Blood-C – 04



Holy crap! The fights here just continue to get better and better. This episode once again upped the antes, with some stunning results. It really had me at the edge of my seat the entire time.

There of course was the danger of this series falling victim to the syndrome where the biggest budget is spent on the first episode. And I guess it is true that the animation is not as fluid as we saw in the first episode, but even taking that into consideration the action scenes are just stunning. This episode really surprised me at how far it went with its gore until the censors went crazy. The way the bodies of those fishermen (or whoever they were) moved when they were devoured was really well done, but the rest of the fight as well was just one giant struggle.

A big problem with this series is that the dialogue during the quiet bits isn’t that… interesting. Still, I don’t mind that at tall. One reason is because at this point I’ve got enough patience to wait until the good bits, but the other is that for me this series is really succeeding in building its atmosphere. The slice of life bits are really, really simple, but the atmosphere they create that way in combination with the contrasting dark parts of this series has really caught me in.

I also wonder: this series so far has really outright refused to share any background on just about anything that Saya has been doing. When will this be revealed, or is that going to be the task of the movie? At the very least Saya is something supernatural and that dog is no ordinary dog, but I do wonder when this show is going to start with its background. It’s rare for a series to have so little exposition in its first four episodes.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

13 thoughts on “Blood-C – 04

  1. A very good episode. This show raises all sorts of questions, but as you say, they refuse to answer them. At this point I’m thinking the series will mostly be revealing what the hell is going on.

  2. AS I said somewhere else:

    Anyway, another crappy episode.

    Characters still flat as sticks and as complex as firstgrader’s mind, the mood shifts have shitty execution and Saya is still annoying girl with stupid hair.

    Careful, BloodC, your 5 episode-till-i-drop limit is running out.

    I was at first VERY MUCH SO intrigued by the idea of CLAMP doing the blood anime(considering they had quite a few very good mood-shift twists in their manga, notably TRC, where we had a a cheerful and happy atmosphere of happy-go-lucky adventurers with some foreshadowing of something wrong out there and they turned it into dark messed up mindscrew with cast of liars, sadomasochists and broken people in a matter of one chapter and one simple plot revelation putting everything into its correct place.)

    However so far BloodC is as subtle as getting punched to the face with a log of wood. I bet they are trying something similar, but it is already screwed up and cliched/shallow/stupid/weak due to everything being one dimensional and unconvincing.

  3. @UnknownVoice

    In case you didnt notice, they revealed a HUGE plot-twist this episode, and the three previous episodes has silently been building up to this. Albiet, not as good as it COULD have been, but this episode guarenteed i will watch it till the end.

  4. In case you didnt notice, they revealed a HUGE plot-twist this episode, and the three previous episodes has silently been building up to this.

    If byu silently building you meant as silent and unexpected as watching a piano drop from 11th floor in slow motion for 5 minutes till it drops on you, then yes.

    This episode did not show anything that was not obvious since first episode.

  5. What Unknown Voice said… Im glad they finally spent most of the episode on fights, but I dont get all the praise at all… Sure, they are more realistic than usual, but thats it

    I couldnt believe the scene where Saya falls into that guys crotch without noticing… REALLY? Thats the kind of cliche that belongs to a harem… Jesus christ, what else is next?

    And it just bothers me how Saya is all cheerful in her “normal” self, and then its like she suddenly goes /seriousface for no reason, it feels so awkward, like shes totally faking it

  6. I…..actually liked this episode compared to the past few….I feel like it is picking up, if only slightly.

  7. I think they really botched the introduction to this series. This episode is definitely better than the three before but the slow revelation of the plot itself feels like filling a vacuum with this series. Where other series set a kind of basis with their beginning to build upon in later episodes – Blood-C simply did nothing… It was all hints and mystery but there was nothing substantial to it. And the cast was really made dumb by purpose, it seems, so that they would just comment how great their peaceful village is instead of noticing how creepy the whole thing is when you think about it like a normal person would do. Probably there’s a reason for all that dumbness but the problem was that in contrast to this episode these just didn’t offer any alternative to this happy ignorance. All the doubting and suspecting was done by the viewer for three whole episodes while the series seemingly tried to stay ignorant of its own plot…
    I really hope the twist this whole thing builds up to, is worth it.

  8. I have to look at the contrast of ruthless killer by night and innocent student by day. What was up with the red eyes and the big shift of skill level, one moment getting her ass handed to her the next she’s swordzilla.

    Two many mysteries and all the empty quiet time without content. Every series that plays those cords has ended up with a weak hand to play for the story.

  9. I’m waiting for that dog to start talking ever since it first appeared…. one of these days it WILL happen…

  10. @Qwerty1: From what I’ve seen of Blood-C so far, a talking dog scene would take 5 minutes to build up and at the end of it the dog would go WOOF.

  11. I can strongly disagree on two points :

    So far, Mayo Chiki is fun to watch.

    Kamisama Dolls is, in every sense, a terrible show.

  12. Fantastic and totally awesome series so far, and after spending so much time missing Clamp’s great character-design, a real pleasure to see it again in this fabulous work! But I just think it should be a long-lenth series or to be extended to a second season for it to live up to its full potentiel. Also it certainly does have great similarities with Blood + series, the fact that the heroine is a weird monsters’ slayer is incontestably one of them, but there’s also the facxt that she possibly has the same blood as the monsters she fights, so it does draw a parallel with the previous Blood series but also has its own incredible charm and qualities!

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