TV Review: Blood Blockade Battlefront Season 1 (2015)

Blood Blockade Battlefront Season 1 (2015) created by Yasuhiro Nightow

New York City has been renamed Hellsalem's Lot because a portal to a Hell-like dimension opened up several years ago. Demons and other oddities have poured into the city. Life is a mixture of magic, superhuman (and indeed non-human) characters, and typical city life. Leonardo is a young photographer who has special "All Seeing Eyes of the Gods" and comes to Hellsalem's Lot to join Libra, an organization that fights crime in the city, specifically the weird, supernatural stuff. The organization itself is a collection of oddballs with random powers using their abilities in creative ways. 

The show is a bit episodic--the characters usually deal with a situation of the week. A subplot is introduced with twins (a boy and girl) who become part of a bigger plan to upset the balance of power. The twins are marginal until the last two episodes. One of the other episodes focuses on finding a place for lunch that everyone can agree upon, so the show balances the over-the-top action with a lot of humor like that. The characters are fun with some interpersonal intrigue to go along with the bigger action. Viewers are dropped into the story in the middle and it's a bit hard to keep up with what's going on, especially for English speakers/readers who need to read subtitles along with translations of data being shown on screen. I feel like I need to go back and pause the show at points so I can get all the details, a prospect I find enjoyable. Maybe before I watch season 2...

Recommended, though you have to keep up with a lot that's going on.