Welcome to Episode 1 of Blue Drop, a very interesting new anime series that is part of the new fall season in Japan. This series looks like it is wrapped in mystery and I’m really looking forward to seeing how this one turns out. I don’t know a lot of this series, but what I have read sound very promising.

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The episode starts with a man and a woman flying on a UN spacecraft and are on their way towards “peace talks.” The man is pessimistic, thinking that whomever they are going to meet just wants “unconditional happiness” while the woman is more optimistic about their prospects.

Meanwhile, on earth, a girl is riding in a car on a gloomy day. She flashbacks to a conversation with her grandmother, who tells her that she should attend a certain school because there are some things one cannot learn through studying. Back in the car, the girl remarks that her grandmother must have just been wanting to get rid of her.

She then suddenly sees a large flock of seagulls outside the car. The flock then converges on a girl standing on a rock in the harbor next to the road. Once the car passes, the girl wonders about what was up with the seagulls and the other girl.

The girl in the car then arrives at a private all-girls academy and meets the headmaster, Fukumachi, and the head of school affairs, Maiyama. However, the girl, who finally introduces herself as Mari Wakatake, seems less than thrilled about being there. Headmaster Fukumachi looks through her files and notes that this is the first time that Mari is attending an actual school. He tells her that no one is around since it’s a weekend, but then spots that one student is tending the garden outside the building, and calls on her to come up and give Mari a tour of the school.

The girl, who introduces herself as Michiko Kouzuki, tries to give Mari a tour. However, Mari angrily blows her off, saying she doesn’t intend to stay there for long, saying she just arrived form her grandmother’s mansion who “naturally wanted to get rid of her.” Mari then runs off into the school, telling herself to run away. Mari wanders into a classroom where Michiko finds her.

Meanwhile, Mari’s chauffeur tells the Headmaster that Mari’s grandmother sent her to the academy due to her grandmother’s increasing inability to properly provide for Mari. The headmaster learns that, from an incident 5 years in the past, Mari has lost all her memories from that point back.

Michiko takes Mari to the dormitory that she’ll be living in and shows Mari her room and then leaves to fetch the head of the dorm. While Mari waits in the room, the girl she saw with the seagulls earlier walks in. The girl introduces herself as Hagino Senkouji and reaches out to shake Mari’s hand. However, once she shakes her hand, Hagino suddenly gets a vision of a giant spaceship and a young girl surrounded by a firestorm.

Hagino’s suddenly starts moving her hands around Mari’s face and neck until she suddenly reveals that her eyes are now bright blue and she starts choking Mari. After choking Mari for a few seconds, Hagino seems to snap out of whatever trance she was in and backs off. Mari, obviously disturbed by what just happens, yells at Hagino, asking her what she was doing and throws some flowers that were set up in the room at her. Michiko and the head of the dorm then walk in and ask what’s going on, but Mari just storms out of the room and Michiko chases after her.

Mari is sitting on a hill next to a lake trying to figure out what Hagino was trying to do when Michiko finds her. Michigo brings Mari back to the dorm now that it’s dinner time and she can meet the other girls now that they’re back. Once there, the head of the dorm introduces Hagino as the 2nd person in charge of the dorm. Hagino reaches out to shake Mari’s hand but Mari slaps it away and throws a glass of water on Hagino. A trio of other girls then go after Mari, but she’s able to fend them off until a taller girl finally grabs Mari and sends her off to her room without dinner.

That night, Mari is sitting in her room when she sees Hagino run out of the dorm. Mari, thinking something is suspicious, runs out after her. Suddenly, a giant alien ship rises up out of the lake in front of Hagino, and Hagino turns to face Mari, her eyes once again lit bright blue…

Well, this episode started out with a bang, with Hagino, who isn’t exactly human, going into a trance or getting possessed or something when touching Mari and suddenly choking her. Of course, her nice big giant spaceship is another piece of evidence that she isn’t exactly a normal girl…

Obviously there is a past between them, and it probably has to do with Mari having lost her memories 5 years ago, and it probably also has to do with the peace negotiations mentioned at the start of the episode. However, even if there is a link, why did Hagino suddenly feel compelled to choke Mari upon touching her?

The headmaster also seems rather…unique. I don’t think he’s wild or anything, but he just looks and sounds like he would have a rather eccentric personality. Meanwhile, the seeming 2nd in command of the school seems a lot like Professor McGonnagal from Harry Potter.

Mari obviously has problems of her own as she’s a very angry girl, who feels like that everyone is just trying to having to take care of her. She spends about 95% of this first episode angry. Angry at her grandmother, angry at the people who run the school, angry at Michiko and angry at Hagino. I think this is perhaps the most intriguing mystery of the first episode. We already know she’s lost her memories, but that shouldn’t be enough for her to be so angry. What about her past, or what has she been told about her past, that makes her so angry?

The animation quality and music really, really impressed me in this first episode as well. I actually thought that, at times, the animation quality was approaching levels one would see in a higher-budget movie. Maybe I don’t have an eye for animation, but that’s what I thought. The music is largely orchestral in nature with big sweeping violin and piano pieces making the bulk of the music.