Oh man, Rentaro basically goes from one girl to the next in this week’s episode. What’s with the peculiar dearth of men in this anime anyway? First, Rentaro apparently has the time and money to feed Tina during the day. Oh, he doesn’t just feed her. He feeds her:
Man, this is just sad and pathetic. After all, could you imagine this same scene with a shota? There’s another reason why the Cursed Children are all little girls. After all, it wouldn’t be as cute to feed hungry boys, would it? It’s simply not moe. Nevertheless, anime fans insist that scenes like these are nothing more than cute, innocent fun! Afterwards, the girl goes, “Thank you very much. Today was a lot of fun.” Yeah, being spoonfed sure is a lot of fun. Nevertheless, Rentaro answers that he totally needed this. After all, his job is just so stressful! Only spoonfeeding a loli will set this guy’s mind at ease! Anyway, the girl proceeds to tell us the typical sob story about how her life has sucked ever since her parents died. As such, won’t Rentaro come a-running with food in hand every time she calls? You betcha!
By the way, the animation is getting worse and worse. Just look at that awesome arm of his:
Alright, one girl down, several more to go. Rentaro meets up with Miori much to Kisara’s chagrin. If you’ll recall, Miori’s family is in charge of arms manufacturing or something. Somehow, this means she’s also a ballistics expert as she tells Rentaro just exactly what ammo the sniper had used. Hey, I’m not saying a girl can’t like guns and bullets, but I highly doubt any kid — boy or girl — would have such ridiculously specialized knowledge. There’s also one of those silly CSI-esque moments where a computer simulation pinpoints the exact location the sniper had fired from. What an amazingly useful girl. Not only that, she even doubles as an informant as she agrees to look into the leader of the Osaka Area for him. Christ, what can’t these kids do? Eventually, however, business begins to turn into pleasure:
And this forces Kisara to break into the room. No, really, she literally breaks the door down because lulz she’s just that jealous, guys:
I sure do like how the girl has pretty much been reduced to a joke these days.
When that scene finally ends, Rentaro finds himself talking to… why, Sumire, of course! After all, it’s just one long procession of babes after the other. Keep’em coming! First, Sumire teases him about how he lacks the gumption to make Kisara his or whatever. Since he doesn’t really object outside of a petulant “Shut up!” I guess it must be true. Then, she congratulates the duo on hitting the rank of 1,000. Uh, okay. Let’s face it, though: no one else in this damn universe would’ve been able to defeat Kagatane, so this anime’s fixation on ranking the civil officers is ridiculous. Again, it adds nothing to the story nor our understanding of the characters. It’s just this arbitrary number that has been attached to Rentaro for no good reason. Yes, the savior of Tokyo is only rank 1,000! But gosh, now Sumire can tell him a bit more information!
Sumire goes on to describe the origins of the New Humanity Creation Plan. Four individuals from four different countries — I’m insulted that Ayn Rand represents America — had gathered together in an attempt to create the ultimate soldier, i.e. a fusion of man and Varanium. Does this sound familiar? You bet! Not only are the Cursed Children the next step in human evolution, Rentaro’s augmentations are merely a glimpse into the potential that transhumanism can unlock for humankind! He and Enju are truly destined to inherit Earth. That’s why the wretched commoners are trying to keep the Cursed Children down. They know their time is limited! In any case, Sumire warns Rentaro to prepare himself to run into more “mechanized soldiers.” That’s all she’s got to say, though. Yep, Sumire literally shows up just to feed us exposition about the New Humanity Creation Plan.
We receive a brief interlude from Rentaro as we see Tina’s master tell her all about Kisara, Enju, and–… whoops, the phone call got cut off because she had accidentally dropped it. As a result, she couldn’t hear that she’ll be facing Rentaro in the upcoming battle. Hey, hey, it’s not like she could just call her master back or anything. Look, man, if you didn’t hear all of the information, you’re just going to have to deal, alright? Oh well, a job’s a job so she shows up to Kisara’s office and announces, “Prepare yourself!” What a polite girl to give Kisara the second she needs to dodge Tina’s onslaught of bullets. Even so, Kisara is clearly outmatched, but it’s okay! She just has to beg for Rentaro’s help, and he’ll magically appear at just the right moment to save her ass. B-but uguu, Tina and Rentaro will now finally realize that they are enemies:
Oh how my heart breaks for them. Oh well, enough seriousness, more fanservice! Ah, that’s what I’m talking about:
Once again, a big-breasted girl is groped by a flat-chested one. It’s a good thing a precocious child like Enju is around to sexually assault Kisara. Otherwise, that rack of hers would’ve gone unmolested, and that would’ve been a damn shame. Again, can we really be surprised that only girls seem to exist within Rentaro’s sphere of influence? If a boy had groped Kisara, we’d be up in arms and everything. Thankfully, it’s a girl and, well, girls can never get in trouble for indiscriminately grabbing other girls’ breasts. I’m glad anime could clear that up for us.
Last but not least, it’s Seitenshi’s turn to “girl-up” Rentaro’s already estrogen-filled life. Up to this point, the only other male in this episode has been the voice of Tina’s master, but I digress. Rentaro thinks Seitenshi is being foolish for not canceling yet another meeting with Saitake Sogen. After all, was she not attacked just shortly after the last meeting? That’s undeniable proof that the man is behind her assassination! “I didn’t agree to be your bodyguard,” Rentaro says, “just to let you get killed.” And this is different from other bodyguards… how? Nevertheless, Tina attacks again that night. Rentaro bravely dives in front of Seitenshi and gets hit in the arm. This forces Enju to go after Tina all by her lonesome. Meanwhile, Seitenshi conveniently informs Rentaro that Tina is rank 97. As such, Enju’s totally going to die! Rentaro tries to call the girl, but it’s Tina who answers.
And thus the episode weakly tries to end on this pathetic cliffhanger as if we’d ever believe that a primary character like Enju could honestly die in the sixth episode of the season.
Moe Sucks 
I watch Black Bullet with two other people, and it’s funny how we had this exact same conversation during this scene.
It really bugs me that the Cursed Children are all girls. It doesn’t make any sense, doesn’t build up to anything, and only serves as a paper-thin excuse for cramming more moe to the story. Worse, it didn’t even need the excuse. You could write Black Bullet and just make most of the major Cursed Children girls anyway. It’s anime, and nobody would seriously question it. Sure a superpowered shota or two might have to exist, but is that really so heavy a burden to seem less of a cheap, pandering creepjob?
It’s one thing to write a world that allows for super-able loli’s as plot device. It’s another entirely to write one that demands them and totally excludes those icky boys for no other reason than preference. It’s just such an obvious statement that the author cares so much about moe that they’re willing to trade in their setting’s verisimilitude, and would rather write otaku-world than something like FMA, Darker Than Black, or Eureka Seven with broader, loftier expectations of its audience.
You know, worlds that contain actual people of all ages and genders. Like actual worlds do.
It’s nothing new, if anything it’s more of a trope in animes. Many animes have some kind of contrived plot element/device that demands that only a certain group(usually kids, teenagers, girls) can be in that certain condition(like having powers).
But in black bullet’s case they’re all loli’s just for the sake of otaku fetish pandering and it makes many people take the story way less seriously(even when a loli gets killed off brutally). This show is just a joke to me, it almost reminds me of another anime this season also suffering from otaku pandering syndrome called brynhildr in darkness which could’ve been a very tragic/dark/serious show but because of the cliches/tropes like the harem cast, highschool settings and obligatory ecchi moments it’s also hard to take seriously.
I agree with you, but I don’t have anything to add. So I’ll just snarkily comment that this is a story for people who have no conception of the actual world, so it fits.
At least they got round to fixing the OP nearly halfway in. Maybe that’s where the animation budget for the rest of the episode went.
Yeah, I never watch an OP more than once, so I guess I missed it.
i dono, it would still be pretty moe with little boys.
I-I agree.