Review of Blood Blockade Battlefront

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 Sensenexcels 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.