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, and lolis. 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.
