I started up Blood-C, only to close out once I heard that opening song start up with its awkward Engrish warbling. And then I remembered that I didn’t have to listen to that sickening number, so I loaded up the video again and reluctantly watched, hoping that Blood-C would prove itself to be a decent affair. While nowhere near the banality of the beginning, the execution here was no less awkward, in part due to the inexplicable return of Saya’s love interest and his equally inexplicable interest in her that he somehow felt the need to express while she was covered in monster blood.
Actually, awkward sums up this episode nicely. The four different segments transition into each other with all the subtlety and grace of a blue whale flailing around on a thin sheet of ice, and none of them answer any questions beyond a negative response to “Should I keep watching this to see if it gets better?”
In the first segment, Saya has just finished her fight against the samurai beetle thing, sitting in a pool of its blood when her unrequited crush approaches and uncomfortably puts the moves on her. Rather than being fazed by the giant abomination lying dead in a giant pool of blood like any normal human being would, he unflinchingly follows her as she washes the blood off her skin in a nearby stream. Nothing about this scene is played very well, and it all comes across as forced in an effort to give the love interest some semblance of a personality beyond your standard gruff delinquent.
His reaction, or lack thereof, would be more realistic were he jaded to the whole business with the Elder Bairns. But, unsurprisingly, he knows nothing about them. There is nothing well done about this first interaction with Saya, and it all reeks of an amateur stage production gone horribly wrong.
Our second once again follows Saya’s charismatic father as he has an in depth, heart to heart conversation with his daughter that, through the power of abridged conversations, goes something like this:
Saya: I’m home, father.
Father: Welcome home, daughte- (Collapses)
Saya: Father, are you okay?
Father: Yes.
Saya: Okay.
With our third, somehow less important than the second, segment, Watanuki makes his next appearance peeping into Saya’s bathroom window while she takes a bath. Rather than shoo him away or act reasonably concerned that she has a male trapped in the form of a dog in her bathroom, she proceeds to ask it questions and answer some in kind. Much like the interactions with her father and her crush, those with Dogtanuki carry the same weight for the audience as an unladen swallow. I mean even Saya’s nudity didn’t save me from being bored, which is kind of sad.
And with the fourth main segment, school is back in session and immediately attacked by an Elder Bairn. After mangling a third of the class, it turns its attention toward Saya. What was wrong here, aside from the lens flare censorship, is it ended on a cliffhanger. Just when stuff was starting to get exciting, the episode ends. And no matter what, that’s not a smart move.
So, just to recap, this episode wasn’t totally shit. But we’re back to where we started with the first four episodes, just with more mystery. The pacing is the same, the unwieldy writing is the same, and the bullshit festering throughout is exactly the same. The only thing learned from this is that Saya is part of some experiment that has to do with defeating the Elder Bairns that her father is likely fully aware of, and she has to prove herself victorious or risk losing something important. Why they couldn’t have said that in the first few episodes, I’m not sure, but it felt somewhat out of place here for some reason.
With only four episodes left, Blood-C isn’t doing itself any favors. I wouldn’t call it terrible, but it’s nothing more than watchable in the best of times.
I wonder how I was able to watch this nonsense, really.
Whoever made the story script need to get fired and never ever do episodes again seriously !
I never felt this enraged about an anime ever before!
I though I saw many bad animes but this is “la créme de la créme”, the goddamn censorship, the bad ( VERY BAD ) character development, the poor action, the really poor made toy’s R us monsters ( oh common ! a talking multi armed rock samurai ?? Even Monster Ranch had better to offer !! ) and of course the silly and not really worth all bad that’s going on mystery ( I bet I’m right on this ).
I’m sorry that I’m raging in here but you seemed to be the only person who actually wrote what he thinks of Blood C
In anyways for me the only true Blood is Blood the Movie.
No mistakes, excellent story, characters, action and monsters.
Then Blood + who is also not THAT bad, the end managed to save some crap.
And at the very bottom Blood Crap, I really think that C stand for Crap, has to be that ! What else ?
Anyways thanks for your opinion on this … anime kinda show.
And again sorry for the rage ( that is actually my opinion about the show )
There are plenty of other dissatisfied bloggers that aren’t me. Hell, I honestly thought that I was in the majority here for being so bored by it, but I suppose there’s a larger group of people out there who like it than I thought.
Naw, man, I love Blood-C… >_>
Ah … sorry for leaving this … unpleasant comment in your blog ^^”
I found your’s by chance and read what you’ve been writing about the shows you watch, you have a good opinion about anime in my point of view.
So I though that you would understand my frustration about Blood C.
My apologizes for this rather embarrassing post I’ve made.
I’ve searched on some sites and forums but besides ” I can’t wait for blood c to come out ” I’ve found nothing talking about how the show is right now.
As if they just stopped watching and never, ever, want to talk about it.
That of my GoogleFu is getting rusty …
Again I’m sorry for leaving such an unasked post in your descend Blog.
Hey now, I never said I didn’t want your comment. I just didn’t expect the majority opinion that you’d find to be positive. As long as you’re mostly grammatically correct and have your comment easy to read, I welcome further comments in the future regardless of your point of view on what I’m reviewing.
Thank you very much ^^
Because if we proceed as slowly as possible, everything becomes more profound! Man, there’s nothing to hold onto anymore. At first, it was like “This is boring but at least the action is fun,” but I don’t know how many more purple toy-looking Elder Bairns I can take anymore.
And they’re all fought almost the exact same way as well, so variety’s as much an issue as the sheer absurdity of some of the Elder Bairns.