Blood Blockade Battlefront

血界戦線 (Kekkai Sensen)

7.6(415,793)

MAL Score

Ranked #1811

Popularity #214

Action
Fantasy
Super Power
Urban Fantasy
Vampire

Episodes: 12
Duration: 26 min per ep
Aired: Apr 5, 2015 to Oct 4, 2015
Status: Finished Airing

Synopsis

Hellsalem’s Lot—once New York City—has spent the last three years sealed inside an unbreakable barrier after a gateway to the Beyond tore open. Now humans share the streets with every manner of otherworldly being, from vampires to bizarre monsters, turning daily life into a volatile mix of the mundane and the supernatural. In the shadows, the secret organization Libra, staffed by superhumans and oddball specialists, works to keep the city’s chaos contained and prevent it from spilling into the wider world.

Leonardo Watch is an ordinary teenager with a love of photography until he gains the “All-seeing Eyes of the Gods,” a gift that comes at the cost of his sister’s eyesight. Determined to uncover the truth behind his new power and find a way to help her, he heads for Hellsalem’s Lot—only to cross paths with Libra. Pulled into their ranks almost by accident, Leo finds his quiet life replaced by dangerous, unpredictable encounters alongside equally unusual allies.

Otaku Consensus

Blood Blockade Battlefront is widely embraced as one of Bones’ most distinctive 2015 action productions, with Rie Matsumoto’s direction turning Yasuhiro Nightow’s urban-fantasy chaos into a rapid, stylish blend of comedy, gore, and big-hearted ensemble mayhem. The adaptation’s strongest choice is its sensory-overload pacing and anime-original connective tissue, which gives the season a theatrical momentum beyond a simple chapter-by-chapter manga transfer. Its real sticking point is the same thing that makes it memorable: the show can feel too dense and frantic, leaving viewers who want clean exposition or a tightly linear plot slightly behind.

Why You Should Watch

Watch Blood Blockade Battlefront if you want city-scale supernatural chaos without the homework of a rigid power system. It scratches a similar itch to Durarara!! in the way the setting feels like a living organism, but it moves with the comic-book velocity of a Bones action show: punchlines, monster designs, street-level weirdness, and sudden emotional pivots all sharing the same frame. The appeal is not just “cool fights”; it is the texture of a world where adult professionals, loud idiots, vampires, aliens, and demi-gods all collide in episodes that feel like lost files from a paranormal crisis desk. If you like ensemble casts, jazz-club energy, and visual clutter used as a storytelling language, this is one of the sharper shounen-adjacent urban fantasies of the 2010s.

Key Characters

Z
Zapp Renfro(VA: Kazuya Nakai)
Zapp is the fan-favorite chaos agent: vulgar, impulsive, and combat-ready, often turning Libra’s professional operations into volatile comedy before the fighting even starts.
K
Klaus von Reinherz(VA: Rikiya Koyama)
Klaus stands out as a gentlemanly powerhouse whose calm etiquette and overwhelming presence make him the moral anchor of the ensemble rather than just its strongest fighter.
L
Leonardo Watch(VA: Daisuke Sakaguchi)
Leonardo works because he is not the coolest person in the room; his vulnerability and observational role make the city’s absurdity feel personal instead of merely loud.

What Makes It Stand Out

1
Studio Bones gives the series a kinetic, comic-book-like visual rhythm, with action scenes built around abrupt cuts, exaggerated impact, and dense urban background detail rather than clean arena choreography.
2
Rie Matsumoto’s direction is a defining part of the adaptation: the 12-episode season uses Nightow’s eccentric source material as a launchpad for a louder, more emotionally threaded television version.
3
The show’s structure leans into ensemble storytelling, often giving the city, Libra, and the surrounding weirdos as much narrative weight as Leonardo himself; that is why fans often discuss it as a vibe-driven series rather than a conventional quest narrative.
4
The production credits reveal how design-heavy the anime is: Noriyuki Jinguuji handled prop design, Kouji Sugiura handled creature design, and Shinji Kimura served as art director, matching the series’ obsession with gadgets, monsters, and packed cityscapes.
5
Its music identity became part of its reputation: the opening “Hello,world!” by BUMP OF CHICKEN and the ending “Sugar Song to Bitter Step” by UNISON SQUARE GARDEN helped cement the series as a 2015 anime with unusually strong audiovisual branding.

Fun Facts & Trivia

Fun fact 1: The TV run is unusually stretched for a 12-episode series: it began on April 5, 2015 and ended on October 4, 2015, because the final episode was delayed and aired much later than the rest of the cour.
Fun fact 2: Original creator Yasuhiro Nightow is also known for Trigun, and Blood Blockade Battlefront carries a similar taste for eccentric gunmen, oversized personalities, and chaos that feels half pulp comic and half apocalypse joke.
Fun fact 3: Character designer Toshihiro Kawamoto is a major Bones-linked name, and his involvement helps explain why the cast reads so clearly despite the show’s crowded frames and constant visual noise.
Fun fact 4: Its database footprint is unusually strong for a completed 12-episode action fantasy: MyAnimeList lists over 415,000 votes with a 7.59 score, while AniList records 5,792 favourites and a 74/100 score.
Fun fact 5: AniList’s tag spread captures why the series resists a single label: Urban Fantasy sits at 98%, Super Power at 91%, Aliens at 87%, Ensemble Cast at 80%, Slapstick at 74%, and Gore, Post-Apocalyptic, Shounen, Vampire, and Primarily Adult Cast all appear at 70%.