Kekkai Sensen

Firstly, I'd like to address the type of storytelling used, as it can be a hook for some, and an instant turnoff for others. The series is being told in a very disjointed manner that has jumps in the pacing throughout. Many events that would take multiple episodes in most shows will play through in a few scenes, which gives the entire series a very manic pacing and overall feel. This is very possibly done on purpose, and if so, it's done with good style.

The actual narrative is somewhat unique, and takes a big turn at some point going in a direction most people probably ... wouldn't expect. Some loose ends are left untied, and the viewer is left with far more questions than answers, but the ride is plenty fun. World building seems at first to be taking place, but is very quickly shut down before you can get any real understanding from it. I would still give the story 7/10 for being unique, interesting, and somewhat emotional.


Okay, let's tackle the sound and art in the series. I watched this series in dub, so I'll be talking mostly about the dub here. All of the VAs for the main characters seemed to fit the roles very well, and the voice acting was nicely done. From an objective standpoint, I can say that there wasn't quite as much energy or emotion in a lot of the voice acting as there could have been, but it still works out alright. Lots of VAs that you'll likely be familiar with such as J Michael Tatum.

Both the opening and ending themes capture the feel of the show well, and I personally found them enjoyable. The animation in both was very well done, and the opening comes out especially visually pleasing. The animation for the series as a whole was pretty average, having some nice fight scenes here and there, but also using still frames in scenes where budget required. The artistic style however was very nice, and remained solid through the entire series. Art I'd give 8/10 mainly for the style, and sound 8/10 for its lack of any noticeable flaws, and an A-list VA cast.


The characters I'll only touch on very quickly. They were all very interesting, but they weren't as fleshed out as they could've been. Some character were very 2-dimensional with obvious motives, others were more complex but never given a chance to shine. Overall the characters were well done for how fast paced the show became, and for that I'd give the show 7/10 for characters.


The overall enjoyment in the series comes more from style of the show, and how all the elements really mesh together. There's no easy way to describe why this show is as enjoyable as it is, but in the simplest word, it's fun. This show reminded me of why I loved Soul Eater, and if you enjoyed Soul Eater too, Blood Blockade Battlefront is a must see. The manic pace and atmosphere in this show play off of each other until you can't help but give in to its wacky nature. The entire thing feels like a roller coaster.

If there's one qualm I have with it, it's the last episode. The final episode is extra length, slower pace, and goes in a much different direction than I had expected. Don't get your hopes up for the finale to be the best part of the show, it's not. Still, there wasn't a single scene in this show that I didn't like, so I'll give 10/10 for the enjoyment.

Overall this show gets 8/10 from an objective standpoint, and from a personal standpoint I'd give it a 9/10.
If you liked the pacing in Baccano or Durarara, you'll enjoy this show. If you like the style in Soul Eater, you'll love this show. If you're not sure, give the first episode a try, it encapsulates the feel of the series nicely.

If you read all of that, thanks for your time. I hope this review was helpful.

Well, finally, after a long time of waiting, this series is finally comes to an end.

Story:
From the first episode up to the eleventh, I might have a hard time to understand everything, but at least I could grasp what's on the anime. I wouldn't reveal anything in terms of story by the way. However, coming to watch the last episode, I was totally lost up until half of the way. I don't know whether it was because the gap between I watched the 11th and the 12th, or maybe because I was too dumb.

But yes, the story is a bit complex and take a little ... bit of time to process, but still fun to follow. It gives a new air of plot and it does interesting.

Art:
Not the best compare to other anime on its season, but still okay. You won't get dizzy or something. Though I love the concept of the main character's shining blue goddess eyes, it's lovely.

Sound:
Oh gosh, you will not want to see how I react when I heard its OP & ED. I was jumping around and dancing and I even remember how THEY dance on the ED! damn. Catchy and fun!
Soundtrack are also amazing, not just like any other soundtrack in anime. All the jazz and fun classical music during serious battle. I couldn't understand it at first and find it a bit funny, but still, I couldn't help but feel, "This anime is sure is different."

Characters:
You'll love all of them, even the antagonise. You wouldn't dare to hate them, well probably that one. All of them are just lovely on their own way, and funny, and adorable, and I would love to be surrounded people like that. My life wouldn't be so boring.

Enjoyment:
The story in each episodes are fun to be watch, you could get the feels with tears and in other time I bet you might get a chuckle or if it's good enough, a laugh. Though in terms of understanding the whole situation of the plot, you might not find an enjoyment from that unless like I'm just the only one who don't understand it :(

Overall:
You might want to try to watch this anime, it might be worth it. And not only one episode, try up to 6 episodes at least, for the sake of getting into the story, art, sound, and character. If until the 6th episode you thought this anime is boring, then you can just give it up.

For me, this is the best anime on its season.

Story 7

Humans and netherworld just live together in newyork!? This story is about Leonardo Watch a kid who has been seeking Libra and organization that makes judgement on both humans and demons so that the world would be balanced. The reason he has been seeking Libra is because he wants to know more about his eyes, because it is the God's eyes which was offered to him by a demon.

The story give's this durarara vibe, an abnormal city that turns even the normals abnormal. Good story, but where the 3 points go? Okay, there were some parts which I felt was rushed leaving some few ... information for the audiences to be gone, as such leading into confusion. There were some missing points, I couldn't comprehend well. Sometime's I even asked "Is this the really the episode next to the last?" It felt I were missing out the characters conversation. Nonetheless the plot can be understandable.

Art 8

The art is very colorful and pleasing to the eyes. Just by looking at the cover picture of this anime would make you want to watch this anime. A playful art is how would I would describe this, playful in a good way. It is entertaining to watch because of the art. The character design is great and the background, it isn't a lazy animation it really pays attention even in the side characters.

Sound 9

Let me ask you two questions, first, have you watched gintama? second, did you like their voice actors? Well I gotta tell you this kid you gon' like the sound, for the reason that the almost all the characters are voiced by the gintama seiyuus. That was not only the reason I gave it a 9, the reason too is that the OP and ED are just amazing, soundtracks sound jazzy which really fits the anime.

Character 6

"Why give the character 6 if you have given the others high scores?" Sorry to disappoint you champ but do you think that a 12-anime-episode could really make a developement on all the characters? The same thing lacking in angel beats. I got disappointed because this 12-episode could have been longer, the anime could have been better. The last episode was 50-minute so why didn't you just made a 24 episode anime? Probably Bones, the producer didn't have much confidence in this anime.

Enjoyment 7

I really enjoyed this anime. One of 12 episodes really made you want to be 24-episode. Just watch the anime to see how much I enjoyed it, there is no point in saying how much I enjoyed it, if you can't feel it..

Overall 7
TL;DR

Pros: The art, story and sound is great but it was missing one component to make it better Characters..

Cons: Characters well a 12-episode-anime could fully develope it's characters, I didn't felt attached to them. The story has some rushed points too due to it being a 12-episode anime.

Spoiler Free. This is my first review so bear with it haha.
Story-8: First and foremost we have the story. It consists mainly of episodic storylines for about half of the series until the overall plot is revealed near episode 8. I was personally a fan of this setup, but it can be deterring for those who wish to know the exact plot and point of the show early on.

Art-10: This show, in my opinion, deserves a 10 in art because of its unique art style and the backgrounds were absolutely amazing in the amount of detail. A city setting is not often seen and this ... gave the show a refreshing feeling compared to the often seen schools or rivers that plague anime today. The sheer amount of varied monster designs alone gives this category a 10.

Sound-10: The soundtrack coupled with the environment of the show gives off a very distinct and memorable emotion of its own, often upbeat and exciting. This Soundtrack was one of my favorites of all time. I will definitely be replaying the ending song over and over again.

Characters-7: Sadly, this is where Kekkai Sensen fails a bit. Due to the large amount of characters introduced, many of them were ignored or were given only one episode to develop them. Only the main characters, Leo, White, Black, and Klaus were given any significant development.

Overall Enjoyment-9: This show happens to embody exactly what I believe to be great anime. An interesting cast, amazing soundtrack, and an original story all come together to form a masterpiece, though one that certainly has its own share of flaws.

Let me start off by saying that this is my first review on MAL and I hope people find it helpful!

But any way, this show I feel had so much more potential. I personally enjoyed it quite a bit, but there were some areas where it felt a bit lacking. The art was beautiful and very colorful, and the characters were great, even if a few of them could have used more development. But the story was so...hard...to follow. It was very complicated and half the time I didn't even know what was going on, but regardless, I felt the action somewhat made up for ... it. And also, one of the big problems was that it took them 3 WHOLE MONTHS to air the last episode. By the time I saw the last episode, felt like all the tension from the rest of the series and couldn't really get myself completely back into the story. This could have been an 8 or maybe even 9 overall for me if that last episode didn't air so late.

If you are thinking about watching this show, I'd say give it at least 4-6 episodes, and if you realize it's not your thing by then, just stop watching. It seems like the kind of show that only people who have a taste for that kind of show can enjoy.

I hope this was helpful!

"Welcome to my review"

Words that I never imagined my self typing due to the absurdity of the statement (how do you welcome someone into a review? Its like saying welcome to my article, its just stupid.) and the fact of well, I don't write reviews.

Now if you would excuse my shortcomings I am by no means the end all be all of reviews and do not intend to write myself off as that, I am simply here to provide input to help you decide whether to watch this anime or not.

Simply put Kekkai Sensen is all over the place. The story is disjointed and ... characters seem to drop in and out with focuses going from one place to another providing no sense of structure until it decide to throw over arching plot at you when it sees fit. Now this might present itself as a problem to some who don't enjoy this kind of story telling. IN fact some might go as far as to call it lazy writing, and deem it un watchable. Understandable but the beauty of the show is the fact that is it is all over the place. You see the problem with this site is either you are one of the two extremes. You give something a 10/10 or a 5/10 because around here there is no damn in between. Even reviews that write and anime as 7/10 or 8/10 might as well be 5/10 or 10/10 because they write the damn review praising the anime or pointing out so many flaws you'd think they have a personal vendetta against the damn thing. (not that pointing out flaws makes an anime bad its just you don't speak much on the behalf of the good things.)

So in my hypocrisy to shorten things up and tie them in a pretty unruly, unkempt bow, Kekkai Sensen is a enjoyable anime, plain and simple. Watch it and then decide whether you like it or not. Ultimately none of us who write reviews can speak for anyone else, so don't even pay attention to them, if you think an anime is interesting than fucking watch it. Since when do you need a person to hold your hand and tell you what to watch??

​Unspoken rule of anime #55: if, at any time, that one ^-^ faced character opens their eyes, it means that some serious bat-sh*t craziness is going to happen. In the case of Kekkai Sensen: comedic "lol what is even happening" craziness! With a touch---punch?---of style.

OVERALL - rounded up 8.5
Kekkai Sensen is fun, jazzy, and chaotic. I jumped in expecting a serious shounen action anime, but I was quickly proved wrong. Meandering from side story to side story in a way usually reserved for slice of life or select mystery series, it is a show that I notice goes two ways: people are either confused as ... hell...salem's lot (I couldn't resist, I'm sorry!) or enjoying the hell out of all the chaos.

(It's quick-paced and throws information around like a whirlwind, so for maximum comprehension, make sure you pause when you need to and just let the madness take over!)

STORY/WRITING - 8
Imagine this anime as a cool-looking, stylish guy with really nice sunglasses(?) who still jumps into puddles and kicks up leaves and smiles like a real dork when he tells those "lol wtf" jokes that manage to get you to crack a smile. That's Kekkai Sensen. He tells really random, wild stories. And he's one hell of a fun guy to dance with.

ART/ANIMATION - 8
Animation is good; art is good. Let's skip to something more fun: stylisation! Kekkai Sensen knows when and how to utilise different art styles to both comedic and cinematic effect. How it manages text on-screen is really fun, too! Fun and loud and intentionally overdone!

SOUND/MUSIC - 10
Mix modern funk with 1930s swing and accompany it with the jazzy voice of a French-American woman singing in a speakeasy where the audience is littered with flappers from the 1920s and a couple dancing a jive. Give her some 2000s contemporary blues to sing. Let the gangs of the West Side Story and the cast of Footloose finger-snap their way into the speakeasy, followed by some classic rockers riffing passionately on their electric guitars. Oh, and don't forget the orchestra playing a haunting, ocean-like serenade and the really high cows playing with squeaker toys.

That's what Iwasaki Taisei-san's soundtrack is. Frankly, quite amazing. Give it a listen, ya? Plus the OP and ED are really great. The ED is especially fantastic and enthusiastic. Dance vibes all around!

CHARACTERS - rounded up 8.5
When a story is average, it is up to the characters to carry the show. And they do. They flourish under numerable bursts of manzai (funny man/straight man) comedy, simultaneously giving more craziness to the chaos that is Hellsalem's Lot while very subtly throwing in lines of character development.

ENJOYMENT - rounded down 9.5
It's so much fun. Chaotic fun. And it's rather refreshing, as I've been watching a lot of more serious anime lately.

Additional Ratings: COMEDY - 9 | DIRECTING/DIRECTION - 10 | PACING OVERALL - 7.5 | PACING WITHIN EPISODES - 8.5 | CINEMATOGRAPHY - 8

Some anime are able to create an atmosphere of pure fun and excitement where we feel like we're in laughing, crying, and dancing along with the characters themselves. Kekkai Sensen is exactly this.

STORY: 7
The story...how do I explain this? Kekkai Sensen is an example of a disjointed story where it focuses more on the characters and interactions themselves, slowly building the story itself. Anyone who has seen Gintama or Durarara!! will be understand more about where I'm going.

"A breach between Earth and the netherworlds has opened up over the city of New York, trapping New Yorkers and creatures from other dimensions in an ... impenetrable bubble. They've lived together for years, in a world of crazy crime sci-fi sensibilities. Now someone is threatening to sever the bubble, and a group of stylish superhumans is working to keep it from happening." (MyAnimeList)

It seems all simple at first but the characters are where the story really shines.

CHARACTER: 10
Every single character in this show is lovable. Every single one.

Leonardo Watch is our protagonist, a young photographer from Holland who comes to New York City to earn money for his little sister. Although he has a humble and fun personality, we find out more about his character as the story progresses. His sister had lost her eyesight due to a trade Leonardo made, giving him the "All-Seeing Eyes of God" which give him ocular powers and the ability to see through things normal humans would not necessarily see. He feels guilty about this throughout the anime and tries to do his best to prove himself by joining an organization called Libra.

Klaus Von Reinherz is the leader of Libra. He has a lot of charisma and always brings the best out of everyone. Klaus serves to be Leo's mentor and guide.

Zap Renfro is a part of Libra and is an eccentric, womanizing, badass. He is always hyper, hungry, and wants women. Zap's got a lot of personality and the chemistry with him and the other characters is a pleasure to watch.

White/Mary Macbeth is a young girl who Leo meets in New York City. At first, she seems to serve as a girl who Leo has a crush on but she becomes very important as it goes on. Especially when her brother, Black/Will Macbeth is introduced.

ART: 9
It's beautiful. New York City is animated very well and the lighting in each scene is perfect. The character designs are very classy and I especially love the way Leo's, White's, and Black's eyes are animated. They are bright and it really grabs your attention.

SOUND: 10
I can't remember the last time I gave a 10 for music but Kekkai Sensen NAILS it. The music ranges from very jazzy music to a great "What a Wonderful World" rendition. The music matches the characters and the setting so well, increasing the enjoyment of fun scenes but also the tragic scenes. The opening, "Hello, World!" is so great, highlighting the big atmosphere of the anime and the Leonardo's character. The ending, IS AMAZING! "Sugar Song to the Bitter Step" captures the fun and carefree nature of the show perfectly. The dancing, the partying, and the mellow moments are masterfully directed on top of colorful animation.

The voice-actors for both the sub and the dub were excellent. Daisuke Sakaguchi and Aaron Dismuke did a wonderful job with Leo's voice. I rarely watch anime in dub as well but I had no issues of going back and forth with Kekkai Sensen. People who are familiar with Gintama character will be happy to hear that almost half the cast is voiced by Gintama voice actors! Kazuya Nakai voices Zap and really gets all his energy perfectly on screen. He also voices Zoro from One Piece so fans will be able to see his more self-centered and eccentric self. Overall, the music and the voice-acting were great!

Enjoyment: 10
The characters and the music made this show for me. "Sugar Song to the Bitter Step" has become one of my favorite songs of all time and the characters leave a strong impression on you. I was fortunate to watch this anime after Episode 12 had released so for the viewers who had to wait for 3 months for it might not have liked it as much or maybe liked it more. This anime is all about having a fun time but the darker moments present some great philosophical questions as well.

If there's anything more I would want, I would like to have some more fight scenes but we saw some great ones regardless. Additionally...I WANT A SEASON 2!!!!!!!!!

Check this anime out guys! You will not be disappointed!

BBB is like a beautiful painting. You can stare at it for hours, admire, be captivated, but at the end of the day like each painting it has frames and around a white wall. One thing I must say it’s a complete picture. As it stands the story is finished, we may be back someday in BBB world, but this part is over, and that’s a very good thing from anime perspective.

Art 10/10

Reference level. Probably one of the best, graphically made anime in year 2015. You want to scream, why my favorite anime doesn’t look that good?! Studio Bones just delivered everything you can ... imagine. It feels brushed by Da Vinci or Michelangelo. You don’t like that genre? You don’t like mix of aliens/supernatural stuff in this perfectly feeling retro city, bit like BioShock? That will be true probably for a lot of, but try just one, two episodes, just because of gorgeous Art.
Another thing to mention are camera angles. You feel the director is playing with you, like an artist, photographer trying to pick up the right way to preset the scene. As they say, one picture is often worth thousand words.

Sound 7/10

Many will be captivated by the Retro/Jazz music that will come from your sound systems, but for me music in BBB it's a bit bland, not distinctive enough, lacking the kick and often feeling quite far away, not overwhelming you. It fits the anime theme very well, together with voice acting, and generic sounds that each anime has, but that's just it . Music is a very personal taste, but if you are like me a fun of dynamic, powerful type of sound (Metal, Rock guy here) it will probably be just OK. OP is good, and the music theme in last episode is partially different from the previous ones - expect classical music, for instance from Swan Lake, and that's a big plus for me.

Story 7/10

Good and that's just it. Its episodic, each episode often deals with different issue in this twisted version of New York, following our young protagonist. Due to some "special" circumstances he joins Libra (they are not normal humans, obviously) on their quest to protect the balance of Big Apple, that yeah... its twisted, supernatural, with tons of freaks, monsters and God knows what else lurking in the depths of the city, that in fact is pretty much isolated from the rest of the world, by a big...wall of fog. Just imagine a parade of strangest creatures, that come from the Netherworld and live, work together with the rest of us humans. Now, there is a thread that connects each episode and we see its culmination in the last two, three episodes, but pretty much each of them is a standalone product. Especially halfway through the anime, it can be a bit confusing, because you just don't know where its heading, and it's as much as beautiful as irritating. There are quite a lot of bricks moved, here and there with some potential to expand them in the next season or seasons and although the story somewhat concludes in the last, double episode, there are a lot of questions left unanswered in my opinion.

Character 6/10

What I find most lacking, are the characters. On one hand they are very distinctive, or try to be very distinctive, but at the same time expect for the MC and 2,3 others, they are just shallow. It feels a bit like a game - pick a trait, a laughter, some funny power and multiple it by twenty. BBB is one of those anime that bombards you with share amount of characters, often just appearing once, and forgoes the development of those that could deepen the story. But that's the direction the studio took with the episodic story. The good part is, it has a solid amount of likeable characters and builds a good foundation for them to be more explored in the next seasons if they ever happen to be. Plus the fact that a big cast makes you feel like the world is really alive.

Enjoyment 8/10

The anime pucks a good punch. It's just well made, definitely a high production value. It has its own sense of humor, and that's another thing that Rie Matsumoto, the director of the show, is playing with very well, often mixing serious scenes with some funny speeches, behaviors, it feels like you should take a lot of stuff seriously but up to a point. Now, don't expect romance, that just not the type of show. Come here if you enjoy a lot of craziness, different directing style and generally superpower/supernatural genre.

Overall 7.5/10 (Why can’t we score halves?!)

In the end the anime gets from me 8/10. It's a solid, standalone product, with a quite satisfying ending, huge cast, and distinctive music and very good graphical performance.

This is probably the only anime that I have ever watched and enjoyed to the maximum with a confusing plot. In the end, you might asked yourself, 'why did this particular thing happened? What does it do to affect the plot?' A lot of unanswerable question yet the show is still fascinatingly interesting and wonderful.
With a likable Main Character that had the eye of the all seeing god, he was the center of the attention.
To all the fangirls out there, you might called the caring relationship between the people in the agency and Leonardo Bromance. Well, not technically, unless you started putting people ... on ships and sailing them(haha).
To all the fanboys(is that a word?) out there, you will be capitivated by the awesome action scenes and the deep bond between the main character and the agency.

Too bad that the season 2 of Kekkai Sensen isn'g coming out any time soon. There are always those anime that are like 'We are going to make an awesome season 1 and not do a season 2'...Just what is wrong with the anime world?

This anime will definitely be worth your time if you enjoy action, comedy, supernatural anime! There aren't a lot of romance in this anime in case you are wondering but that only make the anime even more fascinating without weak girl popping up everywhere randomly. I mean, we all blame the girl when she got kidnapped and resulted in the awesome Main Character falling in dangers, right?
Plus, romance will only make this already awesome to the max anime become annoying and below average.

Well, peace out and DO try this anime! I promise it will be worth your time!

Kekkai Sensen is a thrill ride from start to finish, throwing its viewers into a confusing mess of conflicts, monsters, and the awesome heroes trying to keep the city (somewhat) safe. With a sizable cast of eccentric characters and a wide array of conflicts and subplots, there is endless excitement to be had.

Where Kekkai Sensen really shines is its captivating setting and unstructured plot. Incredible effort was put into developing Hellsalem's Lot, the dystopian metropolis that was once New York City before a mysterious portal opened up, connecting our universe to another and allowing monsters to flood the city. Not all of these monsters are ... unfriendly, however; most of them have assimilated into society and coexist with humans. Kekkai Sensen puts you on a tour of the city, showing you countless human and monster pedestrians and their bizarre lifestyles.

The confusing, loosely structured plot has been criticized by many viewers, but I think it is one of Kekkai Sensen's greatest strengths. This isn't a linear story of one boy fighting the villain and saving the day. It's the story of an apocalyptic city and all of the calamity going on inside of it, and the stronger powers keeping this calamity loosely in check. There is Libra, the league of vigilantes trying to keep violent monsters at bay, there are large-scale criminal organizations, there is an ambiguous militaristic police force threatening to shut Libra down, and a few powerful individuals trying to take down the whole planet. It only makes sense that Kekkai Sensen is a chaotic mesh of storylines that our main character, Leonardo, gets caught up in. More than anything else, this anime is FUN. It is loaded with action, interesting characters, and plenty of mysteries to keep you watching.

Libra itself features a strong cast of lovable characters. Klaus, the almost comically masculine leader who can fight harder and think faster than any other human. Zapp, the lanky, aloof wannabe tough guy who begrudgingly takes Leonardo under his wing. KK, the mysterious woman who is deeply dedicated to her son and fights with electrified bullets. All of the major characters in Kekkai Sensen are well-developed and unique, and each has their own demons to battle. Watching Leonardo join Libra, you can feel his excitement and nervousness as he enters a world full of powerful characters and the complex ties they have within Hellsalem's Lot.

Then the anime twins show up. The super-crazy battle arena of an anime suddenly turns into an ultra-generic melodrama about some emotional 15 year-olds. All of the subplots that left you craving information are dropped entirely, Leonardo's status as a goofy kid trying to make a difference is gone, and suddenly all we're supposed to care about is the feelings of some sappy kids who lost their parents. The series essentially forgets everything that it achieved for 10 episodes and completely redefines the storyline to focus on a moody teenage girl, while every conflict is instantly resolved with the power of friendship. After watching 10 episodes of Libra causing thousands (they openly admit to this) of casualties in their effort to keep the city safe - rightly so, they blow up some buildings but prevent giant monsters from going on city-wide rampages - it becomes a bit difficult to feel sympathetic for the little girl who wishes she had super powers, and her emo brother who is too noble to save himself. I just watched Klaus murder 500 innocent people when he threw a giant monster into a skyscraper, now I'm expected to feel sorry for a little girl who doesn't feel adequate?

Better yet, the entire story conveniently becomes centered on these moody teens, and saving the world becomes a matter of inspiring them (with a super cheesy "i believe in my friends!!!" monologue) to stop being self-pitying twats long enough for the world to not end simply because they're too mopey to lift a finger.

I may be a bit too strongly opinionated, but Kekkai Sensen's evolution from Baccano-esque thrill ride to super cliche shonen crap left a bitter aftertaste. While I still think this show has immense potential to continue on as a great series, my interest will drop significantly if it doesn't go back to its strengths and start exploring the amazing world it has set up. There is so much potential for this series to really dig into any of the subplots it touched on throughout the first 10 episodes, like "Angel Scale" the mysterious super-drug, the seemingly corrupt police force patrolling the city, the source of the "blood powers" wielded by the members of Libra and the experiments that gave Klaus his incredible power, or Ulchelko the crime-boss chess wizard and the other powerful bosses of the alterworld. Anything to get more screen time in the awesome city of Hellsalem's Lot, watching Libra clown around and take down bad guys while digging into the underworld of terrible powers fueling the chaos withing the city.

I give Kekkai Sensen a 6/10 for having an awesome story with a completely unsatisfying ending. I sincerely hope that this series gets a second season, and that it taps into the huge potential of its setting rather than make a story revolving around romantic teenagers. There are a lot of loose ends that could easily make for a few season's worth of content on their own.

For a show that had so much potential, Kekkai Sensen is fairly forgettable. Its conclusion is riddled with issues, made worse by the fact that it was delayed several weeks. However, that's not to say that the series isn't somewhat enjoyable.

The first seven episodes of Kekkai Sensen are standalone stories, introducing different aspects of the show's universe. I say "introducing" because nothing is properly developed. After watching these seven episodes I can't say that I know anything about how Hellsalem's Lot works, what Libra's place in the city is, nor the extent of the powers of each character. Nevertheless, these episodes are entertaining enough, with ... plenty of action and comedy to carry the show. The characters aren't developed either, but they are still enjoyable to watch.

The problems really come to light after episode seven. For the rest of the series, there is a double episode on Zapp followed by the multi-episode finale. The Zapp episodes provide some insight into his life, but most of it is shallow and used for comedy. After that, we're at the finale without knowing much about the world of Kekkai Sensen or its characters. This makes it very difficult to understand or even care about what's at stake. The finale drags on with the tone changing constantly, making everything feel jarring.

There are many ways that Kekkai Sensen could have addressed these problems. The simplest would be expanding to a 26 episode series allowing time to develop characters. Another idea would be to use those early episodes to focus more on character development, taking away some of the time spent on comedy. Or, they could have begun the ongoing story leading up to the finale earlier. Either way, what the series ended up doing was falling short of all of these ideas.

Nevertheless, I still would recommend that fans of action comedies should give this anime a go, at least for the first nine episodes. The action is entertaining and there are plenty of jokes throughout. Visually it is nice to see the unique designs of monsters and the animations for the characters' fighting moves. The OP and ED is also pretty fantastic. However, I wouldn't recommend that anyone bother with the final three episodes as they are a waste of time.

I'd give the first nine episodes a 7/10, while the last three would be a 3/10.

I really really liked this anime. First off, it's set in New York but like New York with monsters which is super cool. Since it's set in New York the setting is very urban, and since I'm from a very urban area it was very refreshing and cool setting to have. The music is amazing as well. It has a very R&B and jazzy feel to it which I absolutely loved. The character designs are beautiful, I love the design of Leonardo's eyes. The powers the characters have are very cool as well. I highly recommend this anime ... it is one of my favorites. :D

I wasn't a fan of action type series. But, Kekkai Sensen caught my attention.

At first, I was listening to soundtracks of the show without any kind of knowledge about the show. Hello, world and Sugar Song to Bitter Step were two of my favorites up to this very moment and after watching the series, it made me realize that the use of the soundtracks are superb and really catches up to the mood of the scene. The New York vibe, the feels type, etc.

Story of Kekkai Sensen is pretty common. You have your main character who is an average human with a different kind of ... power that can help a certain team. He isn't the most powerful dude but can he is a game-changer. The mix of comedy and drama is a check.

The art style is in sync with the sound. Pretty detailed style and I like flashy colors (lel). This is actually the first anime where I watched from the beginning to the end just because of the animations used (especially the ending, that dance was pretty amazing).

Characters. Leo is a rare type MC. Pretty humble dude with an amazing power. He's one of my favorite characters of the Spring season (8man). Original anime characters weren't actually a big hit to a lot of people, but White and Black may be the firsts. The addition of both characters were pretty good to be honest.

As for enjoyment, I loved the series as a whole. It's a pretty cool anime and what catches your attention would be the sound and the characters. And, that's it for my review.

Baccano! fans, this show is for you!

Trigun fans, you'll probably greatly enjoy this show, but it's not the same, so don't go in expecting a protagonist who's Vash's spiritual successor (same mangaka).

Art: The animation by studio Bones is wonderful. Bones is one of those studios where, no matter how long their shows are, you can always expect a certain level of quality in their work. Sakgua is not a rarity. Though my favorite part of the art and animation would be the way Leo's eyes look. Mostly because the blue-glow and mechanized look are pretty much perfectly combined and the colors all contrast perfectly ... to make the eyes pop and draw attention (a perfect explanation as to why Leo where's goggles).

Sound: The music is definitely brilliant. One of my favorite OSTs ever. The jazzy music for the more fun scenes and some more emotional pieces. It does a good job of filling the silence. The OP is amazing, as is the ED. Both dubs are really good and most every character is perfectly cast. Leo's English voice actor has a slightly shaky start (Aron Dismuke: Alphonse Elric (Original FMA), Lucifer/Urushihara (The Devil is a Part-Timer)) but after an episode or two he really gets the hang of his role. Zapp's ENG voice is HILARIOUS and J Michael Tatum does a great job as Stephen. Plus, we have Micah Solusod (Yukine (Noragami), Soul (Soul Eater), Gakushu Asano (Assassination Classroom)) playing the main villain.

Story: The story can be confusing at times. And sometimes it's just like... what? Though, when it's allowed to shine, it can be incredibly interesting. The story is fun when its not confusing. And the whole concept itself is interesting. And I'm kinda a sucker for stories that take place in NYC.

Characters: The characters are pretty great. Leo reigns as king. And they all have pretty great chemistry together. They play off each other well and their interactions all seem natural and like this is all a completely normal occurrence. I give this category an 8 as opposed to a nine mostly because Gilbert (who has a moderate sized role in the manga) has almost zero screen time as well as Zed, who isn't unlikable, he just wasn't really in the show for long enough for me to really get attached to him. Also, Brody and Hummer is an extremely compelling character(s) and he/they doesn't really get much focus.

Though, I give this category an eight as opposed to a lower score is because of the way Libra functions after Leo joins. One of my favorite dynamics in the series is that between him and the rest of his teammates/friends. This is mainly because Leo is a wimp. He's physically weak, he's small, he's shrimpy, and he looks like a little kid (being told that he looks to young to be hanging out in an underground fighting ring). Because of this, he is unable to really defend himself or get in fights. Because of this he has to rely on his teammates to protect him and save him when he gets himself kidnapped (like, four times in 12 episodes, seriously). Despite this, his teammates also rely on him to find vampires and their names for them so they even stand a chance of defeating them because of his magic eyes. This mutual dependency is what makes Leo's presence in Libra both explained and hilarious when he get caught in insane fights between his teammates and other monsters.

Final: This show is SO MUCH FUN. And I definitely recommend checking it out. You'll probably have fun!

I don't do many review so Don't judge me lol

Story : 9/10 Basically think of it as a world with human and demons getting along side by side. Sure their are some bad people in the world of nyc their but the action is awesome

Sound and Art 10/10 the opening and ending song are amazing they match the tone to this anime. The visual/ animation are amazing it really make you think your watching an anime from 2007 but its not lol

Overall 10/10 This show is funny , has alot of action and has its sad moment if your a person who in ... to all of this i highly recommend this anime

Wow. What a roller coaster ride. There's so much you could say about a series like this, but it really only does it justice to watch it. If you're ready to take a plunge into the heart of hope and madness, then you've found the right anime. The experimental animation style, the disjointed storytelling, the surreal setting, and the atmospheric music really hold the viewer in sway, and allow this anime to accomplish the crazy immersion that it is able to. And the story, though more or less pretty straight-forward, is really able to free-fall through the themes and motifs that the plot throws at ... you thanks to the movement these components provide. And, while these disparate parts might seem unrelated at first, the story really does seem to manage to glue them all together. Suffice it to say that, by the end, you will be bewildered, intrigued and a bit dizzy, but, as everything comes full circle, you'll also be left with the brave uncertainty, and the catharsis that comes with, what I like to call, "a thematically perfect ending."

This Review won't contain any spoilers.
Kekkai Sensen was a show I was really looking forward to, it was one of those anime which took a lot from the west in it's style and setting and shows like that (for example Baccano! Bebop etc) tend to be some of my favourite shows. This show unfortunatley failed to deliver on substance, it had a lot of style, but without character depth and a coherent story line this show ultimatly fell flat.

Story (3/10)
Nothing about the premise is bad, the story looks like it can go in interesting directions and the place it is set has a lot of ... potential, but the story falls flat in the way it is written and presented.

The story never felt coherent, it is always jumping around, cutting here and there which made the show feel very jarring. That unfortunately isn' the only thing wrong with how it is told, it is also badly written with little to no explanation of what's going on and why a characters is doing something, in short the plot is very convoluted . I think this lack of explanation and all the jumping around wouldn't be so bad if the story wasn't important to this show. Some of the episodic stories get along fine because it is self contained and you could just get along with enjoying the action/comedy.

But neither of these aspects where strong enough on their own to make this show very good and towards the end when they try and focus on the story more, it just made the show worse as it just becomes even more blatant how poorly written it was.

Characters (4/10)
The characters to this anime all have great design, they all look bad ass with cool clothes and personalities, they are all fun to watch. My main problem is that this anime just gives them style, they are really cool, but there is no substance to them, there is little to no development and only a small amount of characterisation. This is true for all the characters unfortunately, I don't think there is an exception to this.

For a specific example let's take the main protagonist Leornado who was a pretty generic and uninteresting character as he didn't have much too him and he was useless for most of the series. The only thing interesting about him to me was his eyes and not his character, it was the fact that he had his mystical eyes which made him special. My point with this is that of course you can have an average Joe get powers, that in itself could be relatable but this trait defined him too much simply because he had no personality, no depth, no development there wasn't much to him at all, he is completly forgetable and the only thing significant thing is just the fact that he had special eyes.

I feel this is the same case with the rest of the cast, they have a bit more energy and life to them than the MC, but the show didn't do anything with them. They felt stagnant and had little to them for the whole show and they were defined by only a few personality traits.

Sound/Animation (8/10, 8/10)
The show has a brilliant opening and ending, in fact the ending to this anime is probably one of my favourites, I very rarely even sit through an ending let alone look forward to when it's played. The OST for the show was really good aswell, it plays a huge variety of classic and iconic songs aswell as its own orignals, and it all fitted with the scenes for the most part and I felt they did add to the experience making what was going on screen better because of the music. The sound track to me was the most well done part of the series.

The Animation looked very good aswell, it was one of the better animated series in the spring season. On a more general basis I wouldn't rank the animation as a amazing as I wouldn't say the animation ranks with the top animated series I have seen, but the animation was top notch and as far as I can tell pretty consistent (I am bad at noticing quality drops though).

Enjoyment (4/10)
It has a lot of cool and crazy action and an awesome sound track but the mess which is the plot did ruin my enjoyment of the series. This series also did have comedy moments, but I wouldn't consider many funny, i only remember laughing to the pizza scene in episode 2, the rest of the time it tried to pull comedic moments wasn't that great and I felt it took me out of the moment, especially in the last episode where the MC was supposed to be trying to save the city, yet they would pull some comedic scenes which would ruin the mood.
I did enjoy watching this at times but it had too many things dragging it down for me to really enjoy it, it had its moments, but they where just moments, I didn't enjoy the majority of the show.

Conclusion (5/10)
As said before this is a style no substance show, it has awesome designs, settings and sound, but a messy plot with no character depth. Which is a shame as with all the style this show had I wish it could of done more with it. In my opinion I would skip this show, it just isn't worth your time, it had potential but it turned out to be mediocre.

I've watched a lot of anime and enjoyed a lot but nothing really compares to Kekkai Sensen for me. I watched it late 2015 and ever since then I've fallen in love with its world and characters. Studio Bones did an amazing job at adapting this series with its fantastic animation and nice pacing for the most part.

The soundtrack for this series is amazing too, even if you didn't enjoy this series you gotta admit it has an amazing OST. And the ending theme, Sugar Song to Bitter step is very iconic and recognizable to all anime fans!!

This series does have 2 anime ... original characters which is the best use of adding anime original characters that I have seen yet. It makes the story flow much better! Props to the team who added them in!

If you liked Baccano or Bungo Stray Dogs give this one a watch for sure!! The vibes are very similar to both of those series.

10/10 from me.

VERY MINOR SPOILERS

Kekkai Sensen, also known as Blood Blockade Battlefront, is a manga series that began serialization way back in 2009. It just recently got an adaptation heralded by the studio Bones right when the manga came to an end in the same year of 2015. The mangaka of Kekkai Sensen is Yasuhiro Nightow – the mind and ink behind the apocalyptic ‘Trigun’. Yes. Motherfratotooing TRIGUN!

Now you’d be expecting this to a perfect anime. Or a close 9. Or just very bad. I don’t know. Did you like Trigun? I loved it. Most people I know and the internet adore it too. Certainly Kekkai Sensen ... should be in the same league, no? Well… It depends on you.

Kekkai Sensen is a vastly different (but somewhat similar at the ending) show than Trigun. If I were to liken it to another anime, I’d say it would be in the same category as ‘Baccano!’ and ‘Durarara!!’ Then the question rises: is it just as marvelously bloody wonderful as Baccano?

It’s certainly bloodier but not as wonderful.

You see, Baccano! excels at throwing out seemingly random acts and masterfully strings them together for a phenomenal conclusion where almost all ends are tied (what doesn’t get knot is done so in the OVA) and everything is explained. Kekkai Sensen goes the same route but it just leaves a lot of very important questions unaddressed, let alone unexplained, and also tacks on a forced emotional over-arching plot getting act upon in the last 3 episodes, which is apparent from around the 3rd episode, that just raises the number of queries instead of answering what’s happened before leading up to it.

Now I don’t whether the manga tries to go for the same over-arching plot or not. Apparently the anime has only adapted 12 chapters of 33 of the manga and went with an anime-original ending. That isn’t really much of an excuse. There are issues elsewhere as well.

The world of Kekkai Sensen which is a unique supernatural New York City is just wonderful and is a great foundation for many extremely interesting events. Even thought the world had me intrigued and made me hunger for more stuff happening in it, the actual world-building is less than satisfactory. How it was made it only addressed a paltry few times and never given exposition. The creatures that crossed over from the ‘Beyond’ to New York City are just… creatures. They are very different than the traditional monsters we see in other stories and are not given any background information.
Take for example, vampires. They suck blood and hate sunlight. In Kekkai Sensen they can not only go walk a for lovely dawn-time walk but can also destroy the world if just a few of them gather together to do so. But, they don’t. They are viciously evil and the MC even yells in one episode that they will fuck shit up if nothing is done. A brief battle between the MC’s boss and two vampires later the THOUSANDS of vampires hiding just to attack is merely dismissed as an afterthought. What?

That’s not the only problem. Pretty much all of the characters have no background. Other than the MC and the two ‘main’ plot characters (Black and White) only Zeff, the comic relief, is somewhat fleshed out – in the most ‘just throw it out there’ manner possible. And how the characters (mainly the Libra members – MC’s organization)

Up till now, I’ve dissed Kekkai Sensen. That must mean it’s a bad show, right? NOPE. Despite all the major flaws, Kekkai Sensen is still a high quality show.

The show is mainly episodic with a few minutes of over-arching plot advancement in each episode. Where do the other 15+ minutes go? Well, they go into the hilarious everyday hijinks and battle tendencies of the diverse cast. I laughed out loudly at Kekkai Sensen’s ingenious comedy. The combat is just as clever too. It’s not high-power Fate-ish fighting but it certainly has quality visual flair akin to that of ‘Kill la Kill’.

The Baccano! approach really works well for Kekkai Sensen. If it just had focused more on the world and characters’ interactions with it and each other than the badly handled and poorly written ‘main’ plot, then Kekkai Sensen would have been a top-notch anime. I suspect that the many things left unanswered are for a second season but I also don’t think that that is likely as Bones rarely does 2nd seasons. It’s also a pain that the anime has an original plotline (and new characters) so you can’t continue from the manga either. Such a shame.

The animation is a mixed bag. Sometimes it’s great and sometimes you’re left wondering if some episodes had budget cuts. This only goes for non-backgrounds; the backgrounds are actually superb with great color contrast and heavy detailing. The character designs are more or less good, I guess. The direction is where the magic happens. Sharp and curious camera angles, surprising scene transitioning, and fluid movement ensures that the fluctuation animation is at least kept interesting.

The music of Kekkai Sensen is on point. The rock-ish Opening grows on you and when it’s a healthy adult, you’ll be chanting “Hello doumo boku wa kokooooooooooooooooooooooooo” (Hello world, here I am) along with it. The Ending song is a downright marvelous kind of jazzy tune you won’t be able to get enough of (I hope). Plus, the show’s cast dances in it! The background music is just as great as these and ranges from smooth jazz to blues and then to a diner’s jukebox selection of old songs to finally classical music when the finale nears.

In terms of enjoyment, Kekkai Sensen is a 9 out of 10 for me. But as a show where I have to judge all of it’s flaws and decide fairly for the sake of those reading this review the score will be a 7 out 10 with me saying that shit’s highly recommended, yo.