One thing has bugged me about Saya’s hair throughout the entirety of Blood-C, and I couldn’t quite place my finger on it. No, it wasn’t her looking like she’s smuggling two brooms in her hair, though that was probably a contributing factor. Even with her hair down and natural, something still seemed off about it. And that’s when it hit me: Saya looks like she coats her hair in fast food grease and wood varnish every single morning. It’s still so shiny and scraggly that it doesn’t look like she’s ever washed it. Think that’s an odd point to start on? You have no idea how obtrusive that shiny mess is for me.
The plot for this episode can be boiled down to one simple element; Saya is tripping balls after the death of a friend, at the behest of her manipulative father. So the deaths that have been happening in Blood-C with growing frequency finally hit closer to home for Saya. Nene, the annoying twin to the equally annoying Nono, ends up Mami-fied by a weird centipede tentacle monster before Saya can dispatch it.
After it’s defeated, her father knocks her out with his Jedi mind powers, which gets her a day off from school. As she passes from the waking world to her dreams and back again… nothing happens. Nada. Nothing. Sentence fragments. I suppose she’s seeing visions, but it’s too cryptic at a point where mysterious exposition is really not in this series’ best interest. The next day, she heads off at the reluctance of her father, who gives her the sword wrapped in a purple cloth. Saya suspects that he knows something’s afoot, and they have a riveting conversation that proceeds as such:
Saya: Why’re you giving this to me?
Dad: Stay safe.
Saya: Is there an Elder Bairn out there?
Dad: Just… carry this.
Saya: Okay.
If there is a more disjointed, pointless conversation in anime, I haven’t seen it.
So Saya heads off, but is immediately ushered back home by her teacher because of the recent disappearances. On her way back home, she runs into Nono, who attacks her asking where Nene is. Her shadow then attacks Saya and mutilates quite a few innocent bystanders who have decided to take a look at what was causing the ruckus. Don’t worry though, the scenes are censored by that horrible lens flare that has plagued this season to block out anything remotely offensive. It quickly stops being over the top violent, and just ends up hilarious.
Of course Saya could die, and she almost does, but she somehow summons the will to take the shadow down before that weird “dog” that’s been present since the very beginning talks and tells her to wake up.
Reaction
Hey, a lazy episode deserves a halfhearted write up, right? Alright, it wasn’t all bad. The fighting had more at stake than it did in previous episodes, even if Saya was useless for the majority of the episode and could only watch Nene being chomped on by that horribly designed centipede thing. The lens flare in the later half was laughable, as were the deaths of the townspeople, only two of which I found to be completely not their fault.
Saya’s father’s mind powers, coupled with the talking dog-thing, made this the most interesting Blood-C yet… though in all the wrong ways. Last episode did well with the exposition while implying that shit was about to get real, and it did indeed get real… just too gratuitous to take seriously. For sitting through the first four episodes it’s hardly a just reward, but I can’t call it unwatchable. The combat flows very nicely, the dialogue isn’t ALL crap-awful (Just most of it), and there are some redeeming factors… mostly having to do with both of the twins being killed off. I think that’s something we can all get behind.
Blood-C’s definitely improved, at least as far as being entertaining goes, but it’s nothing that would rate very highly yet. Even if it came around and had the last half at Code Geass R1 level of quality, the first third wouldn’t win it any favors.
“I think that’s something we can all get behind.”
NOOO FUUCKK YYYOOUUUUU!! The twins were adorable and they were too cute to die goddammit!
Just for that your blog’s gonna have an Irish accent from now on HAH!
Okay, I should probably rephrase that as “I think that’s something the majority of us who don’t put up with stereotypical twin-ish antics can get behind” in the most stereotypical Irish accent possible. How does that make you feel, hmm?
I never got around to keeping my promise to myself about sticking with Blood-C. I still read the analysis on them though, and well, it’s sad to see the twins die. They were, for the most part, entertaining as far as Saya is concerned. I still don’t have the drive to pick this up again though, but I might if some shit actually does get real.
It’s not really worth sticking with, I don’t think. I’m honestly surprised how many people liked/tolerated the twins though, since I thought they were insufferable.
I’ve already dropped this anime after one episode, but it’s funny to see what’s been happening lately. This is a hilarious review btw…I was laughing out loud at the dialog between Saya and her father!
It went from just being plain bad to being a complete trainwreck in the best possible way. You were wise to drop out early.
I dropped this early on, but I had a feeling the show would have one of Saya’s friends die to show how serious things had gotten, and that it would probably be a twin or Yuka since they seemed pretty useless. I’d probably be more sad about the twins’ deaths if I cared about the cast at all, but… nah. Good to see my old friend censor glare is here for the party now too.
Exactly. There’s very little attachment to the characters, making their deaths seem extremely token even when they shouldn’t be.