Blue Reflection Ray First Impressions

“Feelings are strange. They can be soft and round or harsh and jagged. They’re always in your heart, but you can never touch them.”

Blue Reflection Ray falls under the umbrella of shows that have a decent premiere, but where it is difficult to determine where one’s expectations should fall based solely on that one episode. In a number of ways, it calls to mind the beginning of Mahou Shojo Madoka Magika, as both shows share aspects of genre and tone. However, while Blue Reflection Ray certainly draws its inspiration from the same well of influences and almost certainly from Madoka itself, I’m not entirely sure to what extent that comparison is apt. For the first few episodes Madoka Magika played its magical girl storyline relatively straight, and it maintained a relatively cohesive narrative during that time. Blue Reflection Ray approaches its narrative in a more dreamlike manner, like a mildly less aggravating version of Serial Experiments Lain. This means, while it’s pretty to look at and it features interesting characters and tidbits of plot, there are many unanswered questions that have the potential to alter how such an episode is viewed in hindsight. As things currently stand, Blue Reflection Ray is a distinctive entry in the magical girl genre, but also a confusing one. Once we learn more about this world and what is occurring in it, this could be something quite special, but I’m keeping my expectations tempered for the time being.

Our main character is named Hanari Ruka, a withdrawn transfer student who has joined a boarding school due to her parents being forced to leave the country for work. She struggles to connect with her new classmates, and for the first few days of school, her roommate is mysteriously absent. As she’s leaving a bookstore a mysterious woman collides with her. The woman apologizes, but leaves in a rush. In the aftermath, Ruka finds that the woman dropped a ring with the phrase “Blue Reflection” engraved on the inside. Upon touching it, the world briefly freezes and Ruka finds herself, for a few seconds, on an altered version of the city street she had been standing on. Shortly thereafter, she meets her roommate, Hirahara Hiori, who proves to be a kind and outgoing individual who seeks to connect with the aloof Ruka. However, she strangely appears to have an identical ring to the one Ruka found.

The production is handled by J.C. Staff, and they’ve taken a rather unique approach to the animation, employing gradients on the characters’ skin, and giving the show a slight watercolor aesthetic. It’s pleasant to look at, though I find the character to be a little difficult to distinguish at this time. One of the key reasons that colorful and outlandish hair is prominent in anime is that it allows for characters to be visually distinct without investing too much detail into their faces. Blue Reflection Ray favors realistic hair colors, but this leaves the characters feeling a little homogeneous, and I’ll acknowledge that I had difficulty keeping track of which characters were which. The OP was shown at the end of the episode, and it’s a rather striking and cool intro. All in all, I’m impressed by J.C. Staff’s work here, though I don’t know if I’ll have the patience for the show or its aesthetics in the long run. It’s honestly dependent on whether I can figure out who these characters are and learn to recognize them on sight.

Before I wrap up, a few Notes and Nitpicks:

• The episode starts off with a flash forward… I think. I’m pretty sure that’s what it was, but I’d be lying if I said I had a clear idea what was going on in that opening.
• This is evidently based upon an RPG, but I’m not clear on whether it’s an adaptation or if it’s simply set in the same world as the game. I’m guessing it’s the latter, as a glance at the trailer for the game didn’t reveal any character names or designs I recognized.
• I don’t know whether this will qualify as a dark subversion of the magical girl genre, which are admittedly rather plentiful these days. It admittedly has a rather melancholic start, which frankly, isn’t in keeping with either the subversions or the straight versions of these stories.
• It’s also worth noting that this is one of four new titles J.C. Staff is producing this season along with Eden Zero, Combatants Will Be Dispatched!, and Mewkledreamy Mix. The last of those is admittedly one of those odd anime productions, where one could argue that it’s not really a new season, but even so, I don’t exactly have faith in J.C. Staff to do a good job of juggling those various shows.