Category: Blood-C

I don’t know who are exactly the ones who put together the fight scenes of this series, but I once again have to praise them, because in that aspect this series is the best of the season. Even though the runner-up Dantalian no Shoka has a bigger budget and also plenty of interesting visual ideas for itself, this one goes a step further in the way in which it animates Saya’s struggle with the monsters she fights. It’s not the writing that rocks here, it really is the animation that really brings those to life.

As for the rest of the series… I still like it a lot. It’s indeed unfortunate that it uses many cliches, but for me at the moment, the good points overshadow the bad points enough to make me not bothered by it. I mean, this show has obviously been building up for its first three episodes, and with that I don’t mean a complex story, but I’m more pointing towards its atmosphere. Whether everything has been balanced out properly is unfortunately something we can only say a year and a half from now, when the movie has properly aired. With that, I can understand the inclusion of the fights that Saya has: they have two functions: to build up the atmosphere themselves, and offer a sharp contrast with the slice of life scenes to prevent this series from really getting dull, seeing as how mundane the quiet scenes in this series are.

At this point, I don’t feel yet that Blood+ is wasting its time. But then again, we can only tell that for sure when everything has aired. In my experience the really unbalanced series only tend to show this from their middle part, not their first three episodes.

As for the criticisms on the characterization, I can understand some of them. Saya is a bit dull, and it’s during the quiet scenes that the animation also dulls in. I still think that these past episodes have been great ways to get to know the cast, though, as ordinary high school students. This episode explored how they spend their time after school and other mundane stuff. What makes it different from the series with dull characterizations is that 1) the acting is good and solid (most of the overacting you’ll hear here is those twins, and Saya actually doesn’t have the vocals of a J-pop idol), along with the dialogue that talks about inspired topics, courtesy of Clamp.

Now, the end of this episode was excellent foreshadowing, and it seems like the plot is also going to get interesting next episode.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

And the third series I’m definitely going to blog this season: Blood-C. Before I decide on the others I first want to watch Dantalian no Shoka and Kami-Sama no Memo-chou’s second episode that air this evening. As a fan of Clamp though, I really like this series so far. It’s got a lot to like, but at the same time I can also understand that it’s not for everyone.

For the ones complaining that this is too slow, though: that’s pretty much both Clamp and Blood+, albeit in many different ways. Blood+ took a really long time to get going (like, 15 episodes or something), while Clamp’s stories are always filled with a lot of laid-back scenes, describing the different characters. It’s that kind of charm that I really like, because of how they always end up delivering upon it later, using the slice of life scenes to create memorable characters, even those who are supposedly one-sided at first. My only worry right now is the 13 episodes, but at the same time I’m very curious as what Clamp can do when they have less time than usual to work with.

Oh, and the fight scenes! This series definitely has the best action of the season. This is because you can actually see what happens: characters’ movements are detailed and actually anatomically correct. Saya really feels like she’s struggling with the enemies she fights, and instead of the cameras just focusing on some weird angle, they really allows us to see how she moves and tries to attack. This has been a knack of Production IG for ages now. I really feared that they abandoned this philosophy with Sengoku Basara, but thankfully Blood-C shows them once more animating some excellent down to earth fight scenes.

Now, the big potential pitfall for this series will be spending too much time on build-up, and (most importantly) too little on actually delivering. I liked this episode, though. The non-action bits were good slice of life, and felt very personal. The characterization was pretty good and down to earth, especially of the cast as a whole, and the characters talking to each other actually kept my attention throughout the episode. When describing the slice of life, the dialogue is actually quite natural, the characters discuss down to earth topics that actually secretly flesh them out really well. My only problem is that Saya acting embarrassed felt awkward. Her acting overall has its moments where it’s a bit weak.

Oh, and for the people who haven’t seen Blood+: don’t worry. It’s not yet sure whether or not this Saya is the same Saya as in Blood+, because we don’t know whether her father is telling the truth about actually being her father and all, but this really seems like an original story. There have been no references to other series
Rating: ** (Excellent)