BlazBlue Radio, better known for its Japanese name Buluraji or Bururaji which stands for "Blue Radio", is a web-based radio show based on the BlazBlue series produced by Toshimichi Mori and primarily serves to promote the aforementioned series. It stars Asami Imai, Tomokazu Sugita, and Kanako Kondo, the voices of Tsubaki Yayoi/Izayoi, Ragna the Bloodedge, and Noel Vermillion respectively, as Super-Deformed versions of their characters (based on the "Teach Me, Miss Litchi!" segments of the games). Unique to Buluraji is the fact that it's also part visual media, allowing the series to display fanart submitted by listeners and use various styles of art to comedic effect.
The show has been produced in various seasons, each of which has a unique focus. There are also various specials hosted for certain events.
Buluraji Seasons and Specials
- The first season of Buluraji started on April 9th, 2009, and primarily promoted the console release of BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger. This season initially teased the addition of Tsubaki to the BlazBlue cast and the addition of Story Mode. A special was released to commemorate the arcade release of BlazBlue: Continuum Shift and revealed Imai's Tsubaki avatar, as well as announcing Tsubaki as Promoted to Playable.
- The 2nd season of Buluraji is titled ZOKU · Buluraji ("Zoku" stands for "continued") and started on June 3rd, 2010. This season promotes BlazBlue: Continuum Shift and its Updated Re-release Continuum Shift II. A charity special between ZOKU and WIDE was released to support victims of the 2011 Touhoku earthquake, and debuted the widescreen format used in WIDE.
- The 3rd season of Buluraji is titled Buluraji WIDE and started on March 31st, 2012. It is the first season to use a widescreen format. This season promotes the PSP and Nintendo 3DS release of Continuum Shift II. The final episode of the season coincided with the release of Continuum Shift EXTEND, although a special was released to promote the then-upcoming Chronophantasma.
- The 4th season of Buluraji is titled Buluraji HYPER and started on November 21st, 2012. This season promotes the arcade release of Blaz Blue Chrono Phantasma as well as XBlaze. Several specials were released for this season, including one to promote the then-upcoming anime adaptation BlazBlue: Alter Memory and Tomokazu Sugita's visual novel project Getsuei Academy Kou.
- The 5th season of Buluraji is titled Buluraji ACE and started on October 24th, 2013. The season's main focus were Chronophantasma and BlazBlue: Alter Memory. It also featured a one-part BLUE FES public recording special, Haru which is similar to the SPRING RAID special, but more in scale of the first Riot Summer. The 12th and final episode of the season focused on Celica A. Mercury as a recently playable character.
- A special miniseries called Shuku was released between ACE and QUICK. The miniseries consists of five episodes, which promote the release of Chronophantasma 2.0 for arcades, Guilty Gear Xrd -Sign- on consoles, the Persona 4: Arena Ultimax title update, and the BLAZBLUE MUSIC LIVE 2015 concert.
- The 6th season of Buluraji is titled Buluraji QUICK and started on April 23, 2015. This season was released to coincide with the release of Chronophantasma Extend, although most of the focus is still on the home console release. The season is the first season to continue into the release of the next major console game, Centralfiction. A Guilty Gear-themed special in between QUICK and DYNAMIC was released to promote the release of Xrd -REVELATOR- on consoles.
- The 7th season of Buluraji is titled Buluraji DYNAMIC and started on July 28, 2016. This season continues to promote Chronophantasma and is the first season since the original Buluraji to primarily focus on the BlazBlue series. It is the shortest Buluraji season with only eight episodes. The final episode also happened to be the 100th Buluraji episode and was announced to be the (then) final episode of Buluraji.
- The 8th season of Buluraji is titled Buluraji NEO and started on May 31st, 2018. The series was revived after a one-year hiatus to promote the release of BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle, and as such prominently features a move to a 3D style using the models and resources of the aforementioned game. It is the first season officially available through ASW's YouTube channel.
- The home release of BlazBlue: Alter Memory released
character commentary DVDs for each volume. The commentary was done in the style of Buluraji ACE, hence the name Buluraji FUU. Unlike the core Buluraji series, there are no regular hosts and all commentary is done in-character. Furthermore, each episode of FUU replaced the ACE in Buluraji ACE with anything that starts with an "A" sound ("Erokoshi", "Ebiten", "Ekiben", "Edelweiß", "E~hen" and "Eros no Moushigo-tachi"/"Ee ja nai ka! Nii-san!!"/"Eternal Force Divine Buster Extreme!!!") - Parallel to Buluraji, few of the BlazBlue-focused episodes of the podcast Game no Shokutaku were named Buluraji FUUMI and they were even drawn and animated in the typical Buluraji style. The host of Game no Shokutaku also happened to be Tomomi Isomura, the seiyuu of Makoto Nanaya.
All the episodes can watched on the Nico Nico Douga channel of Arc System Works. The link for the playlist can be found here
. Most of them are also availabe on Arc System Works' Youtube channel, however, almost all of them are private. Buluraji NEO, though, remains public and it is also provided with English CC subtitles.
For the list of guests, see here.
Tropes associated with Buluraji:
- Art Evolution: Asami Imai and Kanako Kondo have changed avatars over time to reflect the in-universe status of the characters they play. Kondo's Noel avatar switched to hatless and uses her updated design after the release of Chronophantasma, and during the early days of Chronophantasma, Imai switched from her normal Tsubaki to a Dark Tsubaki avatar (since her character is Brainwashed and Crazy for most of CP) before switching to an Izayoi avatar. Sugita has never changed avatars due to Ragna never changing appearance in-story.
- Art-Shifted Sequel: NEO does away with the 2D sprites from the core BlazBlue series and uses the Super-Deformed 3D models and lobby from BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle. The new 3D models are more or less based on the old sprites, but are more expressive due to the extra dimension of movement.
- Call-Back: NEO #5 has Mikako Takahashi (Heart Aino) on board as a guest, and the cast references when she was previously on ZOKU Buluraji back in 2010 to promote the release of Arcana Heart 3. Takahashi even references the old "Condom-san" joke.
- Color-Coded Characters: The radio makes it easier for the listeners by displaying dialogue texts. The color of the text is generally based on the seiyuu's character. The three hosts have red, blue and purple dialogue texts whereas the guests have green text. However, when more than one guest appear in the show, the standard green is omitted and each guest is given a different color for that particular episode. Daisuke Ishiwatari and Yūichi Nakamura always get the standard green, and Mori later received his own unique color. For more, see the character sheets.
- Combat Sadomasochist: When asked what Ruby is Squeeing about in Cross Tag Battle's "Episode RWBY", Kondo claims that Ruby is excited because Yosuke and Yukiko are going to beat her up. Conversely, Sugita claims that Ruby is excited about beating them up. Obviously, neither answer is correct. This is lampshaded by Sugita, who accompanies it with an Evil Laugh.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: When asked what Ragna says in his unique Battle Intro with Noel in Cross Tag Battle, Sugita's response is "Teach it to my body..." with an ahegao. Sugita claims that he was recording for an otome dating sim right before showing up to record Buluraji.
- Epic Fail: At the end of the "Cross Quiz Battle" segment in NEO#01, everyone has 0 points due to most of them making joke answers. However, Sugita liked Imai's "Metal Oopa" answer, so they decided to give her the win.
- Foreshadowing:
- In NEO #1, Asami Imai gets her own avatar in a 3D Izayoi chibi, and spends a good chunk of the episode begging Mori to put Tsubaki in Cross Tag Battle. This lines up perfectly with a datamine that revealed that Izayoi is a future DLC character.
- Also in NEO#01, Sugita and Kondo jokingly state that Mai Natsume will get in before Tsubaki after the Tsubaki's Wishlist NEO segment. Mai being added to Cross Tag is also confirmed by the datamine.
- Mythology Gag: The giant red subtitle font from Kill la Kill is used extensively throughout NEO #6, which has Ryouka Yuzuki on as a guest to promote the release of KILL la KILL - IF.
- Oddly Named Sequel: The various seasons of Buluraji are named this way. It started with just Buluraji, then we got ZOKU · Buluraji, which is then followed by Buluraji WIDE, then Buluraji HYPER, then Buluraji ACE, then Buluraji QUICK, then Buluraji DYNAMIC, and now we have Buluraji NEO. What is the meaning of the bold letters. With the exception of ZOKU, the bold letters are the only part of the second half you can see on the video titles as well as on the season logo. NEO stands out since you can read the whole word, and ZOKU is written in kanji.
- Product Placement: While the entire point of the show is to promote Arc System Works' games, they (or the seiyuu) occasionally promote other things that may or may not be related to the show. For example, in NEO #1, there was an additional plug for Persona 3: Dancing in Moonlight and Persona 5: Dancing in Starlight despite both being Atlus games.
- Rape Portrayed as Redemption: Played for Laughs in NEO#04, where Yoko Hisaka describes Weiss's character by saying that she starts the series cold, aloof, and outright hostile towards Ruby at times before mellowing out and becoming nicer. Sugita remarks that if RWBY were a visual novel, Weiss would get assaulted and the player would have to decide whether or not to save her; Hisaka quickly interjects that nothing like that happens in the series.
- Rock–Paper–Scissors:
- This is how pen name term "Buluraji Name" was decided in episode #03. Sugita, Kondo, Imai and Daisuke Ishiwatari picked each a name and played rock-paper-scissors to determine which one of them will become the radio's offial term. Imai won in the first round with scissors.
- There's a rock-paper-scissor match between Kondo and Megumi Han.Sugita: "Gon-san lost!"
- Running Gag: In NEO #2, during a rapid-fire Q&A segment, Ami Koshimizu starts answering most of the questions with "Poop", which is referenced by a counter on-screen showing how many times she says it. The exception is one question towards the end, where she forces herself to say "Sailor Moon" instead due to being a Sailor Moon Fangirl.
- Shameless Self-Promotion: In NEO#01, there is a quiz show segment where the hosts are asked various questions about Cross Tag Battle. When asked what kind of dish Noel made for Hyde in "Episode UNIEL", Asami Imai's answer is "Metal Oopa" (with the "O" in "Oopa" censored for obvious reasons). She then proceeds to plug the anime version of Steins;Gate 0 on-air (due to voicing the main heroine), all while complaining that the producers will get on her case for it.
- Spell My Name With An S: Many fans spell Buluraji as Bururaji, due to way it is pronounced in Japanese and the fact that it is written in hiragana. The official website and its e-mail address spell it as Buluraji. There have been other examples within the show, such as Bluradi or Buluradi.
- Suicide as Comedy: In NEO#01, Sugita pretends to hang himself after Imai's unamused reaction to a joke he made about Ruby Rose. Imai later repeats the joke after plugging Steins;Gate 0 in the "Cross Quiz Battle" segment.
- Two Girls and a Guy: The core cast is composed of two women and Tomokazu Sugita. Can escalate to The Smurfette Principle if a female guest is on.
- Vomit Discretion Shot: When asked what dish Noel made for Hyde in Cross Tag Battle's "Episode UNIEL", Kanako Kondo claims it's an ajillo. Sugita says it looks more like it would make the unfortunate victim scream "ahiiii!" and "lloooo!", the latter of which is covered up by a picture of a grassy field and Izayoi saying "Sorry!"
