Anime | Manga Black Bullet

[Firaga 5,947]

Hello animanga fans, Firaga Sensei here, and I'm here to tell you about a new anime series I'm following that is both familar to me in ways that are good and are kinda bad... but mostly good. Thankfully.

 

I'm talking about a series called Black Bullet. Double B (Yeah, I feel like calling it that) is based off a light novel series off the same name (We've been getting a lot of those lately, I'm just noticing). The show is set in a post-apocalyptic future in the year 2021, where mankind is at the mercy of Gastrea, a virus that has spread throughout the world and created giant ass insects and other monsters to terrorize the land, and are forced to live in closed off areas called Monoliths, which are made of a metal called Varanium, which is a metal that is able to harm Gastrea. It's not the only thing though; There are also the Promoters and Initiators, a specialized tag team who serve as the only other force that kill Gastrea. Initiators are little girls who were born with the virus Gastrea and are able to control it and gain superhuman abilites from it; they are referred to in the series as the "Cursed Children" and yeah, normal people don't really like them. Go figure. Anyways, the Promoters are normal human agents employed by Civil Sercurites (think FBI or something like that) who lead the Initiators on the tag team tandem I mentioned earlier. The story focuses on Rentaro Satomi, a badass teenaged Promoter with a scary face but a kind soul who is employed by the Tendo Civil Security and his Initiator Enju Aihara, a Model Rabbit Initiator (meaning she has really sturdy legs and can kick like a motherf**ker; the Initiators are branded by Models depending on their powers by the by) who is your average happy go-lucky ten year old girl who has a strong connection with Rentaro, even to the point of infatuation. I'm being serious, she is in LOVE with this guy. I swear. And she shows it really well too. This is literally the horniest ten year old girl I've ever seen in my life. It's a little disturbing to be honest.

 

And so far, three episodes have aired on Japanese television (it airs every Tuesday) and in those episodes we've learned the backgrounds of our two titular characters (the bare bones that is), as well as the overall world that they live in, including side characters, plot points, mythos, and one of the creepiest antagonists I've ever seen in any anime or manga ever: Kagetane Hiruko. J-Just Google him, I really don't wanna talk about him... also, I don't what to spoil anything that happens in the three episodes because... well I'm lazy. You should already be watching the show at this point anyway.... OKAY FINE, I'll give my thoughts about the show, maybe that'll give you an idea. THEN you can go watch it.

 

So, like I mentioned earlier, this show is familiar to me to in a way that is "COOL" and a way that is "BLEGH!". The post-apocolyptic setting and the monsters/virus called Gastrea automatically remind me of Attack On Titan/ Shinjeki No Overhyped ("BLEGH!"), and everything else reminds me of "COOL!" What do I mean by that? Well I mean that this is a Sennien type series with Shonen elements. I say that in the fact that the Promoters and Initiators have cool and even freaky powers and titles of powers that remind me of shit you see in somewhat more light-hearted shonen stuff like DragonBall and Naruto and the like. Examples include the whole Initiator Model thing I mentioned earlier as well as the fact that Rentaro practices Tendo martial arts and he always calls out the names of attacks he uses, mostly kicks from what I've seen. I totally feel like I'm watching Sanji from One Piece use his Black Leg style of kicking when I see it, it's marvelous. Also, Kagetane has this power called the Repulsion Shield in which he emits a shield made up of Varanium that can block ANYTHING as well as Maximum Pain, a big ass Shira Tensei with a giant flash of light.... f**king classic.

 

So overall, I like this series a lot so far. Its engaging, and the concept is fairly original despite the Attack On Titan similarities. But since I don't give a flying tit about AOT, then ORIGINALITY FOR DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYS... I feel sort of bad right now.

 

Go check out Double B, guys. You won't regret it.

Edited April 25, 2014 by Firaga Sensei

[Shulk 8,623]

The post-apocolyptic setting and the monsters/virus called Gastrea automatically remind me of Attack On Titan/ Shinjeki No Overhyped ("BLEGH!")

Quote of the day.  Even though that quote pretty much turned me off from the anime... ._.

[Junko 2,815]

I like the anime so far, the only thing that the animation and art style feels...generic in a sense, well except for the fight scenes. 

Maybe it's because I read the manga first before the anime was even announce. I was looking so forward to this kind of art style being animated

 

 

 

 

(not really spoilers btw but meh)

Dynamic as hell

[Firaga 5,947]

So for anybody who actually cares, the last episode of the Black Bullet anime is going to be aired next week on Tuesday. And after I watch it, I'm going to give my full thoughts on the series as a whole.

[Firaga 5,947]

Okay so it took me a while to get to the last episode of BB, but regardless here are my final thoughts:

 

So my first impressions of the anime still stand, meaning I love how its a serious, post-apocalyptic style setting where the characters are straight-forward, there's tension and realism and blah blah blah, but there's also classic shonen type fighting too, with people having crazy, badass powers. Now then, here's some new things I have to say: a theme that seems to be prevalent in the show is the whole post-apocalyptic halabaloo but showing it from the perspective of children, and yes I'm referring to the Cursed Children/Initiators. It plays with how a child's innocence, world-views, emotions, and the like can be challenged by such a hazardous and heart-breaking environment that they have to live in. Also, in general, there's also the general fear of death, the fear of being outcast for being different, the dangers of experimenting with life, war versus peace, survival versus conserving, and my favorite: how two (or more) people who have faced hardship in their lives can help heal each other.

 

So yeah, I liked this show. My only complaints are that the exposition got a little boring at times, the writing kinda slacked off (and by that I mean certain plot points were brought up then forgotten right after), deaths oddly enough feel forced now that I think about it (yeah, I don't think we needed a certain white haired tag team to both die, now did we?) and that a lot of things seemed unfinished. But the last one is something to be expected from these types of adaptions, so it doesn't really bother me that too much.

 

Now, I really don't expect this to get a second season, to be honest. Why? Well, while the end of the show does its part to tied up loose ends while at the same time leaving more loose ends to be tied up, it also implies that it just needs to be left by itself. Besides, the light novels and manga are still on-going, and from what I've read I think I'll like the experience of the manga and maybe even the light novels more.