Review of Blood Blockade Battlefront

Kekkai sensen is a rather weird anime to write a review about. Its an anime that makes little sense from start to end, but its one of those anime that makes you *feel* something. The sensation is rather hard to explain. Lets start with the story. It makes no sense, and although there is *some* effort on the part of the directors to make some semblance of what is going on, even at the very end, you have no real clue what is going on. The story essentially centers around a the boy protagonist, Leo. He just magically receives a magic pair of eyeballs out ofnowhere and for no reason. Furthermore, the eyesight of his disabled sister had to be taken in order for him to receive such powers.

Never, anywhere in the story is this phenomenon explained. Furthermore, the story diverges a lot. There really does not seem to be a central line of progression, or perhaps there was just too much story to unpack in just 12 episodes.

The story for me, just doesn't do it. Its all the other stuff that makes this anime fun to watch.

The art and sound, are what you'd expect from a studio like Bones. Its damn near perfect although I do feel that there is a tad too much music in this one. I guess what they are trying to capture is the feeling of New York with rap songs and classic jazz bar songs. One could say that it does indeed add to the environment of the situation Leo finds himself is. Like the music, its both interesting and at the same time totally chaotic. The battle scenes are fluid, and beautifully drawn. One gets a real feeling that this is a hand crafted anime, unlike some of the modern CGI heavy battle scenes that you see today.

The characters are neat. You definitely are rooting for Leo, and the other characters do get *some* background to them. But the development of these characters are not properly paced. The magic system is also kinda "just there". Again, a lot of things make little sense, but there is some interesting dialogue, and funny things do indeed happen. There are some scenes that really make you consider things, by being mysterious, but since the plot is rather confusing, you don't always understand their significance.

I'd say that this is an enjoyable anime. You do root for the characters involved and you really enjoy the battle scenes. It makes no sense though, so not a 9 for me. I'd say this is a solid 8, due to the good art, music and overall direction.