Kekkai Sensen

Kekkai Sensen is an ongoing manga from Nightow Yasuhiro, you may know him as the creator of Trigun. The manga started in 2009, but it didn't receive an anime adaptation until this year. The anime was handled by Bones, a Studio that has a pretty strong track record as far as their works I've reviewed go. Will this be up to their usual standards? Let's delve into it.

Story:

Our story opens in Hellsalem's Lot, formerly New York formerly New Amsterdam. The old New York city was destroyed by a portal opening to another world and this one didn't even have the good grace to ... have a giant squid monster. In this city, humans co-exist with all manner of strange otherworldly beings. In this city, there's a shadowy organisation called Libra dedicated to keeping the piece. Our protagonist, Leonardo Watch, encounters Libra through an odd coincidence and is given a position due to his mysterious “All-seeing eyes”Which are so strong that he doesn't even have to open his eyelids to see, apparently. The series follows several of Libra's escapades as they encounter various threats.

The biggest flaw of the series is the end. It's a disjointed mess with inadequate build up behind it, poorly attempting to tie up all of the ongoing plot points. The series also suffers a bit from tone problems. Most of the time it goes for a more over the top and fun type of aesthetic, but it also tries to have some real emotional moments. The emotional moments don't work well and come across as out of place because they're so heavily divorced from the tone of most of the series. They're simply too few in number with too vast of stretches betwixt them. There's also the narrative device of Leo writing a letter to his sister. Ultimately, it contributes nothing and exactly what parts of the series are included is unclear. It can't be the whole thing since there are a lot of scenes that he isn't in and where he just has no way of knowing what happened. The episodes also vary pretty widely. Some of them are fairly entertaining while others are just kind of dumb.

On the positive side, there are some intriguing ideas behind the series. If they had been better fleshed out, this could have been really good. The world building is pretty decent and I do like that the series tries to show some of the alien perspectives at times. Also, let me reiterate, there are some pretty good episodes thrown in.

Characters:

The characters really vary. There are some that are kind of interesting and have some depth to them, Klaus, Black, and White being the most obvious. However, most of the characters are pretty trite. Chain, Gilbert, K.K, Steven, Zed, Deldro, Dog, and a variety of other characters are just kind of there and only have a couple of very basic traits. Leo himself is kind of a boring generically nice but out of his league type of character.

Art:

The art is pretty good. The character designs are nicely varied and distinctive. The action sequences are pretty strong, although they suffer a bit from overblown attacks that have to be awkwardly labelled on-screen, and there are some really nice details both in terms of the various creatures and in terms of the backgrounds.

Sound:

The acting is all right. It can be really over the top but, for the most part, it's perfectly serviceable. The best performance definitely comes from Koyama Rikiya. Probably because his character is more subdued and doesn't really go into the exaggerated craziness mode that, say, Nakai Kazuya's character exhibits so frequently. The music is fine.

Ho-yay:

There's really not any in this series.

Final Thoughts:

There was some real potential for this series. It has some good ideas and a world with a lot of potential, unfortunately, it falls pretty short with writing and characters that are quite mediocre. My final rating is going to be a 5/10. If you're looking for an exaggerated action-oriented series, Kekkai Sensen will likely be satisfactory. But if you're looking for something with more depth to it, it's probably not going to do much for you. Next week I'll take a look at Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha Vivid.

This series started out strong in the first few episodes, but eventually fell wayside to mediocrity. I don't understand reviewers comparing this to Baccano! Yes, the story is told in an incoherent fashion like Baccano! but not for the same reasons. It's as if the writers weren't sure where they were going with the series. Well enough of my opinion, here is the short and simple.

Pros:

Original characters
Humorous at times
Original world/atmosphere
Art is pretty good

Cons:
...
Too much comedy
The "main" plot is mediocre at best
Poor pacing

Conclusion: This series could have been great, i'm not sure what happened after the first few episodes, or what the writers intentions are for this series.

"Every day is a knockabout of random craziness" - Leo

Well, if that's not lampshading this show, I don't know what is.

Preface:

Kekkai Sensen was an early hit in Spring 2015, but is currently embroiled in some kind of licensing and broadcast dispute which is keeping the final episode from being aired, so as yet remains unfinished. Not like it'll change the course of the show though, because it developed a plot first starting on episode 10.


Artwork and Animation: 6
...
Another Bones production, the art is decent, but nothing particularly outstanding. What is rather interesting is the choice of setting, and the visuals that come with it. Rather than being set in Tokyo with 90% of other anime, or a fantasy land, Kekkai Sensen is set in a during-apocalypse New York City. The character designs are fairly unique, with some unusual aliens and powers/effects, but ultimately pretty forgettable. Backgrounds are probably the most visually stunning aspect though- as the New York skyline looks very nice.


Sound and Voice Acting: 6

Overall pretty meh. Nobody really stands out, but for the voice actor fiends out there, Mamoru Miyano does make an appearance as a one off villain of the week. Everyone likes to rave over the ending theme, "Sugar Song to Bitter Step" by Unison Square Garden, and I do have to admit it's quite catchy, but a catchy ending song an OST does not make, and the rest falls pretty flat.


The Good:

Characters: 8

Kekkai Sensen does have a fun cast. Made up of a ragtag, zany bunch- it does lend itself to the oddball/motley crew comedy that the show tries so to sell. Mr Zapp is the source of many a laugh, butt monkey that he is. The majority of the main characters set themselves apart from each other- Chain is the straight man, Klaus the mischievous, and KK the angry psycho chick. Leonardo brings up the rear as the aloof goober character.
In all honesty, the villains provide a lot more charisma and presence to the show, when they're even involved.


The Ugly:

Story: 3

Let's face the facts. Kekkai Sensen might be fun, but there is negative plot here. It mostly takes the form of a Villain-of-the-Week™ episodic plot, but here and there (meaning only twice) were there arcs of any sort. The one with Zapp was by and large the strongest point of the show, and landed right smack in the middle. I thought at this point the show was going to pick up with something interesting, but immediately launched back into VotW the next episode with something even more inane than before- a total filler episode about getting food. (Is this Code Geass Pizza Episode 3.0??)
The promise of a bigger narrative is wasted potential and the series spins its wheels. It starts off well enough, protag is on a quest to help out their loved one, but this is sidelined almost inside of the first five minutes of the show.

The plot was really one step forward, two miles to the side, then one step back. Like that line dance everyone had to do in kindergarten through 5th grade when you were next to a partner you didn't like.

The wacky and strange situations that the characters find themselves in soon get pretty tiring after you realize that the villain of the week isn't going to last beyond the next 23 minutes, however. Leonardo getting captured every week and the Libra members saving his butt so he can return to his mundane existence eating burgers also gets really old. KS relies a lot on the same gags, Zapp being a butt monkey and getting the crap kicked out of him by KK/Chain/Sensei, Leo getting caught, and Klaus tearing stuff up without meaning it. Ooopsie.

Towards the end, KS did start developing a plot with recurring characters, though. It showed some promise- it's just unfortunate they couldn't get to the point earlier (or the producers and broadcasters getting their crap together to air the last episode).


Enjoyment and Overall: 6

Kekkai Sensen was decently entertaining, but at the end of the day, it was rather unfulfilling. I'm not really a glass half empty kind of person, but KS has a hole in the bottom of the Tea jug, and most of the plot just leaked out on the floor. Call it a bad adaptation, call it creative license- the fact remains that this feels a bit incomplete, especially ironic given that the last episode is out there in limbo somewhere.


Recommend?

If villain of the week oddball comedy is your thing, give it a shot.

PLEASE NOTE: This review was written before any episode past episode 11 a.k.a. episode 12 a.k.a. "Paint It Black". If this has more episodes past this one, I won't be updating this review.

Kekkai Sensen, otherwise known as "Blood Blockade Battlefront", is an action comedy with lots of supernatural themes and elements. The show's stylish and fast-paced artwork and comedy lead you through scenes between intense supernatural fights involving anything from a man-eating car to vampires.

STORY: 6/10
The story involves our protagonist, young impersonator of Pokemon's Brock, named Leonardo Watch. He was born with special eyes that have superpowers of some sort and is accidentally thrown into ... the world of the underground organization known as Libra, who fight to protect the citizens of the city they live in from disaster and ruin.

Only one problem: The city's bonkers. There's so many different strange creatures, no two seem alike, and a lot of them are hostile. This leads to the city being hectic, dangerous, and crime-filled. When I said that Libra is a group of people who fight evil, they're more like a secret police squad. If it doesn't involve illegal activity, they don't bat an eye at the actions of the townsfolk.

The story claims to have an overarching plot, but for the most part it is one or two-part episodes while the main villains in the background have a giggle at the goings on. That's not to say all the episodes are like this, but for the most part the episode involves the group having to do something totally unrelated in order to gain a tiny bit of information which may or may not take any part in what's going on in the next episode.

ART: 7/10
When not in combat or making a joke, the animation and art style can be quite generic. Action scenes have lots of flair, lots of flash, and a lot of personality. Comedic moments reminded me of One Piece, in the way that faces could simplify, become jagged, or distort in order to further the comedy of the show. The alien beings can be very unique and strange, bringing lots of personality to the background characters or the rare side character for a one-off episode or two.

SOUND: 6/10
The soundtrack is somewhat generic, with a tad bit of flair, but to be honest it didn't really stick with me. The OP is good and the ED is decent, though I prefer to watch it more for the visuals than the song itself.

CHARACTER: 6/10
Here's where the show, to me, feels bloated and highly flawed. The show's current episodes, up to "Paint It Black", are filled to the brim with character introductions. We also don't get much development from our protagonist besides the backstory that is repeated a few times within the show. I wouldn't have a problem with a show with this many characters, but to be honest it felt like I would rather have had development of our current characters instead of constant introductions to new ones just so that they don't appear again, or if they do, appear once.

ENJOYMENT: 4/10
I hated "Paint it Black", which is as far as we have so far. To refer to this as a "finale", it is one of the worst I've ever seen. Along with constant character introductions that made me wish for more protagonist or main character building or plot development, and the plot itself being decent to boring, it became a bit of a chore to sit through, even though it had a decent beginning.

OVERALL: 6/10
A fairly average show with several things bogging it down, but occasionally nice-looking fight scenes. Once this gets more episodes, I would recommend you check it out because it will most likely continue with what we have now that all the characters are introduced, but until then you should probably avoid it.

I feel like I forced myself to complete the anime tbh. The anime lacked clarity in so many things and you can barely understand most of the events happening. It just feels like you missed something and I kept on replaying in an attempt to see what had I missed.

They wanted to make the main character as someone who has high values other than his eyes bla bla .. but none of that was actually portrayed, everything they say to make him all the more valuable member of Libra I found to be a cliche just to make him sound more heroic!

Kekkai Sensen!

I like to compare this show to a stereotypical American. It literally does whatever the fuck it wants.

This show is pretty outrageous with its everything. Its story is just completely out of this world, and in my honest opinion, it's pretty hard to follow. I don't mean that in a "it's incredibly thought provoking" way, I mean't that in a "basically nothing makes sense" kind of way. Read the Disqus comment section of each Kekkai Sensen episode on Kissanime, and you'll see countless comments asking "what the fuck happened?"

While the overall story line itself is fairly lackluster and a chore to follow, Kekkai Sensen ... excels splendidly in the portrayal of its world. I am a New Yorker (well, I live like half an hour away from the city), so I know what the city looks like. This show captured the atmosphere and design of New York City incredibly well, and it was a blast seeing the familiar sights, like Central Park and the Empire State Building. Despite the completely outrageous version of New York City, filled with these alien things and supernatural phenomenon, the show went the extra mile to make the city still feel... real... to some extent.

Kekkai Sensen captures what New York City is really all about, and that is cultural diffusion! New York City has a bit of everything from everywhere, and this show was a great over exaggeration on the diversity of New York City. This is shown to a greater extent through some of the amusing situations that the characters get themselves into, such as trying to find a suitable restaurant (NYC is filled to the brim with restaurants), as well as interacting with so many different characters, both human and non-human.

Remember when I said Kekkai Sensen does whatever the fuck it wants to? Well that's because this show has balls. Really big ones. It makes its whole world feel real through borderline copyright infringement material. It introduces stuff like Hainz Ketchup (with basically identical bottle design), Yo! Tube (which is probably the most accurately depicted version of YouTube in anime), and other little easter eggs that always bring a smirk to my face. Kekkai Sensen is incredibly fun to watch due to its attention to the details of its world.

And... that's about it. Everything else about Kekkai Sensen was ok. Besides the hard to follow story, the art and animation were definitely good, but nothing particularly special. The characters have a lot of spunk to them, and go through some development, but they don't hold the long lasting impact that I like characters to have. Leo has cool eyes, and has an amusing personality, but in the end, he's almost like a not-so-pussy version of Shinji. However, he is a unique protagonist to the Shounen genre, as he has a unique power but it doesn't feel overpowered at all compared to the rest of the cast.

So overall, Kekkai Sensen was fun due to its world building, humor, and attention to detail, but it is also boring when it comes to the main story line. There were many points where I was constantly checking to see how much time was left in an episode. But, there were also times when time flew by due to some of the hilarious scenarios that the characters end up getting caught in.

TL;DR: The ED dance is literally the best part of this series.

Spoiler free!
The concept of the world is really cool. I think the powers these characters have are really cool. The songs of both season one and two were good and so was the artstyle. But I just didn't enjoy it that much. I think mostly that is because of how we get a ton of charcters in the show, but none of them seem to have been worked out. Whenever something new is going to happen in the story, they add new characters that never come back in the show.

Overall I'd just say that the character development was very poor for this show. ... It had a lot of potential but it never made me eager for the next episode. I was kind of happy when I finally finished this show so that I could move on to a next anime.

In my opinion the better things were:
-Artstyle of the show
-Music
-Character designs
-Cool superpowers

In my opinion not so great things were:
-Story gets the same after a while
-VERY poor character development
-Too many charcacters to really choose one to like the most
-gets boring

That's the end of my review.

Set in a fictional version of New York, where humans and bizarre monsters live together in not-quite harmony, Kekkai Sensen is one of the most successful shonen series of late. The show follows the adventures of Leonardo Watch, a kid with the gift of super-powered eyes, as he joins Libra, a quirky team of vigilantes who... protect the city… or stop crime… or something… let’s just say exposition is not this show's best suite.

If there is a thing that can be said about Kekkai Sensen is that it definitely starts with a bang. The first couple of episodes are nonsensical action-packed trips that have most ... of their runtime taken by stylized special attacks sequences. The pace is kept high, the tone is always over the top, and the scenes alternate almost in a nonsequitor fashion.

While this can be overbearing, it sort of works in its own totally insane way. The true problem comes when, after the first handful of episodes, the pace slows down and the storytelling becomes more straightforwardly delivered. The over the top action sequences, the humour and the rest of the nice stuff is still there, but it is just not that unique or impactful when the series starts taking itself more seriously. This is especially clear in the final couple of episodes, that serve to close a "macro plot" that is simply not that interesting or engaging (and to be honest, even a bit hard to fully grasp).

As it may already have transpired, the best thing about Kekkai Sensen are the overall aesthetics. The visual style is vaguely influenced by western comic books (especially in the design of a couple of characters), the animation is obviously hi-budget and the soundtrack is just great, mixing jazz and orchestral music in a way that truly helps giving the show a unique and interesting tone. And while all this stuff is quite nice, If I had to be completely honest I’d add that there’s not really much else that stands out in the show, as what we are watching is still at its core your standard combat shonen fare, except for the fact that it is delivered in a very slick and unique package. This is not all bad though, as the short run of the show (a single 12 episodes season) doesn’t really give time to this package to get old, and helps keeping the focus on the series’ strong aspects.

There's not much else to say about Kekkai Sensen to be honest, it is at its core a product with not many pretenses, if not the one to mindlessly entertain, and it almost succeeds at its goal. The action scenes are fun, the humour not completely awful and the animation flashy and detailed. Sadly the overarching plot is way too weak, making the home stretch a bit of a slug.

Still, not an awful show by any chance… but let’s just say that I’m not really looking forward to a second season.

If you're a big fan of Durarara!! you'll definitely enjoy Kekkai Sensen, both having seemingly random episodes focusing on random characters each turn.

I'll just say this: Kekkai Sensen was definitely one of my favorite anime of 2015, being more unique than others, and other reviewers seem to agree. Either you'll love it or hate it, since the tangled plot can annoy viewers. Without further ado, let's get to it!!

Story:5

I personally despised Durarara!!, the plot was boring and the story was bland to me, and Kekkai Sensen fits the same mold yet makes the story in a much more unique way as ... to make me not want to make a deal with an evil demon to go blind and never be forced to see it again. The story is interesting, at least. It follows the whole 'everyone else on the team is way cooler while the main character is a pissbaby sitting back' but is executed in an interesting form. The only thing really pushing the plot is the action, along with silence from the characters before the viewer is assaulted with a blast of action and whatnot. I know you've all seen people praising the story for it's directing style, but honestly it felt very elementary in it's storytelling, with nothing relating to each other and even after significant events occurring the anime just forgets about it next episode. Even with such heavy criticism I just spewed, I loved this anime for giving such heartwarming tales sometimes, I admittedly cried a few times, so even with the disarray you could shed a tear.

Art:5

The art was nothing to brag about, the budget seemed to be lower than others with looped animation and stills every episode. The anime could get pretty impressive once they actually bothers, yet the choppy poorly drawn faces could get distracting. The big scenes that would move the plot (albeit poorly) were the only moments where the viewer could actually understand how cool this anime could've been if they got more cash. The action sequences would either work or fail, it mostly depended. The action sequences can be confusing, since it seems to sometimes have too many things going on at once, yet the creators found every detail necessary. Sometimes it'd make less sense than watching giant robots duking it out in a Michael Bay film, just leaving the viewer completely lost in the battle until the animators hand got tired and the duelers stop to crack a joke or stare at each other.

Sound:9

The music was without a doubt the best part of the anime. Jazz played constantly in the OST's and if I had an album of the soundtrack it'd play on repeat for most of my day. The opening and endings are great, the opening is decent though the ending is where the real magic is. Like literally the ending brings a sense of life to the anime and made me stick around as i binge watched the entire series because of the animation and the tone it conveyed. The music is phenomenal, it has a soundtrack that could easily be compared with that of Cowboy Bebop and deserves a listen, especially if you're into jazz.

Character:4

Sadly, character development is what really kills the anime. If you had to base an anime purely from characters Kekkai Sensen would fail in an instant. Don't let others argue over it, the characters are flat, and never get more than an episode in the spotlight before thrown away forever. The anime has a very big cast however, but each character that looks even mildly interesting gets thrown away the same episode they're introduced. The villains are of no exception, the one introduced in the pilot seems to be such a big threat yet when you actually see him again you realize he isn't important in the slightest. The biggest villain doesn't even get introduced in a decent way, just a hair slick. But don't get me wrong, the characters have great designs.
Leo is the main character but his entire 'thing' is that he just doesn't care? He just gets thrown around with his dumb little power and everyone else does things for him, and you'd expect him to eventually learn combat or something to actually contribute but he just acts as a genderbent damsel in distress.
Zapp likes eating and is a playa. That's it, that's all he is; him and Leo are buds but Zapp gets a form of a backstory but it's mentioned so briefly that it makes the viewer think "who cares?"
There's others, but Leo and Zapp are pretty much the only two to get more than an episode of development so...y'know.

Enjoyment:8

Even with such crappy scores, I really enjoyed Kekkai Sensen. I watched the entire series in one sitting, late at night, so maybe my exhaustion is making me look at the series through tired eyes, thinking anything that moved would be cool, but it was still pretty fun. I'll admit though, I had read a description of it and thought it sounded ridiculous, yet I saw the most fluid bit of animation I saw that month from an anime and decided to try it out. I usually despise tangled stories, since I think it's just a waste of time, but Kekkai Sensen made me excited to see how they'd try to link the stories (which they failed horribly at).

Overall:6

Kekkai Sensen is messy. The story is underdeveloped and all over the place. Characters are disposable in an instant. Yet it's pretty fun if you shut off your "anime superiority" switch and want to just chill out with something wacky and fun. Kekkai Sensen is pretty funny and can get emotional if you get deep into it, it'll be either a hit or miss. Give it a try if you want to try something new, but if you didn't I wouldn't blame you.

I just finished this anime after 7-8 days, i don't want to write a novel here, also i won't spoiler anything so feel free to read:

The creativeness of the art of this anime is so well-done, i really got amazed in some episodes.
The Characters are greate, one of them is looking familiar to me (Steven A. Starphase) just in an older version (sorry, might sound cringe, but true).
Outro music is actually a good one, meawhile the openning and background music are part of the "meh" chategory, but the sound effects are again a thing they made well in this anime.

Now let's talk about why ... i gave only 6/10 score to this anime:
After watching the 4th episode i was like i'm going to give it an 8 or 9, but i can't do that. The 5th episode got me bored, so it took me more than an hour to watch it, because i've paused it in every 5 mins to watch videos on YouTube to keep my eyes open.
Some episodes later i realized that this anime looking awsome, the characters and their powers are great, but hey where's the story? After watching the full season i'm here and asking the same question, what was the main story of it? - i don't know.
*Edit: Some sceen of it has texts like a PPT template.

And it's not because i've paused the episodes from the 5th one, but it's because the anime built up by short stories and it has a main story-line, but it's so simple that made me disappointed as hekk...

I really wanted to love this anime, but can't give it more than a 6/10.
In my opinion it could have been on level of Jujustsu Kaisen or close to it, because the creators really made a good job here, but the writer of the story is an amateur for sure.

So after all:
It was boring, but atleast i didn't fall asleep on it. Worth to give it a try, because the first some episodes are absolutely okay, maybe you can watch the whole season without pausing it, but i say it as a fact: it has those filler moments.

This anime confused me to the core. It confused from the first episode and just when I was getting the hang of it, it confused me at the end as well. I had all these questions that I didn't know where to get all the answers from. For everyone's interests, I will keep this review SPOILER FREE.

All right... Let's take it from the start:

You can read the anime description to get a feel of it from the anime page, but I will tell you how I understood the plot. The anime takes place in another land, in a city called Hellsalem Lot. Formerly known ... as New York City until a certain event transpired which made our world collide with another and now all sorts of creatures are trapped with humans within the borders of this city which is protected by a barrier of sorts. So for 3 years, they tried to get along and live with each other. Meanwhile, an organisation called 'Libra' is formed to punish evildoers [usually non-humans] and there is another organisation that caused evil. Think Justice and Injustice League kind of. Our main character, Leo, goes to this city to understand more his newly obtained ability "All-seeing Eyes of the Gods".

From the plot alone the show seemed promising to me and I watched the first episode. In very few words it was about Leo going to the city, meeting the Justice League... I mean... Libra, and because they liked his ability they recruited him; along with his monkey kind-of, sort-of sidekick. I think my explanation was fairly straight forward. Here is my problem though: the anime has a problem... Well, a few actually and they are big ones. The tone, narrative and pacing are all over the place. The narrative especially is very unfocused and left me scratching my head and scream 'Explain. For the love of GOD, explain." It stopped, then continued somewhere else and then went somewhere. Meanwhile, the events didn't really connect at all or had no purpose to them.
It would be like me trying to write this review and midway announcing I'm going for ice cream or something, only to come back five minutes later and changing my mind to wanting a waffle and then realising I had no money to begin with so I'll just stay here and write this review [university life in a nustshell]. But man, I wanted a waffle. Kind to think of it they should still be delivering.
...

...

What was I talking about?

Right...

'Kekkai Sensen'

It caused me a headache to understand it. In the next few episodes, the show relaxed a little bit and we start getting to know some of the characters and to be fair there are many cool characters. They have problems as well but I will explore that in the next paragraph. So episode 2 till 7 or so were more straightforward. Following the 'villain-of-the-week' plot while we established some characterisation and context. Not a lot, but some. I thoroughly enjoyed the episode with Leo and the mushroom that ate burgers. [That's a sentence I didn't think I would say today.] While the climax was approaching though we had more and more problems arising.

The characters as I said before, and trust me there are a lot of them for a 12 episode show, were there. But they weren't fully fledged and the show didn't give me time to understand their motivations or if they went through a character arc. Just when you are about to understand how a character thinks, talks etc they throw you another one and some times, they never even come back. Hell, the main character goes through stuff at the end and I can't for the life of me tell you if he has changed at all.

There's so much stuff that wasn't explained either. For example "What is the great collapse?", "What and who was the king of despair?" "What was the point of the organisation apart from seeing them 5 times when they did nothing of significance?". Just uuuugh...

The final episode was extremely confusing.

Good guy?
Check.

Villain?
Check.

A town ready to be destroyed?
Check.

A motivation for our main character and villain?
....

Oh, wait. There is none. Yes, the hero wants to stop the villain and that's motivation enough but... I never understood why the villain did what he did. What he hoped to accomplish? Was it just mayhem for the sake of mayhem? I'm okay with that but I need to know...


Maybe I didn't get it but I saw other reviews and other people were just as confused so I know I'm not the only one.

I'm going to leave this review now as I feel way too confused to continue. Before I stop I want to say there are some good things about the show. The art and soundtrack are extremely nice. When we have the time to get to know the characters they can be fun and I enjoy just chilling and watching them do... well the same. But I feel the anime needed to take a step back and breath and let us do the same as well. A fight between hero and villain can only be awesome if their motivations are clear and I can understand what drives them. Unfortunately, I didn't get that.

Final thoughts: The anime has a very good soundtrack [seriously loving the ending one]. The animation is pretty and fast paced but unfortunately so is the plot. It's a confusing one and unless I am assured that the second season takes a step back, I think I'm going to skip it.

(This review has been adapted from my blog/reddit thread. Spoilers ahead!)

In Kekkai Sensen, a character goes by the name of White. She reminds me of my own sister since she also has a heart condition. Nothing serious, but it’s a condition she has had to deal with all her life.

I remember one night when my sister went out to eat with her friends. She came home eventually; nothing out of the ordinary. Except, before heading off to bed, my sister let my father know of a pain in her chest.

My father hesitated not, rushing her immediately to the hospital. So fast, in fact, that I ... did not realize where they went to until they got back. It turned out that my sister just had some heartburn, but it was still a scary moment for our family. I can only imagine how harrowing it was for her.

I admire my sister for always dancing, always traveling, always living, despite her condition. Her heart may be weak, but it’s stronger in ways that I will never truly understand. Kekkai Sensen has heart, too. Not as strong a heart as my sister’s, but, as she proves, a weak heart isn’t the end of the world.

STORY

Kekkai Sensen follows a teenage boy named Leonardo Watch. He arrives in Hellsalem’s Lot, a city filled with monsters, demons, and creatures that live (somewhat) peacefully alongside humans. A rather peculiar event (normal for Hellsalem’s Lot) grants Leonardo the chance to join Libra, a secretive group of elite fighters that protect said peace. At least, as best as they can.

The anime seems fantastical, and, in practice, it is. Seeing a bunch of aliens fighting each other in an arena, an onion boy vying for hamburgers, or a pair of duelists playing an absurdly advanced game of chess can only appear in fantasy.

Despite the fantasy roots of the events within Kekkai Sensen, they feel rather realistic in their presentation. Those aliens are gambling on the fighters. The onion boy leads a lonely life. And the chess game, for all of its rules and difficulties, is still nothing more than a battle of the minds. It’s not fantasy or science-fiction or random. The anime takes its surrealism and underpins it with unbridled realism.

“Realistic fantasy” is another way to put it.

This realism is achieved through a lot of world-building. Acronyms and concepts are given quick, succinct definitions. The melting pot of characters creates bridges that introduce new ideas in a natural fashion. The episodic narrative portrays multiple areas and aspects of Hellsalem’s Lot.

The episodic narrative is particularly interesting due to its two-fold approach. First, it gives the anime a slice-of-life feel, making the oft comedic material of the show feel right at home. Second, and most important, it grants Kekkai Sensen the chance to “reset.” By going episodic, the anime always gets the chance to try something new from what it did before. This onslaught of hodgepodge material, that never seem to be related to one another, reflects Hellsalem’s Lot beautifully.

Now, in reality (meta joke intended), the anime puts emphasis on its overarching narrative which features its titular twins Black and White. Interestingly, it is not Leonardo’s quest to restore his sister’s eyesight that is most important – that quest is very rarely referenced beyond the first episode. No, it is Black and White’s tale of love and loss that means the most.

Sadly, a couple of problems exist in the structure. For starters, it’s all a bit too obscure. For a large majority of the anime, little is given of the twins, what they are doing, and how their involvement plays into the bigger picture. The anime makes up for this quite a bit when it dedicates an entire episode to their upbringing, but, even then, the main events and details surrounding their involvement are still superficial.

The biggest problem, not mentioned as such but mentioned all the same, is how it detracts from the main goal: Leonardo’s quest. Leonardo’s whole purpose of trekking to Hellsalem’s Lot, of joining Libra, of going through trials he has never experienced before, was to help his sister. More specifically, to restore her eyesight that he indirectly caused her to lose.

The slice-of-life episodes already did next to nothing in this regard – indeed, being abducted by a psychopath and delivering pizzas does not yield (relevant) profitable results. But when the overarching narrative continues to ignore the original motivation, the main reason why this tale is being told to begin with, it makes Kekkai Sensen come off as unfocused. Distracted by the monsters and oddities it contains.

Despite the distraction, the narrative as a whole has a theme that persists through both the episodic and overarching content. It’s not explored, so it’s not exactly deep. But it is an idea that most people can relate to: life is unpredictable.

People usually have a plan for themselves. Who they want to be, where they want to go, and what they want to do. But life is a road filled with people and events which create potholes and forks and detours. In Hellsalem’s Lot, it is often taken to an extreme: getting visited by a god or having to evade a zombie apocalypse certainly create cracks in that road. But, as has been discussed, the anime is “realistic fantasy.” Missing out on lunch, resonating with a film, or losing loved ones are experiences that, while ranging in severity, are relatable while still skewing that road.

But it’s not the unpredictable nature of life that matters most. It’s how one responds to those events that does. Never giving up, being there for another, and having hope. Taking it all in stride or sulking in defeat. Believing. These responses can be applied to those previous examples as well as throughout the whole season. Because each event is unpredictable, each event demands a response. And it is these responses that dictate where one goes down that ever-present road.

Thus Kekkai Sensen delivers its message: Life is unpredictable – that’s the reality – but thinking one’s response does not matter is just pure fantasy.

ANIMATION

Perhaps Kekkai Sensen’s strongest part is, surprisingly, its art and animation.

On an animation level, the anime does not (openly) cut corners. Almost every episode has some fight or brawl or massive movement that keeps Hellsalem’s Lot lively. A huge, metal contraption careening through the streets. A master with missing limbs battling a so-called Blood Breed who similarly lost body parts. A vampire getting sealed by the veterans of Libra.

These examples are some of the more grandiose. Normally, the anime still holds up, characters acting appropriately with hair, facial, and nuanced movements. Crowds of moving people breathe life into the city. And background objects, such as a Ferris wheel or an airplane, make even the static scenes partially dynamic.

On an artistic level, Kekkai Sensen performs even better. Of course, lighting plays a huge role in the visuals. Blue, orange, and red lights accentuate the abilities and moods of the characters and the situations respectively. The norm, however, has Hellsalem’s Lot draped in a dreary atmosphere. Cloudy skies, fogged locations, and gray lighting keep the crazy city, like its inhabitants, in a morally ambiguous spot. This dread contrasted with the more colorful parts is an added bonus.

But the anime really shines in two subcategories of the art: the details and the cinematography. Despite Kekkai Sensen purposefully constraining itself to a single setting, the amount of areas that are visited are vast. A hospital, the Libra headquarters, a side street. The inside of a diner, an abandoned crypt, a grass-filled plain. Another dimension, atop floating debris, a highway traversing part of the city. The city alone looks detailed and crisp, but when every background and location has the same attention to detail, that sense of realism is ramped up that much further.

The best, though, is the cinematography. Kekkai Sensen likes to play with perspective, rotation, and closeness, creating shot after shot of coolness. Seeing through Leonardo’s eyes or a top-down view of the headquarters from the inside or a wide shot of Zapp versus his opponent make the anime a visual treat to watch.

Finally, due to the nature of the anime, the character designs (for the actual cast as well as the background characters) are each creative and fun. Leonardo wears goggles for driving that also hint at what rests beneath his oft-shut eyes. Zapp’s all-white outfit and darker skin forms a dichotomy that matches his mean-yet-caring personality. And while Klaus’s red sideburns and fangs highlight the ferocious beast he can be, his glasses and suit create an air of importance that befit the gentleman.

CHARACTERS

Kekkai Sensen’s cast is filled with people who are each a character.

That reads like a redundant statement, but that’s what they are: characters. To clarify, they are not characters. They do not have complex conflicts. They do not have multiple sides to their personality. And they do not even have fully fleshed-out backstories. They are each a character, but they are by no means a character.

Using examples makes this observation easier to see. Chain is a woman and a member of Libra. More importantly, she is a werewolf, granting her dexterity and quickness. Such skills she uses to tease Zapp, tricking him and literally standing on top of him, taking immense pleasure in doing so.

That’s it. How she came to be a werewolf, whether or not her teasing hints at other feelings for Zapp, and what she thinks about herself and the situation does not get explored. She exists solely as a cute character who makes the audience laugh at her mistreatment of her friend.

This same process can be applied to almost every character.

Zapp is a jokester who is more caring than he first appears to be.

Klaus is a lion-like leader who is cordial, determined, and powerful.

Zed is a fish man who is respectful to everyone around him.

Abrams is a master vampire hunter who reduces the luck of those around him.

Gilbert the bandaged butler with wicked driving skills, K.K. the sniper (despite her eyepatch) who also has a crush on Klaus, and Dog the man-and-blood-beast hybrid.

The cast are a bunch of characters, and that’s perfectly all right. Not only are there way too many to develop individually, but also it makes sense within the context of the anime. Hellsalem’s Lot is this hodgepodge of weirdos, so having the main cast be made up of a werewolf, a fish man, and a butler continues the motif already started by Kekkai Sensen.

Interestingly, due to the nature of the narrative, Leonardo is the same. He is a regular, kind kid who just so happens to wield the All-Seeing Eyes of God (as the anime ordains them). To be fair, he gets a bit more than the rest of Libra. The story molds him into a brave, confident kid who has clearly grown beyond being the weak, scared kid he was at the beginning. But, to reiterate, the narrative does not focus on his main goal of helping his sister. Meaning, such bravery and confidence does not mean a whole lot when the bigger picture is looked at.

The question, then, becomes a simple one: Who is not just a character but instead a character?

The narrative makes this clear once more: Black and White are arguably the main characters of the anime and thus are actual characters.

Their names alone provide a lot of symbolism. They are twins, Black a boy and White a girl. Black grew up with psychic powers rivaling the best of them, and White grew up without psychic powers, a “failure” in her lineage. Ironically, Black tended to be weak-willed, a crybaby of sorts, whereas White tended to be mature for her age.

But they grow up together. They get bullied, they look out for each other, and they come to the conclusion that they cannot live without one another. Not in a physical sense but in a philosophical sense.

All of these details are given quite later on. (Episode eleven to be exact.) Preceding them are a different Black and White. Black seems possessed by a dark entity, masquerading as the boy in order to enact some evil scheme he has been concocting behind the scenes. White finds herself in the hospital, dealing with a heart condition that keeps her confined and irritable.

The reason for their turn of fates is pieced together through more flashback. During the calamity that spawned Hellsalem’s Lot, Black and White are visited by the King of Despair. Black sacrifices himself, letting the spirit take his body on the condition that he does not harm White. Despite his valor, White dies. (It’s a bit unclear how.) Her parents, who likewise are near their doom, use the last of their powers to “resurrect” White, turning her heart (and, by extension, her whole body) into a piece of the barrier protecting the city.

As such, Black and White’s motivations come forth. Black (who is really the King of Despair) needs Leonardo’s godly eyes to fulfill his plan. And White, unable to live without her brother, becomes friends with Leonardo in order to get his eyes in order to save Black. (The condition to set her brother free.)

What’s cool is that this series of events is designed to mirror Leonardo’s. Leonardo and his sister were visited by an all-powerful entity, she sacrificed herself for him, and Leonardo seeks to help her out in whatever way he can. Sadly, this parallel means little since little is done with it, but it’s interesting nonetheless.

Of course, everything goes wrong. White does indeed betray Leonardo, Black later “kills” White, and a second calamity is about to occur. But thanks to Leonardo and some deus ex machina, White comes back to sacrifice herself, removing the King of Despair from Black and reestablishing the barrier.

So Black and White are characters. They have a beginning, a middle, and an end. That is, they go through an entire arc over the course of the season. The next step is what these arcs did for them. I.e., how did they develop over the course of the anime?

In White’s case, some development is seen. She protects Black after failing to do so multiple times before – the anime has a nice parallel with this saving scene and the one from her childhood. She also opened up to Leonardo, a person other than her brother. She does betray him, but she at least admits the mistake she made (even if that immediate turnaround is a little silly).

In Black’s case, it’s a bit more complicated. His action to sacrifice himself for his sister demonstrates that he, however slightly, overcame the cowardice he had when he was younger. But the crux of his character focuses on the demon possessing him.

To put it differently, he does not have a conflict that he deals with personally over the course of the season. Black worries about White and befriends Leonardo, but the events that unfold do not seem to directly affect or influence him. Instead, they focus mostly on the King of Despair being this evil, nonchalant antagonist.

His final conversation with White echoes the same sentiment they had all along: a world without her is not a world worth living in. That line makes sense for his character, but, since he never seems to fight for her, never seems to do whatever he can while possessed by the King of Despair, his echoing rings hollow.

So while Black and White are characters, they are not particularly impressive. Still, the other lovable troupe of characters help to make Kekkai Sensen the strange anime that it set out to be.

SOUND

If Kekkai Sensen is remembered for anything, it will be its ending track. The ED is, in short, a big bundle of fun. Bass strings, hard guitar, and nice vocal work come together to create a dance number that gets one grooving. The changing tempo, the other instruments, and even just the name of the song – “Sugar Song to Bitter Step” – make the entire piece a joy to listen to. It’s one half cool, one half smiles, and wholly awesome.

The opening track is as well done, if not better than, the ED. It starts off quick yet reserved, the low tone and soft-speaking singer continuing for a portion of the piece. By the halfway mark, the instruments and the vocalist pick up, the track becoming more frantic and passionate in tone. As the end approaches, the OP builds and builds on itself until a triumph is reached. It’s an empowering song that follows the flow of Kekkai Sensen, making it just as welcome of an addition as the ED is.

The rest of the original soundtrack is not as strong as the OP and the ED, but its wide range of tunes cannot be denied. Many of the tracks are jazzy, like “Sidewinder” and “Catch Me If You Can.” Others are eerier, like “Victim” and “Presage.” Others are more rock-n-roll, like “Call You Later” and “Traffic Man.” Some go cultural, like “Oblivion” and “At The Gates.” Others are mellow, like “Keep On The Sunny Side” and “Early Train.” Others are melancholic, like “A Funeral” and “On My Own.” Others are simply fun, like “Toy Blues” and “BCCGS.”

All of this to get at a single idea: like the story and the characters, the music is a hodgepodge of different beats, tones, and compositions, creating an amalgamation of sound that not only fits the anime but also is pleasant to hear outside of it.

Also, a shout-out to the reverberating sound-effect whenever Leonardo used his eyes. It gave his power a powerful feeling, the blueness and otherworldly vision notwithstanding.

The only miss in the sound department is the voice acting. To be fair, it’s more a mix than a miss, but it’s certainly a step down from the rest of the music. On the one hand, Daisuke Sakaguchi as Leonardo does a nice job, using a voice that works for the growing-up boy. On the other hand, Rie Kugimiya as Black uses a voice that is a tad bit too effeminate. Everyone else falls somewhere in-between.

ENJOYMENT

For those that do not know, this anime has a slightly strange history. Here’s the short of it: The last episode got delayed. And delayed. And delayed. To the point that questioning if the season would ever officially end became a joke itself.

Granted my timing is even worse when I see that I am completing this anime literally more than a year after I started it. Regardless, getting to go from the second-to-last episode to the last one, while knowing that so many people waited months, made me feel oddly privileged.

As for the final episode itself, it was okay, neither momentous nor horrendous. It certainly had scale, considering that the city was about to blow up again. But I can’t say it’s one of my favorites.

For me, my favorite episode happens to be the eighth one for a single moment.

Allow me to explain. Much of the episode revolved around Zapp being a lazy, promiscuous, and incompetent dude. So, of course, he gets tasked by his master to take care of this egg enemy: Attack each of its eyes simultaneously lest he risk a limb or two. But, as was shown, there is no way he can do it because he’s, well, Zapp.

Cue Chain receiving a phone call from her lady friend that Zapp tried to flirt with earlier in the episode. Said lady friend essentially wants to get in Zapp’s pants. Upon hearing such news, Zapp channels his inner focus. A hawk screeches, a water droplet falls, and the sun peeks out over the Earth’s horizon.

Zapp succeeds with ease, his reddened crotch on the infrared scanner indicating his motivator. Only the phone call was fake, a ruse to spur him forward. And all the while Zapp has his goofy, big belly from his numerous days of debauchery.

I remember pausing the episode from laughing so much at this wonderful and clever joke. I even went so far as to mark it down in my notes for this review later on. That’s how much I liked it.

That joke was the high for me. Of course, there were some lows. The material on Black and White (the last quarter or so of the season), while more in-depth compared to everything else, was not as fun or engaging. I wish Dog had more of a role in the show. I would have liked to see the potential romance between Leonardo and White progress further than it did.

Not everything else was a low, though. The cast was fun and the comedy made me laugh. Chain’s interactions with Zapp always made me smile. There were cool moments like when they fought the Blood Breeds in the underground or Leonardo being an awesome friend with the hamburger kid.

Overall, I liked the show. Not a whole bunch, but it was definitely entertaining.

Kekkai Sensen ends up better than expected. It does a lot right with its art and its music. It falters slightly with its story and its characters. And it can be both fun and frustrating to watch. Its heart was in the right place, but the execution just wasn’t quite there.

SUMMARY

Story: Fine, “realistic fantasy” sets the stage, with an obscure and distracting subplot getting in the way of its theme on life’s unpredictability

Animation: Great, wonderful art, above-average actual animation, and nice character designs

Characters: Fine, the majority of the characters are just characters, and Leonardo, White, and Black are not impressive but they at least go beyond their superficial traits

Sound: Good, good OP, good ED, good OST, okay VA performances

Enjoyment: Fine, silly cast, clever jokes, and a mix of fun and frustrating material

Final Score: 6/10

Kekkai Sensen is a thrill ride from start to finish, throwing its viewers into a confusing mess of conflicts, monsters, and the awesome heroes trying to keep the city (somewhat) safe. With a sizable cast of eccentric characters and a wide array of conflicts and subplots, there is endless excitement to be had.

Where Kekkai Sensen really shines is its captivating setting and unstructured plot. Incredible effort was put into developing Hellsalem's Lot, the dystopian metropolis that was once New York City before a mysterious portal opened up, connecting our universe to another and allowing monsters to flood the city. Not all of these monsters are ... unfriendly, however; most of them have assimilated into society and coexist with humans. Kekkai Sensen puts you on a tour of the city, showing you countless human and monster pedestrians and their bizarre lifestyles.

The confusing, loosely structured plot has been criticized by many viewers, but I think it is one of Kekkai Sensen's greatest strengths. This isn't a linear story of one boy fighting the villain and saving the day. It's the story of an apocalyptic city and all of the calamity going on inside of it, and the stronger powers keeping this calamity loosely in check. There is Libra, the league of vigilantes trying to keep violent monsters at bay, there are large-scale criminal organizations, there is an ambiguous militaristic police force threatening to shut Libra down, and a few powerful individuals trying to take down the whole planet. It only makes sense that Kekkai Sensen is a chaotic mesh of storylines that our main character, Leonardo, gets caught up in. More than anything else, this anime is FUN. It is loaded with action, interesting characters, and plenty of mysteries to keep you watching.

Libra itself features a strong cast of lovable characters. Klaus, the almost comically masculine leader who can fight harder and think faster than any other human. Zapp, the lanky, aloof wannabe tough guy who begrudgingly takes Leonardo under his wing. KK, the mysterious woman who is deeply dedicated to her son and fights with electrified bullets. All of the major characters in Kekkai Sensen are well-developed and unique, and each has their own demons to battle. Watching Leonardo join Libra, you can feel his excitement and nervousness as he enters a world full of powerful characters and the complex ties they have within Hellsalem's Lot.

Then the anime twins show up. The super-crazy battle arena of an anime suddenly turns into an ultra-generic melodrama about some emotional 15 year-olds. All of the subplots that left you craving information are dropped entirely, Leonardo's status as a goofy kid trying to make a difference is gone, and suddenly all we're supposed to care about is the feelings of some sappy kids who lost their parents. The series essentially forgets everything that it achieved for 10 episodes and completely redefines the storyline to focus on a moody teenage girl, while every conflict is instantly resolved with the power of friendship. After watching 10 episodes of Libra causing thousands (they openly admit to this) of casualties in their effort to keep the city safe - rightly so, they blow up some buildings but prevent giant monsters from going on city-wide rampages - it becomes a bit difficult to feel sympathetic for the little girl who wishes she had super powers, and her emo brother who is too noble to save himself. I just watched Klaus murder 500 innocent people when he threw a giant monster into a skyscraper, now I'm expected to feel sorry for a little girl who doesn't feel adequate?

Better yet, the entire story conveniently becomes centered on these moody teens, and saving the world becomes a matter of inspiring them (with a super cheesy "i believe in my friends!!!" monologue) to stop being self-pitying twats long enough for the world to not end simply because they're too mopey to lift a finger.

I may be a bit too strongly opinionated, but Kekkai Sensen's evolution from Baccano-esque thrill ride to super cliche shonen crap left a bitter aftertaste. While I still think this show has immense potential to continue on as a great series, my interest will drop significantly if it doesn't go back to its strengths and start exploring the amazing world it has set up. There is so much potential for this series to really dig into any of the subplots it touched on throughout the first 10 episodes, like "Angel Scale" the mysterious super-drug, the seemingly corrupt police force patrolling the city, the source of the "blood powers" wielded by the members of Libra and the experiments that gave Klaus his incredible power, or Ulchelko the crime-boss chess wizard and the other powerful bosses of the alterworld. Anything to get more screen time in the awesome city of Hellsalem's Lot, watching Libra clown around and take down bad guys while digging into the underworld of terrible powers fueling the chaos withing the city.

I give Kekkai Sensen a 6/10 for having an awesome story with a completely unsatisfying ending. I sincerely hope that this series gets a second season, and that it taps into the huge potential of its setting rather than make a story revolving around romantic teenagers. There are a lot of loose ends that could easily make for a few season's worth of content on their own.

This Review won't contain any spoilers.
Kekkai Sensen was a show I was really looking forward to, it was one of those anime which took a lot from the west in it's style and setting and shows like that (for example Baccano! Bebop etc) tend to be some of my favourite shows. This show unfortunatley failed to deliver on substance, it had a lot of style, but without character depth and a coherent story line this show ultimatly fell flat.

Story (3/10)
Nothing about the premise is bad, the story looks like it can go in interesting directions and the place it is set has a lot of ... potential, but the story falls flat in the way it is written and presented.

The story never felt coherent, it is always jumping around, cutting here and there which made the show feel very jarring. That unfortunately isn' the only thing wrong with how it is told, it is also badly written with little to no explanation of what's going on and why a characters is doing something, in short the plot is very convoluted . I think this lack of explanation and all the jumping around wouldn't be so bad if the story wasn't important to this show. Some of the episodic stories get along fine because it is self contained and you could just get along with enjoying the action/comedy.

But neither of these aspects where strong enough on their own to make this show very good and towards the end when they try and focus on the story more, it just made the show worse as it just becomes even more blatant how poorly written it was.

Characters (4/10)
The characters to this anime all have great design, they all look bad ass with cool clothes and personalities, they are all fun to watch. My main problem is that this anime just gives them style, they are really cool, but there is no substance to them, there is little to no development and only a small amount of characterisation. This is true for all the characters unfortunately, I don't think there is an exception to this.

For a specific example let's take the main protagonist Leornado who was a pretty generic and uninteresting character as he didn't have much too him and he was useless for most of the series. The only thing interesting about him to me was his eyes and not his character, it was the fact that he had his mystical eyes which made him special. My point with this is that of course you can have an average Joe get powers, that in itself could be relatable but this trait defined him too much simply because he had no personality, no depth, no development there wasn't much to him at all, he is completly forgetable and the only thing significant thing is just the fact that he had special eyes.

I feel this is the same case with the rest of the cast, they have a bit more energy and life to them than the MC, but the show didn't do anything with them. They felt stagnant and had little to them for the whole show and they were defined by only a few personality traits.

Sound/Animation (8/10, 8/10)
The show has a brilliant opening and ending, in fact the ending to this anime is probably one of my favourites, I very rarely even sit through an ending let alone look forward to when it's played. The OST for the show was really good aswell, it plays a huge variety of classic and iconic songs aswell as its own orignals, and it all fitted with the scenes for the most part and I felt they did add to the experience making what was going on screen better because of the music. The sound track to me was the most well done part of the series.

The Animation looked very good aswell, it was one of the better animated series in the spring season. On a more general basis I wouldn't rank the animation as a amazing as I wouldn't say the animation ranks with the top animated series I have seen, but the animation was top notch and as far as I can tell pretty consistent (I am bad at noticing quality drops though).

Enjoyment (4/10)
It has a lot of cool and crazy action and an awesome sound track but the mess which is the plot did ruin my enjoyment of the series. This series also did have comedy moments, but I wouldn't consider many funny, i only remember laughing to the pizza scene in episode 2, the rest of the time it tried to pull comedic moments wasn't that great and I felt it took me out of the moment, especially in the last episode where the MC was supposed to be trying to save the city, yet they would pull some comedic scenes which would ruin the mood.
I did enjoy watching this at times but it had too many things dragging it down for me to really enjoy it, it had its moments, but they where just moments, I didn't enjoy the majority of the show.

Conclusion (5/10)
As said before this is a style no substance show, it has awesome designs, settings and sound, but a messy plot with no character depth. Which is a shame as with all the style this show had I wish it could of done more with it. In my opinion I would skip this show, it just isn't worth your time, it had potential but it turned out to be mediocre.

I am super angry at this show.It had potential to be really great.I went in it blind,without any expectations.So where to start.....
The plot is mainly episodic ,just like Cowboy bebop,Space Dandy,Gintama,etc.
I think that this was a horrible decision for this show ,because it's very hard to make every episode memorable and interesting.The story itself is super confusing and uninteresting.Random stuff happens,without any explanation.The show expects the viewers to roll with it.Another problem is that the comedy for most parts is horrible and placed in really bad places.The serious parts are not working AT ALL,because there is stupid comedy in between.It suffer the same problem ... as Akame ga kill.The plot in the last few episodes was confusing ,but it served as a ok closing for the show.
The reason i am angry with the show are episodes 5 and 6.They were fuckin AMAZING.Everything worked really well in them.The comedy was on point,there were some cute moment between Leo and White and so on ,and so on.The show would have worked much better as a episodic comedy without the dumb edgy parts.Or separated comedic and serious episodes .
The characters are....random.They had cool designs.Leo was cool...There is nothing else to mention
The music and animation were on point.The ed is super catchy
So yeah...the show tried to be a mix between Gintama/Cowboy Bebop/Baccano and it failed ,with the exception of episodes 5 and 6,which saved the show from being total shit for me.

I’m not going to go into depth on this anime, just share my opinion.

Story: 5

The story was rushed, and they threw in random events that don’t make sense. I felt as though they were trying to create the story as they made the anime or it just wasn’t well thought out.

Art: 8

I didn’t have a problem with the art style or animation besides the fact that I felt like they were trying to cut corners on some scenes by slapping characters in a bunch of random poses in a picture style instead of animating their movements. It doesn’t happen an extreme amount, but ... enough to make me wonder if it was laziness or style.


Sound: 6

I didn’t think the voice actor fit one of the characters in the anime, I slowly got use to it and by the last episode I didn’t really care (I won’t say who cause I don’t want to ruin anybodys Experience). I also thought that the whistling was really annoying and used way to frequently. However I enjoyed the intro and outro very much as well as the use of it in some of the scenes.


Character: 4

The characters were all thrown into your face and you didn’t know what to do with them. Some of the most important characters for the season were brushed aside for random content that wasn’t very realivent to the ending of the story.
Personally I think characters make the plot, and if you have poor character development then you will have a poor story.

Enjoyment: 6

I enjoyed I world, even if it wasn’t described much in detail. I would have loved for them to go into more depth on the creaters that were around and not just use them for background. I did enjoy the humor the show had, not all the time but more than I thought I would. I also enjoyed the last couple of episodes the most mainly because it had the most plot, however that is a double edged sword because it shouldn’t have taken all the way till episode 8 to actualy dive into it.

Overall: 5

I can’t see myself ever watching it again, nor do I see myself recommending it to somebody. It’s just not my cup of tea, but if you like wacky stuff in a slice of life, strange encounters, little bit of plot, fantasy kind of way then you might enjoy it more than myself.

For a show that had so much potential, Kekkai Sensen is fairly forgettable. Its conclusion is riddled with issues, made worse by the fact that it was delayed several weeks. However, that's not to say that the series isn't somewhat enjoyable.

The first seven episodes of Kekkai Sensen are standalone stories, introducing different aspects of the show's universe. I say "introducing" because nothing is properly developed. After watching these seven episodes I can't say that I know anything about how Hellsalem's Lot works, what Libra's place in the city is, nor the extent of the powers of each character. Nevertheless, these episodes are entertaining enough, with ... plenty of action and comedy to carry the show. The characters aren't developed either, but they are still enjoyable to watch.

The problems really come to light after episode seven. For the rest of the series, there is a double episode on Zapp followed by the multi-episode finale. The Zapp episodes provide some insight into his life, but most of it is shallow and used for comedy. After that, we're at the finale without knowing much about the world of Kekkai Sensen or its characters. This makes it very difficult to understand or even care about what's at stake. The finale drags on with the tone changing constantly, making everything feel jarring.

There are many ways that Kekkai Sensen could have addressed these problems. The simplest would be expanding to a 26 episode series allowing time to develop characters. Another idea would be to use those early episodes to focus more on character development, taking away some of the time spent on comedy. Or, they could have begun the ongoing story leading up to the finale earlier. Either way, what the series ended up doing was falling short of all of these ideas.

Nevertheless, I still would recommend that fans of action comedies should give this anime a go, at least for the first nine episodes. The action is entertaining and there are plenty of jokes throughout. Visually it is nice to see the unique designs of monsters and the animations for the characters' fighting moves. The OP and ED is also pretty fantastic. However, I wouldn't recommend that anyone bother with the final three episodes as they are a waste of time.

I'd give the first nine episodes a 7/10, while the last three would be a 3/10.

Non spoiler review ahead. Going to be a short one. Started this series with high hopes and ended with dropping the second season (my first ever dropped series so far).

The art is amazing and a pleasure to watch especially in HD on a large screen, so is the sound, very fitting with the scenes at times. Some comedic aspects are nice, the voice acting (japanese) is amazing and of high quality and professionalism.

Apart from this, the story is confusing, many things are not explained, the plot is non existent. I tried to understand the series, I mean I did understand symbolism in Madoka, ... Evangelion, Yuuki Yuna, plots, themes, references etc, but here it just does not make sense. Why zombies appear, why do they slash them why are they in that part of the city, nothing is explained. All of this is flashed on the screen in flashy and high quality art. Maybe I didn't read the manga, but I don't want to read it to understand a series. Action scenes, again there are a few but end quickly, there is no suspense to them either.

The characters are drawn up nicely, surrounded by great art but that's it, they are very empty to the core. Not even the plot twist at the end is convincing, they are trying to attract sympathy in one episode for a character just because she is a bit more human as a girlfriend (wait, maybe otaku girlfriend, a woman smiling and talking nicely to you does not make it a girlfriend).

I was very disappointing with this series, I expected something else, some sort of plot, at least to make sense near the end. Too bad the art/music and voice acting is wasted.

I wanted to compare with Tales of Zestiria, not that spectacular plot but a lot of eye-candy during battles and static moments, but in the end it would be disrespectful for Tales of Zestiria.

In the Blood Blocade Battlefront it's the eye candy that is bitter for your mind and sweet for the eyes. But how the mind hurts after this one....

I finished the show and I still had no idea what was going on. The first episode showed promise and a goal but it basically ended there. After that it was pure chaos, no linear plot if you followed the main character. If you enjoy wasting your time, this is good for it. I found myself doing other things as I was watching toward the end of the first season just since I made it that far. The characters seemed like they would be interesting, but were never developed. The art is beautiful and the music was great. ... I will not be bothering with the second season.

This anime is fairly good, there's monsters, superpowers, fantasy creatures of all kinds and pretty much action. The comedy is half-arsed and this doesn't deserve to have the comedy tag just because some characters are walking retards and act like idiots. The drama is overdone, spending entire episodes sometimes to explain a backstory that no one should really care about instead of giving us a fast summary.

Now, the thing that I hated the most is the mc, his personality is kind of annoying and he's a freaking pushover just like the rest of these people. This is why japanese people can't write proper half-serious stuff. ... Anything that isn't plain out horror and tragedy tagged would usually always have mc's that are idiots with sh*t for brains and flowery views on the world.

This guy is a wimp with no real powers except for good sight(being able to see things normal people can't) and being able to manipulate what people see(mind you, not huge illusions but rather single-person specific illusions that only they see). Even the powers he has isn't utilized properly since he's clearly not interested in learning to fight in any way whatsoever despite pretty much living in a hell where you can die at a second's notice, like many other japanese protagonists, he just goes with the flow and keeps on being an useless prick, even in season 2 random punks with no skill beat him up easily as he acts like a total amateur and can't do anything but stand there.

He can't bear to kill people(surprise, surprise, he's the type who'd choose a stun gun instead of a sword or gun when his life is on the line), he's way too kind to everyone and meek to the point of being a doormat for people to step on. When he gets assaulted by people privately, he just takes a beating because he claims that he doesn't like using his powers for himself. He beats himself up over some bullsh*t past where his sister sacrificed her vision for him out of her own volition, so he feels like it's his fault despite having no guilt at all in the whole matter. Hell, his character is stupid to a flaw. When he's offered increased wages, which isn't more than right considering the extreme danger and the work he does for them, he denies and says he just wants the basic wages even when he needs/wants to send money back to his sister and he needs money to live, especially as his apartments keeps on getting blown into the air, he spends most of his time living in the office of their organization. But of course he can't accept the amount of money he should be getting! I mean, is he retarded or something?

He's honestly a very boring and pretty frustrating, even obnoxious character. He's a "normal" person with exaggerated, extreme "courage","self-sacrifice spirit" and "kindness" thrown into that hellish place. It's just stupid. He can only be protected by everyone, or he'd die instantly. Even when he should be able to handle himself if he learned some proper abilities, but since he never showed the initiative or motivation to get stronger or use his powers, it's all for naught. It's so damn mushy. Mind you, this "japanese shounen protagonist personality" wouldn't be an issue in a normal manga/novel/anime. The issue is that fighting is kind of the whole thing here. If you don't fight, you die. If you don't strive to get better, you should die. Everyone is killing everyone and it's supposed to be a brutal world. A mc like that DOESN'T WORK in an environment like this. Leave that type of crap for the romcom and slice-of-life stuff. Not saying he has to be a brutal monster, even if that would be hilarious and kind of awesome/fresh for a japanese work, but at the very least he should be cold-hearted enough to pull the trigger and kill people when needed, to not get pushed around and whine about every single little detail. He's already devoid of care when it comes to seeing dead people(he doesn't even wince when people get blown to bits or hundreds/thousands of people are dead in front of him), why force things and make him so kind etc?

You know what I thought when I saw this was a story about a mc with super vision and special eyes? Yeah, I thought he would become a gun user. Especially a sniper+pistol user, that'd be awesome. Now that'd be a mc I can get behind, a super-powered fantasy sniper rifle and handgun combo. Using his eyes to find flaws and critical points and shooting them like a sniper god. I mean, wouldn't that be a kind of obvious use of his otherwise fairly non-combat eyes, especially since he's not the athletic and muscular type who can go close-combat? So many possibilities, he could even use his eyes to temporarily blind others/show them illusions and then in that opening shoot. But of course he won't do so, because he might as well not have his eyes, he's not using them properly at all, not even once did I see him firing a gun, not even at first when he was given one. It feels like an useless gimmick. This author is clearly not that good at writing an interesting and awesome story. This story would easily shoot up to the heavens if the mc was more awesome and used his eyes like a badass.

So enough about the fact that the mc is a dimwit. The other people in this story are often kind of boring as well, especially since a lot of time is spent on the backgrounds on characters that hardly matter and less time is spent on those we actually want to know about. I wanted to know more about the background of the boss, the werewolf girl etc, but we don't know who they are or even truly what they are. Nothing much is explained here, so I can't feel attached to any of the characters, although I honestly liked that fanged werewolf-like boss the most, not that I was that fond of his overly simple personality and straightforwardness. Some people are there only for comedic relief, such as the white-haired, tanned guy who is nothing but a retard that can't wait to show off how foolish he is and how much he can overreact.

Sorry, me rating this 5/10 is because it wasn't THAT bad, it was mediocre. It's worth watching if you don't have anything much left to watch, it's sure to kill several hours of your life with nothing exceptional yet something that doesn't bore you to death unlike some stuff out there that you'd rather drop than keep on watching. I have to say that after several episodes of season 2 though, I dropped it. It had the same premise, the same type of story, the same type of jokes and events etc, only filled even more with how worthless the mc is and more half-arsed drama. It takes a turn for the worse and is only worth a 3/10 at season 2. The mc hasn't matured and nothing seems to really happen. Truly bland. Even if you watch this stuff, don't watch season 2, it's got nothing to offer. Pretend the show ended at season 1, which I guess it kind of did since they summed up the entire manga with season one and went on to the sequel manga with season 2. I seem to have read that the plot diverges a lot from the manga and there seems to be way more story in the manga, so maybe the manga is much better than this anime version.