In the year, 2021, Mankind has been decimated by a virus called Gastrea. This virus, when infecting humans, causes them to turn into giant beasts of many different species that feed on flesh of human beings. In order for the remainder of the human race to stay safe from these mutated creatures, they must live in a wall made of varanium monoliths, a metal used to combat the Gastrea beasts. Soon children that were born with the virus, yet are able to control it and have superpowers, were discovered. (For some reason, these cursed children can only be female and seem to peak at the age of 10…more on that later..) Within the ten years after the virus hit, a team called Civil Securities have been formed to fight against the Gastrea with the Initiator (the cursed child) and the Promoter (who leads the cursed child). Now it’s up to our main protagonist, Rentaro Satomi, and his Initiator, Enju Aihara, to be put on a mission to prevent the destruction of Tokyo.
The fact that the description above was explained in the last three minutes of the first episode shows that this show is hell bent on covering a lot of detail as fast as possible. The problem is that it ever seems to slow down. If the viewer falls behind, eventually that viewer will fall completely out of the loop. Thus, the experience gets frustrating. Those that do succeed in catching up are so focused on paying attention to all the details that they’ll end up not feeling as impacted by the moments that are meant to be impacting. An example of this happens in episode four, when a character, who played a key role in the first arc, dies. Not only was there nothing building up to it (she was discovered severely injured and had her life ended coup de grace) but the plot had to move along quickly, so there was no time to dwell on that tragedy. In fact, the following episodes almost indicated that she never existed. Every episode is like that. For the most part, no time is left to reflect on the characters due to the absurdly fast pace the story is moving and the large amounts of boring info-dump scenes in between every fight scene.
The best part of the story, however are the themes of the show. As mentioned before, children that have these Gastrea powers are known as “cursed children”. While some of them work as Initiators to defend humanity from the Gastrea, others are ostracized from society due to the fear that they might go berserk and kill people with their tremendous power. So the girls usually keep their identity hidden or they have no place to go (even parents would abandon them).
The girls that are Initiators have their own problems. Some of them, like Enju, are treated like normal children when they’re not fighting giant monsters. However, some Promoters (the adults that works with the Initiators) treat their Initiators as tools, completely denying their humanity. Rentaro, who is the Promoter that looks after Enju, believes that all these girls aren’t evil by nature and should all be cared for instead of being used or neglected based on their genetic traits. Sadly, he can’t create that perfect world alone. He even goes out of his way to make small school for the cursed children, at one point, only for it to result in tragic consequences. This is the sole human element of Black Bullet that was bound to resonate with the viewer. No child, no matter what they were born with or into, should have their human rights denied.
That theme should’ve been what could bring the show over the hump from being an average show to a good show. However, the writers managed to mess even that part up. It wasn’t just the rushed and clumsy pacing that caused the emotional involvement of the viewer to be nonexistent. It was the portrayal of the cursed children. It seems like the original author of the source material (Black Bullet was adapted from a light novel) was so insecure about his writing that he felt as if the only way for the reader to feel engaged was to appeal to otaku and lolicons. What was so wrong about having little boys as cursed children as well? That wouldn’t have changed the focus at all. In fact, it probably would have made it an even bigger focus. Here’s the thing: that may not have been the focus at all. This is where the writing shows its biggest weaknesses.
Starting with Enju, she seems like a spunky, playful girl that’s poised and confident when it matters. While that can make her a very cool character, this ten year old girl also talks about wanting to fully consummate a relationship with Rentaro. She’ll flirt with him by saying naughty things to him, seduce him by trying to sleep with him or get him to take a bath with her, etc. She seems very much aware of what she’s saying while also being petite, playful, and wearing twin-tails. That just reeks of lolicon bait. A lot of girls are portrayed differently but with the same idea in mind. At the final arc of the show, four Promoters and their Initiators form a team for the final battle. That team of Initiators consists of Enju, Yuzuki (the token tsundere), Midori (a shy neko loli), and Tina Sprout (an initially lethargic girl with very little awareness that the collar of her PJs always slips off and exposes her shoulder). There are other girls in the show that are usually portrayed in similar fashion. If they don’t have personalities catering to an otaku’s specific tastes, they at least have an uninspired loli/moe based design and personality. If this was just your run-of-the-mill lolicon/otakucentric romantic comedy that wasn’t meant to be taken seriously, it could just be treated as stupid fun at best. However this show takes itself seriously and wants the audience to feel empathy for these girls. However, these aren’t realistically written characters. They’re fetishy, otakucentric stereotypes designed to cater to a specific audience for the most part. Therefor, it makes it a fantasy. Therefor, all logic gets tossed out the window. Therefor, those that are disgusted by it won’t give a damn about the characters.
There is a question I would ask to all the lolicons that did like the show. How can you care about the welfare of these prepubescent girls if you’re also having sexual fantasies about them? You can’t possibly do both. How can this show be sensitive about all the abuse and neglect these girls go through if they’re also throwing in lolita jokes and portraying them as lolicon bait. The show can’t do both. It’s the way these girls are depicted that severely undermine the story to the point that even the most serious of moments feel hollow.
The way the other characters are written aren’t any better. Rentaro always means well, striving for justice and doing the right thing. Other than his intense emotion and zeal, that’s all there is to his character. Maybe that’s why so many girls, young and old, like him so much… What seemed interesting was his witnessing his parents dying in the first scene of episode one. It would’ve been nice to know more about his back-story to help flesh out his character. The same can be said about everyone else. Kisara is essentially Rentaro’s boss and childhood friend. She certainly plays the “childhood friend” anime character very well too. She has big boobs, she’s badass, and she has a secret crush on Rentaro (because of course she would, silly readers). Other characters seem to come off as either creepy low-lives or stereotypes that don’t seem to mean much in the grand scheme of things. Therefore, they’re not worth talking about. There is one consistent villain that did seem very interesting. The villain, Kagetane, was also a Promoter with his own daughter, Kohina, as his Initiator. However, he has his own ideas about saving the world and that is too destroy and rebuild. He disappeared for several episodes and then reappeared near the end. Even he didn’t get much explained about him and there seemed to be so much more to explain about his character and his daughter. Everything about this Black Bullet screams “wasted potential” so far.
The art is uninspired, with the exception of how some of the Gastrea monsters are designed. More imagination on how these monsters look, which are basically mutated forms of different animals, seemed to have been utilized more. Character designs themselves seem to look the same as every other anime but that’s probably the point. It’s trying to be safe and appeal to otaku, after all.
The animation, on the other hand, is superb. There was a lot of passion being put into the rendering the action scenes especially and if there is any reason to watch the show, it’s the fun factor regarding said scenes. It’s not always consistent, however. The frame rate does tend to slow down significantly when characters are talking each others ear off to transparently explain the plot to the viewer.
The music also made the show entertaining to watch with electronica techno beats with chamber choirs to build up the intensity of the fight scenes. The opening theme (by FripSide) and the ending theme (by Yanagi Nagi) were all animated and performed with a lot passion, despite being made for a show with passionless content.
The voice acting was effective as well, with only one stand-out. Despite the shallow character that Rentaro was, Yuki Kaji (best known as Eren Yeager from Attack On Titan) did well to emote his voice and bring out the most of his character. He had every opportunity to sound like the standard anime hero but he did everything he could to bring out the intense emotion that made Rentaro seemingly interesting.
It would be harsh to call this show a beautifully disturbing waste of time, but that’s what it is. With the premise and the ideas it had in place, it could’ve been more than worthwhile watch with enough crossover potential to make this even a hit on Toonami. But with the lolicon/otaku pandering, the terrible writing, and the overall desire to restrict it’s audience to the safest areas possible instead of being ambitious makes this show disappointing and unable to be taken seriously or get emotionally invested in it. It’s a shame the story wasn’t pitched to a better writer. It’s sad to say that whoever wrote Black Bullet needs to start from scratch. But first, he would need to know how to write better before attempting something too ambitious again.
