Black Bullet
ブラック・ブレット BLACK BULLET ［黒の銃弾］
In the year 2021, a parasitic virus known as "Gastrea" infects humans and turns them into monsters. What is left of mankind now lives within the Monolith walls, walls that are made of Varanium, the only material that can hurt Gastrea. To counter the threat that the Gastrea pose, "Cursed Children"—female children whose bodies contain trace amounts of the virus which grant them superhuman abilities—officially called Initiators by the Tendo Civil Security, are given partners called Promoters, people who work to guide and protect the young Initiators. These teams of two are sent out on missions to fight the monsters created by the Gastrea virus and keep them at bay. Black Bullet revolves around the team of Enju Aihara, an Initiator, and Satomi Rentaro, a Promoter, as they go on missions to fight the growing threat of Gastrea in their hometown of Tokyo. [Written by MAL Rewrite]
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In the year 2021, a parasitic virus known as "Gastrea" infects humans and turns them into monsters. What is left of mankind now lives within the Monolith walls, walls that are made of Varanium, the only material that can hurt Gastrea. To counter the threat that the Gastrea pose, "Cursed Children"—female children whose bodies contain trace amounts of the virus which grant them superhuman abilities—officially called Initiators by the Tendo Civil Security, are given partners called Promoters, people who work to guide and protect the young Initiators. These teams of two are sent out on missions to fight the monsters created by the Gastrea virus and keep them at bay. Black Bullet revolves around the team of Enju Aihara, an Initiator, and Satomi Rentaro, a Promoter, as they go on missions to fight the growing threat of Gastrea in their hometown of Tokyo. [Written by MAL Rewrite]
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Verchan
July 1, 2014
Black Bullet is one of the many light novel adaptations that aired during Spring 2014. You might know the other ones as The Irregular at Magic High School, No Game No Life, and Chaika - The Coffin Princess. It started out okay, but got progressively weaker as it went on, before turning into an unentertaining show that turned out to be a rushed and half-baked adaptation. Shame, it had potential to be way better. If you've read the synopsis on the show's page on this site, it'll tell you that it takes place in a post-apocalyptic future where humanity is practically on the brink of extinction,having been driven into a corner by powerful monsters. You might think that this concept sounds familiar; kind of like 2013's popular Attack on Titan. With a premise like that, it drew in a lot of viewers who, one might say, could have been looking for a sci-fi version of Attack on Titan or something. However, the thing about this show is that it seems to have entirely forgotten that it was a post-apocalyptic show. You see plenty of tons of healthy-looking people on the rather clean streets, the towns look clean and well-tended, and the economy seems to be in such good condition that they're able to afford things like prosthetic limbs made of tissue resembling human flesh and whatnot. The art is standard fare, all things considered. The style isn't anything special; it's generic and nothing about it really seems to stick out. Characters and objects look polished enough, and the actual animation is fairly crisp when there's good action going on, though it's not enough to make the actual fights that appealing or interesting to watch. In the end though, it gets the job done, but ultimately doesn't stick out at all. The designs were fairly neat though, I'll give it that. I liked the designs of the Gastrea, all two times they appeared or whatever. I'm quite fond of Shiro Sagisu's work. He did an outstanding job with the music for the Evangelion franchise, along with a great job at the soundtrack for the Berserk: Golden Age Arc films. However, this must be easily his weakest work. Background music is generic and forgettable, except for probably two or so songs that play during battles, which can give a good feel of intensity. The opening, "black bullet," respectively named after the show and light novel, is fairly pleasant to listen to, but it isn't anything I'll remember in a month or so. Same goes for the main ending theme, "Tokohana," though I do really like when it starts playing near the end of an episode. The voice acting isn't anything to write home for either. You have Yuki Kaji as the main character, Rentaro Satomi, but he isn't all that interesting to listen to. He always seems depressed, angry, tired, bored, or sounds like he's crying. So in short, he practically sounds the same as when he voiced Eren Yeager in Attack on Titan. I suppose I should give an honorable mention to Yui Horie (Minori Kushieda, Toradora!) for trying her best with what she got, and to Rikiya Koyama (Kiritsugu Emiya, Fate/Zero) for still having that charming, nonchalantly badass voice, even if his role was fairly limited. The characters are bland and unmemorable. Rentaro practically has no notable personality traits other than typical "brave" and "determined" that can be found in literally a hundred other characters who are far better written. He reminds me of Kirito from Sword Art Online in a way, in that not only does he have no notable personality, he has a harem for practically no reason, at least one girl in each harem being a little girl under 13. The main difference though is that while Kirito is overpowered, Rentaro seems underpowered in contrast. Despite being equipped with skills like knowledge of martial arts, a fairly high level of agility, exceptional marksmanship, and practically superhuman strength and speed due to his prosthetic limbs, he never seems to win, and even when he does, it's not even memorable or anything. Now, there's nothing wrong with making the main character an underdog, but a well-written underdog has to be a well-written character. The main reason why Rocky Balboa is a good underdog is because he's a genuine nice person. When he's not boxing, he's a really sweet guy, like around his lover Adrian and her brother Paulie, and he stands up for those he cares for. There's time and dedication given into giving the audience a good idea of what Rocky is like, which ultimately makes us want him to win against all odds against more experienced and stronger boxers like Apollo Creed and Ivan Drago. However, in Black Bullet, since Rentaro is a bland and forgettable character, it makes the audience not care whether he wins or loses, and thus, destroys all tension in a fight. Every time something happens to him, he begins to doubt all he knows, building the foundation of character development, but he never visibly develops, though given that the source material is still ongoing, not all is lost yet, since all these events that happen to him could potentially act as catalysts to a giant, grand development. But I suppose we'll only know if there's a second season. The other characters aren't all that special either. Enju is the token "energetic loli," similar to how Tina is the token "lethargic loli" who's only active when the situation calls for it, kind of like Shiro from No Game No Life. There's also Kisara "Big Boobs" Tendo, the president of Civil Security that Rentaro works for, who happens to be a childhood friend of our main character, but ultimately, she lacks depth like the other character and hardly develops her own identity until the last five minutes or so. There are also more generic characters like the aloof old friend, the cocky guy, the girl with cat ears (which is supposed to be explained in plot but we never actually see any more of this), the hikkomori, etc. The character who steals the show is Kagetane Hiruko, who is the main villain of it all, or is supposed to be anyway. He's smooth, charismatic, nonchalant, mysterious, and reminds me of V from V for Vendetta in some ways. It's a shame he doesn't get a lot of screen-time either. The enjoyment levels seemed to fluctuate for me at first, before going down to consistently being a chore to watch. It has an inconsistent tone akin to that of Elfen Lied. By day, happy-go-lucky comedy featuring boob groping, other fanservice, and loli sweetness. By night, it becomes (or tries to be) macabre and dark, though it only comes off as unnecessarily edgy for the sake of being edgy. The humor might get a small chuckle or two out of you, but at the end of the day, boob groping and comical misunderstandings aren't anything to write home to in the humor department. In the end, Black Bullet could have been a good show, but ultimately fails miserably. To say that it was rushed would be a big understatement indeed, what with not providing adequate world-building or characterization. I'm sure the light novels are way better, but since the adaptation is poor, it's not exactly doing a good job at advertising the source material to me, and thus, fails as such.
