kayden.krajcik - 2014-07-02 06:31:21

WHY'S IT GOTTA BE A BLACK BULLET HUH?

So Black Bullet is set in a post-apocalyptic world where horrid CGI bugs have conquered our normal, perfectly good 2D world with their filth. Humanity exists only in designated zones surrounded by giant monoliths made of a material these bugs (Gastrea) can't stand. 

No, that doesn't sound familiar, shut up.

Our main characters are a pair of civil officers, which is something inbetween a monster hunter and a private security agent if I had to describe it. The "battle-lolis" as they've been known as survivors of the initial Gastrea outbreak that have inherited their genes and gained their super-strength and regenerative powers.

I should take the time to point out that having lolis in a show isn't inherently bad or good and a show's quality is not affected in any way by their presence. 

The relationship between these cursed children and their human partners reminds me a lot of the Big Daddy/Little Sister set-up from BioShock. Just replace magic slugs with magic bugs. It's nothing new, so I don't know why everyone is bitching about it. 

You know what other show had battles with loli/shota partners? Zatch Bell. NOBODY WAS FUCKING WHINING ABOUT IT BACK THEN.

The story has the same problem that most post-apocalyptic fiction does. Where does it go in the grand scheme of things? Humanity has pretty much already lost, and any attempt to undo that kind of breaks suspension of disbelief past a certain point.

So instead the story focuses mostly on this pocket of human civilization surviving in their little safe zone and keeping the giant bugs at bay. As well as a lot of political intrigue and whatnot.

A complaint I have with the story is that the Gastrea seem like such a background element. They're only really relevant at the very beginning and very end. The middle of the show mostly deals with political schemes and civil officers fighting eachother.

This isn't a bad thing, but I do feel the show loses focus a bit. And again, it's difficult to achieve a sense of overarching plot in a setting like this. The fact that it's an incomplete adaptation doesn't help either (though the ending isn't exactly a bad one).

The show had its gut-punching moments, and they are surprisingly effective. You might expect a show like this to pull a few punches, but sometimes it can surprise you with what it does. Although there is a bit of forced drama on occasion, most of it is genuine.

It does a decent job of portraying the unease of such a society, if only in small doses. The discrimination against the cursed children is a good example. It makes sense for people to despise the products of the monsters that reduced their world to such a state. But at the same time, they are vicious towards children who ultimately mean well.

The cast is endearing but not especially well developed. This is perhaps a show I'd recommend more to casual anime fans or to newcomers to the hobby. The archetypes might seem a bit more fresh then. 

They do grow and change with the events happening around them. But it's a bit too subdued and they come across as being a tad dull. I can't describe any of their personalities in great detail. They are effective for their roles but not much else.

The art direction and visual design is fantastic. The characters are visually distinct as is the monster designs for the Gastrea. The animation is surprisingly solid for such a new studio (they've only ever done supporting animation for other studios before). A few off frames here and there, but overall fluid and consistent. 

The music is rocking. The battle themes get my blood pumping and the somber moments evoke the proper emotive responses. It's not an OST I'd listen to out of the context of the show itself, but it is very good.

This is almost a popcorn show. It's just fun to watch. Don't go in expecting anything amazing, because in the end it's a rather simple show that was just executed fairly well. 

Alternative Recommendations: Noragami|RWBY

Rewatch Value: Maybe (Based on a Yes/Maybe/No scale)

ckohler - 2014-07-02 04:23:49

I was expecting a lot. The synopsis sounded nice. Who doesn't love sci-fi? But in the end, it turned out...well, extremely disappointing. It's wrong on so many levels. I'll mention a few.

1) I don't think that you chould make a sci-fi/ action anime into 13 episodes and make it really well. Not everyone can pull that off, apparently, and Black Bullet certainly didn't. Scenes were rushed. There was hardly any room for character development. The plot was dropping. Even the climax wasn't so heightened.

2) Satomi Rentaro. Need I say more? He seemed okay at the start: typical shounen lead, but at first glance, I thought he lacked some of the annoying traits that I dislike. Or so I thought. Rentaro, for me, is an idiot, a hypocrite who's merely good with words. Seriously, he was so useless at the last episode. And he was supposed to be the main character? While everyone was saving his ass, he just stood there stupidly. For real.

I noticed that this had some Attack on Titan rip-offs: the opening song, the concept of the Monolith protecting them from the Gastrea, and so on. Probably the only thing that got me going were the initiators. Who doesn't love adorable loli girls? The other characters had a lot of potential, but I suppose they could have focused on the main guy more and decided to polish him further.

Waste of time, in my opinion. Go watch something else.

major20 - 2014-07-01 19:10:00

Are you afraid of spiders? Thought so, is that why you're watching Black Bullet, because big spiders get killed by people?

Thought so.

I thought so.

I knew it. That's why you're watching this? I knew it. I'm good at this.

So, at first, I heard of Black Bullet back in the fall, thinking "this sounds dark! I think I'll like it!" Eventually, it came out, and thought something was off about it. I liked the characters, though, so I continued to my digression.

The pacing is horrible. Episode three should have been three episodes. It was rushed beyond what we call rushed. And episode four should have been the ending. But it wasn't. It was produced to be 13 episodes. 13, and I didn't know if I would like that. I thought this would be something I would drop.

But I didn't.

I don't like how most of the antagonists are reformed and become good guys, though.

 {Spoiler} He should have KILLED Tina Sprout. I was pissed when he didn't. I like Tina, though, so I guess I got over it quickly.

After awhile, this anime was so... all over the place, that I didn't have the heart to drop it, and that at some point OMG MASSACRE. I was shocked, and from there, generally, the show got better.

Though, I was scared: scared of how it would end. "What kind of ending will this rushed to fucking highway hell have?"

I'll be honest. Suddenly, as the thirteenth episode closed, I felt intense feels. RENTARO FEELS. I didn't think I'd get RENTARO FEELS. The ending was an interesting way to end the series. I loved it. I almost cried. INTENSE RENTARO FEELS. INTENSE RENTARO FEELS HELP ME, SOMEONE.

Not a favorite, but it's better than Mahou Sensou.

So, I'll close my review with that this anime can actually be good if you give it a chance, it's just rushed to fucking highway hell, other than that, it's a nice story, in theory.

I recommend it only if you want to see spiders die. And if you like dystopian anime.

And I end with,

"Well, it could be worse, it could be Mahou Sensou."

jacklyn.turner - 2014-07-01 18:24:25

Black Bullet or how I like to call it Loli Bullet. 
It is a show that was supposed to be the new Attack On Titan, with action, aliens, mankind in danger and on the verge of extinction. But humanity has a secret weapon, an amazing weapon that will help humanity triumph against the evil Gastrea( which sounds like a stomach illness lol), and that only weapon they have is ........ lolis, yes lolis with some kind of power I didn't even care enough to get. So lets get down to business.

Story: oh my.... yes ..ammm the story is as I already said about those alien things attacking mankind for some reason, and there you have mankind fighting them. The best "weapon" humanity has is some lolis. This story had a little potential to be a good action show, but the most we got was the main character building his loli harem and flirting with other girls too. The story does not focus on the important things, most things are just "shock factor" scenes that made me cringe, the pacing was off, most things made no sense and you stop caring about the show about 10 min in the first episode(maybe even less).The lolis were oppressed or some shit cause they had this power and they were different and even if they were humanity's only hope humans still hated them? cause they could something .... ehhhh who cared for this anyway. 

2/10

Animation and Sound : good soundtrack and good opening. The animation was quite good but nothing special. The opening was done by fripSide and it had the start of the song sound similar to the Attack On Titan opening(figures). But yeah it was a nice song nothing to complain about in this section.

6/10

Characters: Alpha male, his female friend who likes him (who would have thought) and a bunch of lolis.... yes........ The characters are just copied out of a textbook, nothing original to them, no one was likable except for maybe the first villain who was ofc. human. Near the end the main character starts to acting out of character for the sake of being "badass" but it makes him look like an annoying asshole and even those who might have liked him (not disliked him) started hating him. The lolis were quite explosive characters  tho ;) . Characters die and you couldn't care less, that shows how good the characters were. 

1/10

Enjoyment : Bored to death, I wish I never watched this piece of crap. This show would have been the worst of the season if it was not for Brynhildr in the Darkness, (lucky aren't you)

0/10

Overall: A pice of poo, not worth watching, a waste of time. 

2/10

darren.dickens - 2014-06-29 02:36:02

Note: This review is written before episode 13 is aired. It's possible that E13 will be the one single thing that saves the entire show and singlehandedly increases the overall grade by the factor of 2. However, we're yet to see about that.

I won't lie. When I saw the first episode of this anime, I was hyped. One episode by one, the hype balloon deflated and, much like the main antagonists in this anime, gave in to an overwhelming sense of disappointment. However, for some strange reason, I still like it. Let's start with the basics.

Probably the first thing that you will notice is that is not a science fiction anime at all. Science behind the anime is explained very vaguely, and the show jumps into its mouth quite a few times during the story. Sci part in Sci-Fi is, compared to the Fi part, very minor. The idea, whilst good, deteriorates into a festival of nonsense by episode four, which is also arguably the point in the show which you might as well treat as a finale and not watch beyond it. After that, the story seems disjointed, sub-plots don't tie into each other and give little insight into characters or the actual Black Bullet universe.

While our main protagonist is not out hammering monsters with the aid of lolis (so, in 9 episodes out of 12), he is seducing every single woman in the show, no matter the age. There's not a single episode where Satomi is not at least somewhat involved in some harem romantic mumbo jumbo.

Labeling this as Sci-Fi is a mistake that only a politician could make. The show is obviously looking to appeal to a completely different audience and it has hurt itself in its confusion. The romance sub-plots start meddling with the main plot as well (apparently, even the new Tokyo princess has the hots for our Satomi!) to the point where it turns into a laughable harem wanna-be. Black Bullet even goes so far that it, knowingly or not, references its own, very obvious, failures in a manner that not even the biggest internet trolls would be ashamed of.

The music is average at best. I've found that the soundtrack is often intrusive and is a purpose to itself. "Epic" tracks are too "epic" and get in the way, but the occasional background track which exists to fill the gaps is decent. However, the entire purpose of this show seems to be to fill the gap, gaps made by horrendous storytelling and god-awful scripting. Voice acting is what it is.

By this point, you probably consider me insane for actually recommending this. Let's, however, look past the bad scripting, cliche quotes that not even TVTropes would recognize as "tropes" and the amount of females our main character is showered with. Let's disregard all of that and focus on the dystopian future where humanity is shattered and afraid.

This is a show that gives you a solid background to think. To see what is rotten with the humanity and how it develops in extreme conditions. It brings up valid points and the writers should at least be credited for that. Whilst the method which the idea is delivered is definitely lacking, the idea itself is worth thinking about. Scenes that shine are rare, but such scenes genuinely provoke you and make you figure out how are they related to our, current world, where we can make a change.

Finally, the two saving graces of this show (unless episode 13 is Half Life 3, a choir of 200 angels, entire truck of chocolate and the return of Jesus in one) - animation and overall enjoyment. Animation is done well, and the animators have done a good job especially considering the shit scenario they had to work with. Some scenes don't really seem like a Tokyo overrun with giant bugs, but I guess that the entire background was unclear at the time. And, to be quite honest, I did enjoy the show. Action sequences, no matter how rare they are, and no matter how dumb some parts of them are, are fun and you will not see a character do a same move more than twice. And while the show definitely goes over the board with them which severely hurts the story, the loli banter is amusing and got an honest chuckle out of me more times than I'd like to admit.

Overall, yes, despite my mixed review, consider watching this. Don't watch it for the lolis, don't watch it for serious and deep meanings (though, I'm sure you could get one even out of this show), don't watch it for deep scientific explanations or a deep story. Watch it like you'd watch Highschool of the Dead - for no logical reason except that it is fun.

kaela70 - 2014-06-20 10:33:44

Not very entertaining as I expected, loli are cute, and enjoyable that all

oconsidine - 2014-06-18 20:53:47

take your loli's and hide them from the unspeakable horrors of this evil anime at first you may think everything will be fine in this anime but let me tell you how wrong you will be!!!! Your internal rage will set your screen afire basically this anime was made to hurt lolis/kill lolis/burn lolis if you love lolis please do not watch this anime you will deeeeeeply regret it HEED MY WARNING!

hbednar - 2014-06-05 16:39:05

(Warning, this review contains some spoilers from the show) 

Black Bullet is a classic human apocaplypse show with moreorless a predictable plot line.

In the year 2021, mankind is decimated by the epidemic of Gastrea, a parasitical virus, and is forced to live within the Monoliths, which are created from Varanium: a metal wall that is able to subdue Gastrea. Soon, the "Cursed Children", children born with the Gastrea virus who are able to control it, which gives them superhuman abilities, are discovered. Due to the Gastrea virus' intervention, the Cursed Children could only be female. Civil Securities are formed to specialize fighting against Gastrea, operating with the pair of an Initiator, who are cursed children, and a Promoter, serving to lead the cursed children. Ten years after the epidemic, Rentarō Satomi, a high school student who is also a Promoter in Tendō Civil Security Agency owned by his childhood friend Kisara Tendō, along with his Initiator, Enju Aihara, receives a secret mission to prevent the Tokyo Area's destruction and world.

The main characters

Satomi Rentaro is the main character and is the promoter in the team with Enju, he's had a difficult past, which describes his goal of destroying the gastrea. He currently has a varanium eye and leg, which gives him the power that he needs to fight his countless enemies that he's made by gaining a higher ranking in the Tokyo Area.

Very very typical hero that will do anything in his power to save those close to him and destroy all the enemies or gastrea with his powers that were hidden from most of the world. Hmm, reminds me of another certain hero from another fairly recent anime.

But I wonder who.

Enju Aihara is another main character that is the initiator in the team with Rentaro, she is known as one of the "Cursed Children" in the Tokyo area. She also has lived a hard life, with no real reason to live as she lived in a world where she was discriminated against. After she met Rentaro the two bonded and soon found a deeper meaning in life, experiencing the joys in it. She has an obsession with marrying Rentaro when she's older.

Main supporting characters

Tendo Kisara is head of Tendo Civil Secuirity Corporation and is a promoter with Tina Sprout. She has shared a past with Rentaro and is a master of Tendo Sword technique. As seen in the anime, she seems to have a love-interest with Rentaro and is known by Enju for her overly ripe breasts.

From the last episode she has shown a complete character change, which was a bit of a shock. At this point she reminds me more

The average love interest for the main character. Not too much detail in her background and past, with hints here and there. There really isn't much to her besides the fact that a lot more could be added to her character.

Tina Sprout is the initiator with Kisara. She is one of the cursed children that was used for evil deeds, because it was her apparent purpose in life. She later was saved by Rentaro and joined Tendo Civil Secuirity.

Definitely one of my favorite characters of the show, for reasons that I just can't explain. Tina is a main support to this point with having more screen time than other main characters in certain episodes. With her cool head, intense action radiating, and competing with Enju she has crawled her way to one of the top characters in my mind.

The show also has numerous side characters, and other supporting characters. There are so many, since they all seem to have the same amount of screen time, so they're either categorized as other side characters, or just apart of normal plots in the show. They include Loli's, animal hybrids, and jerks, jerks in masks, friendly foes, and unusual alliances.

For me, the characters are alright, but aren't the best by any means. They seem to do a fair job with the plot, but some are rather shallow and undeveloped. The only thing that seems to hold the characters together are the different relationships they hold with Rentaro. This leads to some over-developed characters and really meaningless characters, but like I said before they're not bad, considering what the characters were meant for.

I'll admit although the plot of humanity being nearly wiped-out is overdone, the only that makes each show with this plot different is the execution. Black Bullet doesn't do a half-bad job of executing the plot. The action and action scenes are well animated and has main characters that actually have personality and emotions. Overall, the plot isn't the highlight of this show, that would go to the character relationships, because they're all built around one person, and is interesting to just see some of the actions between characters.

The story-line of the show is centered around our main characters Enju Aihara, and Rentaro Satomi. It starts off with a flash-back from Rentaro's life and then fast forwards to the future. Rentaro at this point has lost almost everything and comes up with the ultimate goal of ridding the world of Gastrea, but there are many barricades to his goal. Rentaro and Enju try to break through these problems as they rank up in their society and slowly building more power in the community.

I'll be honest the plot of this show is a bit cliche and overdone, but this show executes this plot in a way that it's still entertaining and fun to watch... or maybe I'm just a sucker for cliche anime

The pacing of Black Bullet is pretty fast paced, there are so far no filler episodes or simple relief episodes. The show to me seems kind of fast though, like there's not enough time to really feel or see what's happened. Now some of the individual episodes are paced in a much slower fashion, but are still fast enough to keep up with the plot. Personally, I thought the pacing should be kept a little slower to actual be to enjoy the action-scenes more than I already do, but pacing is a difficult thing to keep up with and is all about personal tastes, for me it should've been a bit dialed down.

The action of this show is one of it's highlights. The quality of the action takes form in violence and drama. The fight-scenes with gastrea really are something to watch because the fights take place with two people. The fight will typically start off with a zoom in at Rentaro, but then shifts angle positions at Enju in some of their fights. What's interesting about this is how balanced the scenes are. Though there are some where fights focus more on a single person, most fights will have a balanced viewpoint of both characters.

Drama is the second type of action in the show. It's usually based on tension that's held around public figures like Seitenshi. Deaths are another thing that's really focused on in the show. With some of the scenes in the drama kind of being overly-dramatic, which is what they're there for. Character relationships later build on the tension and it usually transcends itself into the first type of action, physical violence.

The action is one of the highlights of the show, and is very fluid in it's scenes. The only solid problem I have with the action scenes are the average animations, but that's for the next point.

The animations in Black Bullet could've definitely been better. For myself, I thought they were average looking, which didn't really compliment the intense action-scenes that the show uses so much. What could make the animations better is if they added some distinct style that really reflects the shows tone. Sure, you could say that the show's darker lighting is what draws out the tone, but for myself it doesn't really keep it's presence. So, the animations were average, backgrounds and all, but they weren't bad drawings. The motion of the actual animation was fairly fluid, but that stands for most shows out there today.

Sound, the music was good, and represented some of the actual scene pretty well. The OP Theme was very well suited for the show because it has the darker tone in an epic intro with a leading beat. I thought that was quite well done itself. The sounds and music in the background also suited the show quite well, because it could really show how intense a situation was, but this was overshadowed by the action. I enjoyed the music, but there were a few background music at time that really didn't suit the show.

I had mixed feelings when watching Black Bullet. Although there are some drawbacks to this show, as in what tone should I take it in. Sometimes there are fluctuation in tone, some serious, intense moments, and then there are those laid-back, easy moments, that really conflict in the show. I mean the Loli's in the show are something, they really are, there's no way to describe them, so I'll let yourself decide by letting you watch the show or if you already have. What do you think? In all Black Bullet, managed to capture my attention, and keep it there. Hopefully there will be some newer plot-twists that will add to the show, but so far it's done a good job of keeping me entertained.

More editing after the last episode. 

kkeeling - 2014-06-02 08:55:37

So far so good. Black Bullet is an anime with over-average art, a story comprised of differentiating arcs and I'm using big words to sound smart.

One thing I've noticed so far is the fast pace that Black Bullet uses. Usually anime shows take time to develop a character before killing them off, or establishes a comfortable setting before starting an ambitious battle; such as Miraii Nikki (which I've just finished) but Black Bullet's fast pacing kind of throws this off. Not that this has an overly bad impact on the anime, although it doesn't feel as comfortable.

I feel the art redeems this though. Using great art to show off kawaii lolis? brilliant! On a more serious note, Black Bullet gives a unique twist on the clique "apocalypse" setting, and the 'monsters' are more of a background/threat instead of imminent, continuous danger.

There's a philosophical element to this anime as well. Black Bullet captures well the way outsiders people are shunned within the community, and prevents Black Bullet from being a typical "I will destroy all titans!" anime. (hehehehehEHEHEHEheHEHEhEHeHE)

Summary:

art - pretty good.

story - fast paced but ok.

music: average

enjoyment: LOLIS.

torphy.charlene - 2014-05-01 08:13:54

The way it draws you in to the story with its animation and dialogues and shows you both the wonderful and the disgusting aspects of human nature is, I think, unparallelled. The mysteries surrounding the sub characters and the bit by bit releasing of information is truly remarkeble. ofcourse I'm stilll waiting for the rest of the series but I can assure you this anime will be a big hit!