seeing this stuff play out. the journey from a character appearing like a complete edgelord straight from a trashy pulp movie to a fully-realized person that you care for deeply, is ultimately The Show, so I don't really wanna spoil that by talking in detail about these characters. but every single one of them is fantastic and could carry a show all on their own, and it's a rare gift to have something like that, and certainly not something Blue Reflection 1 managed. in the case of the one character who does just have less going on than the rest of them, it's only because Uta is such an absolute riot in every single scene that you don't need anything else. if this show got a full 90s-ass 50 episode season order i would adore a couple episodes really digging into uta's aggressive and distinctly immature sexuality as a confrontation to the more chaste and burgeoning feelings of the rest of the cast. but the fact that she really is Just Like That never stops being hilarious.

the engine that makes the show work so well is not just in having these characters, but in how long we just...sit with them. the moment a character's tragic backstory is revealed is - with one exception - not the moment where the heroes finally understand them and resolve their conflict. its the beginning of a more complicated, rewarding, and ongoing relationship, where people don't get Fixed, or Solved, but are lived with, and maybe even accepted. is notable, i think that the most moving episode in the entire show, as far as im concerned, is an episode where the characters just hang out and do chores together. ray is so determined to stress that empathy and understanding are not one-time things, not a divine moment that resolves all conflicts, but a continuous, conscious act, one that is often difficult and one that is not always deserved, but always worthwhile.

its for this reason that i think the ending is a lil weak. again, i don't want to give anything away, but it does feel like they created a problem that they couldn't find a way to actually overcome within the framework of long-term care and understanding and also There Are 20 Minutes Of Show Left, and ultimately resorted to contriving a way out at the last minute. it isn't bad, to be clear - i think it works in the moment. but ray is at its best when its about the hurt that lingers, not the hurt that vanishes.

and yeah, it's not really a looker. but so what? neither was blue reflection 1, either. (though, i think that both cases have stronger visuals than people tend to give them credit for, and that i wish people were more capable of looking past the word 'budget' and see some of the sincerely quite impressive direction in this show particularly. the niina backstory ep is a real standout here, as well as just generally)

making art, in so many ways, is about choosing where to pick your battles, what to give up and what to fight for. and as far as i'm concerned, blue reflection is 2 for 2 on fighting the right battles. i sincerely have no idea how the team behind this managed to get a 24 episode commission at a time where 12 episode series are falling apart as early as their 2nd episode, but im so glad they did, for the time we get to spend with these people, for everything i got to learn about them.

remember cyberpunk 2077 edgerunners? i sure don't. i remember feeling mixed on it at the time, but now i feel nothing. i think i'm alone on that, though. it clearly accomplished what it set out to do: it looks slick as hell, and as a marketing tool designed to build affection for the cyberpunk 2077 brand, it's more successful than the video game ever was, even after all its patches and expansions. ultimately, it didn't really matter if it was a composite piece of a million cliches we've all seen before it just needed to be cool and dazzling enough to be put on twitter with a caption saying "THEY DID NOT NEED TO GO THIS HARD!!!!"

that sounds mean, and it is pretty mean. but i don't necessarily mean it as an insult so much as an explanation - i truly think that it's only with the fragmentation of twitter and my social media presence withdrawing to occasional posts on bluesky and various group chats that I have fully appreciated just how much of a factor social media virality is to the development of art in the contemporary moment, to the point that divorced from that content, something feels...lost. how many of us have share buttons on our game controllers that now don't do anything?

i say all this because blue reflection ray, despite also being a tie-in to a video game designed to build hype for an upcoming product, does not feel like edgerunners. it doesn't feel like something made to be shared on social media - no one will ever get 20k retweets on a sakuga post for this. this won't be discovered, won't be reappraised. it just...exists, this special thing, waiting to be found by those lucky enough to find their feelings resonate with it, and find their heart beating in time with it.

how could I possibly ask for anything more than that?