Review #98: Baldr Force EXE Resolution

• Episodes: 4
• Published: 06 (JP) 08 (US)

Sometime in the near future, the world of the internet has become a lot more wonderful… and a lot more dangerous. People are given neural ports that allow them to go into the wired world and do almost anything they want. This also allows hackers to be more bold, including a small group of hackers called Steppen Wolf. After a few minor jobs they decide to disband, though not before having one last big job to go out with a bang; trying to hack into FLAK, the military. Unfortunately the group is caught and as they flee the head of the group, Yuya, is killed by a mysterious Simulacrum of FLAK (being the machine avatars used to fight on the net).

After the rest of the group is arrested, the young Toru finds himself alone and offered a choice; either spend years in jail, or work for FLAK. Toru decides to work for them with the goal of finding out the identity of Yuya’s killer. Introduced to FLAK’s first squad of Simulacrum fighters by their commander Souji, he realizes one of his four teammates must be Yuya’s killer. Minori seems the shy smart type, Yousuke’s a brash womanizer, Kaira’s a man loving blonde, and Ayane is the silent brooding one of the group. Together they work to help secure the important parts of the wired world from hackers, especially the looming threat of a group called Fei Dao, so called cyber terrorists that seem to cause havok on the web.

Soon things get messy and complicated. FLAK is joined by VSS, a technology company lead by Reika Tachibana. They’ve developed a strong group of simulacrum and pilots, a group that includes a former member of Steppen Wolf, Toru’s friend Tsukina. Things turn even more complicated when the last member of Steppen Wolf, Akira, ends up working for Fei Dao. With all those complications, made worse by secret goals, underhanded methods, and corruption, Toru’s life finds one more to top it all off; he logs onto his secure server one day to find a little girl there somehow, able to interact with the digital world with extraordinary skill. She asks him out on a digital date to have fun, finally giving her name as Ren and asking if she can call Toru big brother.

When Toru is shown Ren’s picture by Reika of VSS, things start to spiral out of control. Who is Ren really? For that matter, who is Toru? What are the real purposes of VSS and Fei Dao? Who really killed Yuya and why? It all turns out to be a lot more complicated than it seems on the surface, so much so that even the fate of the world ends up hanging in the balance.

Based on a 2D action shooter video game, Baldr Force EXE is a short but violent little OVA that tries to cover the basic plot of the game (which was released for the PS2, Dreamcast, and PC). The violence pulls very few punches, showing exploding heads, missing fingers, and sprays of blood without a second thought, which is really one of the only truly memorable parts of the anime. The plot itself is fairly standard, with lost memories, betrayals, and saving the world all troupes managed to be worked into the story before the end. It’s all made all the more forgettable from the bland art. The characters themselves are fairly basic, and the CGI used for the simulacrum and the digital world is that cringe worthy early 2000s style that looks plastic and clunky.

Having never played Baldr Force the game, I can’t say the anime makes me want to play it. On a whole, I’m not certain who to recommend the anime FOR, though if you like gore and standard drama, you could do a lot worse. Perhaps those that have played the game first can give the anime a watch for a different perspective, for better or worse. Otherwise though, unless you can watch it for free (or maybe a dollar), there’s no real reason to go out of your way to get this series. It’s either forgettable, objectionable, or both, but never really entertaining.