(L+CR) Black Bullet

[Darthtabby]

Do you really think Tokyo can function without outside support (from other parts of Japan at least, if not other parts of the world)? Food, fuel, and electricity has to come from somewhere. Also, shouldn't killing off a huge chunk of the human population have tremendous repercussions for society?

I'm kind of bothered by how anime and light novels keep using the same tired environments and conventions in general, but its especially acute with a show like this where using those tired conventions and environments doesn't make a heck of a lot of sense.

[Kirito]

There may be issues and regulations involved, due to all of the initiators being minors. It's also possible that the government is evil and wants to kill/experiment on the children because they're born from the virus. Those are just a couple of ideas off the top of my head. There could be any number of reasons why the job is handled privately rather than federally.

It seems to make sense since Initiators aren't common/public knowledge it seems. The fact that Enju is attending school and Rentaro seems to be worried about her getting found out sort of supports the fact that the government or a select few know of their existence, and most likely, their origin and purpose.

Could be wrong about that or missed it, but the fact that nobody outside the government or the Civil Service don't talk about the subject makes that apparent in someways. Or maybe they do know but they just don't talk about it, or just refuse to acknowledge the concept.

[Reaper9]

Ah sorry about that, well then carry on. :P I wonder how the ending for each episode will be like. Will it have an actual ending? Or will it have a narrative like the first episode? The first episode format might be interesting to get more dialogue in

[LKK]

Originally Posted by BW95

If an anime had some particularly gruesome or disturbing details, would that be cause for the staff to cut them out?

Based on some recent anime with disturbing details, the current trend is not to cut out the scenes but to paint the details black obscuring the gore with shadows.

Spoiler for recent shows that had gruesome scenes censored by black shadows:

Pupa, Hamatora, Blood-C are 3 recent shows that come immediately to mind.

[Hell_ping]

Originally Posted by LKK

Based on some recent anime with disturbing details, the current trend is not to cut out the scenes but to paint the details black obscuring the gore with shadows.

Spoiler for recent shows that had gruesome scenes censored by black shadows:

Pupa, Hamatora, Blood-C are 3 recent shows that come immediately to mind.

Wonder if the staff will do it like the Monogatari series.

[Benigmatica]

Originally Posted by Sleep_ping

Wonder if the staff will do it like the Monogatari series.

You mean having this anime adaptation with technicolor blood? Oh, that would be sweet if Kinema Citrus will pull that one off!

Still, Black Bullet reminds me of Shingeki no Kyojin... But I have a gut feeling that it's going to suffer us more thanks to Gen Urobuchi's influences!

[Iron Maw]

Hmm... the pacing after the intro was pretty rough throughout the first half. Specifically the transitions between scenes came off like their were cut pasted. It lead to much of the tension being killed because of how rushed everything looked and felt. The second half was much better in the that regard since the pacing had settled down then. Otherwise this was a decent start. The episode provided enough background about the world while balancing character exposition with little to no issue. Basically explains just enough to get viewers interested without showing all it's cards instead being overwhelming. A skill that is becoming rarity nowadays.

So save for the aforementioned first half, some fairly awkward dialogue and BGM everything else sold enough. Character design and art direction are especially quite good. Let's see where this goes.

[RapidPotential]

Pacing was awkward at the start; felt a little jumpy, up until the part with the antagonist, but the animation was a plus point. I noticed that it was pretty fluid and the character designs were very easy on the eye. The flow became more stable when the story elements started to add up later on.

Whatever was played for laughs was played well for me though, and I couldn't help but laugh at Enju's sneaky little kiss on Rentarou's lips and her apparent attempts to seduce the latter. Where did she learn all that stuff anyway?

[Eclipze]

At first I thought this was going to be some post-apocalyptic world from the beginning shots of the show. Had a little SnK vibe as well.

Originally Posted by LKK

Based on some recent anime with disturbing details, the current trend is not to cut out the scenes but to paint the details black obscuring the gore with shadows.

Spoiler for recent shows that had gruesome scenes censored by black shadows:

Pupa, Hamatora, Blood-C are 3 recent shows that come immediately to mind.

There is an exception to this that does not apply here: Log Horizon

Spoiler for LH:

NHK ommited things like rape/murder/slavery from the show due to their channel's policy.

On these cursed children being a private entity rather than governmental - if they were worried about them being known/exposed to the public, make them part of some secret elite squad. Its not like it has never been done with other series before. It also helps to prevent them from doing stupid things.

The bullet part is rather strange too. I mean its one thing to not make these cursed children part of the government, its another to not have the regular soldiers/police getting access to these black bullets. Hopefully the explanation they give for the black bullets give proper reasoning as to why only these private groups have access to them.

Fairy enjoyable first episode.

[Haruyasha]

One day ... One day he will snap.

[Enternal]

Oh my goodness. Enju in the manga was already really cute but the anime version just tripled that!! Also Kisara is a bit of a surprise. Her design here seems a lot cuter than the other version where she seems a bit more serious. Anyway, this is looking really fun!!

EDIT: Oh! Kisara is voiced by Yui Horie?! Even better!

[Arya]

Originally Posted by BionicMeerkat

Sorry, couldn't quote Arya since I can't seem to find which page the quote is from, and I searched all the pages on this thread ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Anyway, I think there might be a small misunderstanding there. After all, there would be no need for a timeskip for Rentaro's childhood friend and principal Kisara since they are the same age. Enju, on the other hand, is only like 11 so it would have to be a somewhat lengthy timeskip for that to work out.

(for a moment I thought I had been moderated, but nope. Mine was just one post above his ).
Anyways, I guess we both were just expressing our personal preferences about how things could evolve, between characters. As I said the settings seem to be made to leave our MCs as they are, hopefully deepening their family bonds instead. He replied me with a half joke about the timeskip. I suppose that was also his own preference.
(Basically I'm in the minority here that stands in the Kisara's camp )

Since, you know, in anime everything is possible so, everything is legit, until the show will prove otherwise

[Felyndiira]

In a way, I'm actually glad that the anime rushed so much information the first episode. It means that we may get to the meaty parts of the LN within the first 3 episodes.

[Golden Bug-Hunter]

There's a couple things that seem really stupid to me, but I'll give the anime an episode or three more to make sense of that.

1: This Varanium wonder-metal, the regular police aren't equipped and trained in its use why? For a moment I was thinking it might be some rare/expensive thing that they just don't have enough to really go around, but then I noticed the FRICKING HUGE MONOLITHS so that theory is a bit unlikely...

2: There's an infectious monster running around in this (the last?) human city. Maybe we should chase it before a lot of people die? Nah, let's go get bean sprouts and send our monster-hunting-loli to school. I'm sure the extinction level event monster-thing will work itself out.

3: So, about that crazy-guy in the mask who survived a neck snap and talked about ending the world, anyone want to maybe take that seriously and once again sound the alarm? The guy was talking about ending the world, so it seems kind of unlikely he's just that wacky frenemy from a competing company of world-savers? Bueller? Bueller? Anyone?

Look, if you're going to go for apocalyptic, end-of-the-world tropes and make everything a huge deal, that's a valid choice, but the writer(s) must commit to it and follow-through. It's the apocalypse but other than that everything's ok just seems like everyone being in denial of the reality around them. Which can work as a theme, but it needs to be expressed better and more clearly.

Well, there may be some explanations or something that was cut from the original source, and I'll give a few eps to see if things start to make more sense.

[FredFriendly]

Originally Posted by Golden Bug-Hunter

There's a couple things that seem really stupid to me, but I'll give the anime an episode or three more to make sense of that...

Wholeheartedly agree with your points, and I will add another one:

4. Masked Man admits to having killed the police officers. For the next few minutes MC attempts to kick Masked Man's butt, but in the end, he just let's him go (and even introduces himself). Why didn't he just shoot him? Don't tell me that these special varanium wonder-metal bullets have no affect on humans? Did I miss something here? Or is it like Kisara said, he's just an idiot?

[Avaricia]

Originally Posted by FredFriendly

Wholeheartedly agree with your points, and I will add another one:

4. Masked Man admits to having killed the police officers. For the next few minutes MC attempts to kick Masked Man's butt, but in the end, he just let's him go (and even introduces himself). Why didn't he just shoot him? Don't tell me that these special varanium wonder-metal bullets have no affect on humans? Did I miss something here? Or is it like Kisara said, he's just an idiot?

He's not a gastrea so why the hell would he use a varanium bullet?

[Felyndiira]

Originally Posted by Golden Bug-Hunter

1: This Varanium wonder-metal, the regular police aren't equipped and trained in its use why? For a moment I was thinking it might be some rare/expensive thing that they just don't have enough to really go around, but then I noticed the FRICKING HUGE MONOLITHS so that theory is a bit unlikely...

I can explain this without manga/LN spoilers, I think.

Gastra are not easy to take care of even with Varanium. One of the major benefits of the promoter/initiator pair is that they are specifically trained for this, and more importantly, that they limit down potential casualties to themselves. Plus, having the initiator there is a HUGE benefit, as they are already infected by - and therefore effectively immune - to the Gastra virus.

Giving ordinary policemen Varanium bullets would be implying that you want them to face off against the Gastra. Remember that the virus spreads rapidly through body fluids; a squad that isn't specially equipped to go against these viruses would only risk increasing the infection even further since each member of the squad is another potential Gastra in the making.

Hence, the initiator system. Making promoters/initiators the venue of private companies also makes it a bit easier to manage, as individual corporations would be responsible for their own operatives rather than trying to figure out how to budget thousands of promoters using public funds.


There are other explanations for the first question as well, but I don't want to spoil anything. The third question is answered very soon in the anime, assuming that the brisk pace is kept.

EDIT:

Originally Posted by FredFriendly

4. Masked Man admits to having killed the police officers. For the next few minutes MC attempts to kick Masked Man's butt, but in the end, he just let's him go (and even introduces himself). Why didn't he just shoot him? Don't tell me that these special varanium wonder-metal bullets have no affect on humans? Did I miss something here? Or is it like Kisara said, he's just an idiot?

The policemen tried shooting him in the episode. They failed.

[maplehurry]

Originally Posted by FredFriendly

Wholeheartedly agree with your points, and I will add another one:

4. Masked Man admits to having killed the police officers. For the next few minutes MC attempts to kick Masked Man's butt, but in the end, he just let's him go (and even introduces himself). Why didn't he just shoot him? Don't tell me that these special varanium wonder-metal bullets have no affect on humans? Did I miss something here? Or is it like Kisara said, he's just an idiot?

I think the MC believed the mask man is stronger than him and doesn't want to risk getting killed by getting in his way.

[RapidPotential]

Originally Posted by FredFriendly

Wholeheartedly agree with your points, and I will add another one:

4. Masked Man admits to having killed the police officers. For the next few minutes MC attempts to kick Masked Man's butt, but in the end, he just let's him go (and even introduces himself). Why didn't he just shoot him? Don't tell me that these special varanium wonder-metal bullets have no affect on humans? Did I miss something here? Or is it like Kisara said, he's just an idiot?

Given that the bullets are especially effective on Gastrea and are considered anti-Gastrea weapons, I'd gather they aren't exactly cheap so wasting them isn't exactly the brightest thing to do. Plus when you rely on supermarket sales as well as your boss having chided you for contributing (rather, the opposite) to the company's lack of income for the month, all the more reason not to waste them. Another thing is that they haven't been mentioned to have any special effects on humans anyway. If they did they'd be an incredibly dangerous weapon!

The masked man also seems to be inhuman in a way, and easily curb-stomped Rentarou in the short skirmish.

[FredFriendly]

Originally Posted by Avaricia

He's not a gastrea so why the hell would he use a varanium bullet?

Are you joking?

Originally Posted by Felyndiira

The policemen tried shooting him in the episode. They failed.

At the point where Masked Man admits he killed the policemen, MC didn't know whether or not the policemen tried to shoot him, not that it matters. "Oh, they tried to shoot him and failed so I shouldn't bother to try to shoot him." Yup, makes perfect sense to me.

Hmm... What would be the logical choice given the situation, seeing the splattered carcases of the policemen? Kick butt? Shoot?

Originally Posted by RapidPotential

Given that the bullets are especially effective on Gastrea and are considered anti-Gastrea weapons, I'd gather they aren't exactly cheap so wasting them isn't exactly the brightest thing to do.

Would stopping someone who indiscriminately murders policemen really be a waste of money? Boy, that sure is screwed up logic.

Another thing is that they haven't been mentioned to have any special effects on humans anyway. If they did they'd be an incredibly dangerous weapon!

Special effects other than piercing flesh and organs? And another thing is that it hasn't been mentioned that the black bullets don't have any special effects on humans. Call me stupid if you like, but I wouldn't want to be hit by a metal bullet of any kind.

The masked man also seems to be inhuman in a way, and easily curb-stomped Rentarou in the short skirmish.

Besides being a cop killer, if Masked Man is inhuman, all the more reason to try to stop him, don't you think?