Before I ever watched it, I thoroughly read through a lot of reviews, nearly all who proclaimed it to be an overall mediocre show. This drastically lowered my expectations and I almost never watched it, but i just couldn't get passed the idea of the whole promoter/initiator partners concept. So I gave it a shot. Looking back now I actually wonder if I saw the same show as everyone else. Not to say anyone's opinion was wrong, I was just so impressed with Black Bullet that I didn't see the drastic negatives many others did.
The story takes place about 16 years or so in the future, in a world where humanity has been exiled into small safe territories by evil creatures called the Gastrea. The story focuses on Rentaro, a young civil officer who's job it is to fight and kill gastrea that manage to make their way into the Tokyo Area. His partner is a young girl named Enju, who is known as a "Cursed Child", which is a child born of a woman who was injected/impregnated with the venom of a gastrea. A new powerful Gastrea threat appears and both Rentaro and Enju, along with many others, must work together to prevent human extinction.
Just to get it out of the way,
Animation quality: I thought it was great. so yeah. the dark colors emphasized the dark intense atmosphere of the anime.
Music: good (mostly in terms of its intense OP and beautiful ED)
The plot as a whole, although some could argue it bears a resemblance to Attack on Titan, is actually very unique and interesting. I don't think this story can't be categorized as simply as "humans vs Gastrea" because one major conflict throughout the show is the relationship between normal people and the Cursed Children. Now even though along side human partners it's the cursed children who are risking their lives to kill gastrea, they aren't accepted by society because they have gastrea blood in them. The general public treat them cruelly, and don't allow them to be a part of normal society. This bodes the question for the viewer "who really are our main protagonists fighting for? Is this even worth it?" it provides emotional and mental conflict for both the characters and us viewers, and that makes the story that much better. Although the anime is very serious and... sad, it has it's light air of relief comedy in the relationship between Rentaro and Enju and other cursed children, who all want to marry him, which is adorable (because it's not meant to be taken seriously by the viewer, if you do, then you're watching the show wrong... it's not a loli harem). It's very enjoyable.
One unfortunate negative thing to point out is the plot did feel a little rushed, which I wish wasn't the case. I think some things could have been more properly elaborated on and explained. What would have made this show better to me is if it had been say 22-24 episodes spanning this exact same plot line. Then the pacing at times wouldn't have felt so rushed and information you need to know wouldn't have felt sort of thrown in your face at times. Do I think that messed up the anime as a whole? nah. It just prevented us from being able to further appreciate the story.
As a whole I genuinely thoroughly enjoyed this anime specifically due to it's interesting and heartbreaking action packed plot and it's plethora of unique and like-able characters (even the main antagonist is awesome.)
Even if it was too short to have 100% accurately adapted itself from it's light novel, I still believe Black Bullet is worth a watch. It's highly entertaining, emotionally gripping, and full of good quality action. However if you read the LN and are an absolute stickler for adaptation accuracy, then steer clear because you'll just end up all upset.
