Blood Blockade Battlefront is set in Hellsalem's Lot, which is actually New York City, a few years after dimensional rift opened up and creatures from another dimension decided to set up shop there. To this metropolis comes our main character, Leonardo Watch; a kid blessed (or cursed, depending on how you look at it) with a pair of magical eyes, on a quest to find a cure for his sister's blindness, which he feels responsible for. Due to circumstances, Leonard becomes a member of Libra, a secret society that protects Hellsalem's Lot from various dangers. He also end up befriending White, a girl who claims to be a ghost and her twin-brother Black, who was born with strong psychic powers.
That's the basic gist of things, as far as plot goes. Now, on to the actual, you know, review-portion of this review.
Let's start with the positives first, shall we? Blood Blockade Battlefront is an immensely, almost obscenely pretty show. The visuals are pure eye-candy and they do a great job at bringing the setting to life. Speaking of the setting, it deserves mention as well. Hellsalems' Lot makes for a great backdrop to Leo's adventures, while also feeling like a city where a million stories could be told, completely unrelated to anything that goes on in the actual show. In short, Hellsalem's Lot is, in my opinion, as much a character in the show as any of the people walking its streets. The soundtrack is similarly of a high quality and suits the tone of the show perfectly.
So, far, so good. But, what about the stuff that's really important? Namely, the writing. Unfortunately, this is where my gushing over the show stops, because quite frankly, the writing of Blood Blockade Battlefront is nowhere near as good as the above mentioned aspects. The characterization in particular is lacking with several members of the cast failing to leave a lasting impression. Libra as a whole is particularly bad in this regard; aside from Leo (who is after all, the main character) the only members of the organization in possession of distinct personalities are Klaus and Zapp and even than, they aren't exactly the most compelling characters. As for the other members; most of the time, they are just there. The only one whose name I can be bothered to remember is Chain and even she isn't really more memorable than say, the butler (at least I think he was a butler) with bandages covering his face. Honestly, it says a lot about the show that its best episode is the penultimate episode, which doesn't feature Libra at all. Instead this episode focuses on Black and White, their backstory and their connection to the show's big bad, a fellow who goes by the ominous moniker; "The King of Despair". I genuinely liked this episode and it gave me great hope that the show would gain a satisfying conclusion, unfortunately that was not the case: The final episode turned out to be a disappointment, to say the least. Despite the fact that there's an apocalypse of sorts going on, I never felt like the characters were in any danger or that the stakes really mattered.
As for the other episodes; some of them are fine (I quite liked the one in which Leo befriends the mushroom-guy, for example), but none of them really stand out.
I really wanted to like Blood Blockade Battlefront a lot more than I ended up doing. The show does a great job at sucking the viewer in, with its rich visuals, great music and interesting setting. Unfortunately, the show is too flawed in every other regard for me to recommend it. A shame, because it definitely had potential.
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