Kekkai Sensen (Blood Blockade Battlefront)

Supersonic monkeys, vampires, talking fishmen, and all sorts of different supernatural monsters living alongside humans—this has been part of daily life in Hellsalem's Lot, formerly known as New York City, for some time now. When a gateway between Earth and the Beyond opened three years ago, New Yorkers and creatures from the other dimension alike were trapped in an impenetrable bubble and were forced to live together. Libra is a secret organization composed of eccentrics and superhumans, tasked with keeping order in the city and making sure that chaos doesn't spread to the rest of the world.

Pursuing photography as a hobby, Leonardo Watch is living a normal life with his parents and sister. But when he obtains the "All-seeing Eyes of the Gods" at the expense of his sister's eyesight, he goes to Hellsalem's Lot in order to help her by finding answers about the mysterious powers he received. He soon runs into Libra, and when Leo unexpectedly joins their ranks, he gets more than what he bargained for. Kekkai Sensen follows Leo's misadventures in the strangest place on Earth with his equally strange comrades—as the ordinary boy unwittingly sees his life take a turn for the extraordinary.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

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Background

Kekkai Sensen adapts a select 12 chapters from the first 6 volumes of the manga it is based on while adding a new plotline and characters, culminating in an anime-exclusive ending. Aside from the first episode which adapts the three-chapter pilot, each episode adapts one chapter.

Episodes 1 and 2 were previewed at a screening at Odaiba Cinema Mediage in Tokyo on March 21, 2015. Regular broadcasting began on April 5, 2015. The final episode was originally scheduled to broadcast on July 4, 2015, but was delayed to October 4, 2015.

Episode Videos

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Related Anime

Adaptation:	Kekkai Sensen
Summary:	Kekkai Sensen: Soresaemo Saitei de Saikou na Hibi
Side story:	Kekkai Sensen: Ousama no Restaurant no Ousama
Sequel:	Kekkai Sensen & Beyond

More characters

Characters & Voice Actors

Watch, Leonardo

Main

Sakaguchi, Daisuke
Japanese

von Reinherz, Klaus

Main

Koyama, Rikiya
Japanese

Renfro, Zapp

Main

Nakai, Kazuya
Japanese

Sumeragi, Chain

Supporting

Kobayashi, Yuu
Japanese

Macbeth, Mary

Supporting

Kugimiya, Rie
Japanese

Macbeth, William

Supporting

Kugimiya, Rie
Japanese

Starphase, Steven A.

Supporting

Miyamoto, Mitsuru
Japanese

Sonic

Supporting

Uchida, Yuuma
Japanese

Amagranoff Luozontam Ouv Lee Nej

Supporting

Ootani, Ikue
Japanese

O'Brien, Zed

Supporting

Midorikawa, Hikaru
Japanese

More staff

Staff

Cook, Justin

Producer

Amano, Naoki

Producer

Furuya, Daisuke

Producer

Hashimoto, Ryuu

Producer

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Opening Theme

"Hello, world!" by BUMP OF CHICKEN (eps 2-11)

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Ending Theme

	1: "Hello, world!" by BUMP OF CHICKEN (eps 1)
	2: "Sugar Song to Bitter Step (シュガーソングとビターステップ)" by Unison Square Garden (eps 2-12)

Reviews

Apr 27, 2015

Pman1994

Recommended

For those who have long awaited for a reboot for Trigun... you are going to have to wait a little longer. Until then you can watch Yasuhiro Nightow's other manga get adapted in what I am sure is going to be the best anime of the season that feels like the spiritual successor of Trigun. Kekkai sensen aka Blood Blockade Battlefront.

story and character 8/10: the story itself is not very complex. it can be simply put as an organization of super-powered people fighting against disorder in New York which has now turned into supernatural zone between the underworld and the real world that has been ... renamed Jerusalums Lot. What makes the story so good however is the execution. the way it goes about episode by episode is definitely not textbook "Monster of the week" type predictable battles where they have to simply find some weakness that was only apparent to the main character. There really is a lot of variety to this show as there are many important antagonists that shaped the way that Jeruselums lot functions. Its story telling style is a lot like Baccano or Durarara where there isn't really a main character and more of a main cast of characters to tell the story it presents. The characters in the story at the moment have not fully developed at the moment of writing so ill hold off on that till the end of the show. the character designs are unique and well done as are the plethora of background "beyondians". The show uses naming conventions that are similar to Trigun that seem so stupid for characters that they somehow end up being cool and memorable like Zap Renfro or steven starphase. Overall the entire cast is solid.

Art and sound : 10/10: The artwork and animation in this show is too impressive to put to words. studio Bones went all out to really capture the setting of new york overrun by supernatural beings with such great detail while also giving all of their effort the extremely well animated and over the top action scenes. this is partly due to the director of Kyousou Giga, Rie Matsumoto using extremely interesting and stylistic camera angle choices and overlays to better convey a scene or simply keeping things interesting even when its simply characters doing some exposition. On the topic of sound I am currently waiting for the whole soundtrack to be released as I haven't heard a ost this good that incorporates jazz music since Kids on the slope. The musical composer Taisei Iwasaki is just starting out with making music for kekkai sensen so he is one to keep an eye out for in the future, the Implementation of the music in the anime is also well done as there are never times when the music feels out of place. there are no complaints on the voice acting however there is a small issue at hand with this series when it comes to audio. This show almost demands an english dub simply because of the setting they are in and that during certain moments of exposition it is almost impossible to keep track of everything all at once in an episode in one go requiring multiple re-watches to get all of it and naturally hearing it in a dubbed version would alleviate this problem.

Overall: 9/10: This show has the artistic flair and character writing to shine and each element of the show embodies the theme of what made New York City an ideal melting pot of cultures and ideas from a diverse cast of characters to many different genres of music (with jazz being the most used) to the diverse population of monsters and super-humans and diverse stories they tell. this show is a definite must-watch this season

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Dec 16, 2015

ktulu007

Mixed Feelings

Kekkai Sensen is an ongoing manga from Nightow Yasuhiro, you may know him as the creator of Trigun. The manga started in 2009, but it didn't receive an anime adaptation until this year. The anime was handled by Bones, a Studio that has a pretty strong track record as far as their works I've reviewed go. Will this be up to their usual standards? Let's delve into it.

Story:

Our story opens in Hellsalem's Lot, formerly New York formerly New Amsterdam. The old New York city was destroyed by a portal opening to another world and this one didn't even have the good grace to ... have a giant squid monster. In this city, humans co-exist with all manner of strange otherworldly beings. In this city, there's a shadowy organisation called Libra dedicated to keeping the piece. Our protagonist, Leonardo Watch, encounters Libra through an odd coincidence and is given a position due to his mysterious “All-seeing eyes”Which are so strong that he doesn't even have to open his eyelids to see, apparently. The series follows several of Libra's escapades as they encounter various threats.

The biggest flaw of the series is the end. It's a disjointed mess with inadequate build up behind it, poorly attempting to tie up all of the ongoing plot points. The series also suffers a bit from tone problems. Most of the time it goes for a more over the top and fun type of aesthetic, but it also tries to have some real emotional moments. The emotional moments don't work well and come across as out of place because they're so heavily divorced from the tone of most of the series. They're simply too few in number with too vast of stretches betwixt them. There's also the narrative device of Leo writing a letter to his sister. Ultimately, it contributes nothing and exactly what parts of the series are included is unclear. It can't be the whole thing since there are a lot of scenes that he isn't in and where he just has no way of knowing what happened. The episodes also vary pretty widely. Some of them are fairly entertaining while others are just kind of dumb.

On the positive side, there are some intriguing ideas behind the series. If they had been better fleshed out, this could have been really good. The world building is pretty decent and I do like that the series tries to show some of the alien perspectives at times. Also, let me reiterate, there are some pretty good episodes thrown in.

Characters:

The characters really vary. There are some that are kind of interesting and have some depth to them, Klaus, Black, and White being the most obvious. However, most of the characters are pretty trite. Chain, Gilbert, K.K, Steven, Zed, Deldro, Dog, and a variety of other characters are just kind of there and only have a couple of very basic traits. Leo himself is kind of a boring generically nice but out of his league type of character.

Art:

The art is pretty good. The character designs are nicely varied and distinctive. The action sequences are pretty strong, although they suffer a bit from overblown attacks that have to be awkwardly labelled on-screen, and there are some really nice details both in terms of the various creatures and in terms of the backgrounds.

Sound:

The acting is all right. It can be really over the top but, for the most part, it's perfectly serviceable. The best performance definitely comes from Koyama Rikiya. Probably because his character is more subdued and doesn't really go into the exaggerated craziness mode that, say, Nakai Kazuya's character exhibits so frequently. The music is fine.

Ho-yay:

There's really not any in this series.

Final Thoughts:

There was some real potential for this series. It has some good ideas and a world with a lot of potential, unfortunately, it falls pretty short with writing and characters that are quite mediocre. My final rating is going to be a 5/10. If you're looking for an exaggerated action-oriented series, Kekkai Sensen will likely be satisfactory. But if you're looking for something with more depth to it, it's probably not going to do much for you. Next week I'll take a look at Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha Vivid.

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Oct 7, 2015

Flawfinder

Not Recommended

Sometimes, I don't get anime fans. If you've paid attention to the sales charts, you'll see that Blood Blockade Battlefront's current sales numbers are going toe-to-toe with Shirobako aka the most acclaimed and important anime series in recent times, and that just baffles me. I mean Kyoani’s own beautiful anime with believable character motivations, depth to its story, and (most importantly of all) actual challenges the characters have to overcome came out in the same season around the same time, and yet it just sold decently - which is below the studio’s usual standards. Okay fine, maybe this anime has a swanky soundtrack. Maybe it's ...

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Poll: Kekkai Sensen Episode 3 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 5 ... Last Page ) Stark700 - Apr 18, 2015	258 replies	by bucciest »» Apr 20, 2:45 PM
Poll: Kekkai Sensen Episode 12 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 5 ... Last Page ) Stark700 - Oct 3, 2015	345 replies	by PrOxAnto »» Mar 21, 7:41 AM
Poll: Kekkai Sensen Episode 4 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 ) Stark700 - Apr 25, 2015	197 replies	by PrOxAnto »» Mar 18, 7:20 AM
Poll: Kekkai Sensen Episode 1 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 5 ... Last Page ) Stark700 - Apr 3, 2015	357 replies	by PrOxAnto »» Mar 17, 7:57 AM
Kekkai sensei OP and ED are true music to me. Thank you DatajI - Mar 9	1 replies	by LENDARIO_DS »» Mar 13, 4:06 PM

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Watch, Leonardo

von Reinherz, Klaus

Renfro, Zapp

Sumeragi, Chain

Macbeth, Mary

Macbeth, William

Starphase, Steven A.

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Information

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Streaming Platforms

Synopsis

Background

Episode Videos

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Related Anime

Characters & Voice Actors

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Ending Theme

Reviews

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