Story & Characters
It's no surprise that CLAMP enjoys shocking people; given its illustrious credentials, Blood-C probably sells
itself from the first look. It's got character designs by CLAMP, animation by Production I.G, a lead character
voiced by Mizuki Nana, and is an offshoot from the popular Blood franchise - the
perfect amalgam of action-packed swordplay, heroine who originated as a quiet badass in the original Blood: The Last Vampire and monster hunting. But watch the entire season and
you'll start wondering how much it got this far, even a movie is in the making, haven't they done enough
damage?
In this reincarnation of Blood, Kisaragi Saya is a miko who lives and trains
with her priestly father. Her typical day consists of arriving late on classes, embarrassing herself in front of her
classmates, dining in a coffee shop named Guimauve in the neighborhood, and performing duty to use sword to kill
supernatural beasts known as Furukimono. (This time, though, she's fully aware of her responsibility.) After a few
confrontations, Saya begins to question the validity of her work in addition to the deadly day job, fragments of an
amnesiac memory, and web of conspiracy. Still, she will take on any mission her father arranges, as long as she can have
a nice hot bath once the job is done.
And so we have Blood-C, which is basically a typical CLAMP teenage-heroine series awkwardly built on the premise of
Blood+. Seriously, this series not only falls behind the shadow of its predecessor right of the bat, but starts with one
of the most usable cliche ever. What in the world is supposed to be good about an everyday clumsy schoolgirls chopping
monsters? The more times they trip, the cuter I suppose. Two major problems prevent the series from capitalizing on the
meager potential that it shows, however. One is the Dragon Ball Syndrome, which covers more than half of the airing time
having the main character interact with people she meets that the good news are overshadowed by a more negative
difference between the two titles: Blood+ was slow, but this one is both slow and boring. Boring, boring and boring to a
degree that suggests every episode will also be in the similar structure.
The second and much bigger problem is the writing in general. Except for the filler between Saya and the antagonist near
the end, every episode stumbles in her daily routine: Saya visits the shop, talks to some friends and Mr. Nice Guy, has
a dizzy flashback about one "Mysterious Guy Who Will Later Drive The Plot Somehow," and the worst of them all,
turns the entire series into a monster of the week joke. The plot is a collection of Saya's battles against the
Furukimono, each of which slowly emphasizes on her twisted past. Though to be fair, this twist is built up in tiny
scenes that begin as early as the first episode. It doesn't change the fact that the twist itself is dumb and
trashy.
The second in line in the Blood franchise, Blood-C takes a lot more wacky
approach than Blood+. This new Saya is a lot goofier, and the writers really go all out to make her look cutesier,
particularly every morning she sings a witty song about breakfast or how clumsy she displays in the OP song. Ah, the
fleetingness of youth. And she sucks. She bears a resemblance of Otonashi Saya, has a cool pair of red eyes and is the
kind of wanting to protect everyone to prove she's a badass despite that failure is an option in her book. Saya's lameness isn't fleshed out until she's put to work, and
the result is quite as awful as the "I failed. Oh well, who cares anyway!" expression she puts on later.
Compare to the previous Saya, this one lost all the charms; only once - in the finale, before chasing the bad guys, she
bids final farewell to her beloved - is the series freed from the confines of its episodic nature long enough to
demonstrate what it might be capable of were it given room to develop its soft emotional underbelly. But it never really
gets the chance, which forces the series to slowly but painfully choke the lives out of its viewers.
Rating: 2
Art
But still, isn't this supposed to be a CLAMP/Production I.G collaboration? That name-brand pedigree finally makes
itself evident in the battles against the monster, this leads to the big fights everyone's been waiting for, with
fast-paced movements, striking poses and torrents of blood. The sharp use of color, especially involving the school
uniforms, almost offsets the irritatingly disproportionate lankiness of CLAMP's character designs, and the monsters
are far more bizarre looking than Blood+'s Chiropteran. Some elaboration on scenes when Saya turns her eyes red and
goes "killer mode" can be quite good, at least until it reaches the secondary flaws.
And you don't have to look very far to figure out why. The name implies everything, if there was ever a most
violent anime award in history, it would certainly go to Blood-C due to its extremely straightforward, gleefully bloody
and sadistic style. The Furukimono are rendered as brutal, bloodthirsty creatures which always ready to jump into the
townsfolk and enjoy feasting on their fleshes. As brutal nature as they can get, their victims are always posed in
gruesome manners of death: pools of blood redecorate the streets red, decapitation and quartering dominate with their
trademark brutalities, and body parts and organs get vomitted over the place. Even if you're only watching this for
the violence - of which there is plenty, although it's all quite this series has - the broadcast version of this
show is censored by giant light bars covering deaths that would make Hellsing's gore look like mere child's
play.
Rating: 6
Sound
Voice acting proves to be another minimum effort, casting Mizuki Nana to be the amnesiac main character while retaining
two seiyuu of the first Blood title, Fujiwara Keiji (Nathan) as the
sophisticated priest and Nojima Kenji (Karman) plays the handsome owner of the cafe. As the lead character, Saya sounds
somewhat cutesy when being clumsy, and has a more serious tone after her eyes dyed red, but her effort just as bland as
her performance. Nor could she reasonably be expected to. The theme songs also fall on the ordinary side: a catchy rock
OP and a more subdued ED, which eventually start to stick in one's head if only because of repeated listening every
episode.
Rating: 5
Presentation
Which one is worse? A series that is mediocre from the start or one that looks promising then turns mediocre. Either
way, both apply for Blood-C, too sloppily directed to succeed and too clunkily scripted to make for compelling drama, it
does have the makings of a good, down and dirty exploitation series. While not everything was resolved in the end, the
popularity boosts a movie, but even at that, it's not possible to cover all in a few minutes unlike Last Vampire which has the benefit of a 50-episode anime. And judging from the last
episode, the movie would probably be about in a gigantic battle between good and evil as a lousy protagonist jumps into
the belly of the beast. Call me bloodthirsty, but I'd rather watch something more creative with blood, sweat and
tears. The needless gory action, the shallow character developments make it the perfect chance for those enjoy violence
and low-budgeted series. Unfortunately, while Blood+ was a blockbuster, this one is a mockbuster, after all, it
doesn't call itself "minus" for nothing.
____________________________________________________________________________________________
Story: 2
Characters: 2
Art: 6
Animation: 7
Voice: 4
Music: 6
Overall: 1.5
Good:
+It's so crazy it just might work for you.
Bad:
+Twelve episodes of monster of the week.
+Only truly good when brutal that would make you wish you were vegetarian.
+Basically everything.
Rating: 2
Final Verdict
3.1667 (poor)
Reviewed by Weskalia, Oct 23, 2011
