Kekkai Sensen

Kekkai Sensen

A breach between Earth and the netherworlds has opened up over the city of New York, trapping New Yorkers and creatures from other dimensions in an impenetrable bubble. They've lived together for years, in a world of crazy crime sci-fi sensibilities. Now someone is threatening to sever the bubble, and a group of stylish superhumans is working to keep it from happening.

(Source: Anime News Network)

Note: The last episode aired with a runtime of ~46 minutes as opposed to the standard 24 minute long episode.

  • Type:TV
  • Studios:bones
  • Date aired: 5-4-2015 to 4-10-2015
  • Status:FINISHED
  • Genre:Action, Comedy, Supernatural
  • Scores:74
  • Popularity:182404
  • Duration:25 min/ep
  • Quality: HD
  • Episodes:12

Anime Characters

Reviews

Gruffle

Gruffle

I have to go very much out of my usual formula to review Kekkai Sensen, because it is a rather complicated case… This is also going to be a very quick review, seeing as the shows “flaws” are huge, and can be summarised quickly. For starters, the show looks AMAZING, and is in my opinion the best looker of spring 2015. What truly sells the visuals is the directing. It gives of a sense of uncontrollable energy and fun, which upped the overall score for visuals quite the bit. The soundtrack is also pretty sweet. I actually found myself listening through the opening, instead of skipping through it, just because how amazing the song is. Same goes for the ending. Simply put, very listenable. As for the rest of the soundtrack, your usual mediocre background tracks sprinkled with some great standout tracks in-between for good measure ^_^ Talking about the story is the hardest part. After watching each episode, I had myself thinking; “Man, that was a great episode!”. The comedy is on point, the plot was amusing, the characters were entertaining, the shows structure was original (see recap episode 10.5), etc.. Overall a great show! And this worked out very well for the first 7 or so episodes, but after that point, one thing in particular became very apparent. Every episode feels like a separate work on its own, with only the main cast and the location to tie them together. There is no semblance of a story at all. One episode ends with the main cast looking over an army of demons, the next has our main character bribing a mushroom with hamburgers. What little there is of a story is basicly, New York is surrounded by a fog that has connected the demon world to the "human world". How? We're never told... In this new New York, monsters and humans have to co-exist. In the midsts of all this, our main protagonist has decided to move to New York, where after a series of coincidences, begins working for Libra, an organisation centered around keeping threats at bay. Aaand thats about it... There is hinted towards a story from time to another; the world is threatened by vampires, Leonard has self-doubt issues, Libra is a group of misfits trying to make a living, etc. but it is all so very subtile, until it is slapped straight in our face like a plot twist. The thing is, it is not a plot twist, just a speedy plot point. My major gripe here, is that it feels like the story is being sidetracked for comedy, or rather filler episodes, which have no place in a 12ep show. It could have been along the lines of character centric episodes, but the aforementioned "filler episodes" are merely arbitrary comedy skeets... You could make the argument that Kekkai Sensen is a ”slice of nothing ever happens” comedy, and should be judged accordingly, but the show occasionally, tries hard to get its story across the board, and thus has to be judged as so. If Kekkai Sensen had been something along the lines of Kara no Kyoukai or Haruhi Suzumiya, where the episodes were not released chronologically, then the aforementioned ridiculously bad pacing and poorly tied together story could have been due to me just not understanding the plot due to unconventional conveying, but I can’t even put the blame on such a scenario. As for the characters, there are just too many of them. But they all have two things in common. They are all based on character tropes, and they are all ridiculously two dimensional. I could go in depth (or as far as possible with the rather limited personality each and everyone were given) about each and every character, but instead il just list a few of the main. You hardly need anything more than this before you know everything about the characters. You have your run of the mill easygoing main character (Leonard Watch), the asshole (Zapp), the tough but straight guy (Klaus), deluded villain (Femt), obligatory love interest (Mary/White) and the whimp (William/Black). To the shows credit, episode 11 is pure characterisation, telling about the past of some of the main characters, but it is very much a "too little, too late" scenario. Instead, they should have put this episode closer to the mid-point. Indeed, it could take some of the suspense away from the anime, but at least the story would have been a tiny bit less non-sensical. To summarise, Kekkai Sensen is a show that had a lot of potential. Every episode in and of itself were great, but the episodes themselves had no semblance of connection. The show falls flat on its face due to horrible pacing, limited character characterisation, little to none character development and a too short of a runtime. Say, if Kekkai Sensen had received a 26 episode runtime, the MABY the characters and the story would have had the time to be fully fletched out, instead of being the rushed mess that it is. The shows main selling points are definitively the animation, music and comedy, and with the exception of the aforementioned being great, there is very little to talk about... Kekkai Sensen could have been great, but ultimately is a rushed mess, and the final episode being posponed indefinitely further underlines that statement

CaninnTurtle

CaninnTurtle

(__Disclaimer__: I will cover both seasons of Kekkai Sensen in this review, but I won't go into spoilers at all, except for maybe in the characters section.) I had fun with Kekkai Sensen. It may have taken me weeks to finish 24 episodes and two ovas, but I had a pretty good time. However, I can't ignore the fact that it really polarized me overall. Sure, I enjoyed it, but there were a lot of times where I literally groaned and struggled through another seemingly pointless episode. These downs were what made me take nearly a month and a half to actually finish Kekkai Sensen, even though I'll say that it was a pretty good show. You can't talk about Kekkai Sensen without talking about how beautifully and fluidly it was animated and how banging the soundtrack was, especially season one's. For the animation, the fight scenes are undoubtedly some of the best in anime, the way that each character has their own fighting style and applications create for some impressive sequences. Even if the character models weren't drawn immaculately all the time, you could always count on the animation of each episode to impress. Before I go down the rabbit hole that is the soundtrack, I want to make a minor note about the voice acting, especially the dub being fantastic. It was always an epic moment when characters like Steven or Klaus went in for their final moves and suddenly started spewing their the names of their finisher in another language. Anyway, just wanted to show some appreciation for great voice acting. Now, the soundtrack. I don't how I'm going to say more than, "It's so good." To be honest, it may be one of the best soundtracks in anime, if only for the fact that it's so varied and fitting to its setting. Every insert song or instrumental piece fits into the jazzy, urban atmosphere that Hellsalem's Lot exudes. However, nothing in the first 23 episodes could prepare me for getting blindsided in the feels by the best song to come from the soundtrack. Honestly, if I was more fickle, I'd raise my score for Kekkai Sensen by 5 to 10 points for Tortoise Knight alone, but instead of talking more about it, I'll just link it here: ~~~youtube(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2u67JDNTEQ)~~~ __Favorite Character:__ Mary Macbeth (White) ~~~img(https://formeinfullbloom.files.wordpress.com/2015/04/white1.png)~~~ I mean, let's be honest, the only character challenging her for this spot is Chain. The thing about White though, is that she really provided Leo with interesting interaction outside of his work with Libra, which was a nice break from the chaos of Hellsalem's Lot. The first season really needed White to help provide you with more of a personal connection with Leo, who honestly, I thought was pretty useless most of the time. But around White, you couldn't help but cheer for him to get the girl, because their interactions were so damn cute. This is the part where, I take a turn from my radiantly positive attitude. I mentioned earlier that I was extremely polarized by Kekkai Sensen. Most of that polarization is from the episodic nature, I think. It's so hard to binge out Kekkai Sensen, because it feels like there's no thread tying the world together. Instead, every episode is a single story, making the good episodes feel really fulfilling, but making the bad ones excruciating. I don't think this issue was helped by the fact that I wasn't interested in Zapp very much, and he dominated many of season one's episodes, which set the tone for me to watch the series. In fact, I can't say that I loved many of the simple, one-off episodes that dominate the series. There were a few that I really enjoyed, like Gilbert and Chain's episodes in season 2, the hospital episode, and the Aligula episode in season 1. There are a couple more that I at least was pleased with, but these few were the standout one-offs to me. I think a lot of the episodes that didn't impress me simply didn't have a good focal character, which made me bored of them from the beginning. A lot of this may be just my taste, but I feel if someone doesn't like all the characters, you're going to struggle through certain episodes. Kekkai Sensen's greatest strength is loosely tied to my complaints too. See? Polarizing. Anyway, Kekkai Sensen's greatest strength lies in its world. Enter Hellsalem's Lot, perhaps the greatest world in anime: ~~~img(https://i.imgur.com/eQq4tff.jpg) ~~~ What makes Hellsalem's Lot so special? It's simple: the city is it's own character. Kekkai Sensen simply wouldn't be the same without the craziness of the city that they never fail to show us with each episode. We think we've seen the most unbelievable thing the city can throw at us, then it turns around and throws something else at us. The thing is, the city provides us with a sort of continuity that we take for granted after living in the city with the characters for a little while. It becomes the norm for us too, which is what makes it so special. All these crazy one-off episodes are basically created at complete freedom, because of how much room to maneuver the setting provides the writers. Honestly, it's really impressive. I think the fact that each and every citizen, alien or human, is drawn really helps immerse us even more in the world. We see the weirdness, instead of get told how weird Hellsalem's Lot is. I find it hard to actually _criticize_ Kekkai Sensen, because I realize how well it pulled me into the setting now that I've written all of this. In fact, I think all it would take to love Kekkai Sensen is more of an overarching rhyme or reason to the story. It gets touched on here and there, but mostly gets ignored. I guess Michella doesn't really matter that much after all. I kid, but it would be nice to see some progression to the plot behind Leo's eyes and her blindness. I'm probably asking for Kekkai Sensen to become something that it isn't though, so I'll be happy to be a fan of what it is, rather than what I think it should be.

ZUCCIN

ZUCCIN

~~~img(https://wallpaperaccess.com/full/1906990.jpg)~~~ How have I not found this sooner? After the genuine shit I have wafted through, I was not excited to begin a generic-looking anime. But I was genuinely surprised by the uniqueness of Kekkai Sensen, a true diamond in the rough of anime. Despite this it's not all sunshine and rainbows, there are some glaring problems with how it's structured. __story__: 7.5 The anime follows the story of Leonardo Watch, who after a chance encounter with a god, gets the all-seeing eyes of the gods at the cost of his sister's eyesight. Thus, he begins his adventure through the supernatural thoroughfare of Hell Salem's lot, meeting an assortment of demons and befriending the members of the anti-blood breed group, Libra. It starts off as the most cliché shit, being the typical action fantasy about demons and humans. But that takes a turn around episode 4, with the introductions of blood breeds, the story's version of vampires. It sets into motion the rest of the series and introduces the main push that is present throughout the rest of the season. The one glaring problem is that despite this, the episodic nature kills the hype to shit. each episode at the start of the series features no overlap, future episodes beginning to create the overarching story. This presents the double-edged sword of a good episode is amazing, but a terrible one (which is most of these) is painfully boring, like the episode about 4d chess for the fate of the universe. It becomes less of a problem later, but for fuck's sake, I don't care about a mushroom who likes burgers. The anime only story arc at the end is welcome tho, giving a person a general enemy and aim for Leo to overcome ~~~img(https://cdn.hipwallpaper.com/i/94/41/riXEgs.jpg)~~~ __Character and setting__: 7.3 the characters are a mixed bag really. Some are layered, some are fun, some of just total badasses. But then there are the aforementioned chess masters and mushrooms. White and Black are welcome additions as anime-only characters. But they are kinda cop-outs for problems with the beginning of the anime being the mixed bag. But as much as Zap and Leo and White are good characters, Hell Salem is a better one. It's breathing with the cosmic horrors of the other world, taking the best parts of New York and emphasising them in the chaos of the destruction by the otherworlders. __animation__: 8.2 the animation is smooth af. The city is oozing in filth, the characters stylish and the action scenes detailed and animated with flare. Only a few episodes are flat (mainly episodes 1 and 10) but it coincides with the episodes that are more chill and expositiony, so good animation is forgiven here. ~~~img(https://images8.alphacoders.com/747/747329.jpg)~~~ __Music__: 8.2 the op and ed are fucking killer and the soundtracked varied. It goes from high octane action to melancholy in a heartbeat but in a natural way. Trust me its something you hear and immediately know you are gonna enjoy it. __best episode__: episode 12, a good ending to a good arc __worst episode__: 10, massive exposition dump that is anime only, making it inserted in a fucked way overall, although the glaring problems of the boring and disjointed episodes, Kekkai Sensen creates an interesting meld of fantasy and action with killer animation and setting that is a must-see for anyone who has a remote interest in action fantasy.

AgusRBF

AgusRBF

(Very light spoilers) Kekkai Sensen is different to anything else I've ever seen, it's a shounen anime with good characters (some better than other), a fun sense of humour and it manages to create a unique world, and a story in it, as absurd as it can be without being unbelievable. That alone makes for an interesting watch, but that's not all. The way this whole thing is presented is also beautiful and done by people who surely know a thing or two about cinematography. It has it's problems but it is good, and it is like nothing else out there. While the art and animation are not outstanding overall (sometime it is, but on very few moments), they are certainly good, and complement the also good direction. You get to see a lot of really nice shots and great sequences that are not conventional to a shounen anime, that sometimes convey more meaning in just three or four shots than what a mere exposition would do in a typical shounen series. This doesn't mean the show is free of exposition, but it does not abuse it as many series would do. The story happens in a place called Hellsalem's Lot, which is the very well known city of New York, but after a kind of apocalyptic event where the human world was merged with another one full of paranormal stuff, like demons, ghosts, monsters, spirits, and pretty much anything you can imagine. This world was contained by some magicians called "casters" inside the city of New York so it wouldn't expand to the rest of the world, and thus, Hellsalem's Lot was born. Everything in this anime happens in this city, and you can argue that the city itself is the plot of this series, since the argument of pretty much every episode and the arc that goes along the whole 12 episodes exist because of this supernatural city of absurdity. Some might argue that the script and the story are "weak" because of this. You can have in this city pretty much any ridiculous thing you can imagine, so your story can be anything and anything would have a reason to be and not worry about it making no sense at all. I personally think that it takes a whole lot of creative thinking to come up with this show, and that the device of the city itself seems really unique, and serves well to it's purpose, It allows for the weird but great storytelling this series has. If this were to be a conventional shounen, I would have probably dropped it. It's the absurdity and the way it is presented what keeps you engaged to what otherwise wouldn't be as interesting. Everything is presented to the viewer the same way an outsider would experience it when getting to know the city. It is weird, and it is shocking, but when you watch episode after episode you start to get the charm of that weirdness. Perhaps sometimes everything is way too confusing and not explicative at all with not enough information to put the pieces together. Not everything has a purpose, but most of the times it is fine that way. The series knows well when to get serious and when to put a gag or make you laugh, and surely it knows how to make you laugh. It's sense of humour reminds me a lot of FLCL, where you could not believe the sheer absurdity of what was happening, and how over the top and exaggerated things can go, but it also has some subtleties that can make you not laugh but smile. I would say the weakest point of this series is that it only took 12 episodes for it to reach that ending. I ended up feeling like I missed two or three episodes, and that it needed more development before that final episode. The series is mostly episodic and through most part of it, you get little hints about the main plot and how it will unfold, but then it does as fast as possible in the span of two episodes (one being twice as long, so it would be like three normal episodes). That was very disappointing, but it wasn't bad. I liked the ending. I just think it would have been great to have two or three more episodes before 11 and 12 to dive deeper into what happens in the end. The series ends with hints of a second season (which has already aired but I havent' seen yet) that I'm surely going to watch. Overall it was a good watch, and a memorable one. Besides it's problems I liked it a lot. It's prehaps the most unconventional shounen anime I've seen out there. I don't usually watch shounen, but this one stands out. I would say 7.5/10. It's not a masterpiece by any means, but it sure does entertain and make you feel things and think; for a ridiculous series as this is, that is a lot.

SatanSage

SatanSage

A lot of times this anime will seem like a clusterfuck with a very loose story line, however, in reality the show is extremely smart with a great story. Though I will say that sometimes the pacing of Kekkai Sensen can be a bit fast, if you take the episodes one by one it will be a lot easier to understand. All of the characters are well thought out and pretty much perfectly designed. Each of the characters has their own special blood technique and while at times it can be a bit annoying to hear them say the same thing over again, that's what makes for a good action anime. With a great mix of comedy and action blended in perfectly with the story. Since the story gets a bit heavy at times the anime takes breaks to let you see more into the character's lives (which for me is a big win), though this happens more in the second season. (At this point I want to say sorry that this review isn't very straight forward as it is one of my first). I love the fact that the main character, Leo, is still seen in a very normal light and has to be watched for and at times protected, all the while the other members of Libra take on the more dangerous tasks. The characters relationship with each other is already set in stone but because of Leo you get to watch as their bonds strengthen even more. The story isn't anything over the top but because of the set up and the world building the story can seem wider and more complex than it really is. One thing that I will say about this anime is that is you are watching it with adds on a site like Crunchyroll it is really hard to understand and follow. The anime also makes it seem like every character is a main character though there is only three listed. The enemies do not last very long and the ones that are seen as the main bad guys are sometimes just looked over to the point that they are forgotten about. The first episode throws you into the story with very little to no explanation and while I highly enjoyed it, I feel like other people would get thrown out of the loop. There are a lot of side episodes and at times I feel like the story gets lost because of them, though I will say that episode seven could stand up to a lot all on its own. The one thing about the characters that I think could have been better is simply their backstories, I know this isn't quite that kind of anime but it's a shame that such good characters are slightly underdeveloped. The opening and ending are great and fit in very well with the overall theme of the story, as well as just being really good bops. Lastly this anime definitely isn't for everyone but for the people who enjoy a thought-provoking, action packed, comedic, monster world anime, this is definitely one that you'd enjoy

JohnnyKishibe

JohnnyKishibe

Hi, this is my first review ever! I thought I had to do this for some JoJo's bizarre adventure installment (it's my favourite anime ever) but when I ended this fantastic series I felt that I had to say something on it, I had to tell everyone why I loved this that much. Story: 9/10 I usually tend to prefer stories with a serial storytelling, but if all the episodes in an episodic series are amazing I'm gonna love it anyways. All of Kekkai Sensen's episodes are brilliant and enjoyable; it has some horror, some cute romance, a lot of funny moments, a bit of thriller, a bit of science fiction, a great [SPOILER REDACTED] and even a gambling and a fighting episode! All of the adventures and mishaps that our main character, Leonardo Watch, and his comrades have to face are set in a colorful and mad world to which everyone would give a peek. Art: 10/10 Kekkai Sensen's artstyle is something fantastic yet unique: the character design (made by Yasuhiro Nightow, the same author of Trigun) is brilliant and describes perfectly all the characters (e.g. the comic characters are drawn in a ridiculous way), the world in which the story is set is somehow similar to ours but where the outer world merges it blends with the first in a way that feels pretty natural. The animations are always fluid and pretty flashy during the fights and that bit of CGI used is pretty good to see (I'm thinking about the last episode). Sound: 10/10 The original dubbing is perfect as with every anime produced by Bones (I'm thinking about BSD and Noragami in particular), but the best part of this anime, imo, is the soundtrack. The original tracks are all brilliantly written by Taku Iwasaki (the same author of Soul Eater, Bungou Stray Dogs, Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann and many other anime's OSTs), the OP is beautiful, the ED is imo the best ED ever made and the not original soundtracks... are perfect. Mozart's The Magic Flute, Borodin's Polovesian Dances, Satie's gymnopedies: all of these classical music pieces and many others are perfectly used in this amazing anime and sent chills down my spine. Character: 9/10 All the characters are perfectly typified for a 12 episodes series (surely they would have been developed even better if the series had been a bit longer) and you can vibe with each and every one of them: Leonardo is amiable and brave, Mary is mysterious yet beautiful and cute, Zapp is a super funny hot headed punk, Klaus is a stoic and brave father figure, Chain is a mysterious girl who perfectly balances Zapp's agitation with her phlegm and Steven is a perfectly written sidekick for Klaus. All the secondary characters are also nicely written from the fun and mad Aligura to the lucidly insane Femt, from the comical Luozontam Ouv Lee Nej Amagranoff to the mysterious and clever Don Arlelelle Eruca Fulgrouche and the friendly yet serious Zed O'Brien. It's an amazing cast that vibes with you and makes you want to be one of them. Enjoyment: 10/10 I really loved watching this anime: I enjoyed watching Leonardo and his comrades face every kind of absurd situation in Hellsalem's Lot, a city as wild as its inhabitants. I liked a lot every aspect of this series and I'll totally recommend this to anyone will ask me for a great and funny series! Final thoughts: Kekkai Sensen is a brilliant anime series inspired by the entertaining homonym manga made by Yasuhiro Nightow, the same author of Trigun. It made me laugh, cry and get excited a good bunch of times throughout its 12 episodes and Im pretty confident it deserves a full 10 out of 10. I'd strongly advice you watch it if you haven't yet, as im sure you wont regret it!

Champi

Champi

As my last rewatch was quite a long time back, it was actually a good idea to do one now as I got to see for myself once again how underrated Kekkai Sensen and it's way actually are. Last night I wrote to someone else a huge wall of text, consisting of what Kekkai Sensen is about and how well it's structured, while scaring people away with it's episodic look. This review is honestly a huge mess as it’s freely written, has no real structure and also specifically looks into certain things, but still I decided to share my view here. Here we go: ~~~img450(https://64.media.tumblr.com/4eb42dbb452740af2c563b57f0eb9bec/tumblr_nmnu36yrTv1qi6xzyo1_500.gif)~~~ My last watch was quite long back and now that I'm here again, Kekkai Sensen is more heavily underrated than I always thought Like, here it doesn't even matter whether you look at the Opening, Anime itself or Ending because all just adds together to it's actually outstanding Looking at the Opening, let’s have a small insight into how it conveys us change, day to day life and the fun you can have with the people you met. Starting off we see Hellsalem’s Lot or former New York in the morning, the sunrise indicating the beginning of a new day and chapter in the life of everyone, while also having it turn upside down, alluding the change the city and it’s citizens went through as change will always remain part of our life. Following with a shot of hundreds and thousands of pictures containing the different locations, people and events that took place in Hellsalem’s Lot, forming the barrier that holds New York and the Otherworld together, striking us again with the symbolism of pictures and „capturing the moment“ in Kekkai Sensen as it’s these that make everyday life so special, especially in this chaotic city. Continuing we see scenes with Leonardo walking in the mids of masses of people in the city, together with some color changes that don’t seem out of the ordinary at first, but it’s these color changes to a black & white tone that allow us to see the world in the same light as Leo does. He genuinely thinks of himself as an ordinary person, as a part of the mass while being able to see the outstanding characters, personalities around him with a glowing color, fitting their souls. We see Klaus von Reinherz in a red highlight in the middle of people colored in black & white, symbolizing his courageous character that is willing to sacrifice himself and continue to fight for the safety of his friends and the citizens while the King of Despair/Blue is highlighted in a blue color, which could indicate the freedom he has as an immortal being, but also his sensitivity and aim towards his goal of finally getting past life. Leo enables us to see the outstanding characters in these masses, being able to see the people he considers as extraordinary or special, allowing us to enter the exciting world that comes with them. A nice additional touch are the pictures of Leo getting up in the morning and having fun with his friends, eating burgers, pulling funny faces which all simply indicates his daily life. Additionally we also see for a brief moment the days in the city pass accelerated, probably telling us that life will continue no matter what happens yesterday, while the scene also contains three crucial characters for the happenings in Kekkai Sensen- one character being Michella with the prior mentioned red petals falling from the sky, transitioning to Leonardo opening his eyes which once again reminds us of her sacrifice for his ability. Coming to the key visual of the Opening, we see the huge chaos that from there on is part of his life. We see the characters he met and new friends he made, all of them showing off their abilities as each of his friends is extraordinary on their own, the screen keeps flashing up due to everything that happens and also in the future will keep happening. This is the world Leo was looking for, one extraordinary world which he was allowed to enter as an observer thanks to his eyes. Reaching slowly the end, we lastly see an introduction of the 13 Vampire Kings, Blue and of course the stage with all the friends he made, his stage being the only one that has yet to start to glow the way the others do. ~~~img450(https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/786365513441210642/500E256D445C7179D3CA388E8B4811EF3C539668/?imw=5000&imh=5000&ima=fit&impolicy=Letterbox&imcolor=%23000000&letterbox=false)~~~ The whole show wouldn't be possible without Leo and with that without us, as Leo has been introduced from the beginning on into the position of the watcher, the observer that made everything just possible. He became the power to see as higher beings do, making us to that higher being as the viewer. That's also why the camera of Leo is so important as plot device actually, we capture the moments and events and from overarching view and have them remain in the total, whether it's important or not. Pictures are there in every episode to remind us of Us and Leo to be the observer. ~~~img450(https://i.pinimg.com/originals/40/32/42/403242aae390d04d6dbdd03f2cf2dbe3.gif)~~~ In ep 11 though they went even beyond with that which is plainly amazing, as it was White's backstory from when she was still a child. She has no powers while Black and their parents do, doesn't see a meaning in her as there is nothing she can do for this world while her parents used their powers to help other people. So what she does it to take pictures of others, but never from herself as she sees these photos as something she actually accomplished while she was still alive- later her camera was thrown by others from a bridge into the river, while Black tries to catch it and has a small incident because of that, having her telling him that the camera is actually just a placebo in the end as it still means that the photos are just functioning as placeholders for the moments, but can't revive a dead person. Something else that's important here is that it also shows the difference in Black and White as he has the potential to become the same as his parents and help the world while she can't and doesn't really know what to do in life, the photos don't have any real worth compared to the others in her family. That's her placebo, she tried to have something she can do to leave it behind in this world while Black can't. BUT very amazing is also when afterwards during the night Black took a photo of her that made her cry, that was the recognition and proof that she was alive and valued by others, which is a huge impact point. So even if she does nothing, she is still important to her brother. THAT'S WHERE WE GET BACK TO LEO'S CAM!! She helped the king of despair/Black to get to Leo's eyes because she wants Black to get his own life back again, but when then when the monkey gave her Leo's cam, she started to look through the photos on it and realized her mistake. The first photo in the gallery is Leo's sister, the person he values most and afterwards he already put White. The third picture we see is one from Leo that she took, being that reminder for how important he actually is to her! The meaning behind the camera and pictures being that whatever we see on them, it was important enough for someone to capture the moment. To "immortalize" it. This is also where I love the contrast to White's brother Black or rather the King of Despair, as the dead and moments of the past are hold on picture forever while he himself can't die. He doesn't get the luxus to die and lives on forever, which is why he planned to destroy the world and eventually die with that. Leaving a proof that he was alive once too. That's why even the king has taken photos and recorded video tapes of himself because he thought he can finally pass on, he wanted to leave them as the proof that he lived and that even though he is well-aware of his immortality. The contrast of White & Black and the meaning of the Observer role and the camera + photos in this show is plainly amazing to me, I love it too much. Getting back to the first paragraph of this main body, it also doesn't matter what exactly is going on at given moment or time, as everything that can happen is part of the telling and how life goes in Hellsalem's Lot. It's just a huge stage performance that allows characters to be changed, swapped and it doesn't even matter whether the char is considered good or evil as the play will still go on into it's next act. Anyone can be in the focus of what's to see. ~~~img450(https://images-wixmp-ed30a86b8c4ca887773594c2.wixmp.com/f/72ab7e45-dbad-4185-8874-31ad720b8376/db8uqxi-4b3723f0-9488-457b-98a1-b4adbcf948ca.gif?token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJzdWIiOiJ1cm46YXBwOjdlMGQxODg5ODIyNjQzNzNhNWYwZDQxNWVhMGQyNmUwIiwiaXNzIjoidXJuOmFwcDo3ZTBkMTg4OTgyMjY0MzczYTVmMGQ0MTVlYTBkMjZlMCIsIm9iaiI6W1t7InBhdGgiOiJcL2ZcLzcyYWI3ZTQ1LWRiYWQtNDE4NS04ODc0LTMxYWQ3MjBiODM3NlwvZGI4dXF4aS00YjM3MjNmMC05NDg4LTQ1N2ItOThhMS1iNGFkYmNmOTQ4Y2EuZ2lmIn1dXSwiYXVkIjpbInVybjpzZXJ2aWNlOmZpbGUuZG93bmxvYWQiXX0.rnCUzDfI7sIt9822vNTCFCppxJi7A_Jz8a_o0u-L-dY)~~~ That's something that makes the Ending even better than it already was before, as it shows us that stage with the characters acting freely, dumb, doing shenanigans, see short moments of the different characters interacting but even there we remain with the role of an observer as the lights on stage don't differenciate between good and evil chars, but put their spotlight on what's seen. Whoever and whatever is on the stage right now. It doesn't matter what's going on in the world, whether it's going down or the city is getting completely destroyed, the show just allows us to invest into it's characters and they being it's actors. Further, the Ending symbolizes a lot with the colors white, black and red (basically blood). For uni I once looked up the meaning of colors and how colors can and are used in stories to convey a symbolic meaning, which the ED does too with red roses representing the sacrifice of characters as we can see in the scene with Leo and his sister, having red petals falling during that tragic moment of her losing the ability to see. Next we see a white rose which often symbolizes loyality or undying love, that's dragged by White with her feet and starts to blood, as she is part of the barrier that holds the city together and which she remains able to due to her love for her family. That scene even foreshadowed in the ED already that she is gonna sacrifice herself to save her brother and Leo. In the next shot we already see Black and the king of Despair (which is essentially blue) surrounded by black and blue petals, which also contrasts with the other two colours and fitting their names + designs for the show. Further Black holds bouquet of white roses to symbolize his love for his sister while the king only does hold one, in both cases showing the importance of White to both as Black feels complete with her while the king needs her for his plan to destroy everything. But at the end I really love the shot from the fist holding a white rose with blood that's supposed to mean the victory at the end of s1, that's been achieved by sacrifice as White sacrificed herself and the red petals representing the sacrifice Leo's sister contributed at the beginning. Without both sacrifices Leo never could've won, holding the white petal that's streamed with blood ~~~img450(https://64.media.tumblr.com/ce4423b3f630f067fccca143a33db586/tumblr_oxime3BPsS1t0lt8go1_540.gif)~~~ I love how Kekkai Sensen is theoretically episodic as many episodes just feature a one ep arc and them being loose in their telling from all the others, but still managed to have an overarching plot that results in the climax of season 1 and with that in an outstanding end. It knew how to use itself, how to use and build a limitless world that allows any Shenanigans you can think of. How to use the characters and give them here and there spotlight. How to entertain you with absurdity and still trying to teach you values with the observer, Leo, who had nothing to do at the beginning and didn't know how to continue, up to the point that he learned how to look ahead and keep moving forward, trying to take steps towards the light. With that he also finally managed to write the letter to his sister, telling her about the world and light he was able to see thanks to her. The concept of Kekkai Sensen, it's potential and the involvement of an observer and thus us is likely one of the most amazing things I've seen in AniManga, enabling it to be this much fun. Leo, giving us the ability to experience the events from the perspective of someone that was given the power to see everything, making us the higher being that records them, is something I love the most about it. ~~~img450(https://i.gifer.com/86Sa.gif)~~~ This may be the end of the review, but honestly, I still didn't write enough. There is so much yet to mention, so many characters I still have to look into, how the show has some of the best OSTs I've ever heard and other things. Honestly, it's a pity that I'm at the end, but at the same time I think that it's best to experience the characters, music and action on your own, to see why they make Kekkai Sensen this amazing. As poorly written as this Review may be, I still hope I managed to tell you about what Kekkai Sensen is

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