Saya Otonashi is an ordinary high school student, but that soon changes when a chiropteran, a bat-like animal created by the main antagonist, Diva, attacks Saya. Saya then reunites with her chevalier, Hagi, and begins to fight again. Though she can fight again, she must recover her memories. Now she goes out on her journey, along with the Red Shield (an organization that is working alongside Saya), her family, and Hagi to recover her memories, and kill her sister (Diva) to rid the world of the chiropterans.
By: simplex33
Story & Characters
Blood+ is about a girl named Saya Otonashi, who has been living with her adoptive family dealing with amnesia for a
better part of the year. She does not know who she is, where she came from, or if she has a family or not. George
Miyagusuku, her adopted father, who takes care of her, and also takes care of Riku Miyagusuku, the youngest of the
adopted children of his, along with Kai Miyagusuku the "oldest", who often tells Saya nankurunasia. Saya is
your typical teenager at a local high school, where she is a great athlete and enjoys life. All of that changes the
moment her chevalier appears. A chevalier is typically a bodyguard, a protector and tends to be by the side of the one
that created them until the chiropteran (which tends to be what these creators are called, or those that can create
chevaliers) is either killed or pretty much wants nothing to do with them. A simple kiss from Hagi helps Saya remember
who and what she is and her mission in life, her goal, her duty, possibly her passion, to rid the world of Diva. Which
happens to be Saya's twin sister "born" the same time she was.
George promises an organization by the name of Red Shield, to basically protect Saya until she remembers. This
organization typically wishes to rid the world of chiropteran (which happens to be a vampire-like creature) and Diva.
Unfortunately they encounter an organization that is your typical movement to cover the world in chiropteran by the name
of Cinq Flèches led by Amshel Goldsmith with others including Solomon Goldsmith, Karl Fei-Ong, James Ironside, and
Nathan Mahler all of whom are Diva's chevaliers. Each one unique in their own way. Diva and her other chevaliers
are not impressed by the "obsession" Solomon starts to develop towards Saya, but she has other things to worry
about at the moment, like ridding the world of Saya. Diva was raised locked in a tower, so, naturally, when she emerged
and made her first chevalier, Armshel, she terrorizes the world while she wishes to dress loli-like and is often seen
playing with toys and caring very little about a lot of things, other than singing, she loves to sing.
Still worse yet, a group learns of how to create chevaliers without the other typical means, however they aren't as
"perfect" and have many flaws, known as The Schiff, living on the blood of humans to survive, if what being
forced to live by another is living, encounter Saya and the rest, only to be faced with even more problems, Diva wanting
them back or doing her bidding. When they learned it was not Saya but Diva's blood in their veins they devote to
helping take down Diva as well.
Over time we also meet David, Lewis, and Julia, all working with Red Shield, led by Joel Goldschmidt VI, a descendant of
the original Joel who found Saya and Diva, in the hopes of bringing down Diva and the chiropteran. And still further
joined up by Mao and Akihiro Okamura. Mao, once not liking Saya much, becomes curious about her and with her dad having
a lot of money she starts to travel and fund things, and Okamura being a somewhat jaded, down-on-his-luck, chain-smoking
newspaper reporter, wishing to capture another chiropteran on film like his father did during the Vietnam War. Will he
succeed? Will Diva and Saya get the chance to face off in combat to see who is the dominating "Queen" of the
chiropteran race, and what will happen to the chevalier and their battles? Worse yet what of the internal conflicts
constantly raging on and on in Saya's mind? Watch to find out, if you haven't already.
Rating: 8
Art
The art was outstanding for this anime. It was quite interesting to see the proper blood splatter for this particular
anime. I don't believe I have encountered anything like it since. They didn't stress the over usage of blood
like some anime have done in the past when it comes to the gore and violence department. Another impressing thing was
the lacking of ecchi and fan service, sure there was a tiny bit, but it was done in a tasteful matter and helped along
with the plot quite nicely. I was equally impressed with the background, snow blowing, clouds moving, beach waves
crashing, they weren't really needed but I felt the creator did a good job and also nice that they bothered to
supply us with so much detail that this anime could possibly have been given to us. Although it wasn't real to
form about vampire biting, but the detail was supplied elsewhere so that was good enough to carry things along I
thought. I equally felt the katana and other sword fighting scenes were done in an excellent array of clashing sword
against sword and there wasn't a stress or strain when they were in flight or moving really fast when they
"shifted", or on a boat/ship, there were even detail to the ship, plane and other methods of travel. Even the
detail to gun, gun battle and play was outstandingly well done I thought.
Rating: 8
Sound
Where there was detail to art, there just wasn't the proper detail to sound. Sure the soundtrack was outstanding
and I still have most of the songs on my ipod, but rarely did you hear any train noises, there were moments where you
couldn't hear the gun as it was being fired and when there was a sound of a gun, it didn't echo, even when
shot in the alley it sounded sort of bland. The sound/noises of the helicopter and explosions were possibly the only
thing they really focused in on, even the screams were sort of livid and lacked me believing they were real. I felt the
anime could have had some more insert background noises/music. Sure the cello that Hagi played for Saya was present,
other than that, that was pretty much it on background noises, battle scenes lacked noises/music as well. I do have to
admit Hagi is one excellent cellist and he sure does like to play for Saya, as I believe that was probably the angle
that the anime wanted to focus more on than anything else.
Rating: 7
Presentation
This is my sixth review, after recently finishing it up while I found it online, I have a feeling I probably won't
be bothering with buying this one. Sure I liked it, but after watching it again, I felt it was slightly boring in
places. It was lacking things, the time jumps and time travels of past moments to present was confusing a few times for
me. I do have to admit the angle of chiropteran and chevalier was most unique, it was fresh and new for it's time,
but I felt the anime was possibly nearly too long, there were episodes that helped the plot along too much and a few
fillers that could have been erased because it wasn't really all that important to the plot. I was impressed by
the ending and equally disappointed but that's how life is, along with how some anime of dark nature tend to end.
The entire anime was nicely done, but overall it just wasn't what I expected the second time watching it would be.
The first time was the newness, the second was just sort of bland, I knew what was coming, but I did not bring anything
else new from watching it the second time, nor did I let the knowledge from the first time interfere with watching it
again. This, to me, is that once a life time watches, it'll linger with you for years to come, but that second
time just ruins some of it and tends to shatter some sort of gleam to the anime itself as a whole. Sure I might watch
it again, but I believe I'll leave a space of time, so perhaps when the vintage age comes along I might have
forgotten some of it and find something new that I did not see at this second viewing.
Rating: 7
Final Verdict
7.5000 (good)
Reviewed by angelxxuan, Sep 23, 2011
