Book: Black Bullet (ブラック・ブレット)
Genres: Action / Mystery / Sci-Fi
[PLOT]
Set in a dystopian, virus-ridden near future, Black Bullet depicts humanity’s struggle against the parasitic Gastrea, creatures terrorizing the human race and spreading the highly-contagious Gastrea virus.
To counter the threat of Gastrea, colossal monoliths made of Varanium have been erected around the remains of civilisation to prevent the approach of Gastrea. However, despite the monoliths, there are rare instances when Gastrea are able to surpass the barriers and invade the towns within.
Enter the Civil Security Corporation, the organisation formed for the control and regulation of Gastrea attacks. The Corporation forms teams consisting of one Promoter and one Initiator, who are sent to subjugate the invading Gastrea. The Promoter is responsible for battle strategy, whereas the Initiator, a Cursed Child, is in charge of combat. A Cursed Child refers a young female, infected with the Gastrea virus, which possesses heightened or even superhuman abilities, ranging from close combat to marksmanship.
Starring the calm and level-headed Promoter Satomi Rentarou and his Initiator, the bubbly and agile ten-year old Aihara Enju, Black Bullet revolves around the pair whose job is to counter the threat of Gastrea.
[REVIEW]
On the surface, Black Bullet is essentially a series targeted towards shounen to seinen, given that its content depends heavily on cute, young girls fighting monstrous creatures also known as Gastrea. As with many other series targeted towards said audience, light-hearted comedy ensues in spite of the story’s evidently dark and post-war setting; the characters do benefit from the occasional change of pace, from fast-paced combat to a more relaxed and casual daily school life setting. Inevitably, this seems to be where majority of Black Bullet’s relief from fighting takes place, with moments of comedy and fan-service condensed so as to satisfy the young male demographic.
That said, Black Bullet does still do what it says on the box. Action and combat scenes are depicted cleanly and consistently, offering high-adrenaline fighting sequences to give the viewer a sense of being on the battlefield itself. For the most part, fights take place between the series’ protagonists and various enemies aiming to conquer the post-apocalyptic Earth, and not solely Gastrea. This helps to ensure Black Bullet does not turn stale as quickly and gives the reader something to look forward to.
Nevertheless, some might feel that Black Bullet does regrettably struggle to set itself apart from other titles in a widely-explored, albeit repetitive, genre such as action. Fans of the genre can tell you that “a world where the human race is devastated by a new superior species”, be it aliens or parasites such as Gastrea, is a commonly used backbone of many action novels (see Attack on Titan, Guilty Crown, Noragami etc). Predictably then, Black Bullet does therefore rely heavily on its “young girls fighting our battles for us” theme to distinguish itself from an array of other dystopian combat series.
Story: 7/10
As stated above, Black Bullet does seem rather reminiscent of other apocalyptic action series. It does thankfully stand out due to its use of adorable lolis though.
Art: 9/10
Clean and crisp art, with fight scenes being quite well-paced and exciting. Animation quality is also very consistent and is generally eye-candy. Especially if you're someone who likes adorable lolis, which is like, everyone. :shot:
Sound: 7/10
Voice acting and music are well done and consistent, although the music does get a little repetitive at times. Plus Hidaka Rina is your female lead. Instant win.
Character: 7/10
Not as much character development as compared to the light novel, which could have been expected, honestly. You still get a sense of each character being an individual and not just a copy off some other shounen manga though. And pretty much everyone but Rentarou is very likeable. Not that having another protagonist who always wins is a bad thing.
Enjoyment: 8/10
Very enjoyment, er, enjoyable. Black Bullet fulfils its job as an action series while boasting fantastic art and great voice acting. Plus lolis. Did I mention lolis?
Overall: 8/10
All in all, while I feel that Black Bullet might not be the most unique output of the “action” genre, it does hold its own niche as a child-combat anime/ novel. It does also deliver on the action as promised. Comedic relief used here and there during downtime from fighting prevents the story from crumbling into a dark, overly-negative mess, which is greatly appreciated due the fact that Black Bullet is, after all, a series targetted towards seinen, and to an extent shounen. Black Bullet's tried-and-tested story allows it to be a very enjoyable series. And while I may have spoken highly of the sereis' loli aspect earlier, I do feel that Black Bullet is the kind of series which can be enjoyed even if lolis aren't your thing.
