The Great Short Binge: Part 1: The Curse of the "A" Titles

I've stopped looking at the comments on Crunchyroll's short-format anime series; they're a broken record of complaining about each and every show's brevity, as if that's a flaw in and of itself. Sure, a good work of fiction makes you want more, but it also knows how to not overstay its welcome.

(Plus, when you're in the middle of studying for college finals and can only spare a five-minute break, these series will save your life, man. The struggle is real.)

Thankfully, for anime fans like me who don't consider short anime to be an unpleasant surprise, sprung upon unsuspecting fans after the video finishes loading, Rotten Sushi compiled a list of every short and short series available on Crunchyroll for me to binge between writing assignments. In this series of articles, I'll be sorting through the diverse list. Which of these anime are worth your precious break time, and which squandered their five minutes of fame?

CrunchyRoundup: My Love Story!! 4, The Nameko Families, Onee-chan Ga Kita!, Time of Eve: The Movie

I've been getting back into anime something fierce, between the rise of the mini-series, with 5 minute episodes that fit perfectly into my study breaks, and my Crunchyroll sub, so I wondered: Why am I not blogging about all the new stuff I've watched? This is CrunchyRoundup.

Anime Review: Black Bullet Has a Debilitating Lolita Complex

Anime Review

Black Bullet

In the not-so-distant future, a race of giant, zombie-like parasites invades mankind and wipes out most of humanity. Thankfully, the remaining humans find that the parasites dislike a specific metal called Varanium, and use it to both surrounded their town and make weapons... like the Black Bullet.

Black Bullet kind of feels like if Attack on Titan met Alien. Or, it might if it would back off a rather disturbing lolita complex. Rentaro, who suffers through the terrors of the first parasitic attack and becomes part of a resistance movement, fights parasites with his partner Anju. Anju is part of a race of creatures that contain the DNA of the parasites but are somehow immune to turning into giant slimy bug monsters, and suffer from some heavy racism by regular humans.

A few episodes in, it was clear that Anju is the real star of the show. She's got the most backstory and an interesting blend of still being a child and having grown up too quickly. Oh, and she has a crush on her partner, who is either 6 or 13 years older than her depending on what part of the script you ask.

The dynamic between Anju and Rentaro has the chance to be really adorable. Rentaro has a sort of a fatherly complex towards Anju and is frustrated by the hardship the young girl faces. Anju, having presumably never treated nicely by anyone before Rentaro, has a childish crush on him.

Except... it's not so childish. And that's Black Bullet's biggest problem. In the very first episode, Anju makes two attempts to get Rentaro to sleep with her.

Yeaaaah.... that's not creepy at all.

It's rare for me to write off an entire show because of one aspect I dislike, but Black Bullet's treatment of its prepubescent secondary protagonist is too messed up for this critic. This is a shame, because the show has a lot of positive qualities like an interesting world and great pacing. It's one thing to have a character look young. It'd be another thing if Anju's mature behavior was frowned upon and shown as a sad sign of how quickly the cursed children had to grow up. It's another to feature a 10-year old girl in a show's promotional magazine spreads posed suggestively.

Just... ew.

D

Black Bullet is available to watch for free on Crunchyroll.