Baldr Force EXE Resolution

Information of Anime

Tooru Soma, a former member of a hacking group called "Steppen Wolf", was arrested along with other group members for hacking into FLAK, a military organization run by the United Nations to prevent cyber terrorism.  Given a choice to avoid long term sentence, Tooru joins FLAK to find out who killed his former leader & friend, Yuuya.  He has work cut out for him as he & his FLAK platoon faces a terrorist group call Fei Dao in the wired world.

Baldr Force EXE is based on the ero-game by GIGA.

Storyline (CONTAINS SPOILERS)

Below is a summary of the storyline I've seen.  If you haven't seen the series yet & don't want to be spoiled, skip this section.  If you want to know the story & want to see how I viewed it, read on.

Tooru basically joins FLAK to find the murderer of Yuuya & get his revenge.  As a diver, his job is to prevent cyber terrorist activities in the wired world which is now causing problems for people to live in.  VSS, an organization that established the wired world for people to live in, joins FLAK to stop these terrorist activities.  Tooru is shocked to see his old teammates being spread around from joining VSS & terrorist group, Fei Dao.  In the meantime, he sees a girl named Ren Mizusaka in the virtual world area that should be highly protected.  The girl would later play a key role in the show.

When Tooru manages to find Yuuya's killer but is taken away due to stealing military secrets, Tooru's team is disband & VSS suddenly approaches him.  Their interest is how Tooru can meet Ren without being in danger.  Forcing to brainwash him but later taken away by Fei Dao, VSS discovers that he was one of the experimental subjects in a past project.  It is later revealed that Ren is Tooru's sister who's physically body has been turned to ashes while her soul wanders into the virtual world.  Because of her capacities, VSS wants her.  However, when Ren learns the truth, she loses herself & cause chaos in both wired & real world.  Ren is absorbing data in the wired world.  Bachelor, a hacker who was a key role in Steppen Wolf, realizes that that isn't Ren but a virus used to protect past experimental subjects like him & Tooru.  Realizing that Ren can't be saved after looking at all options, Tooru decides to destroy the virus with his own hands.

The story ends with the wired world restored & the president of VSS getting killed by the leader of Fei Dao.  Members of Steppen Wolf go their separate ways in a happy society & Tooru makes one last visit to the Steppen Wolf base.

My Personal Review

Baldr Force EXE reminds me of The Matrix a bit.  It's got the wired world theme going, but people know they are connected there.  Also, they can die as well.  I decided to watch this thinking there isn't a lot of anime to see.  Plus, it's an OVA as well.  Be warn though that this OVA is pretty graphic on some scenes & does contain some slight nudity & suggestive sex scenes.

Animation

The character designs are quite plain for some reason.  It's simple with very little details.  The faces are a bit long with medium-sized eyes.  Your typical anime design.  Plus, the noses are quite long which probably describes the long faces.

The backgrounds are pretty plain & don't offer a lot of detail.  Even the wired world doesn't make much of a difference. 

The colours are pretty dull on the backgrounds, but bright on the characters.  It's pretty much the same as a lot of OVAs.  The colours of the 3DCGs on the mechas stand out quite a bit even though they are dull.

The 3DCG mechas aren't very appealing.  The 3DCGs are nicely done, it's the design of the mechas that don't look good.  The legs are thin like sticks & the feet are like plates.  But the mechas are designed differently from one another, so they don't really look like mass production models.

In terms of the animation movement, it's surprisingly smooth.  The mechas is the biggest surprise.  It's too smooth as it moves like a human.  Since these are just in the wired world, I assume it's not really a big deal since they aren't "real" mechas.  But, you don't usually see mechas in a virtual world in many anime shows.

Sound       

The sound effects are pretty good.  But the volume level isn't too great.  It's probably to reduce the violence & gore level.  It is kind of gross to hear a human head exploding.

The seiyuus here aren't too bad.  They fit their characters pretty well.

The music is mainly techno & dance tracks.  It's not too bad considering the show uses a virtual world theme.

Story

At the start it's about Tooru's revenge for Yuuya & joins FLAK to find the person.  However, this revenge would later lead him to remember his past childhood memories & Ren.  How the story turns from one point to another is well written for a short OVA show.  Although the pace may be a little fast, the main points is presented well with little holes in the storyline.  However, when we reach the part where Ren goes psycho, the story gets rushed a lot.  Strangely enough, it ties in pretty well with the lack of proper character development.  But the ending felt incomplete in terms of what is Tooru doing.

Overall Conclusion

Baldr Force EXE Resolution seems to be an interesting OVA.  It's got some interesting elements & themes & the storyline did have some potential that would change Tooru's fate.  But, they didn't do much when the OVA reached to its final episode.

Baldr Force EXE Resolution gets a 7/10.  The OVA has an excellent storyline.  For a short OVA show, it has a fairly fast decent pace with little gaps in the storyline.  It flows pretty well.  However, the ending was a bit open & felt a little rushed.  Also, the characters didn't have much development which I thought it would have.

Last updated on December 19, 2007