Summary:
Saya hears her voice being called and wakes up to find herself in a cave with Hagi. He tells her that she collapsed in the snow and reminds her of her most important duty. Saya tells Hagi that she’s become sleepy and although he tries to first attribute it to the dropping temperature, Hagi knows that Saya has been awake for three years now. Saya fears that the next time she wakes up, no one will know who she is. Hagi promises that he’ll wait for her always and forever. The next day, the two arrive in a village looking for a man named Gregory. As Hagi explains, the country is currently going through a revolution, which makes it easy for someone to escape. There is also a person, Anastasia, who has faith in Gregory and is also in hiding. Their search eventually leads them to a girl named Sonya. While Sonya can’t help them with Gregory, she does end up putting the two up for the night. Sonya has no father – he died some time ago and his corpse was found completely devoid of blood. Saya has to explain to Sonya that she and Hagi aren’t lovers, and are more like family.
In Sonya’s home, Saya spots a book titled Philosophie Zoologigue, and Sonya explains that her father did research on creating humans. That night, Hagi opens up the book and finds a letter from Gregory. A noise from outside the house causes him to chase, but he ends up in the woods with no one around him. A giant stake suddenly comes flying out of nowhere and impales Hagi. The next morning, Saya wakes up with Sonya clinging onto her. Sonya expresses a desire for Saya to stay at this house so that she won’t be lonely. Apparently she and her father are hated by the villagers because they did demonic research. After she gets angry and tries to defend what they did, Sonya calms down and goes to prepare something to eat. Saya hears a window breaking, and goes over to see Sonya’s fallen body outside. The old woman that Sonya had called grandmother is standing over the corpse with a bloody axe. The grandmother calls Sonya a demon and monster, but then a long arm shoots out and crushes the old woman’s head. The arm belongs to Sonya – she’s not dead because she’s a Chiropteran. Saya fails to grab the axe that the grandmother dropped, but Hagi arrives in time to throw her sword.
Sonya uses her wings to get away, and as they chase after her, Hagi explains that Sonya and her father helped Gregory’s research. After Gregory’s assassination in 1916, the two returned to this village. Saya uses her powers to locate Sonya and chases her to a clearing with a waiting carriage. The man driving the carriage, who Sonya identifies as Amshel, mentions how Diva wishes to sleep. Sonya replies that it’s their destiny as Chevaliers to protect Diva from all obstacles. The horse-drawn carriage gets away as Saya and Sonya start to fight. Sonya has the advantage of being able to fly, but Hagi manages to take a hit and hold her in place long enough for Saya to get blood on her sword and stab through the Chiropteran. After it crumbles, Saya grows weak and falls down in Hagi’s arms. She worries about the wound he got, but she’s unable to stay awake much longer. Saya asks Hagi if he remembers their promise, and affirms that she’ll hunt Diva. She then says something that we don’t hear. As Saya closes her eyes, Hagi vows always to watch over her, even if she changes. And if they are separated, he’ll definitely find her again.
Saya hears Hagi’s voice calling out her name, and opens her eyes to find Hagi still holding her. She recounts that she had a dream of him smiling and them exchanging promises. Hagi tells her that it wasn’t a dream, prompting Saya to ask about what the promise was. Hagi responds by simply saying that when the time comes, she’ll understand. Saya puts her hand on Hagi’s cheek the same way she did in the past, but the two are interrupted by Riku calling out for his sister. He is followed by Elizabeth, but none of them know who she really is.

This ended up being quite a dialogue heavy episode, so I tried to explain it the best I could. It seems that the periods when Saya sleeps come in cycles, and this episode chronicles when she was awake around the time of the Russian Revolution. The Gregory, Sonya, Anastasia, Rasputin thing is a bit confusing, but I do find it interesting that Sonya had a copy of Lamark’s Philosophie Zoologique (yes, they spelled it wrong in the anime). I dunno whether they’re throwing out random scientists to support characters’ actions or if it’s well thought out, but it’s intriguing and educational lol.
That stuff aside, the highlight and purpose of the episode seems to be to explain the relationship between Saya and Hagi. In that time period, they’re very close (very very very close), almost to the point where we the viewers would mistake them as lovers. There’s a lot more about their past that they still need to reveal, but this episode is a good start by telling us that 1) Chevaliers protect Diva, 2) Saya hunts Diva, and 3) Hagi protects/watches over Saya. And on that last bit, I have to say that I really like their use of music for the final scenes.
I guess Elizabeth is with Riku because he has no idea that she’s evil now. Next week’s episode seems to be all about Kai, David, and Lewis, so it seems like we are indeed back to the splitting-up-the-group format.

41 Comments

  1. Hey, I just wanted to thank you for putting up caps and a summary of Blood+ every Saturday. I really appreciate it. Your summaries really help out those of us who don’t understand much Japanese but yet are dying to know what happens next in this series.

  2. yaaaaayy….another blood+ episode…
    *patiently waiting for the download to finish and the summary to be posted…*
    i agree with coriolis, thanks for the screencaps and summaries!

    chicchai no ko
  3. Lip reading has never been a specialty of mine (in any language), but I have been reading from several sources that that’s what it looks like she said. If it is revealed to be true, then that puts a new twist on things.

  4. Wasn’t until a ways in when people were talking about Anastasia and the mad monk Rasputin did I realize this was basically a very, very long flashback… even though the abrupt wardrobe switch was very telling.

    I’d thought Diva only had 4 Chevaliers, and they live for long periods of time. Perhaps she had more (Sonya, coach-driver)?

    Eleutheria
  5. Lurker here. I always come here to check new episodes and this will be my first time commenting.

    I think that Diva has more than four Chevaliers.

    I read somewhere that she asked him to kill her? XD Although, the marrying one sounds much better.

    woon
  6. At the beginning of episode 10, Solomon said there were currently 5 chevaliers. If Diva has been sleeping since 1920, then she wouldn’t have been able to make any more. So we can’t know how many there were, but we know there are five now. It’s possible that Liza (or whoever’s in her body) may be a chevalier. If one of them could shapeshift, it’s not a reach to think that some of the others might be able to do the same.

    Cam
  7. There was a special feature for BLOOD+ that was released back in mid-January called Yomiko no Blood+. It included a number of spoilers about Diva and her Chevaliers.

    Show Spoiler ▼

    Meru
  8. Let me try to explain the back story based on this episode. The entire flashback story takes place shortly after the russian revolution. Saya and Haji are tracking down Rasputin (Grigori Efimovich) and Anastasia in a village near Propovskoe, Tyumen (Siberia, Propovskoe is Rasputin home-town). Haji believes that Rasputin somehow survives the assasination attempt in 1916 and is hiding near Propovskoe. Sonya, a village girl invited Saya and Haji to her house. Both she and her father helped Rasputin with his research on creating enhanced human. Later Sonya is revealed to be a chevalier working with Anshel (the oldest chevalier, Solomon’s brother) by acting as decoy. Anshel (coachman) leaves the village with someone inside the coach carriage (Rasputin? Anastasia? Diva?). Saya manages to kill Sonya but she falls into sleep cycle soon afterwards. Could Anastasia be the surviving Anastasia, daughter of Tsar Nicholas? Is she the diva? Is Sonya part of the 7 chevaliers despite being female? What’s the relationship between the 7 chevaliers (Anshel, deceased, deceased, Solomon, Carl, James, Nathan) and Rasputin? Also notice Haji right arm hasn’t mutated during this time period. Is he just human during this period and turns himselves into chiropteran later so he can be Saya’s watcher forever?

    Tom&Jerry
  9. “I read somewhere that she asked him to kill her? XD Although, the marrying one sounds much better.”

    殺してね (kill me) has no intervals in the pronounciation, while 結婚してね (marry me) has an interval between 結 and 婚. Saya’s lips don’t move rapidly, as you can see the interval after Saya speaks out the first letter (which I assume is 結).

    Rasmiel
  10. The story also hinted that Sonya was possessed by Rasputin, or Rasputin has taken over the physical form as Sonya. It might explain why Sonya is in bed with Saya eek. This makes Rasputin one of the original 7 chevaliers (number 2 or number 3).

    Tom&Jerry
  11. This Episode makes me wonder if Saya and Diva are closer connected. Amsel said that Diva wants to sleep and so does Saya. Also Sayas wierd dream back in episode 13 when she goes frenzy over the song of Diva.

    Hagi mentioned that she would probably change. Change into her Chiropteran-form?! She´s definitely not human – so why does she fight against her “own kind”?!

    The chevaliers have a close bond between each other and Diva (also comunicating through thoughts)… Makes me wonder if Hagi has the same “link” to Saya…

    Anyway thanks omni for your great recaps… :o)

    Kessi
  12. Maybe there’s a chiroptera blood feud between Saya and Diva.
    If that’s the case, maybe Saya have more than just one Chevalier because Hagi can’t even fight one of Diva’s Chevaliers?
    Also doesn’t Hagi need blood like Saya? He must be starving.

    ChuChu
  13. I am pretty sure Anastasia is the princess, since Blood+ likes using historical characters and messing around with them. Rasputin in real life had this weird relationship with the royal family, so that makes it even more convincing Anastasia is the princess.

    Ori
  14. somehow i don’t think the promise is marriage, as much as i’d like it to be…

    the thing is, it seems like it’s going to be the “living for too long, unable to die, unable to rest” cliche… so what i am thinking is that haji and saya are going to die together… that’s just a stab in the dark…

    and as another stab in the dark, perhaps haji was one of diva’s chevaliers… and then fell in love with saya and became her’s instead?… however, my theory might fall through there because i don’t think the other chevaliers know haji… or do they???

    anyways.. it’s an interesting thought atleast… but man.. if they have to travel around the world to finish off all the chevaliers, this story is gonna take forever.. i mean, they’re only in russia… how many more to go?

    laboo
  15. kessi – i believe that they do have a mind-link. First, when they first met, Saya seemed entranced by Haji’s playing. Also, during the fight ontop of the train, Haji and Saya communicated to each other mentally.

    personally, i’d like to believe that they are lovers. I bet Haji is really pained that Saya seems to want to be in the company of Kai. Plus, Kai–although well-intentioned, is a wuss. I’d like to see David teach him a few moves so that he can live up to his level of “coolness” as in the OP

    icy
  16. haha, sorry for double-posting.

    Also, when i was rewatching previous episodes how intensely Haji kissed Saya. Like… woah… a lot of passion.

    In history, Rasputin was supposed to be a skilled mystic who was assassinated. He was drugged with enough cyanide to kill many men, shot several times, clubbed until he was unconscious and thrown in a river. When discovered, none of the other things were the cause of his death–drowning was.

    whooo knows?

    icy
  17. I think there is a blood fued. Perhaps Diva/Anastasia believes in “helping” the human race “evole” by creating chiropterans and Saya stands against this. There could be many other personal reasons why Saya is after her as well. But I doubt Diva created Haji because the Yomoko special implied that Haji came from Saya’s blood line.
    There was a total of 7 chevaliers to start with. Two of of the seven were killed. I think Sonya counts as one of the dead ones.

    Christi
  18. for icy – kissing in previous episodes???… did i miss something important??… what episode was this in?

    the only kissing i recall was at the begining (to have her taste blood) and this episode in the snow

    laboo
  19. It seemed like the promise between Saya and Haji might be something unpleasant. When asked what the promise was, Haji looked away and just couldn’t tell her the truth. I’m sure he didn’t look away because of embarrasment. Maybe they will both die at the end like another poster said.

    jo
  20. No, I don’t think Saya’s a Chiropteran, if you guys remember the movie, which is definitatley tied into this, it said, I’m paraphrasing here, of course, Saya was one of the ‘originals’ or ‘ancestors’ or something. Meaning, she’s a ‘true vampire,’ or simply, something totally unlike a Chiropteran. Gah, now I’m going to go an watch the movie again.

    Inter
  21. In response to Rasmiel:

    Well I don’t thinks there’s anyway to tell what the said because if your not a native speaker to japanese
    how could you even start to read the mouth flaps??

    Plus “mary me” and “kill me” in english could have completely different look in Japanese 🙂

    Elle
  22. I agree with the idea of Saya having another Chevalier..but then again…why hasn’t he/she shown up yet?
    I almost had the idea that the Schiff we’re her Chevalier’s…but after…oh, this isn’t that episode yet.
    Well they’re not.

    And all the, Haji and Saya getting married.
    MARRIED?
    NOW?
    She said they were mostly like family, WHICH ANGERED ME, because you can tell there is something on there.
    As nice at it would be for them to be together, I swear to GOD if the promise is “I will always love you.” or something like that..

    My question is…why was her hair short in the dream?
    I figured, since when she woke up after George found her that he cut it all off…
    But back then?
    Didn’t she have long hair. . .

    And no, she can’t be a Chiropteran.
    Similar, maybe, but if she was
    JUST LIKE THEM
    As she said
    It would make no sense, seeing how her blood kills them.
    Ahhh.
    Aaaahhh
    How come no one pointed that out BEFORE?
    Maybe it’s because it’s obvious.
    Sorry for the long post.

    And Diva
    Er
    Well
    Keep watching. 🙂

    Kim
  23. so *SPOILER*

    it is true, what saya said to hagi is that after i kill diva, kill me

    she has a flash back later on with her talking to hagi saying “if i kill diva and her chevaliers, then there will still be me, so kill me once i kill her”

    and saya and diva are sisters…..

    AnimeLover

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