Black Bullet looks at a world that has been decimated by an outbreak of a virus that turns normal people into huge insects that go on murderous rampages. The series main focus is on Rentaro Satomi and Enju Aihara that work for a civil security company as a promoter and initiator. This coupling is made up of an incredibly strong human male as the promoter, and a female ‘’Cursed Child’’, or one born of a pregnant woman infected with the virus, as the initiator who is led and directed by the promoter.
The premise is actually quite interesting, a sort of recovering post giant bug apocalypse world with rather huge battles fought in the streets by massively strong little girls. The action scenes are good fun to watch and the fact that all Cursed Children are girls emits a great girl-power vibe. Despite their cursed status these girls still kick major ass for the people of the city, even if most of the people they are protecting would rather not class them as human. The less shown back story of the ‘’Cursed Children’’ slowly overcoming the hurdles of degradation and suppression really speaks to me, I’d love to find out more about these little girls.
What’s not so good is the fact Enju, at only 10 years old, is constantly trying to get Rentaro to admit that he wants to marry her, making inappropriate advances on him and off-colour jokes about him liking her panties. It ruins the bond that they clearly have as fighting partners and friends. A wonderful example of this bond is in episode 2; after an upset at school Enju goes missing and Rentaro wants to move heaven and earth to find her. Why spoil that beautiful picture with panty jokes?!
The character designs and animation in the anime are fantastic; it has a refined finish. Saying that; the colouring was a bit washed out, appearing quite dull in some scenes. Sometimes it seemed more effort was being made on the enemies than the main characters. Wanting to make the fight scenes stand out is understandable, but not at the detriment of the heroes. One scene in particular where Enju holds her cheek againstRentaro’s and they meld together was poor, a bit more concentration on the details would really enhance the viewing pleasure.
The common enemy, the giant insects known as Gastrea, are suitably horrifying. Pulsating red eyes, different categories and species, unknown powers etc. Plus, who ISN’T terrified of giant bugs and spiders?
You don’t get too much in the way of information as to how this outbreak of infection among humans occurs, but over the course of the series hopefully, they delve into that more, what need did the scientists responsible have that required this sort of mutation? What went wrong? Can it be stopped? I would like answers to all those questions and more. As off-putting and unneeded as the overly sexual attitude the series has is, it is still one worth watching and who knows but maybe they will cool this down as the series progresses.
So far, Black Bullet is fun, over the top and packed with wonderful characters.