Blood+

When Blood+ came out back in 2005, it was one of the seasons most anticipated releases. The original work, Blood: The Last Vampire, screamed for a longer storyline that showed some development. And while Blood+ was to take place in a separate universe, if it managed to construct a decent story around the beautiful aesthetics of the film, then we would have had a definite winner. Sadly, Blood+ is, to put it bluntly, a bit of a mess. Blood+ starts off decent enough. Saya, our protagonist, is revealed to be the only one capable of killing the human killing, blood sucking chiropterans. Early on, abit os a standard "mysterious past" is established, although over the course of 50 episodes, it's never explained as well as it probably should have banned. Those hoping for a one woman show, like Blood: The Last Vampire, may also find it interesting that Blood+ sort of becomes a band of travelers movie with Saya's close friends, Riku and Kai, and her guardian of sort, the mysterious cello playing Hagi. One of the biggest problems of this show is that so many of its elements are very, very conventional. Saya is an amnesia sufferer who has "forgotten" about her past as a bloody killer. The American military is interfering in the role of vampires, which would have made for a decent little conspiracy story, if predictable, if it was fully explored. We are also treated to a bevy of corny "live your life for today" speeches from the likes of Saya's friends. It's all very standard fare. This wouldn't have been too bad, and would have been saved in part by the decently exciting action, if the series wasn't so arbitrary. New rules and twists are introduced haphazardly to the plot at seemingly unfit times. The Schiff, who are basically manufactured vampires, are tossed into the mix lazily, and their new set of rules and characters pops up and then is sort of left behind as the series progresses. This is how a lot of the second half of the show works. As Saya pursues Diva, the head honcho of the bad guys, all kinds of unexplored sub-plots are layered on; besides the aforementioned Schiff, we have some conflict between Diva's guardians (they're the bad guy equivalent of Hagi, basically), and political dealings with the American military, but they all feel terribly unimportant and underdeveloped, because the show ends up basically becoming one long, protracted chase scene, with Saya desperately trying to locate Diva and defeat her once and for all. This is extended by a relentless number of fight scenes that begin to lose their importance as we realize they are basically just delaying the final showdown. The show becomes simultaneously bogged down by the unneeded subplots, as well as too narrow-minded in how it chooses to be "mysterious" about all the characters and backgrounds. No, a show needn't spell out everything for the viewer, but we're never really given much to go on, if anything, from Saya, Hagi, and Diva and her cronies. Even as one of the antagonists essentially falls in love with Saya, it all feels very rushed and heavy-handed. While the pacing manages to keep the show watchable, it becomes so repetitive and predictable that it fails to stand out. The ending itself is something pretty much any viewer will be able to see from a mile away (and it has to do with another weird arbitrary rule that seems to be heaped on just to attempt to make it sad). Because of this, the emotional punch it is supposed to provide is more like an emotional feather dusting. There are some positives, the animation is good, even if it lacks the dark appeal of The Last Vampire. The various world locations we get to see manage to help keep things varied. Kai becomes an interesting character with a soft-side to go along with his rambunctious one, that we can really empathize with. The action is generally pretty exciting at first. But the show just wears out its welcome with the arbitrary introduction of new ideas and characters that are often abandoned simply to fit the plot. It makes you wonder why they were needed in the first place. Ultimately, this all leaves Blood+ as a watchable, but simplistic and by-the-numbers vampire flick. 3/10

Way back in October I talked about the anime, Blood-C. In that review I briefly touched on my feelings towards its predecessor, Blood+. Well, apparently that snippet caused some curiosity and I got a request to review it. Blood+ was inspired by a film, Blood: The last Vampire. Now, I can't really tell you what I thought of that film since I've never seen it. This anime, from Production I.G, the same company that produced the film by the way, was my introduction to the series. Now, it has been a while since I watched this, so, because I care about giving you all themost informed opinion possible, I'm going to re-watch the entire thing for review purposes. Let's take a look at Blood+. The story is pretty basic. There's a girl named Saya who gets attacked by a blood drinking monster. She's rescued by a mysterious stranger named Haji who gives her a sword and feeds her his blood. This causes something to awaken within her that she doesn't understand. The first half of the story follows Saya's quest to learn about her power and her past. The second half is about her previously forgotten mission. Sorry for being vague but, as usual, I'm trying to refrain from spoiling anything. One thing I do like about Blood+ is the pacing. It gives you enough time to acclimate to the characters and circumstances while keeping things moving at a good pace. There's very little that feels superfluous or like it drags. That being said, there are some unnecessary flashbacks that really only serve to go over information you already know or that they've already given you huge hints about. To be fair, most of the flashbacks are used to hint at information they haven't revealed yet and may, arguably, work but there are some that do act to the detriment of the series since you already know what happened or have a really good idea from the not so subtle hints they like to drop. One major issue I have with the story is at the very end. I won't go into details but there's a complete deus ex moment. They try to justify it through exposition after it happens but it really doesn't work since it comes out of nowhere. Which is odd coming from a series that likes to repeat important plot points and give lots of hints before they happen. My major issues with Blood+ come from the characters. I've mentioned this before, but Saya annoys me. She spends virtually the entire series being mopey and depressed even when her immediate circumstances are pretty happy. She's even kind of mopey before her circumstances start to get tragic. Admittedly, she does go through a lot of pain and heartache but it doesn't make for an interesting protagonist when she's perpetually gloomy. It might work in a twelve or thirteen episode anime, but it gets really grating when you have to deal with it for fifty episodes. The antagonists aren't any better. Most of them have really lazy motivations like just being jerks or being complete nutters. There is one antagonistic character who moves beyond that but he's typical in a different way. I don't want to spoil anything, but let's say he's a chivalrous gentleman. The main antagonist is the worst. She starts out fine with a backstory that gives her the potential to be a sympathetic character, but then she gets one of those turning irredeemably evil scenes. They try to pull away from that towards the end and make her sympathetic, but it doesn't work since the method they use is really stupid and she's already pole vaulted over the point of no return. Frankly, trying to make her sympathetic after that is pretty gross. I'd tell you what she does, but it would be a huge spoiler. Some of the supporting cast are interesting, particularly Kai, but most of them just lack depth. The art in this is really strong. The characters are well designed with the only major issue being that their eyes frequently go crossed for no reason. The backgrounds are well constructed and the action scenes have a good level of intensity while being well constructed. Although the amount of blood that breaks the laws of physics to gush out of wounds can be pretty ridiculous. Oh and, like Black Lagoon, there's a character in this who inexplicably never removes his sunglasses even when it's dark. I can kind of understand it in this case since they aren't good at drawing eyes, but that just makes you wonder why they only do it with one character. The voice acting is pretty good. The biggest issue is that most of the characters don't have a lot of emotional range so the seiyu tend to use the same general tone for most of the anime. They still do well though. Particularly Yoshino Hiroyuki and Saito Chiwa since they do get to demonstrate quite a bit of emotional range. The music varies. Some of it is kind of bland and some of it is really good. To give some examples, the music they use for victorious moments is excellent and the music they use for suspenseful scenes is overdone. It sounds more suitable for action scenes than suspense. The yuri factor is a 3/10. Saya and Kaori's relationship seems to go beyond friendship, but their relationship is only really explored in the first few episodes. They do get to interact a few times after that but there's not a lot of it. It would probably earn a higher rating if Kaori had a bigger role, but she doesn't. Now we move to the final rating. There are some interesting ideas here, the story is good, albeit flawed and the art is really well done. On the downside the characters aren't very well done, most of them are just lackluster, Saya is kind of obnoxious and the story does end rather weakly. My final rating is going to be a 6/10. It's decent enough but it's not anything special.

A show about a girl who fights monsters... sounds kind of unoriginal, no? Well, whatever it sounds like to you, this is one helluva awesome show :D The story is dark, sad and action-packed. I like how they present everything with a sad setting; it's not like it's just one big brawl after another; it is emotions and resolve-strengthening, it's battles which have a reason other than just being yet another battle. The story keeps complex but simple enough to follow without too much thinking "what's happening?" The animation style in Blood+ is really cool. It's got good shading details, and the characters looks good too; they'vegot a nice variation of character designs, some detailed and some maybe not so detailed. The animation is flawless; at least no noticeable errors. The background art in this series is amazing; the sceneries and cityscapes are wonderful to look at. The music rocks too. The OP/ED songs are great (aside the fourth OP, which was all but good), and the background music is just as it should be; moody. It sets the right mood to all the scenes, and it fits very good with the series' sad tone. Blood+ has the best character development of any anime I've watched. I'm completely enthralled by its characters, and how they change during the course of the series. They're deep, three-dimensional characters, and their relationships with each other are fascinating. I also like how a simple death during the beginning of the series had a large effect on the characters. What I like about Blood+ is that despite being about vampires, it focuses on almost anything but the vampire aspects of the characters, with the latter being used mainly as a MacGuffin. Therefore, you'll enjoy this series even if you do not like vampire anime, and you'll love it if you like vampire anime. All in all, Blood+ is among the better series in the vast world that is anime, and a series you'll enjoy watching. To 'Not Helpful' voters (and you 'Helpful' voters too): Feedback greatly appreciated =)

This anime is one of the best ones that I have ever seen before in my life. The plot somehow manages to stay incredibly strong throughout all of the 50 episodes, showcasing many different types of characters, from the most comical to the most radically serious. The animation has a very unique style, which somewhat surprised me early on, but then I realized that it simply made the show more unique. What every viewer must realize first off is that this is NOT just an anime about vampires. The fact that the characters often require blood to survive is used as an effective plot device,but it is not the entire focus of the show. What this means is that it appeals to both those who love vampire animes and those who do not, creating, as a whole, an extremely balanced, well crafted anime. The anime will be a joy for anyone who watches it. The storyline ranges from romance, to comedy, to intrigue, to detailed pseudo-history, innocence and experience, violence and peace, and then circles around again to the vague but omnipresent romance that insinuates itself, not as the main focus, but as a continuing theme throughout. I thoroughly enjoyed watching the anime, and I invite all who read this to do the same. Rating: 10/10

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