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Quiz time! What's the most important element of a good war story?
a) The gripping character drama as relatable characters are forced into dangerous situations
b) The moral ambiguity of the conflict (good people having to do bad things)
c) The themes of loss, both of life and of innocence, on the battlefield
d) The tits and ass of the 14 year-old mecha pilot

If you answered D, congratulations! You might be a future light novel writer.

Every season of anime has one show that is so awful it can't even be enjoyed for its failings anymore. This season, one of the candidates for that prestigious wooden spoon ... falls to Heavy Object, a series based off a light novel (alarm bells ringing yet?) by the notoriously anal-retentive Kazuma Kamachi. While it isn't the absolute worst the season has produced so far, it's right near the bottom.

STORY- 1/10

The world of Heavy Object is one where the titular Objects, giant, round mecha, fight in a series of never-ending conflicts with laser guns and all sorts of other advanced technology. Just from reading the blurb on MAL and seeing the picture, I bet you'd expect a hilarious Michael Bay meets G Gundam-style train wreck with mecha beating the piss out of each other, deliciously hammy screaming, the power of nakama, and everything that possibly can blow up blowing up.

It's not.

While some shows might be terrible in both production values and story, they are just so delightfully over-the-top that you can derive all sorts of enjoyment from them. This show is not that at all. If Code Geass is the equivalent of two 747s colliding in midair, and Mirai Nikki is the equivalent of a fully-loaded freight train plowing a poor 16-wheeler who had the misfortune to stall right on the railroad tracks, Heavy Object is the equivalent of backing into a light pole in the neighborhood going 15 miles an hour.

"But surely," you say, "when two incredibly powerful and destructive mechs go at it, there's got to be something to enjoy, right?"

First off, a lot of the time it's not even two mecha fighting at all. The story is mainly about our two bland protagonists goofing off, being perverts, and...blowing up Objects with barely applicable "reasoning".

Yes, the most advanced technological weapon in the history of man, one that "was single-handedly able to change war forever", is defeated by two ordinary foot soldiers. And again, and again, and again, and again. You now have a good idea of the plot. It devalues the threat of the Objects so much because the countries that use them seem downright idiotic for letting two regular joes being able to blow them up on a regular basis. Hasn't anyone actually thought of preparing for sabotage, or trying to stop it?

As well as being utterly boring, it doesn't help that the show shoehorns in what seems like every light novel trope, in dead seriousness. There's constant gazes and glimpses of the schoolgirl mecha pilot's, well, ejection hatch, and most of the fanservice of both her and the attractive female commander (case in point: the infamous pole-dancing scene) comes off as completely out of place due to the fact that there's just so much of it despite it being completely superfluous and unnecessary. The commander wears kimonos that show off her shoulders and breasts. There's an idol singer who shows up for a few episodes. A private military contractor in the final few episodes dresses like maids, and they say "goshujinsama". I am not making this up. This is despite the ethnic makeup of every character that has appeared in the story being 0% Japanese.

At some point, you wonder if the writer has any idea what a war story, or mecha story, actually is. But that doesn't stop Kamachi.

One of the good parts of To Aru Majutsu no Index, as much as I had gripes with it, was how detailed its setting was. Almost every character and artifact that appeared had pages on who they were and why they were important, and it added a lot of depth to what would be a forgettable harem light novel. Heavy Object doesn't even have the worldbuilding aspect going for it. The world is fractured into all sorts of small countries fighting each other because...they are. That's it. This is compounded by the fact that the author seems to have no idea how an actual military works. Let's just say that anyone who's actually served overseas would be less than pleased at this anime's portrayal of war.

There's even times where the story tries to get serious, and bring questions of morality into the equation. The key word here is "tries", because it sure doesn't succeed. Characters will discuss the immoral side of war (while the enemies they're fighting are obviously and hilariously evil, mind you), and then the next scene will be another steamy fanservice scene in a change so quick it will give you whiplash. All the light novel tropes mentioned above makes it impossible to take any serious aspects of the story at face value, and the sheer cliche status of the characters makes it downright idiotic to try to introduce these "mature" elements. Morality is a key issue of war stories, but Heavy Object is too much of a joke to really even be considered one, and as such should never have attempted to get serious in the first place. I hear fans all over say that "you shouldn't take it seriously". However, why shouldn't I when it attempts to pose questions such as this? It clearly wants to take itself seriously. Why should it be judged as a parody?

CHARACTERS-1/10

Main characters Qwenthur and Havia are completely and totally depthless and generic, except for their perversity which seems to increase exponentially every arc. It's like the author decided to drop two harem MCs into a setting without even making it a harem, because both of them could be interchanged with any other light novel protag without missing a beat in the story.

But my major issue with them is that they're one of the biggest Gary Stu duos of the season. Remember the fact that Objects are supposed to be so powerful they make foot soldiers obsolete? Well, these two never lose against them. They do what is the equivalent of defeating a nuclear missile with a baseball bat, and they do it every single arc. You thought Touma and his "nullify everything" was bad? The amount of plot armor these two have could send an elevator into freefall just by getting on it. Because who needs narrative tension when you have plot armor? It's not helped by the fact that they're incredibly unsympathetic; they get away with almost everything questionable they do, and the show just laughs it off.

In contrast, Milinda, the female mecha pilot, exists only to lose. The ability of the protagonists to pull bullshit logic out of their asses allowing them to win is matched only by her ability to job in fights she clearly has the edge in. The only reason why she's there is to provide fanservice, which, as she is a major character, clearly signals something's wrong with that portrayal. "Depth" does not mean "bra size", "depth" means "backstory and motivations".

The female commanding officer is largely the same as Milinda, although she at least has a few lines explaining her situation and is reasonably competent at her job. Nonetheless, the characters are all so one-dimensional that it's nearly impossible to like them.

ART- 7/10

JC Staff, known for their adaptation of mediocre light novels like Shakugan no Shana, DanMachi, and the aforementioned Index, takes the helm on this production. The art is pretty good. I'll admit it's done quite well, and while some of the CGI might be a little shaky, it melds well most of the time. It's quite possibly the only thing saving this show in the first place.

SOUND-3/10

Both the music and the voice acting are completely bland and unforgettable. Despite there being some names in the cast that are recognizable, all the characters' voices are as generic as their personalities. The music is even more so; if anyone managed to get a track from this anime stuck in their head, I'd be impressed. It goes hand in hand with the low production values of the art, and adds the final cherry on top of this atrocity of an animated television series.

OVERALL-2/10

Heavy Object had the potential to be an at least sort-of enjoyable trainwreck, but as noted above, it couldn't even manage that. Instead what we got is a weird mishmash of all the wrong parts about serious war stories, hot-blooded mecha shows, and trashy LNs. When the art is the only thing saving you from a 1/10, you know something's wrong. Hope I could at least convince someone not to watch it, or to go into it with heavy apprehensions, and it leaves me with the final thoughts that Kazuma Kamachi really needs to step his game up.

[Warning: This review contains spoilers, read at your own risk.]

Winter 2016: the season when I finally lost what little respect I had for the MAL ranking system.

I first read the Boku Dake ga Inai Machi manga a few weeks before the season started, and although I thought it was pretty stupid, I would have been content to let it lie in the realm of mediocrity. However, then the season started, and pretty much everyone on MAL started praising it like it was the Second Coming of Evangelion/FMA:B/Steins;Gate...

Suffice to say it's a sad statement about the anime industry and fanbase as a whole when a ... mediocre work can gain this much acclaim just because it doesn't pander.

STORY- 4/10

I'll admit, BokuMachi might have hooked me early on. The premise of an apathetic adult having to go back in time to set right the wrongs of the past, is not the most original out there, but the added twist of him being put into a nine-year-old body and having to stop a serial killer was a little unexpected, and the story type can be done well. However, in most cases it's not. In most cases the main character ends up easily solving the issues of everyone and riding off into the sunset, and this is most cases. If you've only watched episode one and thought "hey, this seems pretty good!", don't get your hopes up. It just spirals down from there.

The problem with this is, that just like every other part of the story, it's a good idea bungled horribly.

To fully be invested in a race against time such as BokuMachi, there needs to be some kind of narrative stakes. You, the viewer, need to get the sense the main character can, and is likely to, fail. There needs to be suspense. With this show there is none of that. The protagonist's power to turn back time is basically a "get out of jail free" card. Basically stated, there is nothing suggested to make me believe Satoru can't keep save-scumming, going into the past again and again until he finally succeeds, meaning he can do loads of stupid things and still get redo after redo after redo.

So how does the show make up for it? Feels. Lots and lots of feels. Because as any fan of Key Visual Arts can tell you, the way to cover up writing problems is to toss wave after wave of cheap pathos at the reader/viewer until they're too overwhelmed by tears to think about the plot. Because if they did, they would understand the fact that the story is actually pretty retarded.

A lot of the story deals with child abuse. Now, this is a touchy enough issue as it is, but you would expect a portrayal that addresses the subject with at least some narrative subtlety and makes an effort to show what effect it has on the psyches of the victim, the abuser, and everyone around them. What we get, instead, is drawn-out, almost-cartoonish scenes of an caricature of an evil parent beating her child because evil. Kayo never changes a single bit due to it, because we have no idea what she was like beforehand. We never get to see how being abused affected her in the long run. As a result, it comes off looking like it's solely for shock value, and using it as a plot device for easy sympathy almost seems insulting to real people who have actually gone through that. Not helping is how one-dimensionally it portrays the subject; no sane person wakes up and thinks "oh, it would be fun if I kicked the shit out of my kids today!"

I hate trigger warnings. I really do. But if someone were to get triggered over this, I would completely understand it. Portraying such a horrible subject like BokuMachi does really isn't okay.

Oh, and why does the protagonist resolve to protect this girl from her abuse? Not because he is forced to do so in order to save his mother's life (which is actually something that is going on in the story), but because he wants to befriend everyone and be a seigi no mikata. Yes, it's the power of friendship, which has no business showing up in a seinen manga-adapted series this dark but is inexplicably being played 100% straight. After Kayo's story gets resolved, this element climbs to an absolute max, where Satoru, in complete seriousness and in an extremely rushed and shallow plotline, attempts to befriend all of the murder victims to stop them from being killed...because a little kid is definitely gonna be able to protect another little kid from a serial killer who targets little kids.

I was also really uncomfortable with Satoru and Kayo's relationship. As in, what was the point of all the hand-holding, calling their outings "dates", and everybody, including Satoru's mother, being okay with it or outright encouraging them? They are eleven years old, people. I don't know about you, but my hypothetical child is not going out with anyone until they hit puberty at the very least. So I don't see any reason why only having their interactions be friendship would take anything away from the story itself (admittedly, there isn't much to take away in the first place). Not to mention, the fact that the protag is an adult in a little kid's body, but actually gets turned on by Kayo at one point, is all sorts of disgusting.

And then there's the ending. The tiki umbrella in this mai tai glass of failure, so to say. The killer turns out to be...the only adult male who interacts with the children on a regular basis, and who was most viewers' prime suspect. As if that wasn't enough, suddenly the writers realize that they were going way too slow to adapt the ending of the manga properly and start throwing twist after twist at the viewer like it's a game of Touhou or something, letting plot holes abound. Satoru somehow gets put in a coma...despite being drowned in a car going into a frozen lake. Where is the explanation? Nowhere. Then in one of the most bafflingly stupid decisions by a bad guy I've seen in a long time, the villain decides to go to Satoru and tell him everything despite the fact that he has no good reason to do so. Surprise, surprise, Satoru regains the memories he lost in the attempted murder because the bad guy was basically incriminating himself! And then we find out the bad guy did this because...he had a crush on Satoru or something. Yes. That's the reason.

One last thing. Whichever executive at Aniplex of America who thought the English title was a good idea should be taken out back and put out of his misery.

CHARACTERS- 3/10

Well, what more can I say? Satoru, our MC, starts off as an apathetic jerk, someone who doesn't want to get involved in others' business. I'll admit, I'm biased toward those types of characters, probably because I am one myself. But the main reason I like those sorts of characters is the opportunity they have for development. How do they interact with their setting? In a lot of cases, their journey into the ideal hero is one of the most rewarding things that can happen in any sort of fiction.

Satoru goes back in time as an apathetic jerk, fails once, then goes back in time again as Shirou fucking Emiya. That is not logical development.

There's no explanation apart from a flaming cliche given to why he would suddenly want to save everyone, befriend everyone, be a hero, etc. Remember that little part about his mother dying unless he changes the future? Remember that reasonable motivation? Yeah, neither does the author.

It seems like almost at times the story forgets that he's not an actual eleven-year-old, but an adult in a child's body. His morality seems to be replaced with the simplistic, black-and-white judgement of a minor, which as we see in the prologue, he is obviously not. Think about it. What twenty-nine-year-old, in all seriousness, utters "I want to be a superhero?" Still thinking? Satoru Fujinuma, that's who. The story completely drops the ball with every single bit of his character development and growth.

Then we move to Kayo, the murder target and so-called deuteragonist. She's emotionally cold and distant from other people. Why? Because her mother beats her and it makes her wary of others. She likes going outside, like to the museum or the children's center and stuff like that. Why? Her mother doesn't let her go outside. She wants a pair of mittens for her birthday. Why? Because her mother never let her have any.

EVERYTHING ABOUT HER RELATES BACK TO HER BEING ABUSED.

A main character is supposed to have depth. She doesn't. Get rid of the abusive parent and she pretty much ceases to exist. Kayo is almost not so much of a character in her own right as a narrative device; a MacGuffin the main character has to obtain. Replace her with an artifact from an RPG, and there would be about the same difference, minus the beatings of course.

The less said about Airi Katagiri, the better. Seriously, she is irrelevant. Remove her entirely from the story and almost nothing, if anything at all, would change. It's even more absurd that MAL lists her as a main character despite the fact that she doesn't appear in more than half of the episodes at all.

Then there is the little issue about Kayo's mother. Apparently at the final confrontation the MC has with her, she gets a tragic backstory pulled out of her ass and it's implied you're at least supposed to feel at least a tiny bit of pity for her. Sympathy, my fully extended, shaved, unaroused left testicle. If you portray a character as a monster for ~8 eps, why do you think people will suddenly turn around and start feeling sorry?

I have to say, I don't hate all the characters. I actually found Satoru's mother rather realistic and likable, and someone who actually has the experience to back her views up. Then there is Kenya (yeah, I actually remembered his name), who I liked the best out of all the irrelevant little school buddies for being the only one of them who actually thought about the plans and how to address them in a logical manner.

Sadly, two interesting side characters cannot make up for the two MCs' characterization flopping harder than the result of Neymar making consensual love to a ten-pound bass.

ART- 9/10

I'll have to admit, the production values are very, very good for this show. Say what you want about A-1 Pictures (I know I say a lot), but one thing you cannot fault them on is budget. They know what they want to make, and they always have the money to do so.

The direction is quite serviceable, and although it's okay most of the time a few of the cuts and camera angles were absolutely Hollywood-cinematic gorgeous. I was apprehensive about Tomohiko Ito being the director at first, but I've put those doubts to rest. It's by far his best work to date, and he's really demonstrated he can move beyond being known as "the guy responsible for Sword Art Online" (to be fair, most of the problems with that weren't his fault) and into being a relatively well-regarded director. It's a shame the talent he displayed had to be wasted on such a pile of mediocrity.

While the art style is a bit odd in terms of A-1 standard character design, it's far better than the triangular faces and awkward shading that plagued the manga, and the muted color palette really fits the feel of the show. I noticed no obvious glaring animation errors, either, which is always a good sign. I don't like to be too harsh on art in general, but there was nothing much for me to criticize.

SOUND- 6/10

Nothing to complain about with most of the seiyuu performances, although I have a bit of an issue with the MC's adult seiyuu, Shinnosuke Mitsushima, being very wooden and robotic compared to the others. However, this is his first role in anime; he was a live-action actor until now, so I'm willing to overlook it. The rest of the cast, including such names as Minami Takayama (Detective Conan, Envy) and Chinatsu Akasaki (Akira Aoi) is perfectly serviceable. However, who really stands out is Aoi Yuuki (Madoka Kaname, Komachi Hikigaya) as Kayo. The emotionless type is not a role she's had a lot of experience with in the past, being confined mostly to energetic lolis, but she plays it to perfection. I also have to give props to the girls playing the little kids for not getting on my nerves, which is a rarity in those kinds of cases.

Would you believe that's Yuki Kajiura composing the music? I really couldn't, because apart from one or two tracks, there's nothing I could identify as being distinctly hers; most are generic. Suspense really isn't the genre for a composer known for "epic" soundtracks. This definitely isn't Kajiura at her best, and at this rate I really wonder how long it's gonna be before she just stops composing at all. Her best years are pretty clearly behind her.

So, that marks the end of this review, and the first one I've done in a while. If you were interested, thanks for reading, and see you around!
-Kaoru

[This review may contain a few minor spoilers. Read at your own risk.]

Anything made by animation studio P.A. Works, in my opinion, can best be described as a mealy apple. It looks beautiful and delicious on the outside, but bite into it and you'll see that beneath the surface it's really not that great at all. While 2014's Shirobako offered some hope that the studio might finally put some depth and thought into the plot and characters of their shows, this winter's HaruChika returns P.A. Works right back to its "all style, no substance" ways.

PLOT- 3/10

Right from the beginning, it's apparent that ... HaruChika is quite simply attempting to do way too much. The story is about two childhood friends, the titular Haruta and Chika, in a music club at their school who end up encountering and solving mysteries.

Did you, the reader, just think of something having to do with Kyoto Animation?

Back on topic, calling the series a mix between musical and mystery elements wouldn't be right. The mysteries are the entire focus, which serves to make the entire music club aspect pretty irrelevant. I mean, you could change it to a literature club, a swimming club, a hentai-watching club, or, yes, the Classics Club, and really not a lot would change because such a disproportionate amount of time is spent on the mysteries. For a club whose job is to play instruments, they are hardly shown practicing at all.

And then we move on to the mysteries. The huge issue with them is that they are episodic and repetitive, and they are formulaic in such a way that will shatter the suspension of disbelief into tiny pieces. Almost every one of the early episodes goes like this: new character is introduced. New character is an amazing musician, but cannot join the band because of [angsty backstory]. The character has some sort of puzzle related to said angsty backstory. Haruta butts in whether the character wants him to or not, dragging Chika along, and manages to solve the puzzle through some reasoning the viewer would have had no idea to think of because they were not provided with the information he was, a big strike in the mystery genre. Having had his or her angst cured just by the intervention of two band kids solving a puzzle or question, said new character joins the band. Even if you accept the possibility that ordinary high school kids can emit pheromones that cause mysteries to swarm to them like flies to an open, half-drunk can of Bud Light, the way in which the exact same scenario plays out every episode is absurd. The later episodes attempt to change this formula up a little bit, but it's too little too late as in the end it's still Haruta being nosy and winning with asspull logic no matter what.

CHARACTERS- 4/10

I have to give props to HaruChika for introducing a gay character that wasn't a crossdresser or a flaming caricature. It's the sort of thing you never really see in anime nowadays, and it completely took me by surprise. Making him the main character, Haruta, was even better. However, the problem with Haruta is that he single-handedly carries the show, and not in a good way. He ends up being the one who always investigates the mystery, and who always ends up solving it. In short, he makes the other characters look useless. While he is likable most of the time, his personality is also an issue as he can be very catty, especially around Chika, even though those interactions are usually the source of many of the funniest moments in the show.

I admit that I fell in love with Chika in the first episode. When I heard her reciting a cliche narration in her head about her high school debut and then sneezing constantly whenever she tried to be cliche, I was sold, and unlike Haruta she manages to be likable all the time. The main issue with her is that she's useless. Haruta always drags her along on his mystery hunts, but despite her equal billing in the title she basically exists to be the clueless Watson who asks the obvious questions as Haruta figures everything out. I don't recall one instance where she actually made a deduction on her own. Her personality may be great, but it can't really help her uselessness.

The teacher, despite being listed as a third major character (Haruta has a very in-depth crush on him, Chika has a crush on him because love triangle regardless of sense), is pretty much nothing but a walking plot device. He shows up, gives a few philosophical statements, and the two MCs fight over him. That's about it.

As mentioned before, all of the side characters blend into the background as their characterization follows the exact same pattern, so nothing much to say there.

ART- 7/10

The one thing you can't deny that P.A. Works is good at is art. Despite the fact that this show's animation might be a little rough around the edges at times, it's still very high-quality. The major highlight had to be the distinctive multicolored eyes that the characters sport, something that seems to be very rarely done in anime if at all.

That said, the artwork clearly isn't the best thing P.A. Works has produced. Sometimes it's simple enough to look generic, although there are no animation faults that I noticed.

SOUND- 5/10

Most of the soundtrack is serviceable, although I do have a big gripe with it for a reason I mentioned above, that being the fact that the actual music that the band plays is almost never shown. This is an anime about a brass band club, would it kill the music producer to put in a few pieces of classical music every now and then so we can be reassured that yes, the band parts of the show are still relevant? As of the final episode, yes they in fact did, but it went on for nine minutes.

The seiyuu, most of whom are of younger age, seem at the very least to match their characters well, and special mention goes to Australian-Japanese Sarah Bridcutt for playing Chika to perfection. However, there's one cast choice that baffles me. The teacher, who is at least in his mid-20s if not more, is played by Natsuki "ASADA-SAN" Hanae, who is best known for having a high, soft, sometimes whiny voice resembling Yuki Kaji 2.0 who nearly always plays younger characters. The voice he's playing the teacher with is too high and doesn't fit, but it's just one blemish in an otherwise fine, if not spectacular, cast.

With that, my review comes to a close. Hope I could help any prospective viewers of this anime out with what to expect.
-Kaoru

[WARNING: SPOILERS AND LONG REVIEW AHEAD. FOR TL;DR SKIP TO “OVERALL” SECTION.]

Watching Black Bullet is the equivalent of that kid who is always enthusiastic in school. He may not be the smartest, but he tries so hard and you just want to give that little guy an A for effort. Unfortunately, in the real world grades aren’t given for effort but for quality, and that is where Black Bullet fails: it tried to do too much with a plot that ultimately wasn’t going to be anything more than mediocre.

STORY- 6/10

Oh look, a post-apocalyptic thriller! Humans are trapped inside a certain area ... and there are monsters on the outside that want to try to get in and eat all of us! I wonder where I’ve heard that before…

The main criticism that I have with this anime is that it was rushed. Extremely rushed, in fact, and it is a damn shame because the story showed a lot of promise as being one of the few light novels that aren’t harems/pretentious otaku-pandering/both. It’s my personal belief that if this show had gotten 26 episodes, it could have been legitimately well-received.

Our story takes place in the 2030s, when a parasitic virus is turning people into monsters called Gastrea. Humanity has taken refuge in what used to be Tokyo (seriously, did you expect anywhere else?), behind monoliths constructed of an alloy named Varanium that is the Gastreas’ only weakness. Well, almost.

The other way to fight Gastrea is to turn them against each other, and that’s where Cursed Children come in. They are formed when the Gastrea Virus infects a pregnant woman, and the child is always born a girl, with a human appearance but the powers of a Gastrea. In response to this, the governments of what’s left of the world formed a civil security system where a Cursed Child, or Initiator, is paired with a human, or Contractor, and they are outsourced to private agencies. Since they make up the majority of humanity’s defense against the Gastrea, obviously Contractors hold a lot of power in government and society. However, the Cursed Children aren’t exactly treated the same way.

This is where our main character, Rentaro Satomi, comes in, as a low-level Contractor working with his partner, Enju Aihara, employed by the Tendo Agency for his classmate and longtime friend, Kisara Tendo. Of course, many more interesting, and some not-so-interesting, characters will be met along the way.

I’ve heard so many people toss lolicon accusations at this show, but really, it’s not that much loli-pandering. Sure, Enju does have a crush on Rentaro, but he’s not interested. However, I can see why people might think this and it might turn them off.

I actually thought the story, while a little clichéd, is okay. However, the problem here is rushing, rushing, RUSHING. This anime tries to pack as much content as it can in 13 episodes, which leads to it moving too fast to really have much of an impact on the viewers. That, and a huge “LOLWAT” moment at the end of episode 7 that really left me scratching my head and soured the anime to me. Thankfully, the anime does pull out a fairly decent conclusion, but overall, the story is middling.

CHARACTERS- 4/10

Now there’s only going to be so much character development you can get in 13 episodes, but some of the characters manage to be very unlikeable in the time they’re given. Also, some characters that the audience is supposed to care about don’t get enough screen time to be worth caring about.

Rentaro Satomi- Our main protagonist. The main problem I have with him is that it can’t seem like he knows which hero type he wants to be. He seems set up to be an anti-hero, but he regularly plays ping-pong with the hero scale, going from traditional hero all the way down to full-on designated hero in a couple instances and sometimes it really gets hard to root for him when he, for instance, threatens to kill a group of civilians for harassing a Cursed Child. Dick move, people, I agree, but under no circumstances is it justified to end their lives. He has a decent backstory, but it’s not visited enough. Overall, not a very heroic character though he does have his good points.

Enju Aihara- The Initiator our protagonist is paired with, a nine-year old girl with rabbit characteristics. She gets a lot of flak for a) being a loli and b) crushing on Rentaro. I agree that her crush was unnecessary, but I do find her cute, and unlike her partner, she didn’t make me want to punch her in the face like Rentaro did sometimes. Also, once you find out about her backstory, you’ll have a whole lot more sympathy for her.

Kisara Tendo- The owner of the Tendo Civil Security agency and Rentaro’s childhood friend. Her grandfather saved Rentaro as a little boy when he was about to be killed by a Gastrea. Her family owns a kenjutsu dojo, and she is incredibly proficient with swords and hand-to-hand combat. However, most of her family were killed a few years ago, and she has sworn revenge on the killers. She’s one of my favorite characters, mainly because she has some compelling backstory and I love women who can fight- she even gets to call Rentaro out on his dickery at the end of the series. The problem I have with her is that she’s pretty much a non-factor to the plot for the first half, and even in the second half she takes a backseat. She’s there for all of the story, but she’s not much more than there. There might be hope for her yet as the final episode dropped a major tease with her possibly pulling a heel turn, but with the way this anime was received, I can’t see it getting another season, which is sad because she needs more love.

Kagetane Hiruko- The not-villain of the story, he was one of the things that the show got right. He’s the kind of awesome villain in the mold of Dio Brando: smooth, suave, and charismatic even when he’s exploding police heads. Did I mention he can fight as well? Also, he’s got a much closer connection to Rentaro than anyone thinks, and their relationship, from enemies to uneasy allies, gets the most attention than any other interactions in the series save for Rentaro/Enju shenanigans. Character development done excellently, he was my favorite character of Black Bullet.

Seitenshi-sama- The leader of the Tokyo Area Settlement, she is an idealist who would like for humans and Cursed Children to get along. I liked the political themes her introduction in the story brought into it; unfortunately, apart from her pacifism there’s not much else to her. Pretty flat character.

Tina Sprout- Okay, the first thing I have to say is that I don’t understand why Enju gets bashed and Tina gets praised despite them basically being the same character! Is it because she’s ‘Murican? If so, that’s a big double standard, anime fans. Pausing from my rant to explain her, she is a high-ranked Initiator who is sent to Japan to assassinate Seitenshi, who has just sent her new personal bodyguard Rentaro out to capture her. I don’t like her very much because she gets defeated in the most shonen-y way ever: after ten minutes of beating Rentaro into a bloody pulp, a flashbang grenade goes off at exactly the right time and he knocks her out with two moves. That’s it, game over. What followed next induced my head to meet the wall. She gets no punishment, despite trying to kill the leader of government not once, but twice! Huh? If I sent my little sister to kill the president, it doesn’t matter that she is both cute and following orders, she’d still face life in prison! How is this any different? It seems like a cheap attempt to turn Tina good without worrying about the damage she’s caused, or maybe it’s due to the unsettling theory that civil security agents can do whatever the hell they please and no one can do anything about it. Either way, afterwards she ends up partnering with Kisara and becomes Enju 2.0. Weak.

Takuto Yasuwaki-
“Welcome to the Poorly-Written Villain hotline, how may we help you?”
“Well, um, I wasn’t really given any motivation for hating the hero.”
“You don’t need motivation! You need to to try to kill that little girl! The viewers are sure to hate you after that!”
“But that little girl just tried to kill our nation’s leader, who I’m sworn to protect. Wouldn’t that make it justified?”
“Then what we’ll do is make you look and act like Nobuyuki Sugou. That means the viewers will know you’re EEEEEEEEEVIL!”
“I thought fans hated that show for all the wrong reasons.”
“Screw logic, I’m the director.”
‘Nuff said.

Miori Shiba- What is her point? She only shows up a couple times, and the extent of her characterization is “wants Rentaro’s D”. Seriously, how does she even contribute anything meaningful to the story?

Shoma Nagisawa and Midori Fuse- I’m sorry. I know I’m supposed to care about Midori’s suicide and Shoma’s heroic sacrifice, but no amount of emotion is going to make me give two shits about characters who’ve barely had one episode of screentime. Also, catgirl, because apparently catgirl!

ART- 9/10

The art is the one good thing about this anime. The characters all have distinct designs, the animation moves fluidly, and I didn’t notice all that many off model frames or designs. Overall, good work by Kinema Citrus, the studio that did Barakamon. It’s a shame that the story couldn’t match the artwork.

MUSIC- 7/10

The soundtrack is composed by Shiro Sagisu, the man who did the music for Evangelion. Unfortunately, this is probably his weakest entry to date, as all the music is utterly forgettable. It’s not the worst thing he’s composed (looking at you, song that plays when Ichigo powers up) but it’s far from the best and it doesn’t aid the story in any way.

OVERALL- 6/10

Apparently this show is pretty polarizing, because people either like it or think it’s the worst thing to hit TV since Sword Art Online. However, I just think it’s mediocre. While the art is great and the music all right, some elements of the show can alienate the viewers and it’s just too rushed to invoke the kind of emotion it’s supposed to in the readers. The characters are the weakest point, with some hard to cheer for and others unimportant due to general irrelevancy to the story or lack of screen time.

Overall, Black Bullet is an okay show but not a great one. If you are interested in the franchise, I suggest you check out the light novels first as they are about to be translated into English in order to see if you like the story in the first place, and you should probably stream it on CR as I don’t feel this anime is worth paying $50-80 for.

I ran across this title while browsing Books A Million for a new series. At first, I was sure I was going to buy Shokugeki no Soma, but Seraph caught my eye and I decided to take a chance on it. I'm glad I did.

[WARNING: SLIGHT SPOILERS AHEAD]

STORY- 8/10

First of all, I know this manga is cliched as all hell. In fact, it reminds me of what would happen if you tossed the characters from Blue Exorcist into the world of Attack on Titan. However, cliche doesn't necessarily mean bad. Cliche works if the story can be pulled off ... well, and Seraph does just that.

From the start, the plot looks like your standard shonen: following a catastrophic plague thirteen years ago, vampires emerged to enslave most of what was left of humanity, including our orphan protagonist, Yuichiro, and the others from the same orphanage. They decide to escape the vampires, but all of the children are killed except for our hero. After making it to the safety of the Japanese remnants walled in Shibuya, Tokyo, Yuichiro vows to join the elite force of the humans, the Moon Demon Company, and kill all vampires for revenge. Relatively straightforward, right? Wrong!

In my opinion, one of the hallmarks of great postapocalyptic stories like The Walking Dead and the aforementioned SnK is moral ambiguity: the "heroic" side might be just as bad as the "villains". As of this review, (vol 4/ch 15), there have been no outright evil actions by the humans to confirm this, but there is quite a bit of foreshadowing suggesting that maybe the Imperial Japanese Demon Army aren't the squeaky-clean saviors of humanity they might appear at first glance, especially with the methods they use to fight the vampires (no big spoilers, but it involves a deal with another type of supernatural creature, whose motives for being the humans' accomplices have not yet been revealed). At the same time, frequent scenes of the vampires show that they might not be the outright evil creatures they appear at first glance. All this buildup, along with a fair bit of action, character development, and well-placed comedic relief has really endeared this manga to me. Kagami is a seasoned writer and knows what he's doing.

CHARACTERS- 6/10

Just like the story, most of the characters fall into cliche. Once most of the main characters have been introduced, we have a cast that can be easily described with a few words from TV Tropes.

Yuichiro Hyakuya is the idiot shonen protagonist, to levels that can induce facepalms and bad memories of Emiya-kun.

After meeting Yoichi Saotome, I can understand why people hate Shinji so much. Whiny, annoying boy is not a great character type to start with, especially when it's never stated exactly how this wimp ever managed to get into the army in the first place. His backstory is also too generic and not visited enough to evoke much sympathy from the readers.

Shiho Kimizuki is your jerk with a heart of gold. However, his backstory is done tastefully enough and given enough time (it appears Kagami learned about audience apathy!) and both tsun and dere sides of him are given character development. He's quickly become my third-favorite character (you'll see why he's not #1 or #2 down below). Also, pink hair! On a guy! And it's natural! And he rocks it like a badass!

The final member of the Hiiragi Squad, Mitsuba Sangu, has not had enough screentime to make an impact, but her seemingly textbook tsundere nature holds a darker secret and one that I really find believable. Hopefully she takes a bigger role in the future.

Major Guren Ichinose? Oh, you mean Captain Levi!

On the other side of the coin, among the vampires we have Krul Tepes, the creepy loli (bonus for speaking in prophecy) and Ferid Bathory, the white-haired, bishonen rat bastard. Like I said, nothing too original, but damn Ferid is sure hot for a villain. Draco repeat anyone?

There are a couple characters that do break the mold that SnK and AnE set. Shinoa Hiiragi is the leader of Yuichiro's squad and a capable female lead. Despite being a member of the powerful Hiiragi family, which pretty much runs everything having to do with the human resistance, she chose to prove her worth on the battlefield because she hates the politics of higher ranks, and manages to hold her own without being overshadowed by the boys or being a damsel in distress.

For another great character, (SPOILER) we have Mikaela, one of the boys in the orphanage with Yu and his best friend. We thought he had died when the orphans attempted to escape, but he actually became a vampire. Now, he wants to find Yu again and make him see their side of the story. Of course, Yu has sworn to KILL ALL THE TITANS I mean VAMPIRES, so this makes it a little difficult for him. But still, great plotline and one that had the most impact on me out of all the young series's dangling plot threads so far.

ART- 9/10

The art in this manga is impressive. Yamamoto is an experienced artist, having done art for two different light novel sets, so he knows what he's doing as well. The action scenes are drawn well and I never have to turn back pages to make sense of what just happened, as I often do in other manga (which pisses me off to no end). I'm not too big a fan of the big round-eyed character design as it makes the characters look younger than they should be, which is not too great for a postapocalyptic story where characters are supposed to grow up far faster than they should, but it's just a minor gripe. The character designs, despite being all very pretty, are distinct enough to not be confused with each other, and the monsters shown in the series also have distinct designs. Altogether Yamamoto's art is at least a solid B+ if not more.

OVERALL- 8/10

This story may sound unoriginal, and it may be unoriginal, but it kept me entertained. It's got something for everyone: fight scenes and pretty girls for the guys (Shinoa is best don't deny it), and loads of pretty boys for the girls (the dynamic between Yu and Mika is bound to produce buckets of fangirl screams). If you have the time, pick up this manga. You won't be disappointed.