Three years ago, a gateway between Earth and the Beyond opened in New York City, trapping
extradimensional creatures and humans alike in an impermeable bubble. After the city's restoration,
monsters, magic, and madness are common findings in the area now known as Hellsalem's Lot. Leonardo
Watch, a young photographer who unwillingly obtained the "All-seeing Eyes of the Gods" in exchange for
his sister's eyesight, came to this paranormal city to find answers to the mysterious power that he
possesses. He later finds his life drastically changed when he joins Libra, a secret organization of
people with supernatural abilities dedicated to maintaining order in the everyday chaos of Hellsalem's
Lot.
However, this is only the beginning of Leonardo's unexpected journey ahead. Regardless of the constant
threat of otherworldly enemies, he is determined to uncover the secrets of his power and find a way to
restore his sister's eyesight. Kekkai Sensen & Beyond follows Leonardo as he sets off on more crazy
adventures with his comrades, fighting to ensure peace and order.
I was looking for something similar to Durarara!! to watch, as my current mental state needed a show that was entertaining, fun, aesthetically pleasing, graphically satisfying, and rich in characters. I followed the suggestion to start watching Kekkai Sensen, and I have to say that I liked this sequel a lot more than the first season. However, I still believe that the prequel is nevertheless a necessary starting point for getting into the mood of this urban fantasy scenario. The animation is great, as well: all the action sequences look incredible and exciting! The city of Hellsalem's Lot is a crazy landscape, and unbelievable things happen all the time. It becomes the norm for the characters, and for us too, which doesn't mean that it's boring but rather familiar and almost "domestic". This single aspect simply makes the series really special: the whole "one for nonsense, all for nonsense" thing may become cringe or predictable episode after episode, but it never does. Instead, it becomes the most powerful weapon of this show: everyone generally hates spinoffs, but in this case, they are relevant, interesting, funny and their reason to be is basically the freedom with which the show entertains the viewer. They tackle different motifs and leverage on various feelings, in order to resonate with every kind of viewer and his/her personal taste. Even the secondary, tertiary, and quaternary (?) characters have distinct personalities and unique features that distinguish them from the others, which makes the viewer empathize with the weirdness of events and the characters involved. What I absolutely adore about this series is the tone employed to alternate between lightness and heaviness: I would lie If I wrote here that never have I ever felt sad watching an apparently light-hearted and funny anime, but those moments were either unexpected in an ocean of amusing events, or skilfully balanced with said circumstances. Leonardo, the main character, endures a negative condition that endangers both his beloved sister and himself. However, I never felt like his constant self-loathing or deeply felt affection made the show more demanding in relation to the emotional weight of his frame of mind. I mean... this season's first episode recaps what happened in the first one with a rap song... What I personally valued the most in this season is the time that some episodes took to portray the backstories of the members of Libra: there are episodes about Chain's part-time job as a spy, K.K.'s struggle to make her private and working lives coexist, and also the short introduction of Steven's secret organization that I believe will be explained further in the following season(s). I felt like these details were kind of overlooked in season one, and I'm super glad they were not actually forgotten. It is really hard for me to criticize this show, but if I really have to point something out... the only weakness, may I say, that also made me appreciate the second season more than the first one, is the shallowness of the "main" evil characters: apart from their fond love for chaos and the attempt to steal Leonardo's eyes... what other reasons do they have to act as they do? Femt is pretty interesting, as I believe he genuinely just acts out of boredom, but the absence of a plotline that involved White, Black, and William really made me feel relieved. It tried to add substance to boring characters and though I appreciate the attempt I didn't get drawn in their story.
You know for how little the series seems to want to give you any sort of impression of the vibe it would go for, Blood Blockade Battlefront (or just BBB because it’s not a chore) somehow saved it because of a fucking monkey (it’s a cool monkey) _Spoilers for season 1 and 2 of Blood Blockade Battlefront_ Seeing as it’s Trigun author Nightow’s second work, it was no wonder that this would be a pretty wild character-centered story, and I haven’t seen any of Trigun so I have the authority to say this. With a focus on its setting, one I really respect, the premise of the show is that New York has yet again been visited by aliens, but this time they stayed. So to filter out the ‘bad-ies’ and to keep the city under (minimal) control through all of the fuckery that goes on, secret organization Libra mostly fucks around and sometimes uses magic blood powers to defeat funny ghosts. And from the direction of Rie Matsumoto, who worked on magical girl shows before which is always a good sign, the main cast, and the city is really able to come alive which surprised me with how insanely boring the protagonist came off. With the dystopian yet almost futurama-like energy to the setting, there’s an immediate hook that works with the fast-paced character writing and chemistry, which is in large part the thing holding the series together. We see the epitome of this in the character Femt, whose eccentricity was just too good to be true. This is incredibly well paired with the stylized animation that gives the characters a striking note, and this is ignoring the incredible set pieces where the animation really gets to shine. The focus on layers really adds to the feeling that the characters are kicking through the screen, literally making me dodge at points. This along with the interesting decision to accentuate the distance between the characters, through the negative space used in the cinematography, stands to make the relationship between the characters an even bigger point of note This is sadly the case for the contrary, where the character’s reliance on the fast pacing is really shown when the series slows down, especially so in the second season, where there’s no underlying plot between White and Black, like the former, which although was unintelligible at points, gave the series a tie that is sorely missed later on, where the cast spends their time dealing with elements of the universe that don’t add much to the big picture, an even bigger sin considering how they could’ve spent this time to prioritize Femt, whose gang was a highlight of the show and the series’ opening, and an incredible disappointment to only really shine in the background This is really heightened by the end of the season, which chooses to focus on the main characters’ sister. Already being a bland character on their own, their sister was nothing more than an introductory tool, and although they pretend they act as a motivation for Leo, as far as the screenplay is concerned they barely have a role, which is confusing when the finale and its culminated tension stands on her. It gives a very well-presented and structured series that last bit of disjointedness that really fuels the fire in all of its other connected flaws. Although there is a clear lack of self-esteem in the series to go all out for the entire runtime, one I feel they really could do, The incredible setting of Blood Blockade Battlefront and how they are able to build upon this with the characters makes the series worthwhile and memorable __Mid 7/10__