Feelings have the power to connect people and shape the world around them. These feelings can become Fragments that certain people can use to transform into Reflectors. These Reflectors may choose to use those feelings to help those who are wallowing in despair, uncertainty, or other negative emotions. Or they may choose to steal those feelings altogether to prevent others from feeling unwanted emotions.
Hiori Hirahara is an upbeat girl who won’t hesitate to help someone in need. Ruka Hanari wishes she could be closer with those around her, yet is too shy to do so. When the two of them become Reflectors they must work together to soothe the out of control emotions around them. But other Reflectors who wish to take those emotions for their own goals oppose them. While battling them, Hiori and Ruka must confront their own conflicting feelings causing them their own anguish.
Blue Reflection Ray is an anime from J.C. Staff that began airing in April 2021. It is a follow-up to the Blue Reflection game by Gust Corporation. Despite taking place in the same world as the game it takes a different direction, with new characters and conflicts exploring the game’s concepts in a different way. Some certain characters reappear later in Blue Reflection: Second Light
Blue Reflection Ray provides examples of:
- Abusive Parents:
- Niina's mother regularly hit her, forced her to stand under the shower, didn't feed her properly, and constantly degraded her whenever she did something wrong. Niina wasn't even allowed to leave their apartment when she was young, and when she was older she got kicked out whenever her mother was servicing a customer.
- Shino's mother forced Shino to be the spokesperson for her toxic religion. Shino was the saint while her twin sister Kano was the martyr, meaning that whenever Shino messed up Kano was beaten. Kano was forbidden from doing anything outside except to fill in for Shino. The two of them sneaked out once to get away from it all, only for Kano to be beaten so bad she could no longer be Shino's double. Their mother never saw them as anything but tools. Eventually it culminated in their mother murdering Kano in a ritual sacrifice, then making Shino drink her sister's blood.
- Awful Truth: Niina reveals to Hiori that Hiori succumbing to despair and ultimately dying in the original timeline is what broke Mio's resolve and led her to becoming a Red Reflector. Hiori doesn't take this well, blaming herself for everything that happened to her sister.
- Batman Gambit: Shino expertly manipulates Hiori and Mio to create the right conflicting emotions needed to open the doors to the Common.
- Break Them by Talking: Uta causes Princess Yuki's Fragment to go out of control simply by texting her that Yuki's attempts at counseling others online was nothing but regurgitating advice she looked up on the internet, that she didn't actually understand the feelings she received, and that any connections she made were fake.
- Connected All Along: Hiori and Shino, who met by chance in a park when they were younger. See Set Right What Once Went Wrong.
- Crash-Into Hello:
- Ruka and Momo first meet when Momo accidentally runs into Ruka while rushing elsewhere. Momo quickly runs off, but she dropped a Blue Reflector ring that Ruka ends up taking.
- That same night, Hiori and Ruka first meet when Hiori climbs into their room through the window and ends up falling onto Ruka after they’re surprised to see each other.
- Darker and Edgier: Compared to the game, the anime takes a much dimmer view on Reflectors. It questions how helpful they really are to the people they save, and the main conflict is driven by other Reflectors instead of faceless monsters that can be cut down with no worry.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: Uta caressing her scar in episode 20 while looking at her phone is very reminiscent of masturbation.
- Downer Beginning: The show opens with Mio and Momo fighting a Sephira, only for Mio to collapse in despair as the Sephira attacks and seemingly destroys the world.
- Driven to Suicide:
- One of Ruka's classmates in her old school killed herself. Ruka had realized something was wrong, but never did anything, leaving Ruka filled with guilt over the incident.
- When Miyako realizes how little her mother cares for her after one of her picture frames is thrown out, her Fragment destabilizes, and she nearly walks in front of a moving train. Niina and Uta intercept her before she can go through with it, and she doesn't try again after realizing Hiori and Ruka will be there for her.
- While trying to convince another girl to let her feelings be taken, Kana realizes that she has no sense of self without them and is essentially already dead. She then nearly gets herself run over by a truck. Hiori and Ruka manage to save her in the nick of time.
- In the previous timeline Shino was heavily traumatized after sister was murdered, and even though Mio tried to help her, Shino felt nothing changed since only her feelings were saved. Believing she was weak and part of the world's evils, she jumped off a building to her death.
- Emotional Powers: Reflectors are powered not only by their own emotions, but also the bond they share with their partner. They become weaker if they’re feeling doubt about themselves.
- Enter Stage Window: In the first episode Hiori climbs into her dorm room to avoid getting caught after curfew. She runs into Ruka during this, having not realized Ruka had moved into her room, resulting in Hiori being caught anyway.
- Faction Motto: "Girls living in a world of lies, your flowers of sadness, and the despair that blooms from them, we'll take them all away, now and forever" is the motto of the Red Reflectors, representing how they aim to rip away the feelings of girls so that they won't be burdened by their negative emotions.
- Frying Pan of Doom: Miyako uses a fry pan against Uta during her attack at the dorm. Of course Uta being who she is, is clearly delighted by the hit.
- Humans Are Flawed: One of the central themes is that humans have emotional problems that can’t be solved just by combating the magical demons exacerbating those issues. They’ll just relapse if the problems aren’t tackled at their core.
- Jumped at the Call: When offered the chance to become a Reflector, Hiori doesn't hesitate as she's always up for helping other people sort out their problems.
- Magical Girl: Reflectors have the classic hallmarks of them, including transformations, fancy costumes, magic powers, and the intended goal of helping those around them.
- Magical Girl Warrior: Reflectors are supposed to be fighting demons causing Fragments to go out of control and the Sephirot that are out to end humanity. This is mostly ignored however, and they spend most of their time fighting each other over differing ideals.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Mio realized that she and Hiori’s co-dependency was stopping them from accepting the reality that their mother wasn’t coming home. She sent Hiori off to Tsukinomiya School so that they could both grow without being so dependent on each other. Hiori took this the wrong way and thought Mio no longer cared for her, leading to her Fragment going out of control and eventual death. Mio blames herself for what happened to her sister, driving her actions for the main timeline.
- Mysterious Backer: The AASA is an institute researching the Common, Fragments, and Reflectors. They employ Momo and Yuri to investigate what is happening with Fragments in the city and are the source of the Blue Reflector rings. Beyond that though they're of no help, providing little information and no backup when trouble arises, leading to the Reflectors ignoring their existence.
- Never Say "Die": Despite suicide being common in the series, in every instance, characters use a Deadly Euphemism like "disappear" instead.
- Parental Abandonment:
- Hiori and Mio’s father died, and their mother suddenly abandoned one day with no warning. Their aunt and uncle offer to take them in, but they insist in staying in their apartment in the hopes that their mother will eventually return.
- Niina never knew her father, and when her abusive mother was killed she was left homeless with nowhere to go.
- The Power of Friendship: Reflectors can become more powerful when they’re in sync with their partner, which indicates that they’re good friends.
- Refusal of the Call: Ruka is hesitant about becoming a Reflector, believing that she's unable to reach out to other people the way Hiori does. Eventually she gains the confidence to fight to protect those feelings.
- Reset Button: In the original timeline depicted in the first few minutes of the show where Mio and Momo were partners, they were killed battling the last Sephira. Then time reset back a few months, and nobody remembered anything that happened. The timelines then diverged when Shino approached Mio and revealed what happened to her.
- Set Right What Once Went Wrong: A central theme of the entire series, encompassing everything from the Downer Beginning all the way to the Final Boss confrontation. Mio failing to save Hiori and the world made her easy prey for the Red Reflector cult who offered a chance to save her sister. In turn, Shino, the leader of the cult, was stopped by Hiori going back in time and running after her younger self to talk longer, as Shino's biggest regret before leaping off the Despair Event Horizon was not getting to talk to Hiori more.
- Start of Darkness: Episode 17 focuses on what drove Mio to become a Red Reflector. While she was content to fight as a Reflector initially, she became disillusioned with their mission when she saw several girls repeating their woes or otherwise getting into trouble even their Fragments were stabilized. This came to a head when Hiori’s Fragment went out of control, which led to everyone’s death in the original timeline. When Shino made her remember what happened, Shino convinced Mio that preventing people from feeling negative emotions at all was the only way to truly save Hiori from her despair.
- Time Stands Still: When a Fragment is extracted and the Leap Range is activated, time stops for everyone except Reflectors. This allows the Reflectors to freely fight without having to worry about being seen by any civilians.
- Transformation Sequence: Since they are magical girls, Reflectors get elaborate transformations when they transform. They’re instantaneous in real time and aren’t always shown.
- Transformation Trinket: Reflectors rely on their rings to use their magic and transform. They’re powerless if their rings are lost or taken.
- Wake Up, Go to School & Save the World: In the first half Hiori and Ruka are balancing their duties as Reflectors with their regular school life. Once summer break starts they shift most of their efforts to Reflector business.
- We Used to Be Friends: Momo realizes that she was once close friends with Mio, but she doesn't remember that ever happening. This causes her no shortage of anguish. It turns out they were partners in the original timeline and always had each other's backs. Upon learning this Momo tries to reach out to Mio to rekindle this friendship. Mio still has some feelings towards Momo from then, but still ends up using Momo for her own ends instead.
- Wham Line: In episode 9, Mio tells Momo "We've both died once", which is what reveals that they're in a new timeline after they lost in the future.
- Wounded Gazelle Gambit: Shino pretends to be someone in need so that she can lure in Ruka and capture her.
- You Can't Thwart Stage One: Shino's plan to open the Common, which required sacrificing Hiori's fragment, appears to be stymied in the Disc-One Final Boss fight at the mid-point Episode 12, but despite constantly changing loyalties, she succeeds anyway when Hiori is driven to incredible emotional distress from having to fight the Red Reflectors while coming to terms with the Awful Truth about the original timeline.
