Black Bullet

By: Robert Murphy

Massive viruses and plagues have always been a go to spot for apocalyptic story telling in movies, TV and more and Black Bullet takes a very interesting route with it's interruption of a world ending plague. In the year 2021, the Gastrea virus breaks out and spreads like wild fire throughout the world, this virus infects and mutates organisms of all forms and turns them into monstrous creatures. However, humanity always seems to find a way to fight back and we fast forward to a post apocalyptic future where the last few remnants of humanity have survived by surrounding there cities with giant Monolith walls for protection. These walls protect the lucky few to survive and start new life after the Gastrea wars but the threat of their attacks are still present and a constant fear. Enter the Civil Security forces, a new band of fighters who fight Gastrea along with young girls known as the Cursed Children who have gained small amounts of Gastrea DNA during the time their mothers were pregnant with them. These incredible girls come with a variety of gifts but the same distinct red eyes and together with their Promoter partners they fight Gastrea wherever they may turn up.

Our story follows one particular Promoter, Rentaro Satomi, a young man who survived the long conflicts of the Gastrea wars and his partner Enju. Now when I was first introduced to the two characters they seemed like they would be people that I wouldn't enjoy watching, Rentaro being a snot nosed teenager and in the first few scenes with Enju she gets sprayed with white webbing that she states was "sticky and warm." Yeah you see where I am going with this but fortunately that type of activity didn't continue and my attitude for the characters didn't stay the same either. Rentaro and Enju have a great relationship throughout the series and are really just like a brother and sister pairing, Rentaro is good hearted and protective of Enju even though she is a Cursed Child and could destroy most of the city if she wasn't a sweet and innocent young girl. Enju is the perfect younger sister as well, except for her urge to tell Rentaro that she wishes to marry him, she is young and full of power but yet she just wants to be with Rentaro and go to school and be somewhat normal despite her and Rentaro's jobs. It's a good dynamic that the two have, even if it is something you might have seen before it will still grab your attention because of how great the characters are especially when they're put together. 

This fact is also generally true for all of the characters in Black Bullet when it comes to enjoyable characters. Rentaro and Enju are not the only coupling out there, there are many many more CivSec workers throughout the Tokyo zone and they're all ranked on their strengths along with their partners. Rankings are bestowed after completing a certain level of job or a certain amount, taking out dangerous Gastrea and so on and are important aspects in the CivSec organization. Not every Cursed Child is the same, most have different Gastrea abilities such as enhanced speed, night vision sight, advanced intellect or better regenerative factors. Also not all Promoters are as tightly knit as Rentaro and Enju though, many Promoters just see their Cursed Child partners as tools that they use to fight Gastrea, some barely feed or talk to their partners and treat them worse than garbage. Many regular people also treat the Cursed Children this way as they think that they're Gastrea themselves and are just like the creatures that killed their families and destroyed humanity. This is a sad fact because these girls are young and don't live very long due to the Gastrea DNA in them, they don't have the same rights as regular people either and live on the outskirts of the Tokyo area. It is a sad and touching part of the story especially as Rentaro meets so many Cursed Children and tries his best to help but there is a lot of hate against them and tragedies often fall all around him, this makes him question his job and what he is doing more than once. 

Now as I said, viruses and plagues are nothing new and in the anime world this is true too but the Gastrea virus was still quite interesting to me especially with the level of detail and information I received about it during the show. Often times a show will put out a disease or an epidemic and I never get any details about where it came from, what it is and how it works but not with Gastrea. Often times Rentaro visits a doctor named Sumire Muroto and through her dialogue I gleamed details about Gastrea such as how the virus mutates regular DNA to allow giant exoskeletons of normal animals even though it'd normally be impossible. It isn't super relevant to the story but for building the rich atmosphere of Black Bullet it was something that made me enjoy things even more. Gastrea themselves were also already an interesting aspect to story to me and just like the Cursed Children, they have their own rankings. Gastrea strengths and evolutionary chain number one through four and at level four they are done evolving but some go even further to a level five Gastrea and these were the ones that led to the world's destruction and not even the Monolith barriers can stop them. Most Gastrea look like bigger versions and minor alterations of regular animals to swell the shows bigger fight scenes but the ones that do get emphasized such as the level 4 and higher are usually something quite unique. 

Black Bullet may not break any molds in terms of the storytelling format it uses but when it comes to the story and it's characters you will find something great. The relationships between some of the Cursed Children and their partners are some of the best pairings I've seen in an anime in a long time especially Rentaro and Enju. There are those inclining moments of fan service when it comes to some of these young girls and their affections for Rentaro but I don't think it was meant to be taken this way and I often felt it was meant to be taken as heart felt moments between the characters. Also if you could not tell from my babbling about Gastrea, the world of Black Bullet is rich in it's storytelling whether it;s with post war technology, the Gastrea creatures or the Cursed Children, it all caught my attention and pulled me into the story and that to me is the makings of a great anime. 

Good:

- Rentaro and Enju share a great brother and sister style partnership that I loved

- Characters were all engaging and interesting 

- There's a rich amount of back story and knowledge to what is going on in the world

- The Cursed Children were a touching part to the story

Bad:

- The format to the storytelling is nothing new

- Some suggestive moments with the Cursed Children's affections for Rentaro

Scully Rating: 8.0 out of 10