Hello there, Shizuku here and welcome to Project Nitsuj. Let’s talk about my favorite city in the whole wide world, New York City. The NYC is one of the most popular cities not only in the United States but the world. There’s ton of sights to see and visit and it’s a hotspot for just about everyone in the world to gather. But underneath this great city lays insanity, stuff you never thought you would see in your life can be seen in this city. It’s gotten to the point where everyone in the city tries their best to ignore it or keep it out of the public eye out of embarrassment. But what would happen if that insanity finally got tired of being pushed in the shadows and decided to take over the city? I don’t know, but I’m confident you would get something along the lines of Kekkai Sensen. Also known as Blood Blockade Battlefront (BBB) the boss said it best when he described this anime to you. It’s like a combination of Cowboy Bebop’s cool atmosphere and Panty and Stocking’s insanity. I would also like to add-in the logic of Fooly Cooly as well into this mix. This series is based off a manga that got started in 2009 by Yasuhiro Nightow the creative mind that gave us the hit classic from the 90s Trigun. In an era where everyone is complaining about animes and mangas becoming too predictable and repeating themselves it’s nice to see someone break the mold and present something new to viewers. Unlike most series where the main character gets a super power in a real world setting the main character gets a super power in unreal world setting and tries do everything he can to survive living in a city of crazy supernatural creatures. The series quickly became a hit for its action and comedic writing that last year the anime studio Bones (Space Dandy and Noragami) took the series and decided to create its own story within the world created by Yasuhiro. Now this was a big risk as when studios usually make up their own story it tends to fail and becomes a huge disaster for everyone to see. Does Bones make this same mistake? Well let’s take a trip down to Insanity Square, New York and take a look at Kekkai Sensen.
Opening and Ending Theme
The opening is “Hello, world!” by Bump of Chicken. I have to admit at first I didn’t like this opening and I’m a huge fan of Bump of Chicken, I love these guys they do great work and I highly recommend checking out their other songs. It just didn’t sit well with me but as time went on I really started to like this song a lot. The song gives off that FMA feel with its meaningful lyrics and visuals that match up perfectly with the song. It’s calm, optimistic, and feels you with joy whenever you listen to it and it matches up very well with our main character trying to find some sense of a place in a city that’s in way over his head. The ending is “Sugar Song to Bitter Step” by Unison Square Garden. Do I need to talk about this ending? The boss pretty much nailed this song on the head. This song is hands down one of the greatest ending songs of all time. It was the best ending of 2015 and I still go back and listen to this song as well as dance to it from time to time along with the others. It’s just so catchy and matches up perfectly with the atmosphere of the series. The song basically sums up the entire series in 1 minute in a half. Cool, fun, and a little weird that you can’t help but find it so enjoyable and fun to watch.
Episodes 1-4
Now I have to admit the first episode doesn’t do a good job introducing the anime to us. It’s pretty rushed and doesn’t explain a lot of things all that well. The episode starts off with our main character Leo voiced by Daisuke Sakaguchi. A young man living in Hellsalem’s Lot (formerly known as New York City. It’s not that much different) a place world an alternate world collided with our world and opened up a gate between the worlds. Now the city has become a haven for humans, monsters, and other kinds of supernatural beings to live together in coexistence (basically the insanity that New York has been hiding has finally been lifted for everyone to see). Anyway, getting back to Leo, he’s chasing a monkey (https://youtu.be/MdrlALQVEKM?t=15s) with supersonic speed who has stolen his camera. He chases the monkey down where a blasts blows him and the monkey into the street where he gets greeted by a shady person named Zapp voiced by Kazuya Nakai (Zoro from One Piece) a man who works for the secret organization Libra an organization filled with superhumans who try to maintain balance in the city (that is impossible). Zapp thinks Leo is the newbie he was sent to find and Leo goes along with it because he’s been searching for them for quite sometime. He gets taken to Libra where he meets their leader Klaus voiced Rikiya Koyama (Azazel from Highschool DxD) and Chain a female werewolf voiced by Yū Kobayashi (Katsuragi from Senran Kagura). Right away they figure out that Leo is an impostor (they’re good) but it’ll have to wait as trouble is brewing in the city. A maniac by the name of Femt has planted a dimensional gate inside the monkey Leo was chasing and has sent a demon after the monkey. If the demon gets his hands on that monkey bad things will happen. Every few minutes the monkey opens the gate causing an explosion to go off which he does in Libra’s office and escapes with Chain on his tail. Back at the office Leo explains to Klaus why he wanted to find them. Leo came to this city for two things. One, to help his sister Michella. Due to an accident Michella has been confined to a wheelchair her whole life. Since Hellsalem’s Lot was known as the city of miracles (and insanity) he ventured into the city in the hopes of finding a cure for her. The second reason Leo came to the city, to get answers about his eyes. In the past a giant creature appeared before Leo and Michella asking one of them to be a witness (of what I have no idea and it’s never explained). The creature chooses Leo and gave him a new set of eyes but at the same time took the sight of Michella and making her blind. Now Leo is determined to find a way to save his sister. After hearing this Klaus believes Leo’s new eyes can save the city from this catastrophe that Femt has set in motion. Leo, Zapp, and Klaus get surrounded by a SWAT team who believe they’re responsible for this mess and we get to see Klaus’s fighting style known as Brain Grid blood which creates giant cross-shaped weaponry and has the ability to seal things. He manages to defeat the SWAT team with one strike and Leo and Zapp go after the monkey where Zapp takes on the demon where we see his fighting style Big Dipper Blood allows him to manipulate his blood and turn it into blades or explosions (man he’s like a missing character from Deadman Wonderland. Scene here: https://youtu.be/wKrjhE4lvVw). While that’s going on Leo corners the monkey and rather than kill it he uses his mystic eyes to see that the monkey isn’t opening the gate but instead a tiny flea (oh man, you would have made a big mistake if you shot that monkey). He kills the flea and adopts the monkey as his pet naming him Sonic.
In episode 2 we find out that Leo has the All-seeing eyes of God. Basically his eyes can detect and see things that no one else can’t (reminds me of Mira when I steal one of her apples) and it has the powers to peer into the future as well as do other amazing things. Naturally it’s a rare power and everyone who knows of it wants it for their own (looks like Leo’s a marked man in the city of monsters). During this explanation we also meet Steven Libra’s second-in-command who has a lot of shady connections (hey in a town like this are there any other kinds of connections?) and a master of the Esmerelda Blood Freeze, a kick-based fighting style that freezes his enemies on contact. After the explanation we cut to Leo who is delivering pizza for some reason and everywhere he goes Zapp is there to beat him up and steal the pizza (scene here: https://youtu.be/-IkBXMyPMnU, Leo’s tip is still being alive). When Leo’s on another pizza run with Zapp tagging along he sees a laundry van run by humans only it isn’t a laundry van it’s actually a monster truck carrying humans which the monsters plan to eat. Thanks to Leo’s godlike eyes he’s the only one able to see through the monster’s illusion and because they make eye contact the monsters capture him and leave Zapp for dead but before they get away Zapp stains Leo’s shirt with his blood so that Chain can follow him (a smart moment from Zapp. Maybe he’s not as dumb as I thought). She loses the truck but Zapp creates a thread of blood using his lighter (a red thread of death so to speak) to keep track of the truck Leo is in. When the truck stops that’s when Libra makes their move to save Leo. Leo tries to save himself where we see he has the ability to create illusions with his eyes (he’s a member of the Uchiha clan. Can’t wait to see how he goes all emo on us for no apparent reason and tries to destroy the world). Leo manages to get the truck to stop (hey a powerless character who isn’t useless) and this allows Zapp to lead everyone to the truck where the members of Libra come in (on Speed Racer’s racing car?), kick ass and save Leo after getting him caught in the crossfire. So Leo has to spend a few days in the hospital and he gets told the reason Zapp was following him around on his pizza route was because Klaus asked him to watch over Leo (good. But did you tell him not to leave Leo for dead as well?). As a few days go by in the hospital Leo comes across a cemetery (a little morbid for a hospital don’t you think?) where he comes across a girl named White who wants to be his friend.
In episode 3 we see that Leo is out of the hospital and evicted from his apartment as well (he has got the worst karma). It turns out the landlord won the lottery and decided to turn the place into a high-class hotel (in a city where monsters run wild? This won’t backfire at all) evicting everyone in the process. With nowhere else to go (besides his favorite diner or another apartment complex) he decides to crash on Libra’s couch (scene here: https://youtu.be/kZMRt9v-NG0). Libra then receives their assignment finding and stopping the trafficking of a new drug called Angel Scale (you know how Bane from the Batman comics pumps himself up with venom? Well it’s basically the same thing mixed in with instability emotions). Libra tries to find information about the Angel Scale but come up short everytime. This forces Klaus to go and meet up with K.K another member of Libra who has great respect for Klaus as a leader and man. Her fighting style is guns that shoot lightning bullets. They go to alterworld to meet with Don Arlelelle one of the leading bosses of alterworld (the kind of boss who knows when you’re taking a leak and where it’s at). If there’s anything happening in the alterworld or the human world that’s illegal he’ll know about it however he won’t give the information away for free. If you want his help you have to play him in a game called Prosfair a very complex board game that’s quite similar to chess only with more complex rules (and no they never explain the game to us. It’s so complex not even the author knows how it works). The game is based totally on the intelligence of the people playing it and as the game continues to go on it gets more complex driving the player mad or killing them. In the game players play against Arlelelle in an alternate dimension where time runs fast. The goal is to beat him or last for a set period of time depending on your request. If you beat him, force him into a draw, or outlast his time limit you win (sounds simple but believe me it’s torture). Before Klaus can face him a former high ranking Soviet Union man by the name of Ulchenko faces Arlelelle first for some nukes and he also wants Klaus and K.K killed because he doesn’t want anyone to know he was in alterworld. The time limit is 9 hours and at first Ulchenko does okay but as time quickly passes we see Ulchenko start to go crazy, he begins getting headaches, and has a hard time seeing (sounds like a normal day in a forum on the internet). Ulchenko loses the match and is barely alive and as his punishment he must give up his remaining life to Arlelelle but Klaus steps in saying he’ll face Arlelelle and if he wins or survives the time limit Ulchenko’s life is spared and he’ll get the information about the Angel Scale. Arlelelle accepts his request and they begin to play with the time limit being 99 hours (99 hours!? Are you insane Klaus? That’s like playing Road to Hell all in one sitting). In the match we see just how confusing this game can be and how the game takes a huge strain on Klaus as he slowly begins to lose energy and even begins to bleed from the nose. Klaus somehow survived the 99 hours (or won I’m not sure) and gets the information about the Angel Scale and saves Ulchenko’s ungrateful life (in Soviet Russia monster save you).
In episode 4 while Leo is on the subway he sees a vampire boy or as they call them a member of the Blood Breed. The Blood Breed are a rare group of species in this anime. So rare and mysterious in fact that no one can see them and those that do see them don’t live long enough to tell the tale (yep these guys are the Saiyans of this anime). Another thing that makes these guys so dangerous is that their immortal, powerful, and virtually unstoppable (and Leo is face to face with one). Once Leo tells everyone this they all get worried because that means Blitz Abrams is coming into town (lock the doors). Blitz Abrams aka Lucky Abrams was once Klaus’ mentor in the past and is now the leading researcher on the Blood Breed. Because of this he’s curse with overwhelming luck that stops him from getting hurt however those around him experience bad luck (scene here: https://youtu.be/r4uI6ReMtwk, scary stuff if you ask me). He wants Leo to use his eyes to read a piece of paper the hand of a vampire is holding onto (you carry around the chopped off hand of a vampire? That is so morbid and disgusting that I don’t even want to know what you do with that hand) which he believes will lead them to the location of the Elder 13 the last remaining members of the Blood Breed. Leo manages to read the paper where he discovers that their location might just be under the heart of the city. So Blitz, Klaus, Zapp, and Leo go to the heart of the city and reach the lowest level of it which is the abyss where Leo stares into it to confirm if the Blood Breed are in there. What he sees is not good. Not only are the Blood Breed in their but there’s hundreds if not thousands of them inside the abyss and according to Leo if they wanted to they would not only destroy the city and everyone in it but they would also destroy the world (well I think it’s safe to say the Blood Breed are located underneath Hell’s Kitchen). After confirming this they receive a call telling Klaus to hurry back to the city because two Blood Breeds have attacked the subway and K.K and Steven are fighting to hold them from getting topside. The group hurries back where we see that K.K and Steven are no match for even one Blood Breed. Just when it seems they’re about to lose Klaus shows up and destroys one of them while sealing the other away after figuring out its name (nice. Now all we got is a thousand more of these bastards to kill before they unleash Armageddon on the city).
Episodes 5-8
Episode 5 starts off with White mad at Leo and him not knowing why (it’s because you don’t come to visit her and you never take her anywhere. Not to mention you rarely talk about yourself or your life. It’s as if you have a wall around your heart and you won’t let her in). But his lady problems will have to wait as the city is in widespread panic because of Aligura the Queen of Monomania who is driving a big monster truck through the city tearing up the street looking for her boyfriend Deldro who is in this handsome dark-skinned stud Dog Hummer a member of Libra (https://youtu.be/lG2kFXDPot8). I suppose I should explain what’s going on here. You see long ago Aligura and Deldro were girlfriend and boyfriend. Aligura loved Deldro because of his bad boy persona and he was a serial killer. However, his looks didn’t fit well with Aligura so she liquefied his body into living blood and placed his blood into the body of Dog who was the perfect hunk in her eyes (oh my God she’s like a cuter smaller version of Yuno). Because of this Dog now has two people inside of him. One being the happy idiotic Dog and the other being Deldro the serial killer who Dog has to keep in prison. Despite being fused together the two seem to get along with each other well. Deldro even allows Dog to use his powers whenever he wants which turns him into a blood-like Hulk with immense strength. Anyway, in the episode Aligura is tearing up the city looking for Deldro where she captures Leo, tortures him a little, and even tries to help him with his lady problems (good, he needs all the help he can get). The episode is just straight up funny. Everything is getting destroyed, Zapp’s facial expressions, Leo and Aligura’s scenes are funny, and the plan to finally stop her is both clever and funny. Once it’s all over and Leo gets patched up at the hospital he tries to leave not seeing White but he just can’t ignore her so he goes back in, sneaks her out of the hospital, and they go catch the movie Twin (never in a million years did I think I would see Danny DeVito in an anime) where Leo opens up a little bit about his family.
Episode 6 is one of the sadder episodes of the series. In this episode we actually do discover that there’s a section known as 42nd Street Plaza which serves as a safe haven for humans. This is probably the only place in the city which resembles classic New York (can’t believe I’m saying this but this place is weird. Good God what has this anime done to me?) as it has their restaurants and culture and monsters aren’t allowed within the plaza. This leads us to discover that even though monsters and humans live in the city together there’s still an air of separation between them, like they haven’t really accepted each other as a whole. As Leo is leaving the 42nd Street he sees a food grubber named Nej get hit by a gas truck. Leo checks up on him where he’s not hurt as his body is that of a mushroom and he tries to get Leo to give him his hamburger (you toss in a buck and we’ll talk). The truckers give Nej their half-eaten burger as an apology for hitting him and they take their leave. The next day Leo returns to the area and discovers that the truckers are buying Nej hamburgers and charging him 4 times the amount they paid (that is low even for me). Leo decides that he’ll get Nej hamburgers from now on and the two form a friendship (one based entirely off the dependence of fat inducing hamburgers. And super-sized fries with ketchup). During their time together Nej reveals that he doesn’t remember his mother or rather his mother doesn’t remember giving birth to him for some odd reason (give me a little time this’ll all make sense). We find out that the truckers are in a serious debt and if they can’t make their money soon they’ll be killed. As they’re driving at night they accidently hit Nej again where one of the truckers in a fit of rage and stress gets out of the truck and begins beating Nej (this is a hate crime. And it’s being done by a black person no less). As Nej keeps getting beat up his head begins to turn red and he unleashes a red pollen which knocks people out and gives them amnesia of the past 13 days (this is why Nej’s mom doesn’t remember giving birth to Nej. He gave her amnesia at a young age. Not intentionally of course but still). This has the whole city panicking and Leo quickly comes to the conclusion that Nej did it and goes out to find him but gets knocked out by a baseball bat to the skull by one of the truckers who managed to escape the amnesia pollen thanks to wearing a gas mask. The trucker wants to use Nej’s pollen to rob people so he and his amnesia partner kidnap Nej (and Leo for some reason. Why didn’t they just leave him in the streets?) and begin beaten up on him to get him to produce the pollen (this is honestly a very disturbing scene. I just wanna jump into the anime and kick their asses myself). Leo regains consciousness and tries to save Nej by using his eye powers but it only stops them momentarily and they shift their focus onto him where they plan to kill him. This forces Nej to unleash his pollen in order to save Leo and as a result Leo forgets Nej entirely and when he goes to the burger joint he subconsciously buys enough for two and runs into Nej again where Nej plays it off as their first meeting and Leo gives him the extra hamburger (that is so moving and sad). At the end of the episode Leo goes to visit White where he meets her older brother the vampire boy he met in the subway who reveals himself to be Black (no you’re not. You’re white as Mr. Rogers).
Episode 7 starts off with Leo having lunch with Black (scene here: https://youtu.be/Pt3s9gel3S0). The two seem to get along quite well as they’re both big brothers who care about their little sisters and seem to have a few things in common (too bad one of you is evil and plans on destroying the city). After their talk we focus on Klaus and underground bare-knuckle fighting. It starts with Zapp trying to beat up Klaus and failing each time (scenes here: https://youtu.be/ixrxPELu2_k and https://youtu.be/5bEFCnfXeKw). After this Zapp tricks Klaus into coming to save him and since Klaus sees himself as a father-figure to the others he can’t ignore Zapp’s cries for help (even if they are ugly and forced. Scene here: https://youtu.be/jdhZR1kYztc). Klaus ends up fighting in an underground bare-knuckle tournament in order to save Zapp under the impression that he’s being held captive (as someone who’s known as the Queen of bare-knuckles I find this episode rather enjoyable). Klaus does extremely well (500 bucks on the gentleman with the fangs) knocking out everyone with one punch and even starts enjoying himself a little bit. He finally becomes the champion (and if Leo was smart he made a fortune off of him) and this forces the boss Ozmaldo to fight him since he himself is a fighter and was amazed at the way Klaus fought. The two have a short fight where Klaus knocks his head off (scene here: https://youtu.be/qKpIlM6gEMY, oh wow I was not ready for that). He’s still alive as apparently he is a blood breed or a vampire (I’m not really sure) who thanks Klaus for the enjoyable evening and sends him flying. So Zapp gets away without any repercussions (ha! Yeah right. Scene here: https://youtu.be/y4_m6WcRrmE) and we find out that Black is really one of the Elder 13 and is cooking up a plan for the future (also his real name is Blank).
Episode 8 starts off with us learning a little more about the city. When the two worlds were colliding with each other it got stopped by casters who stopped the colliding using their magic. Thanks to them the two worlds now live in somewhat of a harmony with each other (we confine them all to one city and hopefully they’ll destroy each other). After that we get a look into the daily life of Zapp. Eat, lose money, rob people of money, lose at a casino, drink with a prostitute, sleep with a prostitute, and then get a hangover in the morning (rinse and repeat). This daily routine changes when Zapp sees the girl of his dreams named Angelica working at the local KFC and she’s a friend of Chain. Zapp tries to get her number going to KFC each day and ordering food getting fat and having no number to show for it. The group is than sent to handle another blood breed who has invaded the city. They arrive onto the scene to see a monster by the name of Mugai fighting the blood breed and forcing it into a corner where it has no choice but to incase itself in an egg to heal itself completely. Despite being in a vulnerable state the egg uses its eyes to detect enemies and attack them. Mugai reveals himself to be Zapp’s master who considers Zapp the lowest of the low and a disgrace as a human being (you are preaching to choir on that one Mugai). Mugai wants to take Zapp away and retrain him but Klaus says that Zapp is an important member of the team (he makes everyone else look good). He decides to give Zapp a test to prove his skills, kill the blood breed. Now this task is very dangerous and requires Zapp to strike all 6 eyes at once. If he’s off by even a tenth of a second he’ll die. This thought starts to scare him so Chain pretends to call her friend Angelica and pretends to make it seem like Angelica wants Zapp. This gives Zapp the libido he needs to defeat the blood breed (there truly is no hope for him. Scene here: https://youtu.be/bWL8-ZJJ2Tg). In another part of the story we find out that Black and Blank are two separate people living in the same body (a regular Dr. Jekyll Mr. Hyde thing they got going on).
Episodes 9-12
In episode 9 the group is fighting another blood breed which has entered the city (can we have just one day where nothing strange happens? Is that too much to ask?). The blood breed arrives in a destroyed airplane which is carrying one passenger. Klaus and Zapp take it on directly while Leo tries to figure out what the true name of the blood breed is as that’s the only way to seal them. The passenger inside the airplane escapes and we find out that his name is Zed a half-fish half-human breed who is another student of Mugai making him Zapp’s junior however this guy takes his work seriously and is actually a decent person (and yet he’s forced to call Zapp his senpai. The world is unfair). Leo manages to figure out the blood breed’s real name and Klaus seals it (good job everyone, who’s up for pizza?). Mugai leaves impressed with their work and gives them Zed. While that’s going on Blank gives White some weird glasses he got from Aligura telling her to use them to steal Leo’s eyes. Once she does this Blank will give White her brother back just like he promised.
We get a lot of funny moments in episode 10. Leo, Zapp, and Zed are trying to have lunch the only problem is every restaurant they go to is disturbing (that’s the nicest way I can put it). While they’re looking for a place to eat Zapp keeps hazing Zed and Leo goes crazy from not seeing anything normal and starvation (scene here: https://youtu.be/htuA0EBArzE). While that’s going on Klaus and the others are helping the police with an investigation that involves the mafia stealing battle suits from China. As Leo and the others are about to enjoy their normal corner of street diner food the place gets attacked by the mafia and they have to fight (in a scene that takes place offscreen). After the fight they go to eat at a sushi place where Zapp eats some bad tuna and has to be hospitalized. Once at the hospital Leo hangs out with White (you know you two should just start dating each other) where she takes him to the chapel in the graveyard with Blank arriving on the scene and White just telling Leo she wants his eyes (straight to point. I like that).
Episodes 11 is a rather sad episode. For a majority of the episode we see the lives of White and Black. White was born without powers while Black had all the powers. Her parents really didn’t care and never bought her down about not having powers but in truth that only made her feel worse. As they got older Black became a caster with White by his side giving him the strength to continue on. When the city was going through its first collapse their parents were killed in the sealing process and White was about to be attacked by the ominous being known as Blank. Black stepped in and allowed Blank to occupy his body as long as he promised not to hurt White (what about us?). After the flashback we return to the present where Blank has captured Leo and drags him down to the lower levels of the city to an epic transmutation circle (wow, we never saw this in FMA). Using these special pair of glasses Blank got from Aligura which allows him to control Leo’s eye he uses Leo’s eyes to remove all the castings on the city which will cause a second collapse (and on Halloween Night). In a bizarre ending to the episode Blank shoots White in the chapel.
The final episode was delayed for about 3 months after the 11th episode. This was mostly due to the episode being 45 minutes long than the regular 25 minutes (couldn’t they have just turned it into 13 episodes?). The episode starts off with Leo now in the hands of Femt, the city is covered in a white fog but is still safe thanks to a magical force field which we find out later is actually White (say what?) but once Blank locates the gate the field will vanish and the second collapse will begin. Libra splits up and tries to locate Leo and save him but Blank after hearing advice from Femt about going crazy and having fun takes his advice to heart and decides to unleash an army of ghouls onto the city and create a giant pillar in the middle of the city (just like an evil overlord). Femt allows Leo to escape where he reaches the surface and begins making his way to the pillar where Abrams tells him about White keeping this whole situation in the city under control (we have ghouls running around and some crazy entity building a giant pillar in the middle of the city like some evil overlord. If this is your idea of control than I hate to see what happens when you lose control) but he’s not sure how long she can maintain control so he tells Leo to find her no matter what. Leo believes that she’s at the top of the pillar and with the help of all his friends he manages to reach the pillar however one of his eyes got injured in the journey. Klaus also reaches the pillar and fights Blank as a diversion until Leo arrives (and just like that pillar was made in a few seconds it got destroyed in a few seconds). Leo finally shows up and in a series of confusing events he manages to save Black (scene here: https://youtu.be/9gsmRRmnXMM) and he and White manage to restore all the field checkpoints returning stability to the city and White leaves. Everything wraps up nicely and the city survives another hectic day only to deal with another one the next day (scene here: https://youtu.be/Ak73av39KEs).
Final Thoughts
So how does Kekkai Sensen hold up? Well it’s a good anime. I really did enjoy it but there are a few problems here and there that need to be address. For starters the story. For the most part Bones does a good job with the story. The original manga has more of a slice of life feel to it but here it really does feel like a slice of life with an interesting story to go along with it. The anime does a good job establishing the world the characters are in and I like how the series incorporates some aspects of New York that are true such as people stealing pizza, casual conversations with strangers on the subway, underground fight clubs, Central Park, and all the taxis being yellow. There’s even a shot of the Empire State building in the opening. It’s clear that the people working on this anime did their research on New York. That, or they’ve actually been there. But the anime doesn’t really give us a chance to explore the city fully and there are aspects of the anime that don’t get fully explained and leave you with many questions. Questions such as how did humans and alterworld come to peace with each other, where did the blood martial arts come from, and what’s the deal with this prosfair game? How do you play it? Like I said good story but a lot of unanswered questions that really ruin the anime especially with the last episode which was pretty messy and led to a confusing ending.
As far as the characters go they’re all good. I like how Leo is this normal kid trying to survive in this crazy city. Even though he’s pretty useless in a fight he doesn’t whine or complain about his circumstances and he at least tries to be helpful to the group. You can tell he’s at least trying to earn his keep around the office plus when the time comes he will step up and take action. Zapp is one of the funniest scumbags you’ll ever see and Klaus is one of the most OP characters you’ll see as well but just like the story they don’t focus on these guys as much as we would like. We learn a little bit about them such as how Klaus can be naïve but has a pure heart who believes that humans have the potential to do great things and we learn how even though Zapp is a scumbag when he puts his mind to it he’s a pretty amazing fighter. But other than those 2 plus Leo we don’t get to learn much about the members of Libra such as what their backstories and how they wound up where they are. I really would have liked to learned more about them or spend an episode following them around so that we could establish their character. Even the villains get overlooked as the only one we get a solid idea about is Blank who’s pretty devious but even then I’m a little confused on what he wanted to accomplish. Again, I wanted to learn more about Femt and Aligura as they’re both crazy beyond belief and the Blood Breed. What’s their deal? They have the potential to destroy this world yet they remain docile and live under the city. What’s keeping them from going all out? Is there someone or something out there that they fear and keeps them in check?
The animation is nice. I love the backgrounds. It really does feel and look like New York. The monsters as well as other supernatural creatures are creative as well as the character designs. The mixture of jazz, hip-hop, and classical music really captures the essence and musical culture of the city and matches up perfectly with the scenes. The fight scenes are cool and over the top as is almost every situation in this anime. I love how in almost every episode something is either exploding and there’s panic going throughout the city only to go to the next day or a few minutes ahead and see everything return to normal. It’s clear that everyone is self-aware of the city’s insanity and have come to peace with it and that’s what makes a lot of the stuff that happens in this anime all the funnier. They should be panicking, they should be afraid, and they should be doing everything in their power to get out of this hellhole but they don’t because this is their city and they love it. No matter how insane or crazy it gets they stay knowing that at the end of the day they’ll somehow make it through it and when it’s done they’ll be stronger and better than ever. I guess it just goes to show how much faith the city has in Libra and its police force.
Final Score
The final score for Kekkai Sensen is a 7/10. I really did want to give this anime a 7.5 or an 8 but with a lot of things unexplained, characters not fully explored and a rather sloppy ending I have no choice but to give it a 7. But even so the anime is worth checking out, it was one of the best animes of 2015 and one of the most creative animes to come out in a long time. There hasn’t been word of a second season yet but an OVA did come out this month so hopefully that’s a sign that a second season is in the works or at least being discussed. Until than check out the manga and compare its story to the anime to see which one you like more. Well that’s it for me. I’ll see you next time on Project Nitsuj. Catch you on the flipside.
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