Unorthodox Storytelling in the Modern Age: What's Up with Kekkai Sensen?

Only 5 episodes in, and the anime adaptation of Yasuhiro Nightow's manga Kekkai Sensen (or Blood Blockade Battlefront) spouts some of the strangest and unorthodox plot format I've seen in recent anime. The plot is all over the place and doesn't care about equal parts slowing down or properly explaining what is going on. Instead, Sensen opts for the most extreme version of the show-not-tell format I've seen in quite a while, priding itself on a sporadic plot with sparse elements of information that may or may not be contributing to a potential, overarching story. Yet for how crazy this may seem, the show has one the best quality animation and art style this season (that even rivals Ufotable's Fate Stay Night) and one the best damn soundtracks I've heard in anime. My fellow anime-goers, today I'd like to talk a little bit about the fun and profoundly chaotic Kekkai Sensen.

Main character Leonardo Watch plays sidekick in an organization encumbered in impressive, vehement, and frankly super-human individuals known as Libra. He has obtained an ability known as "The Eyes of God," that has not been properly explained as of yet and hasn't even been fleshed out in terms of how it was obtained. This is a recurring theme so far in the series. Characters Mr. Klaus, Zap, Chain, etc. have all not been given any background to them as individuals or what exactly their powers are. So far the only minor exception to this took the form of episode 3 (and I do stress minor). In episode 3, Mr. Klaus takes center stage and receives some minor development while playing a strange form of chess with the villain of the week. We get a good look into his personality, his thoughts, and his overall outlooks toward life. Now while this was interesting, I still know nothing about who he is, where he came from, why he has fangs compared to the others, or what exactly his special ability really is. While I'm certain these answers will be revealed for Klaus and the other characters, I can't help but notice how clearly disjointed the plot is unfolding and how the idea of direction seems to have been thrown out the window. When the series opens up one potential plot point, it doesn't necessarily develop said plot point or even go back to explain it at all. Instead the series so far has decided to open up about 8 more different plot elements, for every other one that is introduced. 

Now while everything I've expressed so far may seem negative, please don't get me wrong. I adore the hell out of this show so far. Bringing us series such as Gungrave and Trigun, Nigthow never disappoints in creating crazy and entertaining stories. Despite how all over the place the show is, Kekkai Sensen is vastly entertaining and downright fun. I find myself eagerly awaiting the next episode every week just to bear witness to all the crazy problems these characters manage to find themselves in. The setting of Jerusalem's Lot (aka former New York) with it's otherworldly inhabitants coexisting with human beings is rad and interesting. The overall experience so far has been refreshing and enjoyable. While I know many people find its plot format to be problematic and bad, I can't help but feel that this kind of disjointed story is a nice break off from what anime-goers typically engage in. My only hope for the series is that it does try to weave some form of cohesive narrative and explanation for the cool characters it has already presented at some point. Themes such as vampires and strange applications of blood have already been introduced and seem to be major players for what will come in future episodes.

So with all that being said, I encourage you guys to check out this show as I definitely think it's at least worth your time. At it's core it's a fun, action packed, joy ride! So I think I'll end this post with the show's awesome ending video/song: Which you can watch here.

Thanks for reading guys and as always I hope you have a wonderful day!

-Nights Off