Finally, it’s another fully Leo-centric episode of Kekkai Sensen – which was something altogether different than I was expecting based of last week’s preview.  I figured we’d continue with our carousel of secondary character showcases here, with a focus on Dog Hummer and his odd couple dance partner Deldro Brody (Fujiwara Keiji appears to be fully back in action, thank goodness), but they were relatively minor players in what turned out to be one of the larger stories of the season (literally as well as narratively).

One of the functions of Blood Blockade Battlefront is that (no matter who’s directing) it flashes by so quickly, and so much is happening and so many characters appear, that it’s simply hard to remember everything and everyone.  Has Leo’s friend Riel appeared before and I’ve forgotten?  It’s certainly possible – Leo was certainly acting as if they were old buddies.  Riel is even wimpier (and lighter) than Leo, unlikely as that sounds – when Leo receives his daily shakedown from the local small-time hoods, Riel can do little more than flea flee.  At least Leo sticks around to take his punishment.

Even smaller than Riel – by a long stretch – is Li Gado (Koyasu Takehito) who continues Kekkai Sensen’s penchant for anthropomorphisizing even the oddest of creatures.  Li Gado is a “doctor” whose form appears to be that of a flea riding in a kind of mini death star, but even that is just an exoskeleton – Li Gado’s real form is that of a microbe.  And he warns Leo of a new enemy who gives bioterrorism a new meaning – he’s actually a microbial terrorist, Gemnomo.  And he’s cooking up some sort of plan to unleash a weapon that makes small things large (accelerated cytology, he’ll have you know).

Poor, hapless Riel – full of self-loathing – is the perfect vehicle for Gemnimo’s genetic manipulation, and we have a dramatic juxtaposition of the tiny and huge as Riel is lured into accepting Gemnomo’s augmentation and goes on a rampage.  Dog Hummer and Deldro are involved here too – Klaus has managed to get Dog a bit of prison leave to view a touring Cezanne (Dog Hummer loves cubism, apparently).  And they come in handy when Riel starts to wreak havoc throughout the city.  The nature of Gemnomo’s creation is that whenever Riel is attacked, he gets bigger – and by the time the episode comes to an end, he’s already the size of a building.

As is so often the case with Kekkai Sensen, a lot of the entertainment value here comes from the incidentals – Sonic always doing something hilarious in the background, Nej showing up for a silent cameo munching on a burger, Zapp winding up in the hospital yet again.  The critics will no doubt bemoan what looks to be another standalone subplot (even if it is a multi-part one), but this series has always been more about the sensory stimulation that the conventional narrative.  I’ve been enjoying the ride for this long, so there’s no reason to start expecting a change of direction now.