Feb 7, 2018
If you want the abridged version of my review read the conclusion (at the bottom). This is a fairly detailed review in which I was VERY careful not to spoil ANYTHING. I admit, a good bit of it is me venting my frustration with the unjust flood of negative reviews for this anime.
Having finished Black Bullet a few years after most reviewers, I have had the luxury of being able to read the reviews and reflect upon much of what is said about Black Bullet. I rather liked Black Bullet and hoped for a second season...that said, I find much of the harsh criticism is
...
unjustified. Having read through several reviews that seem like there was a massive bandwagon in which people expressed their dislike of Black Bullet in the most generic manner as possible...
Story - 5
I admit that this is the weakest link in the anime. While coherent, it tends to be fairly generic and occasionally has blatant displays of plot armor. Near the end it felt rushed, but there was nothing a season 2 couldn’t fix. While the plot was nothing special, it wasn’t bad either. It had a more consistent plot than a slew of other anime (Sword Art Online, A Certain Magical Index, Hunter X Hunter, Attack on Titan...). Was this the best plot? No, but it’s nothing that ruins the show.
Art - 7???
No expert in this. Wasn’t anything mortifying. There weren’t any instances of where Art work shined to support the plot (like Madoka Magica or Unlimited Blade Works).
Sound - 8
I tend to be fairly picky about the music I listen to. That said, I rather enjoy the music from Black Bullet. It’s opening and ending themes are pretty good and I seldom skipped them when watching Black Bullet. My favorite part is easily the theme music. It has some amazing OST that shines during critical moments. While this was no Guilty Crown or SAO Ordinal Scale, this anime’s sound track is easily a notch above your average anime.
Characters - 7-8
This is one of the places where Black Bullet gets unusual amounts of hate. There are slews of reviews hating upon the Cursed Children being young girls, but the plot (and basic biology) can explain this... The main character was nothing special, but there were definitely some solid supporting characters. Many of the Cursed Children the audience gets introduced to are decent characters. If we are simply going for character development, even the main character gets more character development than 99% of the characters from Hunter X Hunter....an anime that ‘evidently’ was deserving of a ~9... I do not understand how other reviewers claimed the characters were ‘2-dimensional’ yet had deep and sad back stories. The biggest draw back to this anime in this category is that I wanted MORE character development. This is probably a frustration that other reviewers are having trouble voicing and thus blame the gender, age, or backstory of the characters... These characters are interesting enough to perk the viewers interest and like in Angel Beats, get enough character development for one to crave more, but goes no further, causing an uproar in the audience that other anime that don’t put ANY effort in developing characters (like Raxephon, Hunter X Hunter, seven deadly sins) don’t receive. This anime needed more episodes for this arc and more time devoted to plot and characters. (But nothing a season 2 couldn’t fix).
Enjoyment - 9-10
I really enjoyed it and want a season 2. This is a solid start to an anime series with an interesting world with cool mechanics. Most of the complaints about the anime can be explained using 9th grade science knowledge which annoys me. This like other anime gets redundant complaints that the plot ADDRESSED. If I could go into more detail, I would take the time to debunk ~90% of the complaints give (this is not difficult since most of these complaints are repeated and seemingly copy and pasted from one review to the next).
Overall - 8
I feel this is a high 7 or a low 8. This anime gets more flak than it deserves, but it’s not without short comings. If you enjoy interesting characters, dark humor, and an interesting world, Black Bullet does a pretty good job at that. I found it ironically enjoyable watching it AFTER reading all the ironious negativity about Black Bullet and puzzling over the complaints (most of which I found to be immartial). The anime is consistent with the ‘rules’ (there are little to no contradictions with the mechanics of the world) it sets and is fairly consistent.
This is NOT an anime for those who want something simple that requires no thinking and everything spoon fed to them. I am frustrated with the anime because there is justification using real world science that it can use to defend itself, but having lasted only 13 episodes, Black Bullet never takes the time to do so...
Conclusion: If you enjoy tradgy, philosophy, Darker humor, and cool support characters than Black Bullet is pretty good. If you want mindless action or comedy or utopian worlds then this is not the anime to watch.
P.s. Don’t watch this anime (or any anime for that matter) with high expectations. No anime can live up to the hopes and dreams of the human mind.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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