English Dub Season Review: Blood Blockade Battlefront & Beyond

Stop! You’re under arrest on suspicion of being Cthulhu!

Overview (Where I somehow avoided Spoilers)

New York City is gone. A dome of fog has descended over it, and the boundaries between universes have blurred. In its wake was left Hellsalem’s Lot, a city where the impossible was yesterday’s news and anyone on the street would gladly shave your back for a nickel. Then beat you up to take the rest of your nickels. It’s kinda dangerous, and the balance between the “weird” and the “regular” is tenuous at best. Meet Libra, a special organization that is beyond any one government in either world, and protects that balance. They also kill vampires, called Blood Breeds in this show, because they are terrifying, Hellsing Ultimate-tier monsters. Most of them have special combat abilities tied to manipulating their blood. One can erase her existence, phasing through objects as she becomes invisible. Then, there’s this guy. Leonardo Watch. His special powers are the Sharingan meets Shinigami Eyes wrapped in GiTS-style vision hacking. Okay, that sounds kinda awesome when I put it that way, but really, he just sees stuff other people can’t. Together, Libra fights evil and protects Hellsalem’s Lot.

Our Take (Where All The Spoilers Took Refuge)

“I know that!” I hear you cry, “This is season two!”

Shh, child, that was for everyone else. This season has the same general plot as the last but with a bit more focus on the individual characters that make up Libra. We are also introduced to a new member of the squad, Dr. Luciana Estevez. She’s been stuck in limbo for years, and now has the ability to split into unlimited clones of herself. She’s also an awesome doctor, so there’s that. Unlike season one, there isn’t a larger story arc that unites the series. We have been introduced to the Blood Breeds in season one and beat the King of Despair. This season, we see Chain and her werewolf sistahs take down Theodora, Queen of Hypersensitivity (or at least someone who was empowered by her). Given that there are supposed to be thirteen of those Kings, and two are comparatively harmless, so we are moving along the list. With at least nine left, we’re keyed up for a big confrontation in the next season. In the meantime, we get a bit closer to the heroes. While an entire season of character building may not be everyone’s cup of tea, the way we are pulled into their individual stories feels, on average, much less hokey than other shows would portray. In most shows, the episode would have a character deal with a threat that is just for them or would be emotionally compromised, and no matter how others tried to help, it was theirs to handle. Here, each character’s plot would bring them back into the group, using that episode as a chance to see how they connect to the others.

For example, Chain’s episode focused on her everyday life as Charlie’s Angels-like government assassin. While Chain handles the situation on her own, she overuses her abilities, erasing herself from reality. This requires the team (Stephen in particular) to call her back by performing a specific request. Yes, she’s awesome in the episode, and it’s a problem only she can solve. However, to do so successfully, she needs the team, and her connection to them is what allows her the confidence to use her powers to their fullest. This isn’t overtly stated, but implied. Kinda like Chain herself.

That is one of the things I appreciate the most about the writing of this season. Each episode is written and directed in a way that compliments the personality of the focus character. KK’s episode felt very much like a sniper’s work: a period of tense inaction, followed by a sudden burst of action. Steven’s “episode” (it’s a part of an episode with a bunch of different things going on) is refined and civil, then suddenly very violent. The characters are deep and feel more well rounded than the last season. Except for Zapp. That’s just because he is totally shallow. All of this is told with the same sense of humor, fun, and chaos that you’d expect from Nightow.

So, you remember the excellent animation from last season? Right from the get-go, we are reminded of that as the heroes duke it out with some of Femt’s demon beasts. Not a single episode goes by without totally incredible frame rates, detailed art, and a fist full of attitude. Even their CG animated supercar is loaded with awesome. No, none of it makes any logical sense in how it transforms. It doesn’t have to. It’s cool. During KK’s episode, the visual direction takes what could have been an absolutely boring section, and couples it with punchy animation to inject humor and personality into a battle and drama focused episode.

The voice acting is the weakest part, and even that was darned good. These voice actors knew their characters pretty well (seeing as they already had twelve episodes of practice), and they pulled out some solid depth and emotion when the situation called for it. These are some seasoned actors, with a few having taken roles in Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood. Not like that had good voice acting or anything. One of those is Stephanie Young, who played as KK here and was probably my favorite voice actress in this series. She and her character just made me smile. So funny. Aaron Dismuke has given Leo so much depth, that it makes the hapless protagonist feel like a real person. Someone you know and feel sorry for, but don’t want to stand too close to because he’s obviously bad luck.

I know what you’re asking. If this series is so good, why doesn’t it have a perfect score? First: you cheater. You skipped to the end to see the score, didn’t you? Second: the fact that this season lacks a core antagonist or overarching plot detracts from the frenetic pace of the first season. We spend a ton of time with character building, and it’s good character building, but it also has a lot of exposition, which can sometimes slow the pace of the season. Nowhere is this more obvious than in the two-parter “Desperate Fight in the Macro-zone”. The first part received the lowest score of any in this season since it was mostly exposition leading to (really slow) action in the conclusion. However, the events of each episode are predicted by the end credits and certain events in the first episode opening. This is all a part of the plan, and I can only hope that season three will pay off big time. There is gonna be a season three, right? RIGHT?