Review of Blood Blockade Battlefront

Kekkai Sensen feels like a worse version of Baccano! and Bungou Stray Dogs. The humour is similar, story is kinda similar and the pacing is pretty similar too. None of the three animes tell the story in a linear way. Baccano! is on a whole other page with pacing so that doesn't apply. But in terms of everything slowly piecing together, and telling the story from what seems like the middle of a story, yet beginning for the MC, BSD and Kekkai Sensen are very similar in that fashion. This is what this anime does well: - The OP is great and the soundtrack isone of the best I've heard within an anime
- The characters are hilarious, they aren't copy and pasted, and they have A LOT of personality. (Again, the similarily between BSD and this is pretty spot on with its very eccentric characters). Also, the MC's are very much what you'd expect of an "average but not really average" person
- The type of humour in this is my favourite kind in these types of animes. It works with deadpan, outrageous and totally ridiculous humour. Similar to both BSD and Baccano!
- The animation is pretty good, not insane or anything, but from an action standpoint it's decent

But here's the downside. Kekkai Sensen is definitely one of those animes that requires you to have an acquired taste to these types of animes. Having only finished season 1, I have expectations for S2 to do better. Because left as it is, Kekkai Sensen is just a giant ball of supernatural action with a story that makes no sense to me.

I was hoping by the end of this season I'd have an idea of what was happening and why. The problem? I didn't. If anything, I was more confused. The characters are great, the humour is top tier, but that's all thrown away the second an anime with this type of story is failing to explain the actual story.

It would be totally different if the story isn't supposed to be serious. Baccano is a pretty good example of a story that isn't that serious (imo) but still manages, and even excels, at making sense of it. It. Makes. Sense. I know what's going on, who the bad guys are, why they're bad guys. And that's coming from an anime that told the story in a disjointed way. I was confused half the time but they made it work.

I'd like to think that the story is only just beginning, and that there's still a lot to be said. But season 1 by itself kinda sells itself short. I'm not invested in the story, nor the characters, no matter how much I enjoy them. It was fairly easy to watch as I'm mostly amused, but whenever the story starts to move and more action occurs, I find myself unable to properly enjoy it because all I know is they're fighting bad guys.

But honestly, I'd never recommend this anime to anyone who hasn't seen the two animes I've compared it to in this review. Even then, I don't think I would unless S2 picks up. I enjoyed Baccano! and BSD, but this one fell flat. If the story made more sense in this season, this could've been an easy 8 or 9.