(L) Black Bullet(ブラック・ブレット) [Light Novel]

[BW95]

Originally Posted by Moe Connection

Not according to some people.

Spoiler for vol 2:

The President of Osaka, 'Adolf Hitler', act as though the defeat of Gastreas was inevitable and that countries should compete and eliminate each other rather than altruistically cooperate because when the Gastreas are defeated, those that are most powerful would dominate the world.

Yeah. If I recall, Adolf Hitler was in denial about his inevitable defeat at the hands of the Allies even at the end of WWII and look where that got him. Senneshi's got the facts. The gastrea can multiply as long as the virus and living things exist, but there's no real way to artificially manufacture varanium. Humanity's stuck until mother nature makes more, but it'll never be enough to destroy every gastrea there is and ever will be in the world.

[Avrorrange]

Originally Posted by BW95

Yeah. If I recall, Adolf Hitler was in denial about his inevitable defeat at the hands of the Allies even at the end of WWII and look where that got him. Senneshi's got the facts. The gastrea can multiply as long as the virus and living things exist, but there's no real way to artificially manufacture varanium. Humanity's stuck until mother nature makes more, but it'll never be enough to destroy every gastrea there is and ever will be in the world.

Maybe, but the 'Adolf Hitler' of this series isn't a complete nut job as the Adolf Hitler in RL.Unlike the one in RL, this one is actually intelligent.

Spoiler for Reply to your answer:

I don't think the answer's whether or not there's enough Vanadium than are there enough troops left to defeat the Gastrea. Japan's the largest producer of Vanadium, there's plenty of them in Japan. Problem is that they don't seem to have enough troops to replenish their loses.

[Ougon]

@Moe: Kanzaki-san likes to foreshadow a lot (just take a look at that blatant foreshadowing in the volume 5 prologue), and I am with you on the inevitable defeat of the gastrea, this entire thing is just a tension builder for "something we don't know yet" to come.

[Dark Paladin X]

Judging by the description of volume 7:

Spoiler for volume 7 speculations:

Do you think that one of the representatives may stage some coup to overthrow Seitenshi (or have her assassinated)? From what I know, she's pushing for equal rights for the cursed children. And IIRC, the cursed children are treated as trash in society in disturbing Jim Crow levels. I see Seitenshi as more of a Martin Luther King Jr. type character who tries to peacefully push equal rights for the cursed children. However, I have yet seen a character who is more like a "Malcolm X" for the cursed children (someone who shares the same goals with Seitenshi, but more willing to resort to violence over peaceful methods).

If in any situation that Seitenshi gets overthrown or assassinated, I could see someone like Kikunojou taking over Tokyo Area and start some form of cruel genocide against the cursed children. Then Enju get captured that forces Rentaro to break the rules of society to free her, only when rescuing Enju, he founds out that her erosion rate is reaching to a critical point.

Then again, the LN author can be a troll and an unpredictable guy one way or another.

Also, there's a TV Tropes page for this series (created by myself obviously). Currently, it covers some content of the Light Novel and most of the manga. However, I have doubts if any of the information I have in the TV Tropes page is accurate or not.

[Mega27]

Hmm, volume 7 sounds interesting. =)

[Avrorrange]

Originally Posted by Dark Paladin X

Judging by the description of volume 7:

Spoiler for volume 7 speculations:

Do you think that one of the representatives may stage some coup to overthrow Seitenshi (or have her assassinated)? From what I know, she's pushing for equal rights for the cursed children. And IIRC, the cursed children are treated as trash in society in disturbing Jim Crow levels. I see Seitenshi as more of a Martin Luther King Jr. type character who tries to peacefully push equal rights for the cursed children. However, I have yet seen a character who is more like a "Malcolm X" for the cursed children (someone who shares the same goals with Seitenshi, but more willing to resort to violence over peaceful methods).

If in any situation that Seitenshi gets overthrown or assassinated, I could see someone like Kikunojou taking over Tokyo Area and start some form of cruel genocide against the cursed children. Then Enju get captured that forces Rentaro to break the rules of society to free her, only when rescuing Enju, he founds out that her erosion rate is reaching to a critical point.

Then again, the LN author can be a troll and an unpredictable guy one way or another.

Also, there's a TV Tropes page for this series (created by myself obviously). Currently, it covers some content of the Light Novel and most of the manga. However, I have doubts if any of the information I have in the TV Tropes page is accurate or not.

Enju turning into a Gastrea is pretty much inevitable. According to the last test,

Spoiler for About Enju:

she's only got around a year and a half left.

Originally Posted by Dark Paladin X

Judging by the description of volume 7:

Spoiler for volume 7 speculations:

Do you think that one of the representatives may stage some coup to overthrow Seitenshi (or have her assassinated)? From what I know, she's pushing for equal rights for the cursed children. And IIRC, the cursed children are treated as trash in society in disturbing Jim Crow levels. I see Seitenshi as more of a Martin Luther King Jr. type character who tries to peacefully push equal rights for the cursed children. However, I have yet seen a character who is more like a "Malcolm X" for the cursed children (someone who shares the same goals with Seitenshi, but more willing to resort to violence over peaceful methods).

If in any situation that Seitenshi gets overthrown or assassinated, I could see someone like Kikunojou taking over Tokyo Area and start some form of cruel genocide against the cursed children. Then Enju get captured that forces Rentaro to break the rules of society to free her, only when rescuing Enju, he founds out that her erosion rate is reaching to a critical point.

Then again, the LN author can be a troll and an unpredictable guy one way or another.

Also, there's a TV Tropes page for this series (created by myself obviously). Currently, it covers some content of the Light Novel and most of the manga. However, I have doubts if any of the information I have in the TV Tropes page is accurate or not.

They won't start a genocide of the cursed children, they still needed them to fight the Gastrea, it's more like the existing rights would have been curtailed more than they already did. Last time,

Spoiler for vol 4:

they tried to strip them of their citizenship.

One would worry about what would happen AFTER all the Gastrea are gone. I assume the politicians would want to 'finish the job' only then.

I can somehow see the MC going rogue and becoming a leader of a group of rebels fighting for the rights of the Cursed Children later in the series.

By the way, is the Seitenshi supposed to be the Empress of Japan?

[Dark Paladin X]

Originally Posted by Moe Connection

Enju turning into a Gastrea is pretty much inevitable. According to the last test,

Spoiler for About Enju:

she's only got around a year and a half left.

They won't start a genocide of the cursed children, they still needed them to fight the Gastrea, it's more like the existing rights would have been curtailed more than they already did. Last time,

Spoiler for vol 4:

they tried to strip them of their citizenship.

One would worry about what would happen AFTER all the Gastrea are gone. I assume the politicians would want to 'finish the job' only then.

I can somehow see the MC going rogue and becoming a leader of a group of rebels fighting for the rights of the Cursed Children later in the series.

Well all of that makes sense. Then again, there can some cruel evil bastard that wants to kill all the cursed children for one reason or another. I wonder how much hell Rentaro and Enju have to go through along with the cursed children.

I mean Enju happens to be a "nice girl" at heart, yet she's put through utter hell through the series. I hope the author can give Enju a good ending a fate and cure is created for her condition. Then again, as the author shows, there is no such thing as "hope" in the series and it gets darker and darker as we know it.

Spoiler for Tina Sprout:

Is Tina Sprout personality supposed to be similar to Rei Ayanami. I've noticed most of her facial expressions in the official art shows her to be mostly emotionless.

Spoiler for Seitenshi and volume 7 speculations:

I could see the author introducing a "Malcolm X" type character that supposed to show a stark contrast to Seitenshi's pacifistic beliefs of pushing civil rights for cursed children. He (or she) could be some sort of dark type anti-hero who thinks Violence is the only solution and follow some extreme form of Hammurabi Code (think of it like Disproportionate Retribution).

Then again, this series has a lot of grey morality involved, particularly with the politics involving cursed children. This sickeningly reminds me of the South African apartheid government and the Jim Crow law segregation era in the U.S. (if I can compare how the cursed children are treated to history).

Originally Posted by Moe Connection

By the way, is the Seitenshi supposed to be the Empress of Japan?

Spoiler for Seitenshi:

She's actually more of the ruler of Tokyo. Most of the cities in Japan have basically become city-states fending off against the Gastrea after humanity's defeat against them. IIRC, only five cities in Japan have those Monoliths

[Avrorrange]

Originally Posted by Dark Paladin X

Well all of that makes sense. Then again, there can some cruel evil bastard that wants to kill all the cursed children for one reason or another. I wonder how much hell Rentaro and Enju have to go through along with the cursed children.

I mean Enju happens to be a "nice girl" at heart, yet she's put through utter hell through the series. I hope the author can give Enju a good ending a fate and cure is created for her condition. Then again, as the author shows, there is no such thing as "hope" in the series and it gets darker and darker as we know it.

Spoiler for Tina Sprout:

Is Tina Sprout personality supposed to be similar to Rei Ayanami. I've noticed most of her facial expressions in the official art shows her to be mostly emotionless.

Spoiler for Seitenshi and volume 7 speculations:

I could see the author introducing a "Malcolm X" type character that supposed to show a stark contrast to Seitenshi's pacifistic beliefs of pushing civil rights for cursed children. He (or she) could be some sort of dark type anti-hero who thinks Violence is the only solution and follow some extreme form of Hammurabi Code (think of it like Disproportionate Retribution).

Then again, this series has a lot of grey morality involved, particularly with the politics involving cursed children. This sickeningly reminds me of the South African apartheid government and the Jim Crow law segregation era in the U.S. (if I can compare how the cursed children are treated to history).

Tina's mostly quiet, but I wouldn't call her kuudere.

[Dark Paladin X]

Originally Posted by Moe Connection

Tina's mostly quiet, but she isn't really kuudere.

I see then, in that case, I'll probably add this trope in the character page.

Spoiler for volume 5 and 6:

Curious, has anyone read volume 5 and 6. I know a little detail of the sypnosis with the Rentaro being accused of a crime or something. But I was wondering how that was resolved and what bastard would want to make Renatro and Enju look like bad people in public eye over some love interest (which is Kisara).

Spoiler for Enju:

Is Enju Aihara highly aware that she's going to die or turn into a Gastrea monster? I'm probably be wondering if the author will have a volume where Enju is forced to watch a cursed child turned into a Gastrea monster. Then that would really break her cheerful and optimistic personality she always has. >:P

[Avrorrange]

Originally Posted by Dark Paladin X

I see then, in that case, I'll probably add this trope in the character page.

Spoiler for volume 5 and 6:

Curious, has anyone read volume 5 and 6. I know a little detail of the sypnosis with the Rentaro being accused of a crime or something. But I was wondering how that was resolved and what bastard would want to make Renatro and Enju look like bad people in public eye over some love interest (which is Kisara).

Spoiler for Enju:

Is Enju Aihara highly aware that she's going to die or turn into a Gastrea monster? I'm probably be wondering if the author will have a volume where Enju is forced to watch a cursed child turned into a Gastrea monster. Then that would really break her cheerful and optimistic personality she always has. >:P

Enju doesn't know she's dying,I don't know anything beyond vol 4 though.Going to read vol 5 soon.Reports like these are only available to the Promoter.

What I'm asking about earlier is whether or not the Seitenshi is supposed to be the legitimate Empress of Japan, as in descended from the Emperors before the whole war broke out. In Chinese, her title was basically 'Divine Son of Heaven', one of the titles of an Emperor in China.Sounds like she is the Empress of Japan(although she only rules over Tokyo) but because of social taboos around referencing the Emperor in literature, the author chose to title her in such a way that readers know she's the Empress but without explicitly stating so.

[Dark Paladin X]

Originally Posted by Moe Connection

Enju doesn't know she's dying,I don't know anything beyond vol 4 though.Going to read vol 5 soon.Reports like these are only available to the Promoter.

That kind of make sense, since it's seems that it's the promoter's job to ensure physical, mental, and emotional health for their Initiators they care of. Normally, most promoters usually treat their initiators as just their own partners and don't really bond with them. Rentaro is different, since he not only see Enju as an Initiator, but treats her like a little sister to him (think of it like a "big brother instinct"). Apparently, this is basically a Tear Jerker since Rentaro treats Enju like a part of his family, yet he wanted Enju to live a happy life in her remaining time left as a human. Because of this, he kinda withheld some crucial information about Enju's health status and the cruel fate of most cursed children and instead put the emotional burden and angst on himself. In fact, IIRC, the fifth and sixth volume suppose to deconstruct dedication to other people's happiness which involves sacrificing his own.

Spoiler for From volume one ending:

It doesn't seem that not all Initators are withheld information about their own status. In fact, it looks like Kayo Senju was aware of her own fate that most cursed children will turn into Gastrea monsters, which is why she request Rentaro to mercy kill her as a human when the virus in her body reached beyond the critical point.

To be fair, I don't think the author is cruel enough to kill off Enju yet. I think he would prefer hurting the main/core characters emotionally and mentally fover flatout killing them while he just kills off other characters. By hurting the characters mentally and emotionally, it kind creates a lot of tear jerkers and drama (which is something the LN author wants) or at least piss off the fans.

I think the worst the author can do to Enju is break her emotionally and mentally to the point that she'll be broekn completely with a much darker change in her personality.

[Avrorrange]

Originally Posted by Dark Paladin X

That kind of make sense, since it's seems that it's the promoter's job to ensure physical, mental, and emotional health for their Initiators they care of. Normally, most promoters usually treat their initiators as just their own partners and don't really bond with them. Rentaro is different, since he not only see Enju as an Initiator, but treats her like a little sister to him (think of it like a "big brother instinct"). Apparently, this is basically a Tear Jerker since Rentaro treats Enju like a part of his family, yet he wanted Enju to live a happy life in her remaining time left as a human. Because of this, he kinda withheld some crucial information about Enju's health status and the cruel fate of most cursed children and instead put the emotional burden and angst on himself. In fact, IIRC, the fifth and sixth volume suppose to deconstruct dedication to other people's happiness which involves sacrificing his own.

Spoiler for From volume one ending:

It doesn't seem that not all Initators are withheld information about their own status. In fact, it looks like Kayo Senju was aware of her own fate that most cursed children will turn into Gastrea monsters, which is why she request Rentaro to mercy kill her as a human when the virus in her body reached beyond the critical point.

To be fair, I don't think the author is cruel enough to kill off Enju yet. I think he would prefer hurting the main/core characters emotionally and mentally fover flatout killing them while he just kills off other characters. By hurting the characters mentally and emotionally, it kind creates a lot of tear jerkers and drama (which is something the LN author wants) or at least piss off the fans.

I think the worst the author can do to Enju is break her emotionally and mentally to the point that she'll be broekn completely with a much darker change in her personality.

The relationship between promoters and initiators differs a lot depending on the couple. Some promoters tells their initiators their status while some don't. Also, most Promoters that are named actually treats their partners like their little sister/daughter.Although, it's also known that some only treats them as a source of income.

[Dark Paladin X]

Spoiler for more on Enju:

I'm curious if you guys think that Enju finding out that she's going to die or turn into a Gastrea eventually will be enough to completely break her emotionally and mentally. You kind need to note that Enju happens to sweet, kind-hearted loli at heart, but she is very sensitive and is prone to breaking down in tears. It's really sad for Enju having to go through this entire crapshit world and being treated as trash; yet she maintains her sunny disposition. I've read some of the LN spoilers in this site as well as reading a bit of the manga and Enju happens to be one of my favorite characters. In fact, I often compare her to Marona from Phantom Brave (a jRPG I've personally played in the Wii). No wonder why 4chan refers to this series as "suffering" or "lolis getting killed left and right" (then of course, it's 4chan, these weirdos are known for their lolicon tendencies where they support EnjuxRentaro shipping :P).

I really need to keep track on how many times Enju broken down emotionally (usually involves her breaking down in tears):

Spoiler for number of times the author have Enju breaking down emotionally:

• Rentaro's inaction when they saw a cursed child being beaten up by an angry mob.
• Enju being rejected in school by her classmates and teachers after her status as a cursed child is found out.
• Rentaro "dying" in front of her (luckily he gets better).

And this is all from volume 1, I can't think of more in the later volumes.

[BW95]

Originally Posted by Dark Paladin X

I see then, in that case, I'll probably add this trope in the character page.

Spoiler for volume 5 and 6:

Curious, has anyone read volume 5 and 6. I know a little detail of the sypnosis with the Rentaro being accused of a crime or something. But I was wondering how that was resolved and what bastard would want to make Renatro and Enju look like bad people in public eye over some love interest (which is Kisara).

Spoiler for Enju:

Is Enju Aihara highly aware that she's going to die or turn into a Gastrea monster? I'm probably be wondering if the author will have a volume where Enju is forced to watch a cursed child turned into a Gastrea monster. Then that would really break her cheerful and optimistic personality she always has. >:P

It's Kisara's fiance who also happens to be the head of the cops or something. So he's really got it out for Rentaro.

Enju doesn't know.

[Log]

Originally Posted by Dark Paladin X

Also, there's a TV Tropes page for this series (created by myself obviously). Currently, it covers some content of the Light Novel and most of the manga. However, I have doubts if any of the information I have in the TV Tropes page is accurate or not.

Just glancing through it, it seems good for me.

Although again, I stressed this before but my "summaries" are a very rough translation of a translation of the original. There's bond to be things that I misunderstood in there.

Originally Posted by Moe Connection

Maybe, but the 'Adolf Hitler' of this series isn't a complete nut job as the Adolf Hitler in RL.Unlike the one in RL, this one is actually intelligent.

Spoiler for Reply to your answer:

I don't think the answer's whether or not there's enough Vanadium than are there enough troops left to defeat the Gastrea. Japan's the largest producer of Vanadium, there's plenty of them in Japan. Problem is that they don't seem to have enough troops to replenish their loses.

Spoiler for eh:

The biggest problem for Japan is probably be the lack of elite troops/weapons to deal with the higher level gastrea, especially stage 5 one's.

I mean when one stage 5 nearly wreaked one major area that suggest some serious lack of firepower.

Originally Posted by Dark Paladin X

Well all of that makes sense. Then again, there can some cruel evil bastard that wants to kill all the cursed children for one reason or another. I wonder how much hell Rentaro and Enju have to go through along with the cursed children.

I mean Enju happens to be a "nice girl" at heart, yet she's put through utter hell through the series. I hope the author can give Enju a good ending a fate and cure is created for her condition. Then again, as the author shows, there is no such thing as "hope" in the series and it gets darker and darker as we know it.

Eh, I think that Black Bullet is more of a optimistic story as far as story's with this premise goes.

I wouldn't go as far as to state that there's no "hope" since there is and every arc so far has ended in a optimistic tone (if you ignore Enju's looming death date).

Spoiler for Tina Sprout:

Is Tina Sprout personality supposed to be similar to Rei Ayanami. I've noticed most of her facial expressions in the official art shows her to be mostly emotionless.

Not at all.

She's more of a "ditzdere" rather then a "kuudere". Yeah she has that blank look on her face but it's pretty much required for every series to have a character with that look.

Spoiler for Seitenshi and volume 7 speculations:

I could see the author introducing a "Malcolm X" type character that supposed to show a stark contrast to Seitenshi's pacifistic beliefs of pushing civil rights for cursed children. He (or she) could be some sort of dark type anti-hero who thinks Violence is the only solution and follow some extreme form of Hammurabi Code (think of it like Disproportionate Retribution).

If the author intended for Seitenshi to be a MLK archtype then Rentaro would be akin to Malcolm X.

He's does take a more aggressive stance compared to Seitenshi which is ironic because Rentaro's actions are passive by nature.

Originally Posted by Moe Connection

Enju doesn't know she's dying,I don't know anything beyond vol 4 though.Going to read vol 5 soon.Reports like these are only available to the Promoter.

Wait you read Chinese translations don't you?

Volume 5 is already translated?

[Dark Paladin X]

Originally Posted by Log

Not at all.

She's more of a "ditzdere" rather then a "kuudere". Yeah she has that blank look on her face but it's pretty much required for every series to have a character with that look.



If the author intended for Seitenshi to be a MLK archtype then Rentaro would be akin to Malcolm X.

He's does take a more aggressive stance compared to Seitenshi which is ironic because Rentaro's actions are passive by nature.

Thanks for the clarifications. I've updated the characters TV Tropes page to reflect on that. Also, it's been agreed with the folks in the forums that Enju does not know that she's slowly dying or turning into a Gastrea. Don't you think if Enju were to found out about this, this would most likely break her emotionally forever? It seems that the author loves to break Rentaro and Enju emotionally and mentally a lot.

[Avrorrange]

Originally Posted by Log

Just glancing through it, it seems good for me.

Although again, I stressed this before but my "summaries" are a very rough translation of a translation of the original. There's bond to be things that I misunderstood in there.

Spoiler for eh:

The biggest problem for Japan is probably be the lack of elite troops/weapons to deal with the higher level gastrea, especially stage 5 one's.

I mean when one stage 5 nearly wreaked one major area that suggest some serious lack of firepower.

Eh, I think that Black Bullet is more of a optimistic story as far as story's with this premise goes.

I wouldn't go as far as to state that there's no "hope" since there is and every arc so far has ended in a optimistic tone (if you ignore Enju's looming death date).



Not at all.

She's more of a "ditzdere" rather then a "kuudere". Yeah she has that blank look on her face but it's pretty much required for every series to have a character with that look.



If the author intended for Seitenshi to be a MLK archtype then Rentaro would be akin to Malcolm X.

He's does take a more aggressive stance compared to Seitenshi which is ironic because Rentaro's actions are passive by nature.



Wait you read Chinese translations don't you?

Volume 5 is already translated?

I do read the Chinese translations. Volume 5 is out. The biggest weakness of Japan, for Tokyo that is, is that they simply don't have that much people to replenish the loses. The only reason why a phase 5 can wreck the hell out of it is because

Spoiler for vol 4:

There's two extremely powerful Gastreas. One of them could fire gigantic beams of laser/mercury that wiped out air support while the other was an immortal,intelligent bee that has the ability to direct the Gastrea to attack in a strategic manner. If it wasn't this, the JSDF would have won a landslide victory just like the Second Battle of Tokyo a number of years ago.The other regions were also unwilling to lend troops to support it, and a lot of Private Security and well as some JSDF members decided to buy a plane ticket to flee the region as soon as soon as they got internal news that Tokyo is under attack.

[Ougon]

And let the journey of TL-ing begin~

[Avrorrange]

Originally Posted by Ougon no Kemono

And let the journey of TL-ing begin~

Lol wut?!

[XFire]

Are we getting a translator?