Blood Blockade Battlefront is a title whose pedigree matters more to Western anime fans than to the nation it came from. After all, the manga is drawn and written by Yasuhiro Nightow, renowned in the West for creating Trigun and to a lesser extent Gungrave, both of which had much more impact on our shores than in their home country. Nightow, influenced by Western properties as much as anything from Japan, even places Blood Blockade Battlefront in a dramatically altered New York City. It is no surprise that the story often feels like an American animated series as much as a Japanese anime.
Three years ago, New York City was the victim of the barrier breaking down between our world and another realm called The Beyond. In one night, the city was destroyed and rebuilt as Hellsalem’s Lot. Demons and monsters are now as common as any human, and any human who wants to try to survive in this environment had best come prepared.
The story follows a young man named Leonardo Walch, a young man who was attacked along with his sister Michella by a mysterious being a couple of years ago. The encounter left Michella blind and Leonardo gifted with the All-Seeing Eyes of God, which allow him perception beyond what human eyes can see, such as the ability to see through illusions, disguises, and barriers. He joins an organization known as Libra, a secret society trying to protect Hellsalem’s Lot from its new malevolent inhabitants. They soon get caught up in a war between a vampiric race known as the Blood Breed, which has nefarious plans for the rest of Hellsalem’s Lot. Meanwhile, the self-described King of Depravity is running amok along with a ton of other criminals and general scum and they need to be kept in check as well.
Or so that’s what the show tells you it’s all about. The truth is something… different.
The original manga is set up more like Cowboy Bebop or Outlaw Star than anything else. It’s quite episodic, slowly developing its own storyline over time while highlighting the individual characters in each chapter so we learn more about them. The anime largely ditches that setup in favor of an original storyline that glosses over a few of the original chapters, to the point that by the second half of the show, the original storyline has completely taken over. I get the feeling that writer Kazunao Furuya and director Rie Matsumoto had an original story brewed up in their heads for the longest time, but could never get the funding for it, so when handed Blood Blockade Battlefront, they decided to use the Blood Blockade Battlefront cast for their story instead.
That’s not to say it’s a bad story by any means, but it turns into a bit of a cancerous tumor slowly engulfing everyone and everything else save for Leonardo. He winds up neck-deep in the original story as he repeatedly visits a young girl named White and bumps into her older brother Black, who parallels him in a lot of ways. Other than deutragonist Zapp Renfro and Libra boss Klaus Von Reinherz, Libra’s members aren’t really given much of a spotlight, and Klaus’ time in the spotlight lasts for approximately one episode, which demonstrates his intelligence but never follows up on it. The original story explodes into an attempt to keep the barrier between the Beyond and our world from weakening once more, and ends on a bittersweet note with Black learning a crucial lesson that Leonardo already knew. However, considering we’re not likely going to see him in the upcoming Season 2 due to him being a filler character, it feels kind of hollow. The same is true with White’s fate in the whole ordeal.
The end result is that the characters who are supposed to be the ones we care about come off flat as boards. We don’t know a whole lot about Chain Sumeragi (who is called a werewolf but does not display any behaviors characteristic of them); or Steven A. Starphase (who seems to be Klaus’ second in command but his role is not clearly defined); or a female chain-smoking gunslinger known only as K.K., among a host of others who move in and out of Libra’s ranks. The show highlights them just enough to let us know they exist, but proceeds to do absolutely nothing with them. It’s a shame because this world and its characters are clearly lively and interesting, but they’re pushed out of the way to give White and Black an increasing amount of screen time. This is even worse for the villains, as Femt, the King of Depravity, is introduced as the main villain but does little more than watch the true bad guy run around making a mess of things while making a few goofy comments. He is one of many villains whose roles and purposes are truncated in length and meaning compared to the original manga.
That being said, due to Leonardo and (for the most part) Zapp surviving Furuya and Matsumoto’s best attempts at squashing the cast’s characterizations flat, the show is still quite entertaining, even if even they fail to develop as much as Black and White do. There’s just a likable dynamic between them as they squabble yet work together in a way that’s like a sillier Lethal Weapon on crack.
Aside from Matsumoto’s possible motivations for directing Blood Blockade Battlefront the way she did, she does show an immense amount of talent as a director. There is some spectacular action in Blood Blockade Battlefront and that goes into how the shows are framed as well. Matsumoto clearly enjoys highlighting distorted, silly facial expressions and that adds a quirky undertone to such events as a car getting thrown by a demon army into your average diner. Matsumoto knows her show is not to be taken completely seriously and uses the opportunity to give the audience a good time, and largely succeeds in that task.
Another highlight is the music, composed by Taisei Iwasaki. Clearly influenced by Cowboy Bebop, Iwasaki enriches the show with jazzy pieces along with somber vocal songs sung in English by native speakers. Iwasaki also sprinkles in some electronic, rock and orchestral pieces (there is even a version of the Beethoven classic “Ode to Joy”) to diversify the sound and give weight to dramatic moments. The only flaw in this approach is the apparent lack of a main theme, but it does create a score as entertaining as the visuals.
The opening and ending themes are quite good as well. Blood Blockade Battlefront is blessed with “Hello, world!” by Bump of Chicken, one of the more popular bands in Japan, and they provide an up-tempo slice of alternative rock with strong, evocative visuals. The ending theme is the breezy “Sugar Song to Bitter Step” by another alt-rock band, Unison Square Garden, and the visuals feature the majority of the cast dancing in suits and dresses on a Broadway stage that’s as fun and silly as it sounds.
The English dub by FUNimation is one of their first simuldub efforts, but doesn’t show any signs of rookie mistakes other than an occasional awkward line (either spoken or in writing). Mike McFarland (assisted by Felecia Angelle) is one of the steadiest hands in voice direction there is, and Blair Rowan turns in one of his typically faithful, but occasionally too wordy, batch of scripts that matches the show’s tone well.
The English cast in general is borderline impeccable and speaks much to McFarland’s skill with casting as much as direction. Aaron Dismuke, 12 years after Fullmetal Alchemist, still manages to give us a youthful, endearing sound that suits Leonardo Walch well. Ian Sinclair chews scenery as Zapp, and Stephanie Young uses a higher pitch than you’d expect for K.K. More important, Micah Solusod does a good job conveying both innocence and menace as Black and Megan Emrick gives a solid “girl next door” sound to White that rounds out a natural-ish sound for this dub in general. The Japanese version also generally sounds solid, though the setting of the show seems to help propel the English version to be my preferred listening experience.
Blood Blockade Battlefront‘s dub was the beginning of FUNimation simuldubbing anime in earnest, so it’s a bit of a shame that the extras are almost nonexistent, glossing over the historical importance of this title beyond its merits as a show. The excellent soundtrack is not packaged in this release (although it is on iTunes by Milan Records). There are a few production art cards (that are just stills taken from the series) and a little featurette of the voice actors that doesn’t really tell us anything about the show or the process of manufacturing a simuldub. There is a definite no-frills feel to this combo pack and it’s rather disappointing. It seems to reflect the nature of the show itself, only scratching the surface of a promise of great things.
Despite my words criticizing Blood Blockade Battlefront, it is anything but mediocre. The show will still entertain you well. I just wish it could have been the episodic, character-driven romp that the manga so excelled at. But what is here, while not diving as deep into the richness of the setting as I would like, is still good like any burger from a city diner like the one featured in the show.
It’s just unfortunate it has as many empty calories as a diner burger too.
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