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Title - Black Bullet (ブラック・ブレット)
Genre(s) - Action, Mystery, Sci-Fi, Seinen
Studio(s) - Kinema Citrus, Orange
Episodes - 13
Episode Length - 24 min. per episode
Rating - R - 17+ (violence & profanity)
Airing Date - Apr 8, 2014 to Jul 1, 2014
Airing Status - Finished Airing
On Crunchyroll? -
Yes
Synopsis
A near future, where humans have been defeated by the viral parasites named Gastrea. They have been exiled into a small territory and live in despair, side-by-side in terror.
In this world trapped in darkness—
Rentaro, a boy living near Tokyo and member of the "Civil Security"—an organization specializing in fighting against the Gastrea—is used to accomplishing dangerous tasks. His partner is Enju, a precocious young girl. They fight thanks to their peculiar powers until one day, when they receive a special assignment from the government. This top secret mission is to prevent the destruction of Tokyo...
Set in a near future, this thrilling heroic-action story... starts now!
Characters
Rentarou Satomi
Rentarou is a second-year student at Magata High School. He is also a member of "Tendo Civil Security Company," headed by Kisara Tendo as a Promoter. Together with his partner and Initiator, Enju, he fights against the parasitic Gastrea, creatures beyond human imagination.
Enju Aihara
She is one of the "Cursed Children" who are carrying the Gastrea virus in their bodies. She is a precocious 10-year-old girl who possesses a hidden superhuman power. Enju is emotionally attached to her partner, Rentarou Satomi, and looks at Kisara Tendo as a rival in love.
Kisara Tendou
Kisara is the president of Tendou Civil Security. Originally from the Tendou family, she left the family after a certain conflict along with her childhood friend Rentarou. Kisara's kidneys are barely functioning due to witnessing her parents being eaten up by Gastrea; believing that her parent's death is related to the Tendou family, she swore revenge.
She is extremely skilled at Tendou style martial arts, but is unable to fight for long periods due to her body condition.
She holds feelings for Rentarou, and while Rentarou also holds feelings for her, neither of them have the courage and determination to confess.
Tails' Opinion
The story was something you don't hear a lot in an anime. You hear people talk about the "3 episode rule" and that's all great, but Black Bullet fools you. It starts off so fast paced and you literally meet a character that is the antagonist for half the show. However, like every roller coaster/hill/mountain on the planet the only thing that waits on the other side is a massive downward slope. The same is true for Black Bullet. It starts off really strong and has a lot of potential but around halfway in it tapers off and becomes something that is more of a burden to watch because you're already halfway in than an enjoying experience. Initially when I found out this show was only 13 episodes I was a little let down because it started so well. By about episode 8-9 I couldn't wait for it to end. I will say though, the ending is worth watching the whole show. The ending was actually fantastic and will earn this section a couple points.
I give the story a 6/10
On to the characters. We have an OP main protagonist, an OP "sidekick" to him, an OP secondary protagonist, an OP main antagonist, another OP main antagonist, you get the point? Everyone in this show is OP. This is literally Dragonball Z with lolis and not near as many fillers. The characters are quite frankly the weakest part of Black Bullet. They offer little to no dynamic and you don't really get an emotional attachment to any of them, except for one neko loli, but that's because I like neko lolis. Overall, the characters of Black Bullet where extremely underwhelming.
I give the characters a 3/10.
And know we reach the best thing of the whole show: the art. I really love the job the studios were able to do here. There aren't a whole lot of moments when I went "wow that was beautiful", but there aren't any times when I thought corners were cut and laziness kicked in. In a day in age where anime is largely over animated and shaky at best it was nice to see a clean and simple approach. Well done Citrus.
I give the art an 7/10.
Overall, Black Bullet is a show Id recommend you watch. I've done a pretty good job of pointing out the negatives but the positives do generally outweigh them. This is a fast paced action filled show that even though can be annoying to watch episodes 8-11 the other 10 episodes are pretty good. It's just an enjoyable show for some reason. Welcome to the genre known as Seinen.
In terms of enjoyment I give it a 7/10
Programmargorp's Opinion
So after a three week haitus (and not hearing from the AA Weekly team for three weeks as well since no one told me anything), we’re finally back to the weekly reviews. In this section Tails and I offers different opinions on the same series in the same week. i.e. I bash a series so hard that it pretty much ends up six feet under while Tails gives the series a more generous rating. Usually I start my reviews with a riddle, but two weeks in I realised that since my section comes after his, I won’t be able to pull any riddles D:
I guess it’s been a few issues since I started writing these, but let me just talk a bit about my rating system here. My rating system goes in a pretty nonlinear fashion where the higher scores are exponentially harder to get. I.e. the difference between 2-6 is smaller than the difference between 7 and 9, and even smaller than the difference between 9 and 10.
Anyhow, this week we’re back from the dead and back to earlier in the year when we had the show known as Loli Heaven. From the creators of Code: Breaker and Tokyo Magnitude 8.0, i.e. Kinema Citrus, comes Black Bullet. For those of you who are wondering why I’m sprouting all this stuff about lolis, you’re going to find out soon.
As always, the story comes first. Black Bullet follows the exploits (I love that I can use that word again) of Satomi Rentaro and his Lo-*Cough* Initiator and their quest to stop loli abuse… I mean, save the world. So pretty much the typical “we’re gonna save the world” scenario happens for most of the series until the last episode. This being a Sci-fi story and me having an engineer’s mindset, naturally there was parts which defied physics so hard that I had to facepalm.
Oh god that plot twist was epic, and pretty much redeemed the story from suffering the same fate as Deus Ex Nikki. Since I aim to have no spoilers in my reviews beyond the first 5-10 mins, I’ll leave it at that.
Story wise, I rate this a 4/10
Onto the characters; considering that I’m personally not a lolicon, it makes sense that I won’t give this section any bias. In terms of Black Bullet, the portfolio is quite bland and common.
We have the typical OP Protagonist Rentaro.
The typical Lolis Enju, Tina, etc.
The typical supporting characters (that don’t get nearly enough screen time) Seitenshi, Miori, Sumire, etc.
Then you have the one characters that sets this apart from the rest, being Kisara; who happens to be the only reason why the characters aren't complete crap.
Characters wise, I rate this a 4/10
Now onto the shortest section. In terms of art, this Citrus did a pretty good job in animating this. The Art style suits the series and feels clean, without any really noticeable parts where corners were cut.
I’ll score art well at 8/10
So now onto the most important question of this review. Did I enjoy this series?
Hell yes I did, even looking at all the parts of the story where I just want to facepalm and cry at how much they broke physics, this series was overall still enjoyable.
Enjoyment wise I rate this an 8/10
So, at the end of my review (which seems to be getting longer and longer by the weeks) I give some finishing touches on my opinion on any series which I happen to be bash-*Cough* reviewing. Overall, the most important question is, “Should I watch Black Bullet”; If you believe my opinion on this is trustworthy, then yes, you should watch this. Especially if lolis are your thing, you should definitely watch this.
Tails' Rating 7/10
Programmargorp's Rating 6/10
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Title - Citrus
Genre(s) - Comedy; Drama; Ecchi; Romance; School Life; Slice of Life; Yuri
Chapters currently released - 11
Author - Saburouta
Artist - Saburouta
Released - Nov 17, 2012 to ??
Status - Ongoing
Synopsis
The overly fashionable Yuzu imagined the first day at her new school she transferred to after her mother’s remarriage a bit differently: she didn't know it’d be an ultra-strict and conservative all-girls school. So instead of a sweet high-school romance, she butts heads with the stern student council president Mei, who turns out to be her new stepsister. And she has to learn that hate and attraction are often not that far apart.
Characters
Don't get your hopes up it's not in full color :(
Mei Aihara (藍原 芽衣)
Mei is an honor student, the chairman's granddaughter, and student council president. She is stern, cold, and often calm and composed, but she can also be rather sensitive and mature to some extent. At first, there is little to know about her and a bad impression of Mei washes over Yuzu, which causes Yuzu to take interest on Mei later on. Though Mei seems to be hard to approach, she is rather sensitive and lonely which makes Yuzu want to care for Mei more.
Yuzu Aihara (藍原 柚子)
A self-proclaimed
Gyaru and only child, Yuzu transfers to an all-girls school after her mother is remarried. Yuzu is outspoken, daring, and shameless to some extent. She is often seen wearing her uniform that runs against the rules thus far. Unfortunately for her, she is bothered by the Student Council President's dress code enforcement. Yuzu eventually comes home to hear that she is now the older sister of the Student Council President, Aihara Mei.
Despite showing irritation towards Mei, she becomes concerned for her, which transitions into infatuation and deep care. Though she is rebellious in school, she means well and is often acting on behalf of Mei in a sense of protection. Her closest friend in school is Harumin.
Vandie’s Opinion
By far this is
one of the best yuri manga I have ever read If not
one of the best manga full stop.The story was beautiful, almost killing me from kawaii overdose on more than a few occasions, constantly making me want more and leaving me feel sad when I reached the end of what has currently been released. It gave a sort of warm fuzzy feeling whenever Mei and Yuzu shared a moment and was done perfectly. The Story is sweet and innocent with that sprinkle of cuteness constantly showing through.
The story of Citrus is almost definitely worth a 10/10
Then came the characters who had the most lovable personalities you have ever seen. Their love is shown to grow in a realistic and un-rushed manner that feels as if it would be true to how the relationship would have developed had this been real life. The characters are not without their flaws, but that said those flaws where of the sort that only makes them feel more fleshed out and truthful.
So for another top value the characters again get a 10/10
Then came the art. Had I laid my eyes on the creation itself, it could not have been as amazing: pure and cute but not too perfect showing the characters as people rather then simply a means to the end of the story. Every detail was noted and done well, whether it be the arsenal of clothing belonging to each character (real people don't only have one outfit do they?) or the amount of facial expression performed by each individual. Heck, even the back drops seemed to always be fresh be it because the different angles a classroom was shown by or the variety of locations, either way I was impressed.
The Art was refreshing and brilliant enough to get that final 10/10.
After all that, I am yet to find a fault in Saburouta's work other than the length of time between the release of chapters. This is amazing as I have reread pages over and over just trying to find fault in it. I would highly recommend this to anyone who wants to read a truly cute love story and even those who don't normally like that sort of thing.
So without any further hesitation I would like to award The Vandie Seal of approval along with an impressively perfect score of 10/10
After note
I have included this as I am fairly new to the team and so you may not yet know my review style.I would like to say I did not take giving 10s to manga lightly as I am not the sort who normally does. I did this as it set the bar for others so high even in its infancy and truly impressed me.
I would also like to thank Sejskaler for designing the seal of approval.
If you want a manga reviewed please send me a PM here.