Review of Blood Blockade Battlefront
Blood Blockade Battlefront begins with a very confusing introductory episode. Leonardo Watch, an aspiring photographer, writes to his sister of his adventures living in Hellsalem’s Lot. The contained place, which was known previously as New York City until the boundary between what’s known as reality and what’s “Beyond” collapsed, causing monsters and other unknown creatures to flood the area. Due to a random occurrence, Leo mistakenly joins Libra, a secret organization that tries to maintain order despite the paranormal circumstances. Upon discovering their newbie isn’t who they thought he was, Libra is suddenly attacked. Leo is not discarded as he is found to have these“All-seeing Eyes of the Gods,” because he just happened to be at a certain time and place (never mind his sister’s sob story). The random attacker appears on TV explaining that gates are involved and what is a gate? What is happening? Who is this perpetrator? Perhaps the audience will be enlightened later in the series. Not.
It’s difficult to grasp a plot when there are no boundaries to the storyline. Ever since New York was plunged into Hellsalem’s Lot, it has had the tagline of “abnormal is the new normal,” which seems to have given the writers of this narrative an excuse to make anything go. Super-cool ultra moves? Go. Overarching bad ass villains? Random ones in between? Go. Schemes and evilness? Go. Secret org but vehicle that stands out? Go. Cool names that are difficult to remember? Go. Sentimentality that doesn’t really fit, but Go anyway. Supersonic monkey that is so fast and can’t be seen by human eye but can be physically run after by a normal human? GOOO!!!
“Anything can happen in a world like this one,” indeed. Writers got potpourri of fun, random things, and put it together. The series lacked proper world building, plot or character development, and overall cohesion. There were too many loopholes, coincidences, and unexplained phenomenon.
The show wasn’t all bad. It had interesting characters with their powers, and a pretty entertaining premise. Some unique attributes came about, like in terms of humor, and how they would announce the survival rate when riding a train. Backstories were good, too. Its solid soundtrack should be pointed out as well, random as it might have been (as with its anime elements). Though the fact that anything could happen due to the supernatural situation is perfectly acceptable, just too many things were happening.