In the year 2021, a parasitic virus known as "Gastrea" infects humans and turns them into monsters. What is left of mankind now lives within the Monolith walls, walls that are made of Varanium, the only material that can hurt Gastrea.
To counter the threat that the Gastrea pose, "Cursed Children"—female children whose bodies contain trace amounts of the virus which grant them superhuman abilities—officially called Initiators by the Tendo Civil Security, are given partners called Promoters, people who work to guide and protect the young Initiators. These teams of two are sent out on missions to fight the monsters created by the Gastrea virus and keep them at bay.
Black Bullet revolves around the team of Enju Aihara, an Initiator, and Satomi Rentaro, a Promoter, as they go on missions to fight the growing threat of Gastrea in their hometown of Tokyo.
[Written by MAL Rewrite]
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Verchan
Black Bullet is one of the many light novel adaptations that aired during Spring 2014. You might know the other ones as The Irregular at Magic High School, No Game No Life, and Chaika - The Coffin Princess. It started out okay, but got progressively weaker as it went on, before turning into an unentertaining show that turned out to be a rushed and half-baked adaptation. Shame, it had potential to be way better. If you've read the synopsis on the show's page on this site, it'll tell you that it takes place in a post-apocalyptic future where humanity is practically on the brink of extinction,having been driven into a corner by powerful monsters. You might think that this concept sounds familiar; kind of like 2013's popular Attack on Titan. With a premise like that, it drew in a lot of viewers who, one might say, could have been looking for a sci-fi version of Attack on Titan or something. However, the thing about this show is that it seems to have entirely forgotten that it was a post-apocalyptic show. You see plenty of tons of healthy-looking people on the rather clean streets, the towns look clean and well-tended, and the economy seems to be in such good condition that they're able to afford things like prosthetic limbs made of tissue resembling human flesh and whatnot.
The art is standard fare, all things considered. The style isn't anything special; it's generic and nothing about it really seems to stick out. Characters and objects look polished enough, and the actual animation is fairly crisp when there's good action going on, though it's not enough to make the actual fights that appealing or interesting to watch. In the end though, it gets the job done, but ultimately doesn't stick out at all. The designs were fairly neat though, I'll give it that. I liked the designs of the Gastrea, all two times they appeared or whatever.
I'm quite fond of Shiro Sagisu's work. He did an outstanding job with the music for the Evangelion franchise, along with a great job at the soundtrack for the Berserk: Golden Age Arc films. However, this must be easily his weakest work. Background music is generic and forgettable, except for probably two or so songs that play during battles, which can give a good feel of intensity. The opening, "black bullet," respectively named after the show and light novel, is fairly pleasant to listen to, but it isn't anything I'll remember in a month or so. Same goes for the main ending theme, "Tokohana," though I do really like when it starts playing near the end of an episode. The voice acting isn't anything to write home for either. You have Yuki Kaji as the main character, Rentaro Satomi, but he isn't all that interesting to listen to. He always seems depressed, angry, tired, bored, or sounds like he's crying. So in short, he practically sounds the same as when he voiced Eren Yeager in Attack on Titan. I suppose I should give an honorable mention to Yui Horie (Minori Kushieda, Toradora!) for trying her best with what she got, and to Rikiya Koyama (Kiritsugu Emiya, Fate/Zero) for still having that charming, nonchalantly badass voice, even if his role was fairly limited.
The characters are bland and unmemorable. Rentaro practically has no notable personality traits other than typical "brave" and "determined" that can be found in literally a hundred other characters who are far better written. He reminds me of Kirito from Sword Art Online in a way, in that not only does he have no notable personality, he has a harem for practically no reason, at least one girl in each harem being a little girl under 13. The main difference though is that while Kirito is overpowered, Rentaro seems underpowered in contrast. Despite being equipped with skills like knowledge of martial arts, a fairly high level of agility, exceptional marksmanship, and practically superhuman strength and speed due to his prosthetic limbs, he never seems to win, and even when he does, it's not even memorable or anything. Now, there's nothing wrong with making the main character an underdog, but a well-written underdog has to be a well-written character. The main reason why Rocky Balboa is a good underdog is because he's a genuine nice person. When he's not boxing, he's a really sweet guy, like around his lover Adrian and her brother Paulie, and he stands up for those he cares for. There's time and dedication given into giving the audience a good idea of what Rocky is like, which ultimately makes us want him to win against all odds against more experienced and stronger boxers like Apollo Creed and Ivan Drago. However, in Black Bullet, since Rentaro is a bland and forgettable character, it makes the audience not care whether he wins or loses, and thus, destroys all tension in a fight. Every time something happens to him, he begins to doubt all he knows, building the foundation of character development, but he never visibly develops, though given that the source material is still ongoing, not all is lost yet, since all these events that happen to him could potentially act as catalysts to a giant, grand development. But I suppose we'll only know if there's a second season. The other characters aren't all that special either. Enju is the token "energetic loli," similar to how Tina is the token "lethargic loli" who's only active when the situation calls for it, kind of like Shiro from No Game No Life. There's also Kisara "Big Boobs" Tendo, the president of Civil Security that Rentaro works for, who happens to be a childhood friend of our main character, but ultimately, she lacks depth like the other character and hardly develops her own identity until the last five minutes or so. There are also more generic characters like the aloof old friend, the cocky guy, the girl with cat ears (which is supposed to be explained in plot but we never actually see any more of this), the hikkomori, etc. The character who steals the show is Kagetane Hiruko, who is the main villain of it all, or is supposed to be anyway. He's smooth, charismatic, nonchalant, mysterious, and reminds me of V from V for Vendetta in some ways. It's a shame he doesn't get a lot of screen-time either.
The enjoyment levels seemed to fluctuate for me at first, before going down to consistently being a chore to watch. It has an inconsistent tone akin to that of Elfen Lied. By day, happy-go-lucky comedy featuring boob groping, other fanservice, and loli sweetness. By night, it becomes (or tries to be) macabre and dark, though it only comes off as unnecessarily edgy for the sake of being edgy. The humor might get a small chuckle or two out of you, but at the end of the day, boob groping and comical misunderstandings aren't anything to write home to in the humor department.
In the end, Black Bullet could have been a good show, but ultimately fails miserably. To say that it was rushed would be a big understatement indeed, what with not providing adequate world-building or characterization. I'm sure the light novels are way better, but since the adaptation is poor, it's not exactly doing a good job at advertising the source material to me, and thus, fails as such.
Gulo
Although Black Bullet is tagged as being action, mystery, sci-fi, seinen, and probably post-apocalyptic, it should really be considered a loli-harem comedy first and foremost. The comedy is completely unintentional but it's what kept me watching week after week. Black Bullet is driven by manufactured drama and the characters are one dimensional cardboard cutouts with some dark backstories thrown in. Several important plot points are brought up and then never mentioned again, leaving the audience to wonder why we were even given this information in the first place. The story follows high school student and "Promoter" Satomi Rentaro and his loli partner Enju, who uses herkept-in-check gastrea powers to kill full blown gastrea. Rentaro starts off being pretty mediocre as far as Promoters go, but he quickly rises through the ranks because of his inherent superiority and a sudden powerup.
Although the story tries to be serious and mature, it fails miserably. We start off with the usual generic villain who wants to let the gastrea kill everyone in Tokyo because apparently anyone who can't defend defend themselves from giant monsters ought to die and it doesn't really get much better. There's an evil scientist named Ayn Rand, loli assassins, bad guys who have an irrational hatred of Rentaro, and a guy who built one of the varanium monoliths on the cheap so he could pocket the extra money. Sorry if I'm making this sound good because really, it's not. Even when we get a big gastrea battle at the end the real action takes place off screen. All we get to see is the aftermath.
The biggest problem with the show is that it has absolutely no idea how to have any kind of emotional impact on the audience. Minor characters are introduced only to die an episode or two later. Rentaro cries because he cared about them, but the viewer hardly knew them at all. Little girls in particular are subjected to brutal violence because what's worse than killing off an ordinary character? Killing off a child! This happens multiple times throughout the show and it serves no purpose other than to be "shocking" and briefly make Rentaro pause and wonder why he protects Tokyo. There's a death toward the end that annoyed me because of how it happened so nonchalently. When someone dies it should feel like they made a meaningful sacrifice. This felt like the character had such little regard for their own life that it wasn't really a sacrifice at all.
Black Bullet has very little character growth. It may be that the show's rushed pacing gave Rentaro very little time for introspection, or that the story is basically one crisis after another. Either way, every character gets a dark backstory but that's pretty much it.
Rentaro starts off as a mid-tier Promoter before he suddenly unlocks his potential and becomes ridiculously overpowered - except when he gets physically restrained by two guys right after a fight where he was demolishing concrete walls. He is always morally right and he demonstrates his superiority by triumphing over characters who hate him for very flimsy reasons. When a character unfairly persecuteshim, something conveniently happens that removes the obstacle and increases Rentaro's prestige. Everyone in a position of authority acts like a retard just so he can show how clever and perceptive he is.
Kisara is Rentaro's tsundere friend. Her family is basically the Rothschilds of Japan except instead of banking, they teach their children absurdly overpowered martial arts and weapon techniques. You'll know this because the characters announce the name of the attack before they use it.
The loli harem is there for comedy relief and pandering. The kind of "humor" here entails a gastrea-spider shoots sticky white web on Enju and constant flirting with Rentaro.
If you like B-movies then boy, have I got the show for you. It tries to be deep but the pacing is so frenetic that all the characters come across as being extremely shallow. There's even a scene where a guy gets cut by a sword but doesn't realize it until his head EXPLODES a minute later. Varanium may be black, but Black Bullet is comedy gold.
Link_of_Hyrule
**SPOILER FREE REVIEW** Hey there folks! Have you ever wanted to see an anime that has a loli fanservice scene, a comedic tsundere romance scene, and a scene that features the complete and brutal genocide of children all within 2 minutes of each other? No? Good, because anyone who WOULD want to see that wouldn't know the first thing about writing a coherent TV show. Unfortunately for Black Bullet, one of this season's most unfortunately overrated series, there is plenty of incoherence to be found. This horribly confused action seinen is jam packed with arguably the worst pacing issues I've ever seen, poor character development, andlolis. Soooo many lolis. Sure, the series has its moments, but the plentiful flaws outnumber the few positives that Black Bullet has to offer.
Synopsis: In a near future, where mankind lives in fear of viral parasites called Gastrea, humans have been forced into a small territory and live in constant fear of death. Satomi Rentaro, a member of the "Civil Security" (an organization specializing in fighting against the Gastrea), is tasked with defending mankind from this monstrous threat. His partner, Enju, is a 10 year old girl with large amounts of power due to her partially Gastrea-infected DNA; she is one of the many "cursed children" who are used to fight the Gastrea as humanity struggles to survive.
Black Bullet's plot can easily be described as a mess for more then one reason. The first issue I will focus on is the MONUMENTALLY awful pacing, and trust me when I say it is monumental: Episodes 1-4 of Black Bullet are a shock to the system. I mean really, not a single person on planet Earth was prepared for the insanity that they witnessed over the course of those first 4 episodes. I'm not exaggerating when I say that the ENTIRE anime could have been just these four episodes, because that's how much content they truly "covered" in so little time. The pace of the show was faster then a coked-up cheetah with rockets strapped to its back, I mean it was truly something to behold. This all culminated in the absolute clusterfuck that was episode 4, in which 5 or 6 different climaxes all happened in the same episode. Ridiculous? Yes. But admittedly, it was so unfathomably stupid that it was actually kind of fun. However, starting at episode 5, that cheetah crashes into a brick wall and stops dead in its tracks. The pacing of the show from then on out is a snail's pace, leaving the audience to wonder what the hell happened to the absurdity that this show opened up with. With all the ridiculousness that went on in episode 4, the show had nowhere to go but down in terms of mindless entertainment; it doomed itself. Of course, I don't mean to suggest that the ludicris pacing was something that the show should have tried to keep, because it was STUPIDLY fast, but I am saying that this show threw everything it had at us in the first 1/4th and then simply had nothing left. This brings me to my underling point: How in the hell did this happen?! I am not exaggerating when I say that I have never seen a more mystifying anomaly in anime writing EVER! It is the least consistent and most mind-boggling betrayal of story-telling 101 I've ever had the displeasure of gazing upon. So congratulations Black Bullet, you win the "Worst Pacing Ever" award.
The second reason that Black Bullet's plot is a failure would be that fact there is no consistent tone what so ever. I will refer you back to my opening paragraph to give you a taste of how truly bad this problem is… This anime is trying to tell a mature and emotionally moving story, but then they decide to lace it with super-happy-fun-time with lolis, a cliché comedic tsundere romance, and then even more super-happy-fun-time with lolis. As if that wasn't bad enough, they do so without allowing ANY time at all for a gradual shift in mood; devastating shit that should have a huge effect on the characters and comedic relief happen within seconds of each other. News Flash: That doesn't work, and any writer worth the paper he prints the script on could tell you that. Did I mention that this show has a lot of lolis?
That brings us to the characters, who are a bit hard to explain. Rentaro, the protagonist, receives no real character development at any point despite the fact that the plot could not have been more perfectly set up for him to receive some. For example, there was a scene in episode 10 that should have made him completely reevaluate himself, but he simply doesn't; we just get a 30 second scene of him thinking and then it's right back to the original plotline. Black Bullet instead tries to characterize Rentaro by making him a total badass, and while he definitely has some badass moments, he also has some moments that are the complete opposite of badass, so there is no consistency to his character at all. He is not a good protagonist. His love interest is a stereotypical tsundere; there is literally not a speck of originality to her, so I'll just move on. Rentaro's partners, the "cursed children", aka the lolis, are unbelievably aggravating to me. Let it be noted that I hate lolis, but I won't let that bias get in the way of this review. Enju, one of the lolis, is in love with Rentaro and makes contrived sex joke after contrived sex joke despite the fact that she is 10 years old. Some people find this funny; I don't. The rest of the lolis all have stereotypical personalities and no depth what so ever, so there isn't much to talk about there. The lolis are aggravating because they are the main source of the tone issues that the show suffers from, which I talked about earlier. They almost single handedly kill any chance this show had of being taken seriously, which it clearly is striving to do.
In addition to the fact that the characters are remarkably unspectacular, they also have very poor chemistry with one another. One of the cornerstones of the plot is that Rentaro and Enju are very close to each other, and you want to know how we are supposed to know they are so close? Because we got a 15 second flashback scene that showed us how close they were. ...I mean… Really? They can't be serious, can they? Well, they most certainly are. Not a single relationship in Black Bullet is believable or relatable by any stretch of the imagination, and that can be attributed to the awful pacing of the show.
While the plot of Black Bullet is awful and the characters leave a lot to be desired, it should be noted that the animation is good and the music is AMAZING. The show's OP and ED are both among the best of this season and the OST is very fitting for the show. The voice acting is also above average. Unfortunately, none of this is enough save the show from the slew of other problems that Black Bullet suffers from, and I do mean SUFFERS.
In conclusion, Black Bullet is an action seinen that completely lacks direction on all fronts; both in its plot and in its characters. It has some redeeming factors and can be good for some mindless fun at times, but it comes across as an absolute disaster more often then not. Good music and animation save this anime from being unwatchable, but I certainly do not recommend it. There are many better seinen anime out there.
keragamming
Black bullet is a anime that was adopted from a light novel. This series was being compare to attack on titan, or being called a copycat to attack on titan, but that can't be true since attack on titan isn't the first nor last to have these kind of story and settings. Coming into this series, it had a lot of hype from people who read the light novel or the manga. What most people didn't realize is that it would be adopted into 13 episodes which would mean the pacing would be rushed. So lets begin, I'll be reviewing this series in five category,story,art,sound,character and enjoyment.
Story 6/10: The story is about humans being forced to live in a small territory because of the attack of viral parasites named Gastrea. Now with this series just having 13 episodes, that means a lot of story progression would be lost and rushed. The thing that I find odd in this series is that The theme of the story is about humanity is on the verge of extinction, but I never get the impression that humanity is on the verge of extinction by huge bugs and that there is some sort of survival going on here. Nobody cares about it. In fact, we don’t even see the population having anything to say about that, since the plot centers on the protagonist. If they had shown a few bugs attacking people even that would be enough. Just to give us viewers that humanity really is under a threat. I don't know if this is the flaw of the story itself or just because the series was rushed and a lot of things were taken out from the light novel.
Art 7/10: Art is pretty good, and nice to look at.
Sound 7/10: The sound is pretty good, I downloaded a few ost to listen to, I like the ost. I also like the opening is anyone getting a attack on titan feel to that opening or is it just me?
Characters 4/10: The characters are pretty bland and two dimmensional. Each character has different personalities but what I find annoying is how easy the characters mood changes, like one moment everyone is sad then a minute later everyone is all happy, I personally think this series would've been way better if lolis were not in it. also Enju is pretty annoying, when she calls out to Rentarou it makes me *facepalm* and just sometimes put me off and give me a different mood towards this series. Each characters also have a dark/sad past which can make it a little overwhelming.
Enjoyment 7/10: I have to say with all the flaw and paced of this series, I did have a lot of fun watching it, the actions were short, but pretty good with the epic soundtrack.
overall: This series would've been so much better if it was adopted into 24 episodes instead of 13 episodes. I'm not a light novel or manga reader but even I can tell the pacing was rushed. Light novel readers has also confirmed my speculation. Well what can I say about this series, if you like lolis and want a series with good action and great soundtrack, then you should give black bullet a shot.
O-Kun_LoveOrange
I personally enjoy Black Bullet although it could've been much better. I was a fan of this Light Novel and also its manga adaption which was incredibly well done. The story started off well but really lost its track with all the rush. The story missed out on several key points and the fight scenes were to say..anti-climatic. Unlike in the Light Novel which focuses on Rentarou's emotion and the other characters the anime rushed this.-didn;t get to see any dem feels in the anime. I enjoyed it and wll still recommend the anime but personally still feel that the anime had a lot of room for improvements. -O
bobomomo
Black Bullet is the latest and not so greatest over hyped action series to grace our screens. I'm sure many of you would have heard the saying "Why didn't they ride the eagles into Mordor", well Black Bullet is the epitome of that saying. The story is very bad, it's full of cliché after cliché, the main character is yet another super special high school kid and the world revolves solely around his actions. He isn't just another gear in the machine of society, he is the one turning them, one Yuki Kaji shounen power up scream at a time. What makes some high schoolkid with a loli by his side and a handgun shoved down the back of his pants better than thousands of trained soldiers? Nothing, but the plot wills it and it even fire special bullets capable of killing the monsters of the show, not even the Army seems to have access to that ammunition in Black Bullet. They even build 300 metre tall monoliths made out of the same material as Rentaro's ammunition, but yet thousands of trained soldiers are incapable of fighting the Gastrea that a bunch of sword and handgun wielding teens ad lolis are easily able to defeat.
The characterisation is horrible and cliché, Tendo Kisara the main love interest (if you could call her that) jumps between being an emotional wreck, a jealous lover and a calm and collected psychopath. The main character, Satomi Rentaro, doesn't even have three ranges of emotion, he's either a bland self insert or an angry, sometimes bewildered, shounen protagonist and there is nothing in between the two.
The art was nothing special, it was average at best and did nothing to try and stand out in any way. The animation was decent enough, it stayed on model for most of the time and again didn't really stand out compared to any other action shounen. The action scenes themselves were pretty average, one shot firing gun, next shot exploding monsters and behind the monster as it gets sliced up, etcetera etcetera. The CG was below average, it looked plasticky and didn't fit into the overall visual look of the series. At least the CG wasn't as bad as KyoAni's dragon from the Chuunibyou movie, so they get points for that.
The music was nothing special, standard fast paced actiony stuff, but it failed to make the action scenes any more enthralling (Pro tip: they weren't). The sound effects were nothing special, the guns sounded like the regular anime pop guns and so did the swords.
In conclusion, I did not enjoy watching this series at all. All I could think about were the inconsistencies in the story, setting, characters and how many "why didn't they ride the eagles into Mordor" moments happening on my screen. If you want to watch an action shoot 'em up, there are a lot of other anime that are leagues better than Black Bullet ever hoped to be. At least the Yanagi Nagi end credits song was nice, unlike the rest of the series.
hamammm
Black Bullet. I went into this series with a bit of skepticism: Will this series, which seems to focus on human morals and values within the context of a war between the humans and "them", in which case, the Gastrea, achieve their message, loud and clear, in its measly 13 episodes of length? Much like previously released anime like Elfen Lied, Higurashi no naku koro ni, and Psycho Pass, that are well known for their darker settings that serve to illustrate a concept of humanity put to the test, Black Bullet incorporates a similar dark setting, with the apocalypse of the human race at stake,and themes like segregation and the definition of justice, which, in theory, should bring out a creation that goes beyond just "a tv series", and becomes a work of literature.
My skepticism was well-founded, however, and as I continued to watch the show, it continued to grow, along with my distaste for the show's repeated mishaps.
Story: 3
Black Bullet's story, while darker than your usual action-oriented plot, eventually devolves into just another shounen-resembling story that believes that "any plot twist will make watchers drop their jaws in awe and instantly believe that it's an interesting and well-executed plotline." Unfortunately, that fact isn't true, and whereas Black Bullet really tried to incorporate a complicated plot involving a little bit of politics, along with plenty of action and "character building moments", the sheer amount of predictable plot developments, along with contrived plot twists made the plot into something that didn't even really matter anymore - all that mattered in the end was watching the loli's fight the insects.
Art: 7
The art was one of the only parts of the anime that I enjoyed, and that isn't an understatement. It was appealing to watch the action take place - though some fights were a lot shorter than they could have been, the animation during those fights was fluid and sharp, and I could see most of the particles and special effects that really make a science-fiction oriented action scene worth watching. Studio Orange did a pretty good job, and while sometimes, the backgrounds didn't look as sharp or clear as they could have been, the majority of the more important features were well done, and I didn't really have any trouble differentiating between who was who or what was going on.
Sound: 7
The majority of the sound effects were fairly well handled - it never sounded too cluttered or too spread apart, and the opening and ending sequences were catchy. The opening really did remind me of Attack on Titan's first opening theme, and what with all the similarities between the two shows, I really can't say that it's just a coincidence, but I'll leave it at that...
Character: 3
One of the biggest issues this show had was the amount of fan-pandering it produced, solely off the characters that they chose utilize. Whereas a main character that can do anything and everything, taking bullet after bullet while pulling a Rambo to eventually take his enemies out is fun to watch, it doesn't really serve as a character - a living and breathing human being. In the case of Satomi Rentaro, it takes away his potential of being a main character people can relate to in order to empathically understand any overarching theme present in the series - which serves to make it harder to get it at all. In addition, the existence of superpowered loli half gastrea half human waifus 1. isn't explained and 2. isn't relevant to the plot except to provide the occasional joke or be the direct trigger for a sad emotional reaction when they die. The only interesting character was the masked man, only because his ideals are twisted, and not what you'd usually see in a series, making him unique amongst a cast of cardboard cutouts and tropes you can find anywhere else.
Enjoyment: 2
There were way too many cases of Pilot's Love Song, in which they would introduce characters, simply to have them die to invoke emotional response from the audience, as well as Guilty Crown and Mirai Nikki type plot twists, both which I dread. Overall, the series felt very contrived, and upon closer inspection, much of the plot that is in between the spaces of the giant overarching story didn't make much sense, and weren't exciting or fun to watch. They tried a little too hard catering fanservice to the audience, when the series would have been fine without it, and probably would have been less distracting as well.
Overall: 5
All in all, I enjoyed this anime MUCH less than I expected to, considering it had all the pieces it needed to create a masterpiece that actually mattered and would influence what I thought about a certain value or moral, or would make me question "what if I were in that situation, how would I react." In the end, it turned out to be a lackluster show that simply had too many flaws and distracted too much from the main message for me to give it a higher rating, or even to say that "wow, I learned something from this show" or "wow, this show really showed me something that I've never wondered about before, maybe I should rethink it." Heck, the series didn't even let me enjoy my lolis, without having them die sporadically.
Stark700
Black Bullet – an anime about lolis saving the world from the big bad monsters out to eat you alive. Or yet by a more literal way of saying it, they are actually young kids known as the Cursed Children with special abilities capable of fighting against Gastrea, the monsters that threatens humanity and its existence. Based off a light novel of the same name, shows like this has an incentive to go a variety of ways with this. The result? A mediocre bag of an adaptation clustered with mind bobbling antics. The premise initially sounds interesting, taking place in a futuristic setting in the yearof 2031 (ten years after humanity were beaten by the Gastrea ). Humanity lives behind walls of monolithic material for survival. To fight off the Gastrea, we get the cursed children playing the roles of “initiator” with a partner known as “promoter” in a sort of mentor/student relationship for combat units. Black Bullet tells the story of a young promoter named Rentaro Satomi and his roles against the Gastrea.
Opening the doors to the BB world requires takes some enduring to get through. By all means, the show has a serious premise but saturated with generics. For instance, the story begins quickly enough to illustrate the grim reality of their world. Even the main male protagonist, Rentaro had a tragic past when he lost his parents. As for the cursed children themselves, none of them have a true loving family with a normal mother and father. Here though, we get Enju, a ten year old assigned to Rentaro as an Initiator. Tossing age differences aside, there is hardly anything we can compare about the two in terms of similarities besides their tragic past. Yet, this isn’t something we should entirely feel sympathetic about. After all, it is war and dangers are constant so losses shouldn’t be something to be surprised about. The other point is that the current relationship between Rentaro and Enju can be described as lively and charming. While on missions, they are focused but at home seems to be relaxed more than ever, at least for Enju anyways. And this is where the show drops the ball on its grim atmosphere. For one thing, Enju never ceases to throw herself at Rentaro all the while making suggestive poses, innuendos, and trying to have a relationship with him. It’s outright awkwardly executed and badly performed despite the initially promising premise. In retrospect, it spirals into a path of jokey nonsense like a flippant screwball.
That’s just the opening stages though as Black Bullet likes to base its story with other characters all focused into the war against Gasetra. Although not a cursed child, we get the typical childhood friend Kisara who has known Rentaro since he was a kid. This sets forward the basis of a love triangle. But like the way the show goes, it’s hard take it seriously when her competition is a 10 year old. But besides that, Rentaro seems to actually show response to her advances. All while this is happening, Enju’s own plans are left useless. It’s like she really is cursed or something with little or no hope of a loving relationship with Rentaro. And if that would occur, it would be quite an uneasy relationship to deal with as Enju’s lack of common sense becomes a source of compromising exhibitions. The endgame is to not expect any romance development in this show as it neglects this phase. It just wouldn’t work with the show’s circumstances and potential death flags. However, do expect the usual clichés, uncanny jokes, and whirlwind of fan service.
Even with all the mind bobbling gags going on, the show does have a solid style of delivering its grimmer side of its premise. The antagonists looks serious with their egos and intimidating personalities. The Gasetra rides off of fear and delivers this effectively with their menacing actions. For the government, it also seems their research and development is trying to do what it needs for the survival of humanity. On an even darker scale, there’s prejudice against Cursed Children in a similar way that gives off Elfen Lied-esque nostalgia. Indeed, society ostracizes cursed children and treats them like experiments and trash. The flashbacks between Rentaro and Enju shows this clearly during their first encounter that shows how fearful humanity is towards the Cursed Children. The logic here is that the Cursed Children has some of its blood pumping in their veins while results in their unfortunate discrimination. At the same time, death is real and the show paints this reality with gruesome exits for some of its characters. The result of this often involves bloodshed, limbs being destroyed, and lives eradicated simply because they are no longer human. The Cursed Children themselves even have malevolent-like features such as their scarlet eyes. It creates a sense of fear but what people don’t know is the true visage of some of its characters. Children, after all often lack common sense and people take advantage of them to implode their nature. Police brutality adapts this concept into play resulting in very ghastly consequences. The point is, the show does keep promise with what it sticks to – the dark story in a world with Gastrea and cursed lolis.
While all the antagonists are cunningly designed that are convincing, their purpose and motivations lacks any sort of interest. We get dangerous promoters such as Kagetane that kills others as a way to steam up interest as a villain. But really, his character lacks any sort of insight of development. It’s stereotypical even by his design such as his psychopathic gestures and shadowy mask. And because the Gastrea are literally mindless, don’t expect any sort of characterization from any of them, not even from database standards besides for just what they are. As for other antagonists, they are cliché including corrupt individuals and predictable outcomes just based on what they are from the surface. One dimensional and desperate is how the show tries to increase interests towards viewers but ultimately results in a cheesy set up molded like a lazy piece of work.
And while the show deals with many complicated concepts, the characters follows a surprisingly pragmatic and idealistic approach. For instance Rentaro fights like it’s he is doing it for the rights of humanity rather than what he thinks personally. Judgment is left stranded in a fog as characters follows a path of experimental ways of dealing with threats. Their primary motivation is survival and the result. That’s what it really manners in the end. Long story short: the show suffers from development between characters as result of this approach. And even though certain characters does live, developments feels goofy, childish, and occasionally gives off the wrong message leading to compromising positions. Not to mention, Rentaro somehow stirs up multiple interests of the opposite sex throughout the show where it almost enters a harem-like concept. But really though, the how creates a multitude layer of bizarre balance when it comes to its execution. Sometimes, it follows its story strictly while other times goofs off with its badly executed comedy. The story itself also suffers from adaptation as certain arcs have way too many things happening all at once. While this is not entirely surprising as result of LN adaptations, some resolutions are far too abrupt that will leave questions into viewers’ minds. It’s just too damn rushed.
Artwork is standard on most parts although visually wise, most of it is impressive based on its setting. The OP and ED songs has a dreamlike atmosphere to its backgrounds while the sequences balances decent amount of imagery. There’s certain parts of the show that can remind people of Attack on Titan despite the contrasting settings. But character designs wise, the Cursed Children can come as a mixed bag. They come as more of the package with adorableness and badass. Do take emphasis on their scarlet eyes though as the show takes a special interest to clearly identify them with their roles. On other hand, Gastera’ mutation sequences are gruesome to the core with their gimmick. They take on various forms but all of them shows the same brutality. Otherwise, most of the other character designs are moderate enough whether it’s Rentaro’s well-trained figure or Kisara’s spaghetti hair. The fan service is there though with it even being openly addressed on many occasions. You can thank the lack of common sense for that. Don’t blame the Cursed Children. Blame common sense.
Surprisingly though, the soundtrack is one of the more dynamic strengths of the show. As a technical feature, it is quite impressive during action sequences when it intensely draws out its delivery. Characters such as the Cursed Children also balances their voice tones to demonstrate their loneliness and sorrow. Even Enju, despite her cherry self, shows this side of her when she feels antagonized. And while dialogues feels stale and cheesy, the humor behind them is to the point without any sort of mystery. We also get emotional appeal with its musical scores. Beyond that, the OP and ED songs shows a melancholy that is spiritually gripping.
It’s not mindless entertainment when taking Black Bullet’s story for granted. But most times, this show borders on into a field of absentmindedness. It just feels like the show has this engaging premise but not entirely sure what to do with it. With its rushed story also brings a cast of cute girls with scarlet’s eyes doing government’s work. However, I do give some credit to the technical field especially when it comes to soundtrack. The experience of that is enticing with something to write home about. Yet ultimately when it comes down to it, this show is not too much different than junk food. When you eat it, you might just forget how it tastes like afterwards.
drip
First: If you're searching for Loli or anything else to feed your fantasies, this is not for you. Contrary to other reviews who claim this to be your typical loli-fest, it is not. What it is, is a group of little girls who act like little girls, not little tramps, they have childish ambitions of MARRYING the main character; not having sex with him. The other reviews already sum up the story in detail so I'll just sum it up. Fighters of all kinds (swords, guns, fists, ect) have a partner called a 'cursed child' these children vary in abilities just as the fighters do. Their dutyis wipe out parasites, doing so grants them a higher ranking.
Typical anime stuff> Big parasite attacks a tower keeping them out, leading to an all out war against them.
Typical really strong antagonist>
Typical OP protagonist>
Worth a watch, but nothing to drool over or rant about.
spanslow1
Right! This is my first review here so please spare me internet while I add to the huge ocean of random stuff! Black Bullet was a show that I picked up after watching Guilty Crown and its fair to say if you liked that you'll like this. I hasten to add I would never claim Guilty Crown is good, but it is fun, and we all like to have fun do we not? So was Black Bullet fun or a disaster? Lets see! Story-3 My impression of Black Bullets story was of a director trying too hard. Calling someone a Try-hard should not be taken as an insult however.The plot seemed to be trying to fit in every dramatic plot twist from every other show ever in a 13 episode series. Action! School Drama! Love triangles (or more like a hexagon or dodecagon if you're fussy)! Revenge! Apocalypse! Robots! Zombies! Politics! Persecution! Loli! Look how cute the Loli are!Loli!
The story was in general quite a mess with supposedly dramatic events being thrown at the screen and never explained. My favorite being the tricycle from episode 4 which was never explained. However it did set up some impressively epic events which I enjoyed the scope of so its not a total loss.
In short most of humanity is dead, and trapped within cities surrounded by giant monoliths, built to keep the mysterious monsters created by the Gastrea virus out of the city. The best weapon humanity has are the Cursed Children, children born from mothers infected by the Gastrea and born super strong and intelligent and guided by promoters, similarly talented adults.
In shorter, sounds pretty cool.
Art-7
It looked pretty good.
Wait I need to write more?
Okay compared to most stuff coming out this year it compared fairly well. There were some very noticeable sudden drops in quality and the CGI for the Gastrea was awful.
The colour palate was quite varied and the character design fairly solid with the lolis especially getting a lot of attention. And (I flinch as I say this) they were drawn adorably at times. I swear half their art budget went on making those work.
Sound-9
Actually somewhere where the show shone. The OP and ED were both pretty solid with the OP being maybe my favorite of the season. The animation for the OP however was pretty poor using mostly frames taken from the show and the first version being much better synched with the music. The ED was done significantly better in that regard. I did feel the OP borrowed slightly from AoT's but hey that was a good OP.
The background music was also pretty good.I especially enjoyed the jazz theme that played with Tina Sprout and Enju's theme also.
I don't speak Japanese but the voice acting seemed good as well. They had a couple of my favorite VA's including Yui Horie (Hanekawa, Kouko and Minori) and Yuki Kaji (Eren from AoT and Shu from Guilty Crown).
Characters-3
Characters really suffered in this show. most received essentially no development and there were a significant number a times where I was being shown an emotional scene and just thinking "I don't care". The bare levels of characterization that were set down were at times simply ignored and, even worse, sometimes brought back an instant later like nothing had happened. Again more time to actually show the journey the characters made would've been nice.
As I might have alluded to previously a biggest problem I had with the show was the Loli aspect. I object to the idea of Loli in general but that's fine. Why else do you watch anime except for something a bit different? Loli can be done well (see bakemonogatari) and it can be funny and adorable. However the sheer number of Loli characters all wanting to get boned by an 20 year old... nope. Not cool.
The leads were not entirely terrible. The Lead Lead Rentaro (definitely a phrase) was actually very solid being a step beyond the typical harem -insert your name here- character and actually showed quite a degree of compassion and awareness of the girls around him. He was a typical badass with a bit of filling. Enju, Rentaro's partner, was also fairly solid at times balancing the frailty of a young child thrown into a brutal situation quite well with sudden ability to bounce back typical of a child. And unlike the rest she did at least have a reason to love the main character. But as mentioned before important events seem to just disappear in characters minds rather than scaring them for life. I'm evil I enjoy that stuff.
Enjoyment-8
Despite all I've said I really quite enjoyed this show. There was a fairly equal balance between "This is awesome" and "This is stupid" moments but the awesome was fairly awesome and the stupid was so stupid it was kinda fun.
However I would not recommend this unless you have pretty good stupidity filters. The change from solemn coolness to forced romance Loli loving can be very jarring.
Overall-5
Mal says it all. Mediocre.
Its not rubbish (well maybe it is) and its certainly not great. However it is fun and I would say if you have a rainy day and nothing else you particularly want to watch then this will fill a gap. Expect fun not a masterpiece.
Also if you like Tetsuro Araki then this is definitely the show for you. The whole thing feels like a huge homage to his work.
Thanks for reading!
Simok123
Black Bullet is, as many people have said before, similar to Attack on Titan in a way. Though instead of titans you have these huge bug like creatures called Gastrea, and its set in the future in Japan rather than an older style civilization. However the biggest difference between the 2 shows is that Attack on Titan is actually very good, where as this is just...eh. Story (6) The story as I mentioned before is, on paper, pretty similar to Attack on Titan. Humanity at the brink of extinction. Huge monsters that killed someone in the protagonist's family. A city inside of a barrier. But that'smainly where most of the blatant similarities stop. The main character, Rentaro is apparently half robot as well...also there's these lolis that are infected by the Gastrea or something and they like partner up with people like Rentaro and fight because now they have powers?...Also there's this villain that kinda fucks around inside the barrier and there's also other places other than Japan or something?
I don't know, the plot of this show I feel jumps around waaay to much and there's just too much going on at once, not the mention the pacing is basically terrible. There's a climatic episode like halfway through the season and it just really feels out of place and weird. I feel like the story lacked a lot of focus. The Gastrea were interesting but you hardly ever even see them until later on. They come off as barely having to do with the plot. Where as, with Attack on Titan, you're always reminded of them, and they are shown quite often. Hell, even the name of the show has barely anything to do with it. Rentaro shot his gun with "black bullets" like once in the whole show and that was in the first episode. Same with the whole him being a robot, I even forgot about that later on. I feel like there was a lot of lack of focus and proper pacing here.
Not to mention, there's a lot of brutal deaths is this show, mainly of little girls which I find very disturbing. I guess its not automatically a bad thing but I feel like every death, especially of little girls just felt very sudden and uncalled for. A lot of them where just forgotten quickly after so it didn't even feel like that really mattered.
Overall, it got more interesting by the end, but even the last episode had some pacing issues if you ask me.
Art (7)
The art is good. Not much to say here. Weird CGI that seems somewhat out of place but that's how most CGI is.
Sound (8)
The music and voice acting is over all pretty solid. The voice actor of Eren from Attack on Titan also voices Rentaro, and he does a pretty good job. The opening is very good as well as the ending, (though halfway through they changed the opening while keeping the song and the new opening wasn't quite as good). I'm also a fan of a lot of the background music as well.
Characters (6)
The characters are fine I guess. My favorite would have to be the villain, though he's not shown that often after the first few episodes. Nobody else really stood out to me though.
Enjoyment (6)
I never really felt like watching this show most of the time and I just kind of forced myself to watch it when it came on just because I wanted to finish it. It had it's moments but over all its probably my least favorite show I watched this season.
Overall (6)
It's alright and has it's moments, but there's really nothing that great here in terms of story in my opinion. If it really sounds like something you'd like, I'd say give it a shot, otherwise, I'd say just skip it.
Light_Kim
Black Bullet is honestly in my opinion, one of the most overrated anime ever. Although it may not seem like the most popular anime, it's hype back in spring was pretty big, and I've seen reviews rating Black Bullet over an 8, which left me speechless. Black Bullet had a promising start sort of, but quickly it's plot just died away with no explanation of what's happening, my favorite character in the anime disappeared for half the show and the ending was plain rushed and made absolutely no sense. The plot was "eh"; it was a mixture of Guilty Crown and Attack on Titans, whichseems amazing, but that was not the case. There are these monsters called Gastrea, that infect humans turning humans into monsters. Humanity is on the brink of extinction until they find Vibranium, the stuff dreams are made of… or nightmares when it comes to the Gastrea. Having found the Gastrea's kyptonite, humans have created walls/barriers and have created haven cities where they could live in peace. Outside these barriers were the cursed children, humans that were part Gastrea (monster). In this world of turmoil, Rentaro witnesses all the ugliness in it. Unfortunately for the human race the Gastrea have managed to break into the city somehow, and it's up to the main character Rentarou and his teammate Enju to save the day. And... that's it, the ending ends in a makes absolutely no sense cliffhanger and blah blah blah blah. The few characters and animation were the only bright spots in this anime. Enju and the other cursed children was a new interesting add, and the main protagonist was pretty badass which was nice, but then in the end he suddenly loses all his "badassness". Anyways overall the plot just gets worse and worse as it progresses, that's really all I have to say. The anime is kind of enjoyable hence the 5 "average" rating, but seriously I wouldn't recommend this to people looking for a "good" anime.
VanityStar
Action and Mystery. A common combination of genres, isn't it? Black Bullet is an adaptation of its still ongoing Light Novel, was announced last year, 2013. Then became a long-awaited series of 2014. Although, the main idea isn't too impressive or original if we want to put it like that, the plot has much more in store. To be precise, the story is rather fast-paced. It is basically some short stories put together into 13 episodes. And even though it's true that there was some sort of bridge between two 'short stories', it is very obvious that the staff just wanted too many elements in thesame place. Luckily, this doesn't spoil the whole atmosphere as a whole.
There were many truly good closing scenes which are suggestive and aditive to its genre. The thing is that many of these 'floating ideas' could as well have been used. But, they weren't. Most of them were left unexploted and to be straightforward, I'm pretty sure that using these ideas instead could have made a 20% better story.
With these said, however, there is one thing that I especially liked about the plot. That is the discussion of rarely mentioned and taught issues like discrimination, human inhospitality and cruelty. This little addition just made the everything twice as dramatic as it would otherwise be.
The art of Black Bullet was at times breath-taking but in other cases it was rather mehish. But, whichever is the case, the art, without a doubt, matches the story and contributes well to the mood of it. The best example for this would be the openings; as they indeed served as a good 'programme guide'. They showed what you should expect of the series and determined the attribute of the characters, too.
The characters sometimes tended to prove themselves amazingly unnecessary. To me some of them seemed to be introduced because the other person who, simply put, had exactly the same traits won't turn up again.
Also, everybody's lives revolve around the protagonist's. The main of all characters, Rentaro Satomi in this universe is a god. And this actually is true from the first to the last word. Not only is he incredibly strong but he's also drop-dead gorgeos, has his harem of little girls and has two teen girls with respectable size of chest love him. But he's lacking one thing; common sense. This is what, in fact, refers to all of the charcters. By this, I mean that when an unforeseen event occurs nobody seems to pose questions like 'why?', 'how?' or just the most obvios one 'what?!'.
Another problem is character development. As a matter of fact, there isn't any. Well, there is but it is so short-term. People go through very sad and tear jerking event, these scenes were done brilliant, to be honest, and they are emotionally shaken.. For an episode. Then in the next episode they are as happy as ever. Unfortunatelly, this is also applicable to peronalities and behaviour displayed towards other characters. Just change overnight.
This is so exposed to the viewers that this just ruins the characters.
The very best reason I would recommend this anime for is the soundtracks. They are unbelievably catchy and something that remains on your mind for like a week. They match the particular scenes they are in.
While there are many components that resemble things from real-life, many just really go in the face of nature.
There are tons of hilarious moments which are worth re-watched. It's rather sad to say; that is all that increases the value of re-watching.
I believe that many good words could be said about Black Bullet but liking (or not liking) it comes down to the viewers only. This is a type of series that you either hate or like sort. It is highly unlikely that it leaves you without any feelings about it.
akustir
Let's start with the opening. If you've seen Attack on Titan (Shingeki no Kyojin), you'll notice that the opening music, art (and world-concept in general) are kind of really similar. I won't say it's a copy, you decide that for yourself. The opening was in my opinion not really fitting, that's all. Anyway, to get to the story line. I gave it a 6/10, because the story wasn't boring or tiring, it just wasn't really original. I realize that, in some dose, the creators gave thought into it, but everything was rushed to the limit where the timing became ridiculous. To cut it short, toomuch content was packed into a small number of episodes.
Characters were... well, okay. (6/10) They were too specific though, with clear behavioral patterns and only slight character development. No one actually surprised me. In the end there's, I suppose, some sort of cliffhanger, which was shortly after ruined, because the main character had to say something irrelevant about it. Let's say that everything is too obvious, and that's why the characters are just "okay".
Moving on to enjoyment... it was good. I can't say that I didn't enjoy it. It didn't amaze me, but it's one of those random anime which bring up some feelings, even though you don't really bind with the characters. It's too bad that everything is rushed. I suppose I would have enjoyed it more if it was a 24-episode anime with slowed down plot and more (also better) character development.
I wouldn't necessarily recommend it, but if you like little cute girls with superpowers... watch it.
TheNeko
"This is a thousand monkeys working at a thousand typewriters. Soon, they'll have finished the greatest novel known to man." A quote from The Simpsons has never been so accurate, except that the monkeys didn´t end up writing a novel, they ended up writing the script for an anime adaptation. Oh, you don´t believe me do you? Well, that´s what reviews are for, to convince people that the series you are reviewing is either good or bad. So with no further ado, this is The Neko and I welcome you to my review of the show, Black Bullet. The premise of the show is quite simple, is theusual "humanity´s last stand" kind of plot, but I´don´t really care for originality as long as the story is well done. Is it well done? Well, look at the number on the side of this review, does it seem like I think it´s well done? If the answer is yes then you need to check your eyesight, ´cause if you can´t see the number then I´m really worried about you.
The thing about Black Bullet´s plot is that it tries to be "dark" and "serious" but also tries several times to have comedy and fanservice with lolis, because someone thought that having a lot of lolis in a "dark" and "serious" show was a great idea, and it has been proven before that trying to mix these two opposites just like that, doesn´t work, I cannot take something seriously like that. But this is just the tip of the iceberg. This series also has, like I said before a little problem with the script, and by little I mean a BIG problem with the script. You see, when you actually listen to the kind of things the characters say, sometimes you might think "Boy, that line was really stupid", because sometimes the things they say doesn´t have any logic on then, like there´s is no way that the kind of things these characters say, would be said by an actual and sane person. For example, all you need for a villain in this series to spit up all his plans, is just a simple question from our main protagonist, Rentaro. I can´t really put the stupidity in the script into words, it´s something that you have to experiment to understand, but for doing that, you have to watch the show, which I do not recommend. But this is not all, oh no no no no no. The other thing that this series has is plot holes, yep, as if it weren´t enough with the shitty script. For example in the first episode we see everyone in some kind of refugee camp being attack by the Gastrea, the monsters that are attacking Tokio this time, the scene afterwards everyone is safe and happy behind the Varanium walls, the Gastrea´s elemental weakness, but we don´t know how did that happened, how did they pass from "total destruction" to discovering that Varanium is super effective against Gastreas and having the time to build the Varanium structures?. And this is just ONE plot hole, because you can pretty much take a random episode and find them by dozens. The show also likes to make use of Deus ex-Machinas, I counted four in total, if someone has counted more, let me know and you will win an imaginary hug. How cool is that? It also has a terrible pacing, too rushed at the begging, too slow by the end. So this series pretty much makes every mistake it can do. You could say that I should turn my brain of and enjoy the series, but is my belief that if a show wants me to take it seriously, and believe me this series is desperate to prove that I should, I should have my brain in the on-mode. Also from episode 8 and forward the show losses any sense of action, and has also this thing for increasing it´s problems from episode to episode.
The artwork was pretty much above average for me. I really like the colour palette that they used in this show, it makes it look nice, but the animation itself has some drops here and there, where the framerate really goes down, it is pretty noticeable. But the worst part, is that later on the series they start to use CGI to animate the Gastreas, and it looks so bad, It´s like I could get eye cancer just from looking at them, it´s awful. Some character designs are kinda good, except for Rentaro who is just a normal guy with a suit, Kisara who is the chick that uses a school uniform 24/7, and some of the lolis because in this show lolis have to belong to some kid of archetype and they dress as such, for example the Samurai Stereotype Loli will dress with, you guessed it, samurai clothes. About the designs that I like, they belong to either a secondary character that we don´t see too often anyway, or to Kagetane Hiruko the "main" villain, who actually seems creepy but elegant, just like a villain should look. The backgrounds are nothing out of this world but they are ok, nothing really AMAZING, but ok.
The soundtrack though, that´s the best part of the series, which is actually kinda sad if you think about it. It mostly uses the techno music that anime likes to use so much this days, but it´s pretty kickass when there´s a Gastrea on the scene, but when there´s is not any Gastrea or any threat of any kind to our protagonists and the series flips to it´s more light-hearted side it becomes pretty forgettable, but when is good, IS GOOOD. On the voice acting side of the things, voices ranged from character to character, for example, Rentaro´s voice is done by Yuki Kaji the same guy who did the voice for Eren Jaeger fron Attack on Ti... damn it I really wanted to finish the review without mentioning Attack on Titan, there goes my record. Anyway his voice acting is pretty solid, too bad that he doesn´t have any actual good lines to say. The voice from the main villain Hiruko Kagetane is also masterfully done by Rikiya Koyama who also did the voices for Takamura from Hajime no Ippo and Emiya from Fate/Zero, need I say more?
On the other hand we also have a secondary character, Shouma, whose voice actor, Shinichiro Miki, didn´t do the best of the job for this character in particular.
This show has only one OP and ED, the only noteworthy being the opening. It´s a fripSide theme, so if you are a fan of their style of music you will probably like this one, and no, I will not talk about the "similar to AoT" chorus at the beginning of the song. The thing about the OP though, is that someone had the bright idea to change the animation of the OP for a more spoilerific version, and not only it doesn´t look as good as the original, it spoils LOTS of stuff, not that is really important since this is a kinda predictable show anyway.
As I said the soundtrack was actually the best part of the series, so that kind of gives you an idea of what I think of the characters, doesn´t it?
I will focus mainly in the main four, Rentaro, Kisara, Enju and the "main" villain Kagetane.
Rentaro is pretty much your typical shounen protagonist, which wouldn´t be that much of a problem is this show wasn´t a SEINEN. What is a cliché battle shonen protagonist doing in a Seinen? Fuck if I know. But he is pretty much a walking cliché, he yells the name of every attack he throws, and he has some longass names in his sleeves, he practices some kind of martial art, he is the "good" guy, he can do no wrong, that´s Rentaro, and the only sense of development that this series has for him, is having him suddenly become a Gary Stu from episode 4, and that will be all the development for the rest of the series, you won´t find anymore of that here, plus Rentaro can be pretty stupid, and as such he is annoying and unlikeable.
Kisara is mainly the romantic subplot, because this show needed that too, and is not exactly the best romantic subplot . Kisara is a Tsundere, and the only development she gets is, hear this, becoming a yandere in the last episode ¡Yay!
Apart from that, and because of the fact that this show has a Gary Stu, they don´t really focus on her, and she doesn´t have that much screentime either, plus she is useless most of the time, so she is only there for the romantic subplot, great.
Enju is the "main" loli of the series and she pretty much embodies the archetype of the pervert loli, and is also the other romantic subplot, but this time for the lolicons. The thing that bothers me most about Enju is that even when her friends die RIGHT in front of her, no matter how many people discriminate her for being a "Cursed Children", no matter what problems may faze her, she just cries some minutes and then by the next episode she is the same exact pervert loli that she has always been. Really doesn´t she have some kind of trauma from all of that? ¡She is a freaking 10 year old! She should have some kind of trauma, or at least be depressed for days after that.
And then we have Kagetane, the "main" villain. If you were sharp enough you probably notice how I always write the word "main" between quotes, this is because in the case of Enju, the show just focus on her at the beginning, and then focus more on Rentaro since he is the Stu, but in the case of Kagetane I call him "main" villain because he is actually absent for most of the series, he has great presence at the beginning, then he disappears in episode 4, and reappears in episode 11, except that when he reappears he is not the villain anymore, he becomes another supporting character, and the show, again, chooses to focus more on Rentaro, which is sad because Kagetane was the only decent character, the only one with the decent dialogues, and he was a pretty decent villain, but that couldn´t last, not in this series. Something decent here? You might as well go look for a hentai that doesn´t show any boobs, it would be easier than finding something decent whether it´s in the story or the characters. In the meantime when Kagetane is not around they replace him with what I like to call "Discount Villains", which are by the way the worst characters in this series, which is actually quite a feat.
The secondary characters in this series serve only one real purpose, TO DIE. If a secondary character doesn´t die then he is around doing nothing, and they don´t have any screen time, and as such I can´t really get to like them. Many of the secondary characters are lolis actually, and this show often kills them just for shock value, because in terms of personality each and every one of them fits into one specific archetype, whether it is the Samurai Loli, the Nekomimi Loli, the Shy loli, the Imouto Loli, you name it.
So this shows follows something called the Theory of Moe Loli Replacement® (I am not the owner of this theory, all the rights belong to it´s respectful owner), in regards of the secondary loli characters. The Theory states that every time a loli dies in the series, she gets replaced by another one even more Moe in the next episode. This shows that this series only kills characters for shock value and as such, every character death, as everything in this series, is poorly executed.
Reading all this things must have made you think that I didn´t enjoy this show at all, doesn´t it?
As a matter of fact I did enjoy this show, but not for the reasons that it´s creators intended. The thing is that is show is in the category of "so bad that it is actually good", is just fun to see all the poor death executions, all the shitty dialogue, all the cliché characters, pointing them out and then laugh, A LOT. But as a show that tries to entertain for it´s story and characters it fails, horribly.
Final Judgement:
Black Bullet is a show that failed at everything it tried, becoming rather funny at how someone actually thought about making all of this. It´s story tries to be "dark" and "serious", but is just dumb and full of plot holes, Deus Ex-Machinas, comedy and even loli fanservice, ´cause why the fuck not? So it cannot be taken seriously, it´s characters have no real development and, except for Kagetane, they were all either unlikeable or the show didn´t have any focus on them, and Kagetane, the only decent character, is absent for most of the series.
Anything that this series has that is actually decent, in regards of story and characters, just gets screwed sooner or later, a show that is only recommended for those looking for a show that´s in the "so bad that it´s good" level.
This has been The Neko and I hope you have a pleasant day.
Kynov
Black bullet is probably one of the anime that got a lot of attention since it share a same atmosphere with Shingeki no Kyojin which is despair, humanity in the edge and dark themes. As the shingeki have finished airing, the emergence of black bullet is surely gives a lot of viewer have a great expectation on this anime. Some sites says this anime is a successor of shingeki. But does it really true? I would say not. Black bullet is an anime that been package with thriller action and dark themes. The story is about when humanity was in the near extinct and living insmall territory because monsters or parasites called Gastrea. Gastrea is not only killed people but also infected people, the people who have been attacked by gastrea have a high probability become one of them and so, humanity must struggle with that monster.
As the summary tells, it sounded awesome. Beforehand, Black bullet itself is an adaptation from light novel which people usually tends to have a great expectation since light novel is usually have more details in telling the story. But it wasnt happen, the story has plotholes and moreover feel rushed. 13 Episodes is doesnt enough to cover the story. As the story with thriller feeling, how the story progress is one of the key to make viewers feel the atmosphere. But in the end, it felt like the story drags the viewers to follow their fast paced story without telling what happen on that scene in detail and leaves a big question.
Well, the story is not always serious, they have some cute and funny things to lighten up this story. Well, its not weird since Shiden Kanzaki previous work is romance comedy. The jokes that happen is pretty funny but since the anime themes is struggling and despair, the joke feels like out of the place. For your info, the MC aka Rentarou have a pair named Enju which is loli. Some lovey-dovey things that happen is a little bit annoying. Why do we need to see a lovey dovey when we know that we’re struggling with monsters. There isnt any coherence when this anime talks about humanity in the edge but they put some lovey-dovey jokes.
Aside from the story, the art in this anime is quite “normal” for some action anime. When there is a battle, the effect is quite good, not so sparkly and they keep it as not too excessive. The background is quite detailed for an action anime and one thing to notice is how the art is suitable with the themes with the anime, the coloring in this anime is quite dark and blur which makes the despair and fear feels intensively being felt.
Other things to notice in this art is how the design of each characters. Sometimes the characters design isnt consistent. When watching this, i cant help to notice that in every scenes they draw the characters so badly like how Kisara’s boobs shape, its quite weird and really bothering. Its something that doesn’t bode too well for an action/fantasy series such as this. In the end, there isnt something to being prominent except how the coloring that really brings the feel of this anime.
Our main protagonist in this anime is Kentaro and Enju, they’re always being considered as a couple though its just a claim from Enju not from the both sides. Kentaro as the main character in this anime is like the other main character which is have a justice feeling and would help anyone, He also has a kind heart, calm demeanor, and comes across as brother type as what he does to Enju. Enju, in the other hand is like young sister type, differ from Kentaro, Enju see Kentaro as her couple and do what she can to get an attention. Actually this is quite interesting too see the relationship between them throughout the series. They way how they interact with each others is quite enjoyable.
If there are things that awesome from this anime, it was their sound. From, the opening song this anime have Fripside with their song “Black Bullet”. This song is tremendous, the gospel in this song is really enchanting and gives me a goosebumps, its quite epic song and one of the best opening song in spring 2014. Aside from the opening song, the soundtrack is great too. Its no wonder since its been arranged by Sagisu Shirou who is responsible for Evangelion, Berserk, and Magi. This time, he also made it with his music in this anime. Its increasing the intensity feeling and quite catchy. But sadly, sometimes this soundtrack song is overly used and repetitive. It makes the song losing its taste and being plain.
Beside the soundtrack, the seiyuu also what makes this anime more better with their voice. We got Kaji Yuki known for his voice as Eren Jaeger and also Yui Horie who known as singer and seiyuu for Hanekawa Tsubasa in Monogatari series
In the end, this anime is not what are people expected, if we’re talking about quality its just so far from Shingeki which people tends to relate this anime and of course, not all people would dislike it, some people would find this anime is interesting. This anime is good in some way and people who likes tragedy, dark themes and loli, this anime would be a great show for you.
LeFlower-kun
Black Bullet is amazing, an amazing failure of a series with decent potential at its start. Black Bullet is an anime, an anime with great potential that ultimately transformed into shambles of disappointment. Many have been comparing Black Bullet to Attack on Titan but of course, Black Bullet is intrinsically different and distinct in its own right. The story revolves around humanity and their suppression due to the dominance and superior existence of viral parasites named Gastrea. As humanity is left with no alternatives but to be exiled into small territory and to coexist with terror and despair, the world should evidently be indeeda dark and tragic place to live in. To survive, the loli army, I mean the cursed children are prime and vital to combat the Gastrea and are humanity’s ultimate weapon born from women who have been infected by the Gastrea.
The characters are merely bland and tedious to be the main focus of the show. Satomi Rentarou is the archetype of an indomitable, well preserved and determined male character which has been utilised throughout anime history in countless of shows. Having the best plot-armor possible, he’s pretty strong in combat too. Another character in the harem, I mean cast, Enju, the notable orange hair little loli girl is energetic to the max and does not know when to keep her mouth shut at times. Enju constantly mentions her wish to marry Rentarou, that being said, it is only normal for her to have a few rivals. One of them is Kisara Tendo, the president of the agency Satomi works for and also apparently is Satomi’s childhood friend, a good use of the childhood friend cliché to add a woman with a big chest to the crew. Another main character is Tina Sprout, another loli in the group of friends who fight against the Gastrea, with sniping skills of a God and the body of a 5 year old girl, she also takes a hinted liking to Satomi Rentarou. And for the rest of the loli cursed children army characters, let’s just say, never mind.
Despite each character containing different personalities and traits, one factor largely affects the seriousness of the show, and that is the constant implementation of forced humour. The show is just ineffective in setting its own atmosphere, coming into the series; a person looking at the synopsis would come into Black Bullet believing that the show is serious and dark heavily. Scenes can be tragic and upsetting at times, leaving the audience to feel and express sympathy to the characters; however these sentimental moments are easily hindered and obstructed a few seconds later with unnecessary comedy. Being on the brink of extinction, the vibrant and lively atmosphere the cast give off does not blend in well with the plot.
It’s like mixing sugar with salt. It just doesn't work well.
Being a one-cour show, the show evidently suffers from lack of character growth and development and is bound to leave out some scenes from the original source material. The pacing transcends too quickly after the first episode and near the final few episodes of the show, it is amazingly obvious how rushed and butchered Black Bullet has become. No justice served for the source material.
The art is vibrant and bright most of the time despite the supposed dark tone the plot gives off. Despite the contradiction, it is enjoying and nice to look at. However, honestly it makes the viewers hard to take the show seriously because of the liveliness when humanity is on the verge of extinction. The animation and visuals during action scenes do not make the show stand out amongst other shows with decent action scenes. The CGI utilised alongside the Gastrea are used awkwardly and are not pleasant to look at which I believe sometimes fits their design well as they are not meant to look aesthetically attractive and appealing being viral parasites.
The music in the show is probably the single best aspect of the show. Having the OP sung by fripside and the ED songs sung by Yanagi Nagi, personally one of my favourite Japanese female singers, they added a new substance to the show and made it more enjoyable. Sadly, the background music being catchy is used too many times and not always at the most appropriate moment, losing its uniqueness, style and substance.
Overall, if you want a serious and tragic show with a dark atmosphere, I do not recommend touching Black Bullet. However, if you love little girls, sure, dive in. Or if you just have lots of time, sure, dive in. Besides some decently executed moments, don’t go in with expectations as high as the Eifel Tower as you will only come out as the world’s shortest skyscraper.
YungLunChen
Hey guys, this is my first time doing this so it may not be a top-notch anime review, nevertheless, I will try my best. Please note that this is purely my opinion on the series, you can agree with me or disagree with me, I'm fine either ways. Black Bullet sets in an apocalyptic type of environment starting in the year 2021. The human race is being overwhelmed by the widespread of a deadly virus called the "Gastrea". Two protagonists: a Civil Security "Promoter" - Rentaro Satomi and his "Initiator" - Enju Aihara sets off to protect Japan from the evil that lies within the epidemic. Story- 3/10
To be blunt, I got to say I enjoyed the first 3 episodes of the anime but after that I had my bewildered face on the entire time for the remaining episodes. Not knowing where the series was going, I persist to keep on watching it, hoping for the plot to get better, however, it just did NOT happen.
There are various plot holes that are yet to be filled and quite a few of things are left unexplained (e.g the origin of Gastrea, vague explanation of the surrounding environment as a whole).
What irks me the most is that the population itself doesn't give me the vibe and the fear of being endangered. Everyone seems to have no problem dealing with their daily life issues even with Gastreas' presence. In addition to this problem, multiple melodramas are shown in the series but they aren't necessary since they are there to stall for time, it merely demonstrates that the story is very unorganized and the scenes were done half-assed.
Animation - 7/10
The animation was good. Though I would prefer more movements for the characters that are standing far away in the background instead of a still- image. Overall, not choppy but at the same time not extremely flawless as well.
Art - 8/10
One of the things that I liked about Black Bullet is the art, the color palettes were used wisely and the shading is neat but I would like to see this definition applied to the characters as well.
Sound - 8/10
I enjoyed Black Bullet OSTs and have personally downloaded some of them. Sound effects were also properly utilized and seiyuus did well when they were casting their characters.
Characters - 3/10
One of the major problems that I find with the characters in Black Bullet is that most of them are not memorable and have little to zero character development. The chemistry is too low and I have trouble connecting with most of the characters in the series. Thus, do not share the same emotional responses
One character that stands out to me is the self proclaimed antagonist Kagetane Hiruko. His random appearances and the way how he presents himself made me like him. Unfortunately, he was defeated by Rentaro in Episode 3 and did not made an appearance until episode 10, which is sad because this character could make things a lot more interesting. Other characters are not really worth mentioning since most of them take minor roles and do not appear later on making them forgettable.
Black Bullet did a poor job of introducing new characters. It seems like they are being thrown in to the story for the heck of it. I get no information and I always have this puzzled look on every single new characters that somehow slips through the cracks and play a role in the series. Put Kisara's older brother as an example, he appeared in episode 13, came out of nowhere and apparently is the one that is responsible for not investing enough money to purchase stronger "Varanium" into the Monolith - a magical barrier that is supposed to protect Tokya Area from the Gastreas. Why wasn't I informed about this? Where did the information come from? What is his history as one of the protectors of Tokya Area? The series did not notify its audiences and most of the new characters appear unexpectedly.
Final Verdict - (Enjoyment: 5/10, Overall 4/10)
You know... Black Bullet could have been a MUCH BETTER anime series only if it enables us to know more about the characters and did not constantly rushes its scenes. I just couldn't get myself to enjoy the series as much as I expected to. Using merely 13 episodes to accomplish this just would not cut it. I think the producers of this series need to step back, take a breather and have a thorough think-through to how to better plan the events of Black Bullet, it doesn't matter if it takes more than 13 episodes as long as if things were explained better then I will be more than happy to give it a higher rating.
Seffir
Black Bullet or how I like to call it Loli Bullet. It is a show that was supposed to be the new Attack On Titan, with action, aliens, mankind in danger and on the verge of extinction. But humanity has a secret weapon, an amazing weapon that will help humanity triumph against the evil Gastrea( which sounds like a stomach illness lol), and that only weapon they have is ........ lolis, yes lolis with some kind of power I didn't even care enough to get. So lets get down to business. Story: oh my.... yes ..ammm the story is as I already said about those alienthings attacking mankind for some reason, and there you have mankind fighting them. The best "weapon" humanity has is some lolis. This story had a little potential to be a good action show, but the most we got was the main character building his loli harem and flirting with other girls too. The story does not focus on the important things, most things are just "shock factor" scenes that made me cringe, the pacing was off, most things made no sense and you stop caring about the show about 10 min in the first episode(maybe even less).The lolis were oppressed or some shit cause they had this power and they were different and even if they were humanity's only hope humans still hated them? cause they could something .... ehhhh who cared for this anyway.
2/10
Animation and Sound : good soundtrack and good opening. The animation was quite good but nothing special. The opening was done by fripSide and it had the start of the song sound similar to the Attack On Titan opening(figures). But yeah it was a nice song nothing to complain about in this section.
6/10
Characters: Alpha male, his female friend who likes him (who would have thought) and a bunch of lolis.... yes........ The characters are just copied out of a textbook, nothing original to them, no one was likable except for maybe the first villain who was ofc. human. Near the end the main character starts to acting out of character for the sake of being "badass" but it makes him look like an annoying asshole and even those who might have liked him (not disliked him) started hating him. The lolis were quite explosive characters tho ;) . Characters die and you couldn't care less, that shows how good the characters were.
1/10
Enjoyment : Bored to death, I wish I never watched this piece of crap. This show would have been the worst of the season if it was not for Brynhildr in the Darkness, (lucky aren't you)
0/10
Overall: A pice of poo, not worth watching, a waste of time.
2/10
