English Dub Review: Blood Blockade Battlefront & Beyond “Lights, Camera, Action”

Getting ahead of ourselves.

Overview (Spoilers)

It’s Leo’s day off. That, of course, means that it’s about to go south real fast. As he sits down to play the newest iteration of his favorite video game, he gets a call from Zapp. As ordered, he opens his north window and accepts a package. Inside is the still-live head of the emissary from the United States government to the beyondians. Leo has to get the head back to the federal building by seven, or all-out war could begin! He barely manages to get out of his apartment in time before mooks blow it up with a grenade. With no transportation, and no offensive powers of his own, our boy has to go stealth and on foot. He runs into one of his co-workers from the pizza joint he has as a day job, which turns into a death sentence for the oblivious delivery boy. Seriously? How can you live in Hellsalem’s Lot and not learn how to read the room? Leo takes off running, and that is when his friends arrive to give him a hand. For those who don’t know, his friends are the shadowy organization Libra, tasked with controlling the paranormal elements of what is left of New York City before they turn into a Zalgo kinda situation. They all have superpowers and/or magical abilities focused around telekinetic control of their own blood. This also makes them the best weapon against the Blood Breed, otherwise known as vampires. After a few mishaps and missile volleys, Leo grabs the pizza delivery scooter and high-tails it to the federal building. He arrives to discover that this has all been a setup. The emissary’s own staff set him up to have his head removed, based on their own racist agenda. The demon that did it is currently holding a couple of Leo’s buddies hostage. Or is it? As soon as it takes to kill everyone, the two of them leap into action and destroy it. The day is saved, war is averted, and the emissary is back where he belongs. Unfortunately, Leo is not getting reimbursed for any of his damages. Le Sigh.

So, I don’t know how, but the first season of this series skipped completely under my radar. When &Beyond pops up, though, I went back to watch the old stuff before I saw the new and IT’SFREAKINGAMAZINGILOVEITSOMUCH. Come to find out, season one may have been entirely filler, with the main villains being completely original to the anime and not having appeared in the comic by Yasuhiro Nightow. Yeah, the guy who created Trigun. It’s on, now.

Our Take

This episode was a great intro to the series for those who missed the original season. It literally picks up with the letter that Leo was writing to his sister, and from there, it introduces all of the major characters. Then, in a diagenic rap song, we get the back plot of the world. Throughout the episode, we get to see the Libra members again, and we get to see more of their powers. We actually get to see more of Chain, who got woefully little screen time in the first season. The action is frenetic and the humor suffuses it in such a way that you can’t be grossed out by the copious carnage. It all comes off as farcical, and totally in a good way.

As I said, we have some great action, and that means that the animation has been launched to a level that other anime-only aspire to. Giant, fast-moving crosses made of blood, waves of gore coming from a blasted monster, all those special attacks. It’s visually special and impressive, while not losing any expressiveness. The art style somehow manages to synthesize a dark, brooding, malevolent atmosphere with a slapstick comedy. Totally late-series Trigun.

The only thing that isn’t mindblowing about this show is the English voice acting. It isn’t bad at all, but the performances only worked with comedy in this episode, and they didn’t have enough drama to show any depth yet. As was true in the original season, music is key to this series. They use it early on to talk about the event of three years ago, and so forth. I miss the closing theme from the last season, though. The video that paired with it was so full of character and fun that couldn’t get enough of it.