Kekkai Sensen

Summary: Ugh... the wasted potential here, it is what makes me most sad about this anime. Don't get me wrong, it was a solid piece and there were elements that were astonishing (go figure a Japanese work would have some of the best english Jazz music I've ever heard) but the story just sunk this ship. Story: 4/10 The story is trash, no matter what anyone else says. Each episode introduces a new characters (kind of you basically learn nothing about any of them) which is fine if it wanted to be light-hearted. For the first 5-6 I enjoyed it... super casual kind of detective kind of superpower/fighting with no overarching plot. If the anime were a 50+ episode show where the characters just fought crime and had lolz it would be a 9 or 10 show but then things took a turn for the worse. All of a sudden the story thinks it's going to get cute and build this intricate plot full of all sorts of craziness. Normally this is OK except almost nothing is explained, all of the back story makes no sense and the resolution, though touching, is illogical and incomplete. The concept had SO much promise, a shame it was wasted.The story almost ruined it for me; I will remember this anime a year for now but story will have literally nothing to do with it. Art: 8/10 Unique characters done well. I thought the God eyes looked cool and the overall vibe of the characters are done well. Sound: 10/10 - PERFECT Get the OST... seriously. The OST took what were awful story elements and turned them into amazingly touching moments. This has to be one of the most interesting and unique OSTs I've heard, especially considering it is in English mostly. Turn out, a non-native speaker singing Jazz in English is intoxicating. Characters: 7/10 The characters vary. Some are excellent (Black & White, MC, Klaus) and others get almost no development at all (the rest of Libra). Sidebar, I REALLY wish I knew who any of the villains were, I left this series having no idea who they were, what their motivations were and how they tied to each other. Also, they had metal covering their eyes, what was that all about. Enjoyment: 8/10 For all I've said, I enjoyed this. I really only hated the story around the last few episodes because I realized I had no idea what was happening and I weasn't going to. That said, I got a lot of enjoyment out of the vast majority of the series and still think it is worth watching. If you take it for a silly comedy and just ignore the BS story you will come out having an overall positive experience. Overall: 7/10 It was good. There were good (OST and overall enjoyment) and BAD (story, gross). If you are a story driven person snag the OST and keep on moving, otherwise check it out because the concept is neat.

Hey folks, this will be a review for kekkai Sensen. This type of anime isn't for me. I see a few people comparing it to Baccano and Durarara and I'm not sure why. It feels very much like a TTGL child. It's not terrible but to me it feels over the top. The story begins with out main character Leonardo Watch is writing a letter to his sister. In this letter is all the events that will unfold during the anime. His sister was crippled and during an outing which was hopefully going allow a miracle to happen and cure her, she instead loses her eyes. This is the debt she paid for the eyes of god to be given to Leonardo. Now he goes to the city where the other world collides with the world we know to find a way to help his sister. The basis isn't bad, and overall the story isn't terrible. The problem is that the story they handed us is like the booster section of a rocket, its there to propel our character into the real story and drop away. To be honest, I don't actually understand what it was they were trying to show me. It felt like typical shonen morals and lessons, but maybe there was something hidden that I didn't catch. The art was very nice but grungy, its meant to look dirty and strange. That isnt to my liking either but its still done well. The soundtrack for this anime is amazing and really some of the later episodes I think wouldn't have been as good without its accompaniment. The characters are interesting enough. This again is where we can see a similarity to TTGL. Leonardo Watch is the main character and he is basically Simon. He's actually very like able and has some really good moments. His power of course is the god eyes. Renfro Zapp is what I consider a Kamina like character but really he isn't as important to Leonardo for that title. He controls blood and turns it into a sword and can light it on fire. Klais von Reinherz is the leader of LIBRA and is great at everything. Hes very powerful, very smart, but also extremely easy to dupe. There are a plenty more characters but its hard to list them as they have very little to do with the show. We know little about almost everyone, even Leonardo. In fact we only know a good amount about two characters (Macbeth William, and Macbeth Mary). This is somewhat similar to Durarara, but unfortunately it doesn't fit this show. This superficial, get to know our characters through their lives approach only works when you focus on everyone equally and put them through some sort of story line. Instead this show feels like 90% useless filler(not all filler is useless), and 10% story and that's not good enough for this style to work. I enjoyed this anime alright, and I wanted to make clear that this is a great show in its own way. The soundtrack and ending episodes really make the somewhat yawn inducing ride worth it. However these shows to me are lame. The only reason TTGL was enjoyable is the same reason this one was, when these over the top shows finally do something serious it hits in such a powerful way that you cant help but feel attached to the moment. TLDR: Iffy story, decent but shallow characters, Amazing soundtrack. I would recommend this show to any TTGL fans or anyone into over the top antics and powers(though its pretty light on fight scenes and power shows).

E 'was almost an ordeal to wait for the latest installment (output nearly six months after the eleventh episode), but I think it was worth it. "Kekkai Sensen" is a rather bizarre souls who knew how to excite and enthuse in a completely unexpected. A story in the name of the action, fighting and superpowers. A surprising final effect, able to keep attached to the screen from the first minute. Twelve episodes really beautiful, no such significant flaws.  The story begins with the arrival in the city (New York) Leonardo Watch, a seemingly regular guy, which actually hides a great power eyepiece. However, the city is totally different from how we might expect. The world, in fact, had to witness a huge collapse, which resulted in a kind of connection with the world of demons. After the catastrophe, they have sprung the first supernatural beings, enclosed in the city by a powerful barrier of fog. This, in fact, is the only thing that can keep them at bay and contain the advance.  But how to do inside the blanket of fog? Indeed chaos reigns supreme, a world of crime, murders and people rather odd. In the midst of all this Leonardo he finds himself somewhat lost, if it were to be saved by some members of a powerful organization, Libra. This seeks to control at least a basic idea of ​​justice within the city, but cause a lot of trouble.  As souls reminds me very much an intricate story that is "Durarara !!" or "Baccano!" But amplifying the supernatural elements, with many characters who fight each other for control of the city. Each has a special power, but, even more, each has its own character, able to give weight to the series. Among these they are without a doubt Klaus, the head of Libra, White, the girl he falls in love Leonardo, and finally Black, twin brother of the girl just mentioned. As for the other members of the gang, they take their place in the show and try to follow at best the hectic course of events.  Leonardo, however, opens a chapter in itself. From a certain point of view moves to its normality, but, sometimes, you can not help but curse that its uselessness in the face of enemies. He manages to be "cool" in his weakness, and this is something unbearable and unbelievable at the same time.  There will be no sentimental developments, if not a little hint, but this will give the work a further touch of delicacy, so as to make the final effect even more sublime.  It has a terrific graphics and design of the original characters: there is no room for stereotypes, either as regards the character or for their physical appearance. It 'a number dictated by the extravagance and novelty, which gives the whole a touch of freshness. The colors, on the other hand, emphasize even more the various fighting, with sharp tones and scenographic, and with some really exciting flashes.  The opening and ending have remained in the lead for the entire series, and the OST has been able to load the most dramatic moments, caressing the most tender and dramatize scenes more tearjerker. Not to mention the classic sly rhythm that will flutter in all other occasions over this extravagant New York.  For dubbing I have only one criticism: why relegate Miyuki Sawashiro (voice actress Vivian, the blonde bartender of the first episode) to such a secondary role?  The final, which came out well beyond the conclusion of the series, has literally left the audience breathless. Apnea of ​​months, which ended in the best possible way in October 2015. Beautiful? Ugly? I would not know what to say ... for me it's just amazing. An unexpected development that left me entranced. The right dose of drama and good-natured cheer; a graceful mix of action and comedy. I could go on to the sound of adjectives for another page and a half, but maybe it's better to stop here.  There is still much to be said (first of all the issue of phantom vampires), and "Kekkai Sensen" has no place even the word "end" to its misadventures. It 's still early to talk about a second season, but you can never say never.  Final score: 8

The best way to describe this anime, is that the music and soundtrack is bloody awesome. Mixed that in with such an interesting world and concept, and you get a really unique anime. (The Video Review is up on my channel, here is the written) Story - 8/10 Kekkai Sensen is set in an alternative reality of New York. There was a huge explosion between Earth and the Netherworld with New York caught in the middle. This explosion brought beings from the netherworld to Earth. Now normally with these type of storylines, they tend to follow the path as a alien invasion, however that is not the case in this. Instead of that the visitors and earthlings live with each other in harmony, for most cases. Because like Earth, the Netherworld has it’s criminals as well. The story follows mostly Leonardo Watch, who is a member of a crime fighting organization known as Libra, are group of people trying to bring balance to the two worlds, by fighting against whatever crime that involves both worlds. With such a unique and interesting concept, there is one thing that the writers must do. And that is the world building. For such a unique world, I guess they explained as best as they can. Because they explain how most the powers, the characters have and their backstories are explained fairly well. However the world building in general, explaining the lores and how things work, could’ve been done better, as there a times where you will have no idea what is going on. And this comes in with the pacing, the pacing jumps around, sometimes it’s quite fast and feels rushed, and sometimes it just really slows down and when that happens it’s hard to keep track of what’s going, because the constant changes in pace. One minute they’re discussing something, the next they are all suddenly in a rush to save the world. However despite these problems, the story is very nice and touching, with some thrills here and there, and it has a pretty good ending. It’s just that it’s confusing and hard to follow. Characters - 8/10 There is a lot of characters in Kekkai Sensen, and like a lot of shows with a lot of characters, a lot of them don’t get development and are kind of there for a unique character to be introduce each episode. The main protagonist is Leonardo Watch who has the power of the ‘All Seeing Eyes of God’ Which is just as it sounds, it’s the ability to let him see anything, but at the cost of his sister’s eyes. And this brings me to another plot point, Leonardo’s sister is his motivation to gain more courage and find out more about his power and use them for his sister’s sake. Now there is quite a bit of character development from him, as he starts out not trusting the people around, but learns they need him and he needs them to move forward. And you can see the courage he gains by the end of show. However one thing that does bug is, he talks about his sister so much, yet we know nothing about her, and what happened to her afterwards. She sacrificed her sight, and is receiving letters from Leonardo, but we don’t know how much of a role she plays besides an outside motivation for Leonardo. Like I said previously there is a lot of characters in Kekkai Sensen, too much to go through them all. But there are some they need some attention, especially from Libra Klaus von Reinherz. At first, Klaus just fills the void for badass cool personality, but as we learn more about him. We see why he fights and where does his morals lie. We see him protecting those in his organization and trying to understand the enemy which I love about his character. There are two other characters they play an important role in the story and they are the twins White and Black. Now these characters are a key mystery to the overall plot, so I’m not going to spoil anything, but their story just hits you in the feels and they have such good interactions with the main characters. Animation and Sound - 9/10, 10/10 The art style its feels very mature and gritty. There is not a lot of colours, and it really highlights the urban city of this alternative New York, which really works for this type of setting. It makes you feel right there, at the moment, and pair that up with the soundtrack which I will get into later. The designs of each character feels really refreshing and unique and I like how they were able to blend it the netherworld inhabitants with the humans and not making it completely stand out with one another, as they all share this world. The action scenes and the way they use their blood powers is really nice to look at, although it can be a bit simple at times, as in they’ll use their blood powers but then a big text words come up, and it’s suddenly explosions, not really that impressive sometimes. The action scenes are good, but not all them have the same quality of high animation. And this comes in with a problem with some of the pacing changes when scenes changes, it’s hard to follow at times, and some scenes look simpler than the others. I can’t finish this review without talking about the soundtrack. Because as I said in my top 25 anime of 2015, it hands down has the best soundtrack of the year. The combination of jazz and blues music really add to Broadway atmosphere of this alternative reality of New York. It’s amazing, the vocals and the instrumentals are just beautiful to listen to, and it adds so much to the scene and you can listen to it on its own, without needing the world that it was made for. Also the soundtrack isn’t the only thing great about the sound in general. The opening song is wonderful to listen to and the animation is nice, I kind of regret not putting it higher on my top openings of the year list. But maybe because the ending song was just on a league of its own. I was always looking forward to when the get to the ending song, because it’s an upbeat catchy tune of a song with awesome animation which made it feel like a Broadway spectacle, with the cast of characters dancing to the beat, and it was probably my favourite song of the year. Hands best soundtrack of the year. Enjoyment - 8/10 The concept and world of Kekkai Sensen, had me really interested in this anime. I really enjoyed the characters and the way they interact in this alternative reality, but my enjoyment can only go so far as when I’m trying understand on what they’re trying to pull off. Because some things aren’t explained all that clearly and the way story jumps around, it’s confusing. Oh yeah, I haven’t mention the comedy in this show, I think it’s pretty good well timed comedy, has good timing and doesn’t really distract away from some of the scenes too much, that being said it’s not laugh out loud funny, but still pretty good for a quick giggle. And you will be surprised by the amount of comedy in the anime. But I just love listening to the music, and the ending song just got him hyped up for more episodes just to watch the ending song. Verdict - 8.5/10 As we draw closer to the end of the review, I give the story an 8. Because despite its pacing problems and some confusion in the story once in a while. The whole entire premise and concept kept me interested for the whole time it was running. And the overall story was touching and an epic thrill ride. For the animation and sound, I give it a 8 and 10. The animation and art style is fine. They did a really good job recreating the alternative New York. The action scenes were great only they kept a good quality for all of them rather than having some of them be pretty simple. The soundtrack like, is by far the best soundtrack of the year. The Jazz and Blues really add to the Broadway atmosphere of the whole show and its wonderfully composed. The opening and ending songs are great, especially the ending, which is my favourite song of the year. For the characters I give them an 8. I love the characters Leonardo, Klaus, and the twins. And I love their character development. Zapp was an entertaining character as well. Because of the huge cast, I wished …

A show like this is what I consider to be an anomaly. It's amazing. It's really good. There are very few things I disliked about this show. And yet there's just some force inside me the prevents me from calling it a masterpiece a la FMAB and Fate/Zero. This same anomaly applies to shows like Noragami and Death Parade as well; shows I adore to death, but for some reason aren't perfect, even though I can't pinpoint why. Nevertheless, Kekkai Sensen is fantastic. It's new and fun and bright and it's a refreshing thing to see something like this after having seen so much of the same old same old. Normally I do a description of the show in this paragraph, but I really can't describe this show without sounding like I've lost my mind, which is saying a lot when relating to anime of all things. Basically: New York. Monsters invade. They're kind monsters and everyone lives happily. Secret society. Fighting bad monsters and bad people alike. There, that's gist. The characters are where this show both excels and suffers. You have your main folks like Leonardo, Zapp, Klaus, and White who occupy the screen most of the time. Actually, many other characters have a good amount of screen time as well like Stephen, 'Lucky' Adams, K.K. and even Zed, who wasn't introduced until episode 9. The issue is with everyone else. Characters like Hummer and Deldro, Chain, and Fempt, while all depeicted in the opening and ending music sequences, have little screen time or simply just don't do anything for the most part, which is a shame since they're all really interesting. Every character is unique and quirky and sometimes Leonardo reminds me of Kenji Kazama from 'D-Frag!' because he seems to be the only one that acknowledges the weirdest around town a lot of the time. Animation is damn good. Like wow. It's no Unlimited Budget Works or anything like that, but it's a nice mixture of bright tones and dim tones for moments of humor and moments of seriousness respectively. The fight scenes are fluid and entertaining, and I enjoyed the touch they added of the character bios and attack names when something new was introduced. Music was nice really. It wasn't super special, but the mixture of modern beats and classical songs for different times in the series fit actually quite well. The opening and ending sequences are by far the best songs this show offers. The opening is very upbeat yet conveys the darker attitude the show often leans towards. The ending is the exact opposite in that, while also upbeat, that's all it is. And 11 times out of ten, it works and ties in well to the end of the episodes. Just not episode 11. The ending of the episodes did not tie into the ending theme at all. It's a really a great show for all it does, and I want to call it a masterpiece, but small details hold me back from doing so. Nevertheless, watch it. I found it very enjoyable. Positives: +Great op and ed themes +Very fun interesting characters +Shows lends itself well to its episodic format +Animation was stellar +Music was a good mix, though nothing to marvel at +Setting and plot are very unique +Final episode was 2x regular length so that it was flushed out and not rushed +Zapp Negatives: -Some characters really get the shaft -Some details left unexplained -Zapp So, I thoroughly enjoyed this show and I think anyone who watches it could find something to enjoy here. Personally, I loved the show and it has become a favorite

When 2015 started, this was one of the most popular titles since the first episode. Made by Bones , the studio who bring us amazing works like Darker thab black, Ouran Highschool Host Club and Eureka Seven, it's natural people got high hopes on it. And looking the promos and sypnosis, many people expected Baccano! with supernatural monsters and superpowers. It was? Unfortunetly, no. Let's take a look to the bad things, and good things. Beware the good stuff, we got an spectacular animation work, specially in the powers of the characters, most of them bend blood in way some might think of Deadman Wonderland because they can create weapons with their own, and the main character's powers, related to his eyes, really hard to animate, but they success making it look easy. The show takes place in New York, and is amazing how they manage to recreate it, specially if you think they made it in Japan, not the USA. But it's not ordinary New York, it's a New York surronded by mist, where humans and strange creatures live. The creatures design is easily eye-catching. Visually, we're talking of one of the best animes in art and animation. Music is the other outstanding aspect. Actually, is one of those rare situations where the ED is better than the OP, with an smoothly, upbeat melody that it'll make you wanna dance, like the characters in the ending. No, the bad part. It's really sad to me, but I must say this anime disappointed me. And if you're looking to something like Cowboy Bebop or Baccano, you're gonna get too. At the end of the day, the story is another generic shonen plot, with the young main character meeting a group of superpowered people who fight evil creatures, and join them. But the story is not just unoriginal, is horribly developed. There's a lot of moments when they explain you, or they think they did, really important stuff like how the MC get his powers, but then you realize they didn't explain you anything. They also never explain how the other characters get their powers, how exactly they work, how New York end up like we see, where all those creatures came from, or why LIBRA, the organization where the main character is, exist. Most of the episodes feel rushed, and some of them even feel like filler episodes,like the one where Leo and his teammates search for a place to it the whole episode, and how this world works, one of the main appeals of the show, never has a proper development. It even has any. There's only two eppisodes where this problem didn't appear, the 6 and the 11 episode, the only ones we get some proper storytelling. One explere the friendship of the protagonist, Leo, with one of the non-human person who lives in the city, Nej, a character we'll never gonna see again, despìte you'll probably want it, that the writers use as a way to tell us how is the humans's relationship with the others new habitants. The other is a long flash-back telling us the past of the main antagonist. The characters has cool designs, cool powers, cool personalities, but they are really standard and doesn't have any depth. Most of them are so generic and underdeveloped that they lost charisma. The success of this anime didn't surprise me neither a little bit. It's really cool in the surface, but some people like me rather have something more, not just swallow entertenmaint. It's not bad, it's just the screenplay could have been better.

Kekkai Sensen peaked my interest because of the soundtrack. And let me tell you, that was one of the best jazzy and blues-y OSTs I've ever heard. Additionally, I'd added soundtrack to the second season last year, not knowing that it was made for this show (yes, I'm gonna watch next season too). I LOVED the friendship between Leo, Zapp and Zed. This was the best thing in the whole show tbh. Their dark bloody humour balancing the naive Leo's, arrogant Zapp's and straightforward Zed's natures. Nonetheless, other characters didn't catch my eye, sadly (as well, as the art - it wasn't something wauw). Coming to the plot, I wouldn't say it was something genius, but I still loved it. I could sense (maybe I'm overthinking) how the series represented family issues, wars, human traffic, racism and all other social issues. Some might say that cruelty had no purpose, and the fight, the blood was spilled literally for nothing. Even so, wasn't that the whole philosophy of Hellsalem's Lot? People and creatures behaved as they wanted to simply because they wanted to, nothing less nothing more. Doesn't that remind you how we all live and how the world still functions? "A world where a child can call himself the King of Despair, is one that is far too sad!" - couldn't agree more. And with that I'll quickly finish my review. I 100% recommend to watch Bekkai Sensen, but only if you have an open mind and can clearly see the world we live in. If you can see the parallels, while enjoying supernatural fights and over-the-top jokes - you'll enjoy it as much as I did.

A wonderful story. Leo is a great character and teeters the line between a reliable and unreliable narrator and that is what I think is fantastic. From our point of view, Leo is a kid prone to little outbursts here and there but for the most part, he's level-headed and most of the situations he gets in are due to his environment of living in a town full of humans, monsters, and everything in between. Watching Leo establish bonds with his seniors, White, as well as Black is so heartwarming to see. The soundtrack is SO UNDERRATED. Songs like On My Own and In The City, are by far my favorites on the soundtrack. It's jazzy and slightly reminiscent of producers like Nujabes or J Dilla. Honestly, the finale speaks for itself. This isn't the story of some super-powered kid or someone whose hyper-intelligent, this is simply about a boy named Leonardo Watch in an unfamiliar town. Would definitely recommend 10 times over.

I almost, almost dropped the anime after the first episode, but I thought I'd give it a chance, watch at least two more episodes or so and then decide if it is really unwatchable. By the second episode I was all in. Definitely a weird one this anime. The synopsis sounded weird enough, you'd have thought I knew what to expect, but I was still surprised. What surprised me the most was the main character and the reason why I ultimately decided to continue watching it. The main character is not some helpless, learning-the-ropes type of guy. He's a normal person, yes, but he's not completely clueless and he doesn't rely on the others every step of the way or need some extensive training. It was refreshing to watch this kind of character. The story is... Well, a lot is going on. At first I didn't even fully understand it and there are some things left hanging. Also, at some point the plot drifts from the original goal which is not good. I am not too mad about it, though, I didn't even notice it until after I finished watching the anime, but I still can't ignore it, so my rating is going down a bit. But yeah, overall not bad, it was actually surprisingly entertaining.

It's 1am. It's 30c in my bedroom and I have no AC, I just finished the first season and, in rage, have decided to write my first ever review on this site. Blood Blockade Battlefront caught my eye, seeing it rated above a 7.5 I added it to my watch-list. Now having finished it, I am very confused as to why it is rated so high. Story - 5 The world of Kekkai Sensen is interesting, a city with a mix of huma/humans, and other creatures. We have this secret organisation who call themselves the good guys, who protect the city from bad guys, who never really get fleshed out. We see the bad organisation leaders maybe 5 times, and they never seem to be doing anything at all after the first episode. The main story doesn't make much sense, It feels much like a 90s kids cartoon show, where none of the episodes after the first and last matter. Every episode is a mini story, in which the main protag just seems to be along for the ride on someone else's adventure. The Anime has an interesting idea, of certain characters being able to use their blood as weapons, however, this is never explained. Our main character sees this and never once questions it. It's a cool concept that just never gets expanded. We learn the main bad guys are vampires, and not much happens with this information, it's just a thing that exists. Overall the story feels very disjointed, as if a meeting happened to get ideas, and they just tried to throw them all in, without making sure any would connect. Art and Sound - 7 When it comes to what you see and here, this anime looks great, the city is interesting, the various creatures you see in background shots are eye catching and unique, with a cool opening that remains memorable. Sadly a bad story cannot be carried by how amazing something looks or sounds. Characters - 4 The show seems to treat every episode as a chance to give some development to a character that week, however we never get below the surface level of any character. We never learn their past, their ambitions, or even fully understand their abilities. While they may look interesting and have funny names, they never feel fleshed out, like a real character. Even though the main protag never gets fully fleshed out, we know he is in the city to try to help his sister, as told in the first episode, but it never expands on that. The boss type character is just your typical organisation boss character who can be used as a get out of jail free card. He looks unique and interesting, with some religious symbology on his outfit, but this is never expanded on, other than he seems to fight using crosses. The rest of the main cast seem to get one episode each to try to explain their characters, but none are too memorable or feel alive. Enjoyment - 3 Throughout the series they used Black and White to drop hints that something big may be going on, but with each episode feeling so disjointed you couldn't piece it together. Then came the final episode. Being 40 minutes long I had hoped they could flesh out the villains plot, have something happen and give our main character a chance to be useful. instead, everything just seems to happen and then unhappen because they wanted something for a final episode. The entire 40 minute episode gets wrapped up in the last 5 minutes, with a resolution that makes no sense and did not resolve anything. While I may have enjoyed some of the stories and characters, like the mushroom burger lover, The ending really left a sour taste in my mouth. Overall - 3 Looking at other reviews, I see high scores from those who never finished it, and low scores from those who did. I also see the sequel has a higher score than this series, and I am worried I will end up watching it in pure hope. I just wish it made sense. The entire show can be summed up as, they ripped out a few pages from a dot to dot book, and rather than trying to connect any dots, they grabbed a crayon, scribbled on the page, and then threw them in the recycling.

Yasuhiro Nightow’s Kekkai Sensen burst onto the scene with far less acclaim than it deserves. It had been years since we’d been shaken to our boots by Nightow’s seminal work: Trigun, which exists as some pretty big shoes that Kekkai Sensen has filled out nicely. Leonardo Watch is an aspiring photo journalist who has made his way to Hell Salems Lot, a neighborhood in NYC where a portal to an alter-world has opened up and humans and monsters now must coexist. Leo, struggling to adapt to the new & incredibly diverse normal he’s found himself in, gets wrapped up into a secret organization named Libra that essentially exists to keep the peace between the monster and human worlds. From there he goes on to struggle through culture shock & insanity of everyday life with this group of colorful characters with diverse backgrounds and capabilities. The anime adaptation of the work, while it doesn’t exactly follow the manga, remains consistent with the East-meets-West spirit of Nightow’s work, the characters and the city as he conceives it. While I can understand the potential for the explosive nature of Kekkai Sensen to turn some viewers off, it’s fans sing its praises for its parade-like charm as an unparalleled strength. The series is an adventure-comedy, but don’t think for a second that it isn’t without a surprising amount of depth. KS characters possess unique back stories, outlooks & philosophies on life, they struggle through guilt and relate to each other in understandably different ways. Most central to the depth of this story however is the relationship between Leo, Michella (Leo’s sister), Mary (White) and William (Black). Without getting into too much detail, the intrapersonal tensions each of these people have with each other and their experiences as two sets of siblings are navigated so compellingly you almost forget that Zapp Renfro--just about the anime version of Bender from Futurama--somehow exists in the same show. It's opening song "Hello World" by Bump of Chicken deserves a serious honorable mention as it exquisitely captures the pace, spirit and emotion wrapped up in this title you will not want to miss out on. I truly don’t see any problems with this title other than maybe it should have been drawn out further. It’s a masterpiece that has been egregiously underrated. “Everyone thinks at some point if what they are doing has any meaning or not. Will the day come when I get what's coming to me, or not? How much influence does my existence have on the world at all, or doesn't it?” - William Macbeth 100% Seinen Jump approval. FFO: Baccano, Bungou Stray Dogs, Trigun, Cowboy Bebop

Story: The story is about a boy Leonardo Watch who came to another city and somehow manage to join Libra which is a team that prevents demons and ghouls raging all over the city. He got along with the other libra members fast even tho he is causing so much trouble cuz is not so powerful. Art: The art looks good, it's an anime from 2015 to be fair and it looks better than some 2018-2019 anime. Sound: decent opening and really like the ending music tho it's catchy Character: The characters are all random and different, the main character which I suppose is Leonardo is not that type of op MC, he is more like a basic guy but I like that in this anime. Zapp got my attention too, he is pretty funny and dumb maybe. Enjoyment: I enjoyed it, I'm happy that I have to watch now some OVA and the second season, I'm looking forward to it, I hope it's even better and maybe Leo can unlock some op power idk Overall: It's a good anime, nice story and it's funny too, it reminds me of mob psycho or one punch man and I like this. I recommend it, I give it a decent 8 maybe a 7.80 :)

This is going to be a rather short review. If you don't agree with what I'm saying, then that's great, I just hope you just respect what I'm to say. How I really, REALLY, wanted this show to be my favorite. There's so much that should be up my alley and for the most part is! Amazing animation, kickin' soundtrack, fantastic environment, and highly enjoyable characters. Yet the story was such a mess, didn't know what to be or knew where to go. Some episodes it wants to be a completely world building story, next a completely character driven, and then in the blink of an eye there is a great enemy ready to destroy the world. This show doesn't have a tone problem, but more like a mix of a pacing problem and a focus problem. It doesn't know how to even out it's focus on all the things I just listed, instead using a whole episode or two to go all out and explain it instead of balancing the info to build up to the climax while attracting the viewer's intrigue by equally mixing character development and the fleshing out of their world building. I don't think that having more than 12 episodes would've helped the series with it's problems, as now a second season already exists. I just feel it has some fat here and there it just needs to trim while needing to readjust it's focus on other areas. No offense to those who like it, but I can say for myself and some others that the vampire plot was either disappointing or poorly set up to begin with. Though there's a second season out now, meaning more episodes to flesh out the vampires to someone's argument, it holds no merit in this case as this season is being judged and graded separately. It must take responsibility for handling it the way it did, which though not awful, could've been done a lot better as well. I have yet to see Season 2 while currently writing this, and I can only hope it fixed the problems I have with it's first season, giving more of a gateway to gush about it instead.

I wasn't entirely sure what I was getting into when I first started watching Blood Blockade Battlefront (Kekkai Sensen), but I fell in love with this very unique and charming series almost instantaneously. This show has just about everything; a genuinely likable and sympathetic protagonist, a diverse cast of lovable oddballs, a beautifully detailed and colorful world and an over-the-top antagonist who doesn't pull any punches. It's an urban fantasy well worth your time. The show centers on Leo Watch, a 19 year old kid who moves to Hellsalem's Lot; HL used to be New York City until a strange cataclysm known as the "Beyond" completely altered it. Now, ordinary human beings live alongside demons, aliens and all manner of other dimensional entities. Imagine the comic book "Fables" but with a great deal more chaos going on. Leo joins Libra, a group of superhumans who keep Hellsalem's Lot safe from threats both human and supernatural. The reason why I fell in love with this show largely falls on its world. As great as the characters are, the world they live in feels genuine and developed in a way that many anime settings simply aren't. Hellsalem's Lot used to be NYC, and as someone who has visited NYC many times (I've practically lived there) it really nails the feeling of being a very small fish in a massive pond. You'll see all kinds of inventive character designs on the streets of this fantastical metropolis; mere bystanders look like they could be the protagonist of an entirely different story (pretty true to life if you ask me). Leo and his allies in Libra are all enjoyable to watch interact with one another. They're a gang of lovable weirdos charged with defending a city that is constantly tearing itself apart in one way or another. Picture the X-Men or the Avengers but with way more comedic infighting and awkwardness going on. I won't talk about the main storyline, but it's rather deep considering how much of the show is over-the-top insanity most of the time. This show tugged on my heartstrings and I'll bet it will do the same to you. Also, this show features one of my favorite ending themes in any anime ever; "Sugar Song to Bitter Step" by Unison Square Garden. Insanely catchy and enjoyable, I've had people who couldn't care less about anime listen to it and they almost all agree; it's a damn entertaining tune. The opening "Hello, World!" by Bump of Chicken is more emotional; there's a sweetness there that becomes more tragic in hindsight. I could go on for hours talking about why I love this show and why you should watch it if you haven't. Honestly, though, it's down to you; if you're looking for a beautifully animated, inventive show that's a feast for the eyes, you'll like it. If you're looking for an enjoyable cast of characters trying to keep order in an anarchic alien NYC, you'll like it. If you want a show that will make you smile from ear to ear and weep within a relatively short time, you'll like it. I'll see you in Hellsalem's Lot.

This anime is fairly good, there's monsters, superpowers, fantasy creatures of all kinds and pretty much action. The comedy is half-arsed and this doesn't deserve to have the comedy tag just because some characters are walking retards and act like idiots. The drama is overdone, spending entire episodes sometimes to explain a backstory that no one should really care about instead of giving us a fast summary. Now, the thing that I hated the most is the mc, his personality is kind of annoying and he's a freaking pushover just like the rest of these people. This is why japanese people can't write proper half-serious stuff. Anything that isn't plain out horror and tragedy tagged would usually always have mc's that are idiots with sh*t for brains and flowery views on the world. This guy is a wimp with no real powers except for good sight(being able to see things normal people can't) and being able to manipulate what people see(mind you, not huge illusions but rather single-person specific illusions that only they see). Even the powers he has isn't utilized properly since he's clearly not interested in learning to fight in any way whatsoever despite pretty much living in a hell where you can die at a second's notice, like many other japanese protagonists, he just goes with the flow and keeps on being an useless prick, even in season 2 random punks with no skill beat him up easily as he acts like a total amateur and can't do anything but stand there. He can't bear to kill people(surprise, surprise, he's the type who'd choose a stun gun instead of a sword or gun when his life is on the line), he's way too kind to everyone and meek to the point of being a doormat for people to step on. When he gets assaulted by people privately, he just takes a beating because he claims that he doesn't like using his powers for himself. He beats himself up over some bullsh*t past where his sister sacrificed her vision for him out of her own volition, so he feels like it's his fault despite having no guilt at all in the whole matter. Hell, his character is stupid to a flaw. When he's offered increased wages, which isn't more than right considering the extreme danger and the work he does for them, he denies and says he just wants the basic wages even when he needs/wants to send money back to his sister and he needs money to live, especially as his apartments keeps on getting blown into the air, he spends most of his time living in the office of their organization. But of course he can't accept the amount of money he should be getting! I mean, is he retarded or something? He's honestly a very boring and pretty frustrating, even obnoxious character. He's a "normal" person with exaggerated, extreme "courage","self-sacrifice spirit" and "kindness" thrown into that hellish place. It's just stupid. He can only be protected by everyone, or he'd die instantly. Even when he should be able to handle himself if he learned some proper abilities, but since he never showed the initiative or motivation to get stronger or use his powers, it's all for naught. It's so damn mushy. Mind you, this "japanese shounen protagonist personality" wouldn't be an issue in a normal manga/novel/anime. The issue is that fighting is kind of the whole thing here. If you don't fight, you die. If you don't strive to get better, you should die. Everyone is killing everyone and it's supposed to be a brutal world. A mc like that DOESN'T WORK in an environment like this. Leave that type of crap for the romcom and slice-of-life stuff. Not saying he has to be a brutal monster, even if that would be hilarious and kind of awesome/fresh for a japanese work, but at the very least he should be cold-hearted enough to pull the trigger and kill people when needed, to not get pushed around and whine about every single little detail. He's already devoid of care when it comes to seeing dead people(he doesn't even wince when people get blown to bits or hundreds/thousands of people are dead in front of him), why force things and make him so kind etc? You know what I thought when I saw this was a story about a mc with super vision and special eyes? Yeah, I thought he would become a gun user. Especially a sniper+pistol user, that'd be awesome. Now that'd be a mc I can get behind, a super-powered fantasy sniper rifle and handgun combo. Using his eyes to find flaws and critical points and shooting them like a sniper god. I mean, wouldn't that be a kind of obvious use of his otherwise fairly non-combat eyes, especially since he's not the athletic and muscular type who can go close-combat? So many possibilities, he could even use his eyes to temporarily blind others/show them illusions and then in that opening shoot. But of course he won't do so, because he might as well not have his eyes, he's not using them properly at all, not even once did I see him firing a gun, not even at first when he was given one. It feels like an useless gimmick. This author is clearly not that good at writing an interesting and awesome story. This story would easily shoot up to the heavens if the mc was more awesome and used his eyes like a badass. So enough about the fact that the mc is a dimwit. The other people in this story are often kind of boring as well, especially since a lot of time is spent on the backgrounds on characters that hardly matter and less time is spent on those we actually want to know about. I wanted to know more about the background of the boss, the werewolf girl etc, but we don't know who they are or even truly what they are. Nothing much is explained here, so I can't feel attached to any of the characters, although I honestly liked that fanged werewolf-like boss the most, not that I was that fond of his overly simple personality and straightforwardness. Some people are there only for comedic relief, such as the white-haired, tanned guy who is nothing but a retard that can't wait to show off how foolish he is and how much he can overreact. Sorry, me rating this 5/10 is because it wasn't THAT bad, it was mediocre. It's worth watching if you don't have anything much left to watch, it's sure to kill several hours of your life with nothing exceptional yet something that doesn't bore you to death unlike some stuff out there that you'd rather drop than keep on watching. I have to say that after several episodes of season 2 though, I dropped it. It had the same premise, the same type of story, the same type of jokes and events etc, only filled even more with how worthless the mc is and more half-arsed drama. It takes a turn for the worse and is only worth a 3/10 at season 2. The mc hasn't matured and nothing seems to really happen. Truly bland. Even if you watch this stuff, don't watch season 2, it's got nothing to offer. Pretend the show ended at season 1, which I guess it kind of did since they summed up the entire manga with season one and went on to the sequel manga with season 2. I seem to have read that the plot diverges a lot from the manga and there seems to be way more story in the manga, so maybe the manga is much better than this anime version.

(Disclaimer: I will cover both seasons of Kekkai Sensen in this review, but I won't go into spoilers at all, except for maybe in the characters section.) I had fun with Kekkai Sensen. It may have taken me weeks to finish 24 episodes and an ova (the second one pending), but I had a good time. However, I can't ignore the fact that it really polarized me overall. Sure, I enjoyed it, but there were a lot of times where I literally groaned and struggled through seemingly another pointless episode. These downs were what made me take nearly a month and a half to actually finish Kekkai Sensen, even though I'll say that it was a pretty good show. You can't talk about Kekkai Sensen without talking about how beautifully and fluidly it was animated and how banging the soundtrack was, especially season one's. For the animation, the fight scenes are undoubtedly some of the best in anime, the way that each character has their own fighting style and applications create for some impressive sequences. Even if the character models weren't drawn immaculately all the time, you could always count on the animation of each episode to impress. Before I go down the rabbit hole that is the soundtrack, I want to make a minor note about the voice acting, especially the dub being fantastic. It was always an epic moment when characters like Steven or Klaus went in for their final moves and suddenly started spewing their the names of their finisher in another language. Anyway, just wanted to show some appreciation for great voice acting. Now, the soundtrack. I don't how I'm going to say more than, "It's so good." To be honest, it may be one of the best soundtracks in anime, if only for the fact that it's so varied and fitting to its setting. Every insert song or instrumental piece fits into the jazzy, urban atmosphere that Hellsalem's Lot exudes. However, nothing in the first 23 episodes could prepare me for getting blindsided in the feels by the best song to come from the soundtrack. Honestly, if I was more fickle, I'd raise my score for Kekkai Sensen by 5 to 10 points for Tortoise Knight alone, but instead of talking more about it, I'll just link it here: Favorite Character: Mary Macbeth (White) I mean, let's be honest, the only character challenging her for this spot is Chain. The thing about White though, is that she really provided Leo with interesting interaction outside of his work with Libra, which was a nice break from the chaos of Hellsalem's Lot. The first season really needed White to help provide you with more of a personal connection with Leo, who honestly, I thought was pretty useless most of the time. But around White, you couldn't help but cheer for him to get the girl, because\ their interactions were so damn cute. This is the part where, I take a turn from my radiantly positive attitude. I mentioned earlier that I was extremely polarized by Kekkai Sensen. Most of that polarization is from the episodic nature, I think. It's so hard to binge out Kekkai Sensen, because it feels like there's no thread tying the world together. Instead, every episode is a single story, making the good episodes feel really fulfilling, but making the bad ones excruciating. I don't think this issue was helped by the fact that I wasn't interested in Zapp very much, and he dominated many of season one's episodes, which set the tone for me to watch the series. In fact, I can't say that I loved many of the simple, one-off episodes that dominate the series. There were a few that I really enjoyed, like Gilbert and Chain's episodes in season 2, the hospital episode, and the Aligula episode in season 1. There are a couple more that I at least was pleased with, but these few were the standout one-offs to me. I think a lot of the episodes that didn't impress me simply didn't have a good focal character, which made me bored of them from the beginning. A lot of this may be just my taste, but I feel if someone doesn't like all the characters, you're going to struggle through certain episodes. Kekkai Sensen's greatest strength is loosely tied to my complaints too. See? Polarizing. Anyway, Kekkai Sensen's greatest strength lies in its world. Enter Hellsalem's Lot, perhaps the greatest world in anime. What makes Hellsalem's Lot so special? It's simple: the city is it's own character. Kekkai Sensen simply wouldn't be the same without the craziness of the city that they never fail to show us with each episode. We think we've seen the most unbelievable thing the city can throw at us, then it turns around and throws something else at us. The thing is, the city provides us with a sort of continuity that we take for granted after living in the city with the characters for a little while. It becomes the norm for us too, which is what makes it so special. All these crazy one-off episodes are basically created at complete freedom, because of how much room to maneuver the setting provides the writers. Honestly, it's really impressive. I think the fact that each and every citizen, alien or human, is drawn really helps immerse us even more in the world. We see the weirdness, instead of get told how weird Hellsalem's Lot is. I find it hard to actually criticize Kekkai Sensen, because I realize how well it pulled me into the setting now that I've written all of this. I think all it would take to love Kekkai Sensen is more of an overarching reason to the story. It gets touched on here and there, but mostly gets ignored. I guess Michella doesn't really matter that much, after all. I kid, but it would be nice to see some progression to the plot behind Leo's eyes and her blindness. I'm probably asking for Kekkai Sensen to become something that it isn't though, so I'll be happy to be a fan of what it is, rather than what I think it should be.

It's always hard to express why Kekkai Sensen is easily a 10/10 for me, mostly because I'm aware that it's very subjective. Kekkai Sensen might as well have been made for me. But I'm always sad to see people giving this series 5s or below especially on the front page for it, and so I finally wanted to take the opportunity to write something on its behalf. I will not be breaking it down by categories like many reviews do, because I want to talk about the experience holistically and personally. I never get tired of watching Kekkai Sensen. Perhaps that's one of the best things I can say for it. I've watched the series, subbed and dubbed, probably over ten times. I never rewatch anything. A lot of that can come down to the outstanding voice work, the outstanding animation and, most importantly, the outstanding direction. I will follow Rie Matsumoto wherever she goes. Every thing in this show does its best to remind you that you're watching something. Leo is supposed to be the observer of everything after all, and the anime adaptation holds on to that idea. We see things through cameras frequently, and the characters even dance for us in the ED. They don't hide the stage here, and that choice allows them to up the ante stylistically until the show is bursting with cool. Kekkai Sensen is easily one of the coolest shows ever made Now, if you're looking for a deep story full of lore and mysteries, rife for theorizing and packed with twists, Kekkai Sensen is not for you. Stuff happens because it puts the characters in fun scenarios and allows you to learn more about them. The narrative thread of White and Black added by Matsumoto gives you just enough of a narrative to hold the vignettes together while still following the themes of family and incorporating some of the monsters (Blood Breeds and the 13 Kings specifically) already introduced by Kekkai Sensen's manga. White and Black also give a quieter sounding board for Leo, allowing his character to shine through. But mostly, I want to talk about Leo, because he's the reason that I love the show so dearly. It's easy to dismiss him as another one of those shonen heroes who are nothing remarkable and yet have super cool adventures. But that's just how Leo sees himself. He sees himself as worthless, because he thinks that his kindness, curiosity, and bravery are just the stuff that everyone is made up of. Him being able to find his worth through the influence of people around him who see him as he actually is- that's a worthwhile story, no pun intended. Mob Psycho 100, another show I love, touches on this theme as well. Everybody is just as special as anybody else, whether they can fight with their blood, see into the farthest depths of reality, or even if they just have a deep love of burgers. You should watch Kekkai Sensen only if you're okay not having all the answers. It's effortlessly fun while still giving you things to think about- only the things you can think about are hate, love, and family, and the way we treat each other instead of guessing plot points or anything like that. The anime focuses more on the characters, the setting, and the themes than the narrative which is what I prefer in a show anyway. Both the sub and the dub are great-if you have trouble focusing with subs, the dub really works well. I know this review has been a bit emotional, but I hope it has expressed just how much I adore this show and why you should give it a chance. Just let yourself have fun, be moved, be awed. They're on the stage for you, so let yourself be entertained.

This review doesn't contain spoilers, and will cover my thoughts for both seasons of Blood Blockade Battlefront as my opinions on each season are basically the same. Blood Blockade Battlefront is a simple but really entertaining series that has some great animation, great action, a great cast, and a healthy dose of humor. There is an overarching story, but it is simple and straightforward. The series is very episodic and more character driven. The main character is the only one with a significant character arc, but all of the main and supporting characters have at least one episode dedicated to fleshing out their characters. This is hardly the most complex cast of characters you will see, but most have some depth. All the characters are funny, relatable, cool, bad ass, likeable, and work off each other so well that I didn't mind their relative simplicity. Despite its general simplicity there are a small handful emotional moments/episodes that work pretty well for the most part. The word I could use to describe this series best would be fun. It takes itself just seriously enough for you to like and invest in these characters for the few emotional parts, but not so seriously that it conflicts with the show's mostly light hearted tone. The show keeps a nice balance of humor, action, emotion to keep the series from feeling to repetitive. Blood Blockade Battlefront also has some pretty good music too. This series is by Studio BONES so if you have seen Cowboy Bebop, My Hero Academia, Fullmetal Alchemist, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, Soul Eater, Sword of the Stranger, Mob Psycho 100, Space Dandy or any other of their numerous work, you know that Blood Blockade Battlefront will have some pretty damn good action and animation. In terms of negatives some of the side characters don't get much development, but like I said earlier, I did not really mind. The only other problem I had was the pacing. I cannot really go into specifics without going into spoilers, but the main plot is concentrated more in one season than the other. If you are looking for an action series with lots of depth, you can do a lot better than Blood Blockade Battlefront. However, if you are in the mood for a more light hearted action series that has plenty of humor, great animation, a really solid cast, some effective emotion, and plenty of variety I could not recommend Blood Blockade Battlefront highly enough. Side note: this series is also from the creator of Trigun, an older anime that is really good that you might also enjoy if you liked this series and vice versa.

Kekkai Sensen, a very complicated, hard to understand, but very unique and nice anime series! Story: 3 Lets start with the story. The story itself was.... well... how should I put it? It was more like I just didn't get it. 90% of the time, I was just trying to understand what was happening, since there wasn't much explanation given plus there was just a lot of randomness. Since it was all very hard to follow, I also had a hard time feeling connected to the characters of the series. Nonetheless, I found the concept and how it was executed very unique and I had never watched a series like this before. Art: 10 The art in this series was amazing. They put so much attention to details, from the buildings to the lighting, it was all executed perfectly. I also really liked their color choices. It gave you straight away a good idea of the kind of setting the story played at. Sound: 8 I also really liked the soundtracks in this series. Just like the art-style, it really suited the setting of this series, which was New York-ish, so I thought it was a good idea to use western style music. The soundtracks also portrayed well the "mood" of the town. If I were to explain what I mean by this, is that in the town were everything happens, the everyday chaos has become "normal" and no one seems to be amazed by it anymore. Just like that, the soundtracks are actually quite chill, compared to the all the chaotic things that happen in this series, which I though was very fitting. Character: 7 I thought the characters in this series were alright. I liked their character designs and overall, the series had a great cast of voice actors. However, they weren't very special in general and I didn't feel really attached to them, especially to the side characters. This could also be because of the chaotic story and because you don't get any background stories, except a little bit from the main protagonist and the main antagonist. I did like the main character though. I liked how his character wasn't over the top and how he could stay calm in every situation, again fitting well with the concept of the series. Enjoyment: 6 I did really like the concept of this series. I found it very unique and enjoyable. However, I think it could've been executed much better, if they made it less chaotic and a bit easier to understand for the audience. Like I said before, I was most of the time just trying the understand what was happening and I think at some point I just gave up on trying to understand. Nonetheless, I still enjoyed watching it because of its unique concept, the mix between cheerfulness and chaos and western style setting. So overall, I give this series a 7. I would recommend it, if you're looking for something unique to watch and would like to see something out of the box. As I said, the art is great, so much that I got amazed by it a couple of times and I also got surprised pleasantly multiple times by their choice of music. However, I have to warn you, there isn't much to understand in this series, so if you decide to watch it, don't try too hard to get it and just enjoy ;)

It's rare to watch an anime that takes place in the United States. I however have seen only two: Baccano and Tiger and Bunny. Both series took place in New York City which I find very interested cuz I was born there. Since they were both good and enjoyable imo I now kinda have a soft spot for anime that takes place in the Big Apple, and Blood Blockade Battlefront is now another one. This is a series that as soon as I heard of it I wanted to watch and funny thing is that I first heard about this only a few months ago while watching a Glass Reflection video and I've already completed the first season. The series is based off its manga that was written by Yasuhiro Nightow, the same man who created Trigun. Going into this series I knew right away I was going to like it but not just for it's setting but from looking at its style what Studio it was coming from; Bones. Bones is heavily known for doing several great anime like FMA and My Hero Academia so I was excited for this. Now is it any good ??***contains MINOR spoilers*** Story:6/10 A very confusing plot with rough pacing that contained fun episodes. This is the one area of the series that will and has turned many viewers off. For one after watching the first few episodes I had a hard time figuring out where this anime was going. For example the first episode made it seem like it was gonna give us a story to tell but was then followed by a bunch of stand alone episodes that would make you ask yourself, "what's going on ??" It turns out that the series is giving us an anime only plot that wasn't revealed until episode 9 and mind you this is only an 12 episode season. And when we get there the show then rushes off to the finish line. It wanted to focus on the sibling relationship between White and Black which don't get me wrong was interesting but needed more room to make it more compelling. The one thing the series did excellent at however was being fun, rarely if not ever was there a dull moment. The first half focused more on character interactions and how our main character Leonardo Watch dealt with the city of Hellsalem's Lot. This lead to many funny and cool fight scenes that were mad enjoying and even tho I was left confused on the show's direction I was at least enjoying myself for majority of the time. I did however wish the city received more exploration like where did the supernatural beings come from, and how did the humans(Libra in particular)get their special abilities. I know there's a second season and I desperately hope they talk about this. Art:10/10 This series is just another example on how much effort Bones gives to the work their given. They give the show great visuals, awesome action, cool character designs, and gorgeous backgrounds. To start off the anime excels at portraying the city by adding so much detail to the backgrounds, great use of color, and staying true to NYC by showing off its iconic skyscrapers and subways. It really gives you that nice New York vibe something I'm familiar with and it's general feel relates so much to Baccano. The show bases its use of color by giving us the tone it's aiming for, for example it would use a wide range of color when it's portraying the quirky crazy moments and emphasize on a single color when the tone shifts to darkness. The action omg it was handled so well and they were voilent, bloody and emphasized well with falling debris and destruction. And then you have the character designs, as we already know not all the characters are human so we get a variety of appearances here. The supernatural characters look great and they weren't made too alien like which makes it more impressive cuz they were detailed. My personal favorite design was Ted, he looked mad cool and was drawn great. Sound:10/10 Taisei Iwasaki I applaud you, cuz the music in this anime was so awesome. The OST uses a great combo of classical music, electronic, and jazz sung mostly by English speakers that heavily suits the style and New York atmosphere. Examples of classical music are the use of Beethoven and Mozart two HUGE music names. My favorite part of the OST has to be both the opening and ending themes that were done in Japanese. The OP "Hello, World" was a catchy and up-tempo song that matched the more serious side of the series that also had stunning views of the city. "Sugar Song to Bitter Step" which is now one of my favorite EDs was this fun upbeat alt rock song that had the characters dance at a broadway stage that matches the quirkiness and craziness the show has to offer. As for voice acting it was great, I do however recommend this to be watched in English. While it was good in Japanese the English Dub fits the setting more and it was surprisingly better at portraying the character's emotions. Just to prove to how great the dub was check out the performance of Aaron Dismuke as main character Leo. That's right Aaron f***ng Dismuke is here and he was incredible. To name more Ian Sinclair, Phil Parsons, and Stephanie Young were also great, yea y'all should definitely check the English dub out. Character:8/10 Incredibly fun and entertaining but needs more room for development. Despite so this is one of those shows that wouldn't really work if it weren't for its characters. By far the biggest strength here is watching how enjoyable they all are with their own unique personalities and interactions. Leo was given nice development as he was at first a cowardly kid that ended up like a hero. Given his backstory on how he received the God Eyes that involved his sister was touching and gave us a reason to care for the kid. Black(William) and White(Mary) played major roles in this season and had even more touching backstories of their own. Due to being the primary focus they get a lot of screen time and plenty of interactions with the main lead Leo. Zapp and Klaus man these guys were awesome. Zapp is the juvenile womanizer who plays big with the show's humor and Klaus is the polite calm leader of Libra who's capable in combat. But my main issue here is that some of the side characters didn't get enough attention. For example, we got the sexy and sadistic female Chain who like all the other characters was a joy to watch but was left underdeveloped. More characters like Steven, K.K., and Lucky Abrams were just given intros and side appearances at most, which is sad cuz they were just as if not more interesting than the major characters. Final Verdict: 8.5/10 Pros +A fun and entertaining cast that are so cool and never get boring +Great music and style that perfectly matches its world +Bunch of enjoyable episodes that contains tons of exciting action and funny moments Cons -Plotlines were confusing and took a while to get going -Its world suffers from exposition, needs more exploring -Side characters need development and screen time for more relevance Blood Blockade Battlefront is an anime that I had so much fun with. It reminds me so much of Baccano in terms of setting, vibe, and enjoyable cast of characters. Several people like to compare this series to Darker than Black and it's an anime I haven't seen which is why I personally didn't make any comparisons. Now the show isn't flawless but really it's biggest problem was the plots, the ending left many confused and I can see why but I was personally fine with it. I just hope that in the next season we get to know more about the side characters as they were mad interesting and deserve to be in the limelight. I recommend this series to people who are fans of Baccano, Cowboy Bebop, and fans of Nightow cuz although it had its plot problems the style, music, and characters were SOOOO worth it and trust me you will not be disappointed.