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EP. REVIEW: Blood Blockade Battlefront & Beyond

First thing's first, the reviewer for this series has changed from the first season. My predecessor, Jacob Chapman, was sent off to a critic's farm upstate, where he now roams free, managing site-wide editorial and plugging away at his upcoming video game. I hope that I can be a passable substitute for him in terms of quality (though not word count, dear lord).

Maybe I'm not paying close enough attention, but I kept getting lost on what was happening. I didn't release the fog thing was eve a flashback at first.

I might sound like a butthurt, but while Rie Matsumoto did a good job visually, so far this season is better than the first in terms of writing. Because of White and Black´s storyline, there was a poor management in the narrative

There´s an actual balance of moments, and given that so far there´s no overarching storyline to disrupt the episodic narratives, it´s all good.

I'm just glad they're acknowledging that the anime original events of the last season actually happened. It's not odd for shows like this to pretend it never happened for the sake of being more source faithful.

SkerllyFC07 wrote:

There´s an actual balance of moments, and given that so far there´s no overarching storyline to disrupt the episodic narratives, it´s all good.

I'm not sure how an overarching storyline could even "disrupt the episodic narratives", considering that all of that only really happened at the beginning or the end of each episodes. Sometimes, it even gives meaning to the episodic feature that happened, such as the episode where Leo took White out to see a movie together. If anything, it ties the show together, give it some progression and a sense of coherence.

Niello wrote:

SkerllyFC07 wrote: There´s an actual balance of moments, and given that so far there´s no overarching storyline to disrupt the episodic narratives, it´s all good. I'm not sure how an overarching storyline could even "disrupt the episodic narratives", considering that all of that only really happened at the beginning or the end of each episodes. Sometimes, it even gives meaning to the episodic feature that happened, such as the episode where Leo took White out to see a movie together. If anything, it ties the show together, give it some progression and a sense of coherence.

if you're not sure, I will inform you.

Last season, every episode from 2 onward started with Black and White's subplot, and ended with Black and White's sublot. This stupid plotline was always 100% detached from the rest of the episode.

Episode 4 introduced the Blood Breed, the most fearsome enemies in the story, and it was almost a whole volume in the manga. The anime truncated it to not just one episode, but about 16 minutes total. The actual Blood Breeds had about 2 minutes of screen time. Just to make room for Black and White.

Episode 5 introduced Brody and Hammer, who are main characters. This episode's main story (Aligula and her car-eating car) was also truncated down to almost nothing, just so there could be a 5 minute long worthless scene about White.

Near the end, there was a two-parter where Zapp's master and Zed show up. This was huge. Major backstory for main characters, and another full-time cast member. And there was the second major fight with a Blood Breed. The entire fight with the Blood Breed was crammed down to about 10 minutes and ***half of the entire conclusion episode to this arc*** was instead made about Black walking around some ****ing carnival talking about NOTHING.

The first 10 episodes also completely skipped over entire plotlines about the actual main characters: Klaus, Leo, Zapp, Stephen, Chain, KK, Brody, and Mummybutler, instead relegating everyone but Zapp and Leo to background characters. Chain is a main character who had maybe 10 lines all of last season to Black and White's entire episodes' worth.

And finally, the last three or so episodes of the season were 100% about Black and White with no actual manga characters to be seen, except for Leo. The setting changed from the central city to B&W's stupid farm. The mysterious, unsolvable nature of the atmosphere was brushed aside and the story was now about wizards or something. It was all drama and no action or comedy. The narrative at this point had made BBB into a completely different series. And Black and White's story didn't even make sense, it was a convoluted mess.

It's like if you took Cowboy Bebop and inserted clips of Space Battleship Yamato at the start and end of every episode, and then swapped out the final block of episodes with Yamato, featuring Spike cameos.

It was really bad dude

Also, the manga is mostly episodic but it does have progression. The progression is finding out more regarding the cast's characterization and pasts. BBB is cool because the characters and setting are so incredibly endearing, and it's understandable that anime viewers wouldn't get that due to so many of those main characters being butchered last season. There are also tons of plot threads that get touched upon over time, like the Blood Breeds, the 13 Kings, the nature of the city, etc. It's all really interesting.

"Why is Klaus a 7ft tall human with fangs and incredible stamina?"
"wtf are Leo's eyes"
"why are KK and Stephen so tense around each other?"
"who are the 13 Kings?"

these are the mysterious the series presents without comment, and touches upon slowly over time

If I were to take a guess, this season will probably touch on the origin of Leo's eyes and the backstories for most of the cast. It's pretty much the same kind of progression that Bebop had.

Niello wrote:

SkerllyFC07 wrote: There´s an actual balance of moments, and given that so far there´s no overarching storyline to disrupt the episodic narratives, it´s all good. I'm not sure how an overarching storyline could even "disrupt the episodic narratives", considering that all of that only really happened at the beginning or the end of each episodes. Sometimes, it even gives meaning to the episodic feature that happened, such as the episode where Leo took White out to see a movie together. If anything, it ties the show together, give it some progression and a sense of coherence.

if you're not sure, I will inform you.

Last season, every episode from 2 onward started with Black and White's subplot, and ended with Black and White's sublot. This stupid plotline was always 100% detached from the rest of the episode.

Episode 4 introduced the Blood Breed, the most fearsome enemies in the story, and it was almost a whole volume in the manga. The anime truncated it to not just one episode, but about 16 minutes total. The actual Blood Breeds had about 2 minutes of screen time. Just to make room for Black and White.

Episode 5 introduced Brody and Hammer, who are main characters. This episode's main story (Aligula and her car-eating car) was also truncated down to almost nothing, just so there could be a 5 minute long worthless scene about White.

Near the end, there was a two-parter where Zapp's master and Zed show up. This was huge. Major backstory for main characters, and another full-time cast member. And there was the second major fight with a Blood Breed. The entire fight with the Blood Breed was crammed down to about 10 minutes and ***half of the entire conclusion episode to this arc*** was instead made about Black walking around some ****ing carnival talking about NOTHING.

The first 10 episodes also completely skipped over entire plotlines about the actual main characters: Klaus, Leo, Zapp, Stephen, Chain, KK, Brody, and Mummybutler, instead relegating everyone but Zapp and Leo to background characters. Chain is a main character who had maybe 10 lines all of last season to Black and White's entire episodes' worth.

And finally, the last three or so episodes of the season were 100% about Black and White with no actual manga characters to be seen, except for Leo. The setting changed from the central city to B&W's stupid farm. The mysterious, unsolvable nature of the atmosphere was brushed aside and the story was now about wizards or something. It was all drama and no action or comedy. The narrative at this point had made BBB into a completely different series. And Black and White's story didn't even make sense, it was a convoluted mess.

It's like if you took Cowboy Bebop and inserted clips of Space Battleship Yamato at the start and end of every episode, and then swapped out the final block of episodes with Yamato, featuring Spike cameos.

It was really bad dude

Also, the manga is mostly episodic but it does have progression. The progression is finding out more regarding the cast's characterization and pasts. BBB is cool because the characters and setting are so incredibly endearing, and it's understandable that anime viewers wouldn't get that due to so many of those main characters being butchered last season. There are also tons of plot threads that get touched upon over time, like the Blood Breeds, the 13 Kings, the nature of the city, etc. It's all really interesting.

"Why is Klaus a 7ft tall human with fangs and incredible stamina?"
"wtf are Leo's eyes"
"why are KK and Stephen so tense around each other?"
"who are the 13 Kings?"

these are the mysterious the series presents without comment, and touches upon slowly over time

If I were to take a guess, this season will probably touch on the origin of Leo's eyes and the backstories for most of the cast. It's pretty much the same kind of progression that Bebop had.

Nyron wrote:

if you're not sure, I will inform you. Last season, every episode from 2 onward started with Black and White's subplot, and ended with Black and White's sublot. This stupid plotline was always 100% detached from the rest of the episode. Episode 4 introduced the Blood Breed, the most fearsome enemies in the story, and it was almost a whole volume in the manga. The anime truncated it to not just one episode, but about 16 minutes total. The actual Blood Breeds had about 2 minutes of screen time. Just to make room for Black and White. Episode 5 introduced Brody and Hammer, who are main characters. This episode's main story (Aligula and her car-eating car) was also truncated down to almost nothing, just so there could be a 5 minute long worthless scene about White. Near the end, there was a two-parter where Zapp's master and Zed show up. This was huge. Major backstory for main characters, and another full-time cast member. And there was the second major fight with a Blood Breed. The entire fight with the Blood Breed was crammed down to about 10 minutes and ***half of the entire conclusion episode to this arc*** was instead made about Black walking around some ****ing carnival talking about NOTHING. The first 10 episodes also completely skipped over entire plotlines about the actual main characters: Klaus, Leo, Zapp, Stephen, Chain, KK, Brody, and Mummybutler, instead relegating everyone but Zapp and Leo to background characters. Chain is a main character who had maybe 10 lines all of last season to Black and White's entire episodes' worth. And finally, the last three or so episodes of the season were 100% about Black and White with no actual manga characters to be seen, except for Leo. The setting changed from the central city to B&W's stupid farm. The mysterious, unsolvable nature of the atmosphere was brushed aside and the story was now about wizards or something. It was all drama and no action or comedy. The narrative at this point had made BBB into a completely different series. And Black and White's story didn't even make sense, it was a convoluted mess. It's like if you took Cowboy Bebop and inserted clips of Space Battleship Yamato at the start and end of every episode, and then swapped out the final block of episodes with Yamato, featuring Spike cameos. It was really bad dude Also, the manga is mostly episodic but it does have progression. The progression is finding out more regarding the cast's characterization and pasts. BBB is cool because the characters and setting are so incredibly endearing, and it's understandable that anime viewers wouldn't get that due to so many of those main characters being butchered last season. There are also tons of plot threads that get touched upon over time, like the Blood Breeds, the 13 Kings, the nature of the city, etc. It's all really interesting. "Why is Klaus a 7ft tall human with fangs and incredible stamina?" "wtf are Leo's eyes" "why are KK and Stephen so tense around each other?" "who are the 13 Kings?" these are the mysterious the series presents without comment, and touches upon slowly over time If I were to take a guess, this season will probably touch on the origin of Leo's eyes and the backstories for most of the cast. It's pretty much the same kind of progression that Bebop had.

Even if the manga has progression. There won't be enough time of all those extra manga plot points in a 12 episode season. And the anime might feel a bit too episodic for people who don't read the manga.

Black and white parents were castors were they not? In episode 2 of the new season they were probably one of the castors that helped held up the city in placed so the story was not "butchered" for something that was pretty episodic anyways.

The relationship with white and her brother was a great parallell contrast to Leo's relationship with his sister.