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「かぜをいたみ」 (Kaze wo Itami)
“Dashed by Fierce Winds”
Plot development has suddenly arrived in full force, and the parallels to Madoka Magica are difficult to ignore. Both series feature a girl who must fight monsters to protect the people around them. Both proceed in a fairly straightforward fashion with bits of light-hearted slice of life. Both hint at something deeper and more sinister behind the scenes. Then, both feature a very dark and drastic turn of events. Granted, this premise is not particularly unique and actually seems to be a fairly good model for thriller/supernatural stories, and I don’t feel that comfortable talking about two series side-by-side so closely. However, it is impossible not to mention a comparison here between the two initial protagonist death scenes in Madoka and Blood-C, as both kids are decapitated, they both die unexpectedly, and both their killers are defeated moments too late.
I initially did not catch Nene’s death flags even with the cliffhanger in the last episode, and so her sudden demise was quite a shock. The brutality of her death combined with how the BGM abruptly stopped didn’t ease that feeling either, and it was evidently violent enough to warrant black censor bars across half the screen. The fact that Saya has never succeeded in saving a human (at least on screen) and that Nene pretty much announced her own demise beforehand definitely did not bode well for her. I’m not sure what other people thought about the twins and opinions probably vary, but I personally loved watching Nene and Nono’s interactions and they had provided a good bulk of the humor in the past few episodes.
Nono has no more luck than her sister either as she gets possessed by some sort of shadow demon, killing people left and right, and using her as a shield. Ever true to the title, copious amounts of blood are spilled, with white censor bars needed every few seconds. There’s no joy here as Saya is again unable to save anyone, and that battle ends with nothing left of Nono besides a pool of blood, tattered clothing, and a few unidentifiable body parts. The twins’ bitter deaths left me in a bit of a daze, and I truly wish they didn’t have to be the ones to go. The more vicious the death and the more attachment to characters, the more heartrending it feels, and Production I.G/CLAMP clearly knew that. A high-impact character death certainly makes a series much more gripping and gloomy though, and there is no way I can drop this show now.
The mood in general has become very ominous with almost all of the slice-of-life elements gone, and for one, I don’t think Saya will be singing anytime soon. There are hints that Fumiko is not as friendly as he seems, especially with that roofie coffee. I’m not sure what to make of Tokizane, Saya’s father or her teacher either, since it’s implied that they know more than they are letting off. Someone’s covering up all the deaths too, so that the large majority of the townspeople are oblivious to what really happened to their friends and family, but that may change now the Furukimonos are attacking people in broad daylight. And finally, the cat (dog?) speaks as well; his voice makes me think he’s actually one of the characters we already know, in another form. With the developments in this episode, the pacing of the show has been accelerated, and hopefully things will continue to pick up. Things are definitely not what they seem, and as the plot unfolds and the direction becomes more clear, it will be seen whether Blood-C will really manage to shine.
Preview
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if only they remove the censors
Damn I knew one of the twins would bite it, but how it happened was just so brutal. I didn’t expect the other twin to die horribly too along with all those innocent bystanders. If only the censors weren’t so obnoxious. Anyone want to predict the death of Saya’s other friends? I got a feeling they won’t last much longer.
Also, the talking dog is Lelouch. Seriously, its in the credits
“the talking dog is Lelouch.”
So he did survive after all. 🙂
“Citizens of the world- I BRING THE PLOT!!!”
“Now obey me. I’ll even bring back QB.”
Talking dog is surprisingly handsome.
truly the shi1 has hit the fan… a missing villager here or there is one thing but middle of the town broad daylight massacre is another – the monsters either turn angry or desperate…
re: twins, I share the intense hate Saya has now for her opponents. This time ists personal, I really liked those two…
It is pretty obvious at least Saya’s father, her teacher and talking dog (Furugimono? Maybe even their leader!) know more than they let us – and Saya – know. Both the cafe owner and school deliquent also seem suspiciously in-tune with Saya…
re: censorship – probably it was not possible to run a TV series with full gore potential rivalling the (in)famous Elfenlied…
anyway, whoever has been talking about dull boring countryside show, might as well go watch it because things got really dire really fast…
I’m thinking the school delinquent is gonna be her “Haji the chevalier” character in this series.
I liked the twins and was so pissed to see them done like that.
I can’t shake the feeling that Saya is asleep in a lab somewhere and all that has happened so far has been in a dream like state with her being manipulated in the dream to care for and want to protect her friends and villagers. Most definately the teacher, her father, the dude at coffee shop, and for all we know the delinquent, class rep, and her other friend thats still alive are all in on it.
At any rate this series has really picked up nicely and those that gave it up after the first couple of episodes should have hung in there. We really have no idea whats gonna happen next and I like that.
After I heard about last episode’s cliffhanger, I decided to catch up despite having planned to dropped this. Did I see this coming so soon? Hell no. Was I as shocked and saddened as when Mami died? Not quite. Although I did expect this to happen to one of Saya’s friends later on in the series, I actually didn’t feel too bad since, well, both of the twins annoy me like crazy :S. But those gory, brutal deaths were pretty freakin’ insane (and pretty gross I might add). And although I think it’s pretty unfair to say this due to it’s disarmingly cute nature in the first two episodes, I felt Madoka did it better =X
Yea, it definitely depends on what you thought of the characters. I myself didn’t like Mami that much, though it was still a shock, perhaps even more so because of the magical girl genre.
Definitely. I feel that the atmosphere in the first couple episodes of Madoka was really what caught me off guard. In Blood C, Saya’s been dropping monsters from the very first episode and there’s just been a really gritty feel from the beginning, while in Madoka we had cute characters, together with a cute monstrosity which changed into a goofy monster which kills Mami on a whim 😛
I have to say Nene’s death as shown here fellt like it was because of plot induced idiocy. I mean seriously, why is she waiting at the door with a monster approachin behind her instead of getting into the house with Saya? They could have done a better job with that I think.
I’m guessing that Nene was initially just a little bit behind Saya but got caught when Saya got into the building just ahead of her, and the monster paused for a little bit to…um…chew. Saya was too busy grabbing the sword to notice until she turned around.
Or it could just be that Nene runs really slowly. 😛
It been some time since I last saw this show, I think episode 3. Wanting to ask if it got any better from then?
The show is getting more interesting, but it’s too bad the development in the beginning was so slow, so a lot of people have already dropped it.
Using 1-10 scale please give a rating of whether I should recommence it. Provide several reason if it not too hard, I don’t mind spoiler.
Such a troll question =S
Prooof already answered your question mate. Depends on if you want to go through slow development to reach something more interesting.
Hmm, I suppose I should at least force my self through an hour time to reach here. I mean only 2 episode standing between 3 and 6 anyway.
if you don’t mind spoilers you can read my post; this episode was a good example of “getting interesting”.
God. I didn’t think the deaths would be so vicious and brutal, I was in complete shock. Although all the censors are really annoying.
I truly feel bad for the twins though. Damn it, I really thought they were cute!! and finally, that dog (cat) is proven to be clamp’s obligatory talking animal in the series.
THANK GOD you don’t drop the series!! I seriously thank you 😀
Then you better vote for it at the poll above for it to stay. It’s losing now.
Lol I have, thanks for reminding anyway 😀
When I first saw the monster grab Nene, I was like Saya’s going to free her! But as soon as she was in the monsters mouth I knew it was over. I actually was really hoping that someone she would still be alive, but then I saw censor bars everywhere and I knew it was done. I really liked the twins even though they seemed annoying sometimes. As soon as Nono was acting strange and the shadow came out of her, then I realized they just killed both of them off. I feel like more of her friends are going to die, really soon. The week long wait payed off!
Well… time to pick this up again.
Atleast from this point on I highly doubt we’ll see people constantly badmouthing it and comparing it to Blood+ hopefully.
Agreed… I have said all along to hang in there and it will pick up and boy has it.
This episode did certainly manage to surprise me. However I feel its getting a bit ridiculous with the isolated small city thing though. I’ve been wondering who was doing all the cleanup before. We had big monster corpses all around the city and much blood from victims and monsters alike in the last episodes. Just think of the guys and monsters that were ripped apart on that construction side.
Now we have monsters appearing in broad daylight (!), right in the city(!), eating people left and right (!) in front of many witnesses (!) like the ladies in the store. And in the end we have a huge pool of blood on the main-street (!). Anyone looking out of their window or driving by will see that. People should be fleeing the city en mass right about now.
Seriously, if the place isn’t crawling with police and/or military soon, we either have a really big conspiracy or common sense has once again taken a backseat because plot demands it.
I hope its not the later.
expect some spec forces guys soon… and either total coverup Hinamizawa style (no witnessess, freak gas eruption kill the city) or great media invasion (unless perfect quarantine is established)
How many episodes will this Blood series be,just hope not a total of 12 episodes, since the official website states that 6 BD/DVD’s with 2 ep each one will be released, really hoped this series to be longer. I wonder how the 2012 film will be.
I’m positive they originally planned for a long run. Blood+ was 50 episodes. I was guessing multiple seasons of 12 episodes at a time. But then they came out with the SLOW DEVELOPING start with little plot development and quite a few folks dropped the series so I’m not sure what the plan is now.
On the one hand, there is the Dog/Cat saying that Saya is probably “dreaming ?” and after all, there is Fumiko telling Saya’s really “Needed” for him…
The plot seems to take place. Also, didn’t we mention that this is becoming madness ???
omg they killed the twins(you bastards)
i told u guys already, this show is going to be awesome 😀 nobody believed me, here you go folks from lala land. HERE IS UR FREAKING PLOT DEVELOPMENT.
The shadow monster was the scariest demon/monster I’ve seen in a while. It was completely black with no visible feature. I was eating dinner when it happened and I totally forgot to chew, while my eyes were literally glued to the screen as the massacre was occurring. The bgm also contributed to that scary factor, especially at the 19min mark where the shadow started creeping towards the viewer.
The only thing that kept this episode from being awesome (or being close to that) is the amount of censorship.
Waiting for the BD release…
i can’t believe episode 6 on the nico nico website is also censored even though episode 4 wasn’t.:(
regardless its getting good:)
Thanks for taking over this show. So they kill the cute ones.
Suddenly-
PLOT.
Good-bye Thing 1 and Thing 2…. I’ll barely miss ya… >_>
Wow, so the long-simmering uneasiness permeating the town’s seemingly tranquil facade has finally boiled over into a blood bath.
I get the feeling that most of the town is aware of the contract and is forced to accept it and maybe they provide the clean-up crew. Perhaps most of the younger ones like Saya’s classmates are not privy to the information until they grow older. I have been suspicious of Fumito from the beginning since I suspected from episode two that he was putting something in her food or drinks (especially that fluffy marshmallow-like that strangely looked like organic tissue). Obviously, Saya is not human and her “father” continues the charade to serve his (and Fumito’s?) agenda. I even think that Saya’s class rep is in on the conspiracy which is why he gave his first dirty look ever to Tokizane. Tokizane clearly wants to help Saya but it seems he is forced to keep silent by someone.
As for the talking “catdogfurrything,” I couldn’t quite pin down his voice. At first I thought it was the voice of Tokizane, but later it sounded like the class rep. I think it’s a furukimono whose job is to keep tabs on Saya, “the one who got away” and to report her actions. After all, who else could be reporting all the furukimono killings (presumably, not the ones she killed)?
Finally, for all those who said they got impatient and bored with the show, all I can say is that I nearly dropped the show Shiki at least four times and that was a TWO cour show. I mean, it took a good 17 episodes before things got interesting there. Here, we only had to wait about five and a half episodes for the plot to thicken, and at least we had some cool bloody action scenes before that.
Saya looks really pretty with her hair out and without glasses. just a friendly observation, since everyone else has already talked about the twins and other aspects of this show. i really can’t wait to see what happens next.
Guys! It ain’t just a dog…it looks like a Kitsune!
Please Proof, if you can, please keep blogging this show!
A cat? A dog? No no no my friends, it’s a Gray Fox! A freaking Gray Fox!
To all the people who ragequit the series earlier on; IN YOUR FACE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It’s just like I’ve been saying, this is pretty much CLAMP’s style of story-telling a lot of the time; seemingly repetitive actions/scenarios/etc with a lot more humor involved while very subtly hinting/revealing things little by little before *WHAM!!!!!!!!* several big events followed by unexpected plot twists.
Ah no more twining. And when are we going to find out who,that girl likes she had three guys to choose from.
I take back every single bad thing i ever said about this show, it´s finally getting interesting. I guessing that where yhe plot is heading saya is not gonna be around at the end to sing anymore songs. I hope I´m wrong.
Crap. Now I can’t start watching these subs with the twins dead. I will wait for a dub.
Correction, she did save an middle age women during the fight with the eyeball monster chick monk. Wondering who else they are going to kill next.
Looks like pride wants to shine in this series to despite getting his ass kicked my ed.
With the twins now sorta out of the picture I may just only watch the occasional episode here and there, instead of following the whole thing. At least until the dvd/bd releases perhaps.
God bless the twins! Because of them I don’t need to hear that creepy song again!!! The pace of this show was killing me, but now it looks like the “monster of the week” is no more, and a real plot is being developed. And Clamp surely can devise a good plot when they want.
Am I the only one that thinks Saya looks like an anime version of Nana Mizuki with her hair down?
Since before the series started I wonder if there are links to the previous BLOOD stories.
Is this Saya the same Saya or a clone, some experiment?
The teacher said shes some scientist before.
Fumito seems to be staying close, keeping an eye on Saya.
By the way I don’t feel that attached to the twins.
Maybe the censor bars will increase as the show progresses.
Saya, the contract mentioned by the monsters, suspicious people around Saya, the small fox.
I love the mystery!
Initially i just started watching Blood C yesterday to fill time on my day off but man i was missing out. From the catchy japanglish opening song, to the joyful school life by day and the blood spraying demon slaying by night, i like the contrast. I found it interesting to see black and red school uniforms with chains on the collars in a small sun filled town.
Other thoughts….ummm i kinda like the censorship, or at least it doesnt bother me. The first twin being killed was shocking especially how, i mean did the monster have to munch on her head like a snack? Is the coffee Saya drinks really coffee? Idk, good anime, where’s the mech animes when u need them?
but saya has saved one person! random lady in the park that ran away from her!
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