Blood Blockade Battlefront

Blood Blockade Battlefront is an anime series about an alternate New York where a hole to another dimension has turned the city into a crossroads for all kinds of non-humans, mixing with the human population. A magical barrier keeps the intersection between our world and "Beyond" contained, preventing the two dimensions from destroying one another.

The protagonist in Blood Blockade Battlefront is Leonardo Watch, an unremarkable human except that his eyes have been replaced by a powerful artifact that lets him see nearly anything, no matter how well hidden or disguised. He got those eyes when an unknown entity took his sister's sight in exchange, and he's in New York looking for answers and to find a way to help her. Leonardo joins a group called Libra, a secret society that works behind the scenes to curb dangerous magic and non-human attacks. The other members are much more skilled in terms of fighting prowess, but Leonardo's vision is a huge asset in tracking down threats. He also meets a brother-sister pair who call themselves White and Black, who have a similar history to his own.

There's a good balance in Blood Blockade Battlefront between advancing the plot, developing characters, humor, and action. Some shows focus on one or two of those things largely to the exclusion of the others, and that can work fine, but I appreciate that the writers put the effort into using all those aspects. The humor in particular is often understated and dry, but fits in well, usually at the expense of one character flaw or another. Action encompasses not just fighting but also other scenes, like high-speed chases. Actual fighting is largely limited to the combatants shouting names of their "secret techniques" at one another. Not my favorite style, but it's not over-used here so I can put up with it.

Blood Blockade Battlefront reminds me a bit of Monogatari, in a few different ways. Both deal with confronting supernatural threats outside the public eye, use some pretty strange visual aspects, and have occasional weird perspective shifts. All of this is much less pronounced in Blood Blockade Battlefront than it was in Monogatari, though. The character types and development felt similar to me, too. However, there's no harem aspect and more action in Blood Blockade Battlefront, which is all to the good. If you liked Monogatari, there's a good chance you'll like Blood Blockade Battlefront too.

I enjoyed this first series of episodes for Blood Blockade Battlefront, and look forward to the second set later on this year.