This is a story about a boy who is changed into something he fears. He then has to learn how to live on the border between what he is used to and what he fears.
The show is tremendously violent and gory, but not extraordinarily so in it's genre. It kind of falls into the Supersayan-problem of ever more powerful enemies that can only be defeated by the main character after becoming stronger, but it varies enough (more so in the second season than the first). Despite the characters feeling all over the place in the first few episodes, there is a point to that and after two seasons I actually quite like how the character arcs turned out.
What makes this story for me is it's underlying themes. It's about the big subjects of life and death and love and hate, but it does so in a different way than I am used to. The show seems to ask by showing murder after murder, battle after battle, slaughter after slaughter: isn't this pointless? Every time it sets a character up to be violently taken apart it makes a point to say that that character had value and now he or she is no more. It makes the point of the show, despite it's extreme violence one of pacifism.
It is a tremendously depressing watch, but definitely something I haven't seen before and something I don't know if I should recommend. Watch this if: a. you like violent anime and just want to see the pictures, because it is well made and not focus on the plot or b. you like feeling like crap after binging on short episode after short episode.
PS I don't like the title songs, but I am sure many people disagree.
