Blood Blockade Battlefront / Kekkai Sensen

About

Blood Blockade Battlefront, also known as Kekkai Sensen, is a Japanese anime and manga series first written by Yasuhiro Nightow and later adapted into an anime by director Rie Matsumoto, working at studio BONES. Since the show’s original airing, the series has garnered a notable fandom online, spawning a number of fan works and creations.

Premise

Blood Blockade Battlefront takes place in the city of Hellsalem’s Lot, an alternate version of New York City created after a portal to the beyond opened up within the city, allowing a number of different monsters to cross over and reside in the city. The story follows Leonaro Watch, a young photographer given the eyes of the Gods after he and his sister were attacked during a trip to the city. While there, he discovers a crime fighting team by the name of Libra, and joins their ranks to help stop the lawless monsters from spreading to the outside world.

History

Blood Blockade Battlefront First began as a one-shot written by Yasuhiro Nightow, also known for his work on the Trigun series, in 2008, titled Kekkai Sensō. This was later adapted into a full manga, with a more lighthearted tone, and was circulated in Shueisha’s Jump Square Magazine starting from January 5, 2009. An anime adaptation, directed by Rie Matsumoto, was also created, running for 12 episodes starting on April 4, 2015, and animated by studio BONES, also known for their work on series such as Fullmetal Alchemist and Soul Eater.

Online Relevance

In America, Blood Blockade Battlefront is licensed by Funimation, and is available for streaming on their website^[1]. The manga adaptation for Blood Blockade Battlefront is also available in America, and is licensed by Dark Horse Comics. The series has gained a large online following on many sites, including on Tumblr^[2], 4chan’s /a/ (Anime and Manga) board^[3], Facebook^[4] and My Anime List^[5]. There are numerous sites that provide episodic information about the series, such as the Blood Blockade Battlefront wiki^[6], TV Tropes^[7] and Anime News Network^[8]

Fandom

The Blood Blockade Battlefront series has spawned a significant online fanbase since it’s creation, which has created much fanart and fanfiction. On the Japanese fanart site Pixiv, there are over 2,000 images tagged under “血界戦線”^[9], as well as over 200 videos on the video sharing website Nico Nico Douga^[10]. On DeviantART, there are also over 100 images tagged related to the series^[11].

Notable Sub-Memes

Dick Suck

Dick Suck is a meme referring to an annotation shown during the introduction to the character of Zapp Renfro within episode 2 of the anime, with one of the introductory annotations referring to him as a “dick suck”. Due to the humorous nature of the comment, the term grew in popularity among fans, and is often paired with fanart of the character.