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「慟哭ノ砦」 (Doukoku no Toride)
“Fortress of Lament”
After rewatching the final movie of the Break Blade series almost two months later, I still can’t shake the feeling that it lacks a sense of closure. It wasn’t all that unexpected given that the manga doesn’t conclude where the movies did, but it does leave something to be desired when Rygart, Zess, Hodr, and Sigyn’s backstory is left completely open-ended.
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「死線ノ涯」 (Shisen no Hate)
“Horizon of Death”
The story has shifted away from Zess since the capture of Cleo and introduction of Borcuse in the third movie, and this fifth one continues on that trend. In his place, we have Girge bumping heads with Rygart, and ultimately changing his attitude toward the war between Athens and Krisna altogether.
Note: It’s a bit difficult to look at fifth movie alone when I’ve already watched the sixth one that was streamed on Bandai Channel, but I wanted to talk about the final two movies separately. I’ll have more thoughts on the ending later on and how it left the series as a whole unfinished, should I decide to cap off the much lower quality stream. (The BD release isn’t until July 22.)
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「惨禍ノ地」 (Sanka no Chi)
“Land of Calamity”
Less than a month later, we have the Blu-ray release of the fourth of six movies. Surprisingly, there were some lighthearted moments, which I attribute to Rygart speaking his mind and making Sigyn snap just as much as Narvi (enough to make her point her unloaded gun at him anyway).
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「凶刃ノ痕」 (Kyoujin no Ato)
“Scar from an Assassin’s Dagger”
The conclusion of the second movie with Rygart about to abandon Hodr and Sigyn to their fates was pretty emotional for me, and really touching when he decided to go against his father’s advice to try and save his friends, so it’s been a pretty grueling wait for this third movie.
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「訣別ノ路」 (Ketsubetsu no Michi)
“Split Path”
As the last movie ended with a cliffhanger, I was hoping this time would be different (because waiting for the 3rd movie would be agonizing), and it was!
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「覚醒ノ刻」 (Kakusei no Koku)
“Time of Awakening”
Known as “Broken Blade” in English, Yoshinaga Yunosuke’s manga saw the start of its six-part adaptation in late May of this year. What’s unique about this one is that it’s a joint production between Production I.G. and XEBEC and of the movie variety.