Blood Blockade Battlefront – Omnibus 1 Review

Collects Blood Blockade Battlefront Volumes 1-3, and chapter “E-Den of Master Fighters”.

Blood Blockade Battlefront was created by Yasuhiro Nightow of Trigun fame and has been published in a few Square-related manga magazines since its debut in 2009 as well as getting two anime adaptations, which was where I first found out about it and really enjoyed it. The show focused on a young man called Leonardo Watch who ends up travelling to Hellsalem’s Lot, the former city of New York that ended up connecting to a demonic dimension and integrating its population into its own, in order to find help for his ailing sister. He has access to the “All Seeing Eyes of God” thanks to a further deal that cost his sister her eyesight until he finishes his quest, giving him a double-dose of wanting to help her out and plenty of guilt over the whole situation. I wanted to stress “The show” though as while he is obviously still the readers’ eyes into the wider world of Blood Blockade Battlefront in the opening chapters, the manga is more widely  focused to the point where it’s really an ensemble cast as the focus.

Chief among them are the employees of Libra, a group that fights the beings from the hellish dimension that cause trouble, as well as human criminals with their own supernatural abilities. Their leader Klaus Von Reinherz is a charming and intelligent man who is also large and imposing with the ability to trap enemies in blood crosses. The brash and cocky Zapp Renfro is also frequently featured and is often paired with Leo due to the latter’s lack of combat ability, and Chain Sumeragi is a female werewolf who can completely vanish but her sadistic personality will often cause her to attack directly. They have to deal with deadly games set by “The King of Depravity” Femt, mobsters from hell (who have converted human mobsters into demons as well!) and literal monster trucks, among other things. The characters are well defined with simple but enjoyable over-the-top personalities but due to the nature of the manga, they don’t break free from their simple brief; it’s more about putting them in crazy situations and seeing how they get out, rather than developing them as deep character studies.

To expand on that, Blood Blockade Battlefront stories are all stand-alone and, as I mentioned, some don’t feature Leo at all, so it’s very different from the anime adaptation where not only was he prominently featured in all the stories but an anime-exclusive plot was added that slowly played out across the series that then paid off in the two-part finale, which is of course completely absent here. While some of these stories cross multiple chapters, there’s no linking narrative beyond Libra and the setting of Hellsalem’s Lot, so basically if you’re looking for meaty story arcs this might not be for you. Likewise the artwork is very expressive and I feel conveys the sometimes crazy action very well, but some online have found it hard to follow, so your mileage may vary there as well.

Blood Blockade Battlefront is a fun series to dip into with no strings attached. The characters’ personalities are easy to pick up on, their foes are easy to root against and the plots are often off-the-wall in a very entertaining way with no overarching plot to worry about. I recommend the series, so long as those things appeal to your tastes.

Omnibus 2 is due out from Dark Horse on November 25th and collects Blood Blockade Battlefront Volume 4 chapters “One Butler’s Blitzkrieg” and “Cherchez L’idole,” and Blood Blockade Battlefront Volumes 5–7.

Read a free preview on the publisher’s site here.

Our review copy from Dark Horse was supplied by Turnaround Comics (Turnaround Publisher Services).