Posted by  |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
「よのなかよ」 (Yo no Naka Yo)
“A World Within The World”
Blood-C is still a ways off from redeeming itself from the sluggish start, but it’s finally giving me something to go on. The action picked up with Elder Bairns’ attacks in broad daylight, and most importantly, there’s enough of a story for me to anticipate where things might be headed. One of my biggest gripes with the earlier episodes was the lack of the latter; things happened but nothing seemed to have any relevance in the grand scheme of things. Well that’s finally changed with the subtle implication that Tadayoshi drinks blood. That was more or less reaffirmed by Saya’s belief that some of her blood came off on her father, when it was pretty clear he already had some on him as she went to pick him up. I gather it’s no coincidence that he likes Fumito’s sweets either, seeing as the pink guimauve are probably made with blood. What’s interesting about this revelation is that it ties into the suspicion I had that Saya is half Elder Bairn/half human. I figured that Tadayoshi wasn’t truly Saya’s father, but if he’s actually a chiropteran in disguise then it all make sense.
As for the experiment that’s been alluded to, I get the feeling that Saya may have requested to have her memories erased so that she can try to live as a human. It’s a bit of a stab in the dark at this point, but fits the notion that other Elder Bairn are aware of who she and Tadoyashi are, plus the way that Fumito closely watches over her to make sure that her memories don’t resurface. Part of me also thinks that Saya may have wanted to do this herself, perhaps as a last ditch effort toward a peaceful coexistence between humans and “more refined” Elder Bairns like Tadayoshi and Fumito (presumably). It could very well be that Saya’s mother was human and that Tadayoshi came around after falling in love with her, as suggested by his reaction when Saya brought her mother up. Together with Fumito, he deals with Elder Bairns who only care to feast on humans. Assuming that’s the case, it still raises the question as to who asked the dog to look after Saya and help her remember who she is. The only person I can think of is her mother, but there really isn’t much to go on about her at this point. Heck, I don’t even know if she’s still alive or not.
I could be completely off, but at least the story’s giving me some possibilities to juggle around and making me want to see how it turns out. I also like the grueling depiction of the killings as of late (even with the censoring), simply because it’s visual indication that things have passed the point of no return. The town can’t really cover things up any longer if support characters are front and center of it all. With Saya caught among them, it was a defining moment to see her reluctantly reveal what she’s been doing all this time. It doesn’t look like she’ll be able to save everyone that’s left, but it’ll still be an improvement if she can save Itsuki and Yuuka. What I can’t quite make heads or tails of is Shinichirou’s role in all this. He’s made it very clear that he’s in love with Saya both with his words and his actions, but other than that, he looks like an ordinary human being with no idea as to what’s going on. I said last episode that he’d likely be killed if that were the case, so I’m just waiting for any death flags to be waved now.
* It’s been hinted that Kanako is likely in on everything, so we may learn to what extent next time if the preview was any indication.
* Dog or not, he’s clearly male judging from that tail wag. I guess Saya wouldn’t suspect anything from a dog though, seeing as she’s completely clueless about Shinichirou’s feelings for her.
Preview
 |
 |
 |
Thank you for the post!!! I really have to marathon this series asap…
Despite the rather slow start, I’ve still enjoyed this series through and through. You don’t see many series that have the audacity to tell you next to nothing about the story even halfway through
Saya so far has perfect score on defeating the furugimono, and fatal (what a bad pun!) score on saving anyone… I hope she does better for her classmates, though after poor twins demise I cant really expect much…
It seems more and more that Saya has her memories suppressed somehow but the effect is wearing off. Sight of her shackled (ss #13) makes me think she was put under kind of probation after perhaps attacking someone?
One twist I dread is Saya defeating the furugimono in the classroom, but failing to protect the classmates and getting accused of all the deaths… where did I see that happen lately?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deadman_Wonderland anyone?
Just a slight shade, it is nowhere near as unfair as in DW
Ganta was not aware of the Red Man and the attack was sudden, with a “bang”. After that, Ganta goes berserk at every little hint of the Red Man; he acts quickly and out of impulse. Plus he is a kid.
Saya is a walking doom for everyone and derps when needed. Not the same.
Considering Saya’s track record, I’m pretty sure we can just wave all her classmates goodbye. I’m starting to think the tittle of Blood just means exactly that because the heavy censoring is back.
I must confess I find this series almost comically bad at the moment. Feels like withholding information from the audience rather than character development, tons of blood and gore rather than real suspense and horror – in other words, extremely lazy writing. It makes it pretty hard to care about the unanswered questions in the plot, especially with a gratuitous CLAMP crossover muddying the waters further.
Why are we assuming that the Watanuki dog is a gratuitous CLAMP crossover? It could have just been a shout-out to xxxHolic and nothing more. We get much more direct reference to The Last Vampire anyway. Either way we can’t know until the later reveal.
Because every clue we have points out that the dog is Watanuki and nothing to go against it at the moment. Unless something comes up to point that he isn’t who we think he is, we should assume as much.
Also, if you check out the Blood-C manga information page on mangaupdates.com, you’ll see that under the category “Related Series”, xxxHoLic is listed as “Side Story” while all the other “Blood+” titles are listed as “Spin-Off”.
http://www.mangaupdates.com/series.html?id=66716
I have no gripes with it either way.
I have to agree with you. Somehow this show lacks real substance. It tries so hard with the blood and gore it’s unintentionally funny at times though. I still want to watch it to the end and see if it can improve towards the finish. For the moment I don’t see anything that makes this show anything more than mediocre.
whew! Yeah, this series sure did begin sluggishly, but all that build up seriously seems to be paying off now. Is it just me though, or were there some serious Narutaru vibes permeating the “class room attack” latter of the episode?
Am I going to have to rewatch The last Vampire again? Man I hated that movie. But at least its picking up, I was really close to dropping this a few weeks ago. And call me sadistic, but where can I find uncensored eps if possible this white line is getting boring.
You’ll probably have to wait for the Blu-ray/DVD to come out.
I knew it! Watanuki is a pervert! I just knew he would peep.. I just knew it!
Anyway, is it becoming too brutal? Sorry I can’t tell.. I got too used to Gantz. I’ve been reading it since before phase 1 ended. I can’t say if the blood fest is too much for regular audience anymore.. ~_~
I’ll give the show this, IF it were a VIDEO GAME i would be in HEAVEN!!!!! NEW BOSSES to fight every level AND SUB LEVEL!!!! and theyre all DIFFERENT and unique. discovering their patterns and weak points would be a gamers delight.
I think I would like this better as a game too. Since we wouldnt need to wait ever week just to see the story crawl to a close.
Also I would love to see Blood-c uniforms as DOC for the new Tails game.
I’m judging that Itsuki is the dog and not Watanuki. But I still get the feeling that Watanuki is Itsuki in disguise. I guess thats an assumption.
To Divine: lol at your “Dog or not, he’s clearly male judging from that tail wag“
Tadayoshi and Fumito gives me KuroFai vibes… What with the vampire part.
Shinichirou’s still a puzzle to me as well. It seems like he doesn’t have any idea as to what’s going on but has a huge role in this (at least I hope so, he’s too much to be wasted away). Maybe he has something to do with the “wish”?
Notice how he is the only classmate NOT at the school. They are giving him the plot armor so he doesn’t happen to die with everyone else. I have to say I really felt bad for the girl that was eaten. I kept feeling worse and worse for saya’s classmates while despising saya more and more as a character. For continually saying she is going to protect everyone she sure took her sweet time in attempting to save ANY of her class mates.
Really with her track record, the preview, and the fact the only classmate with any relevance is “luckily” absent. The only thing to expect is for her to not save a single person.
Saya: I’ll protect everyone… 5 mins later half her class gets eaten alive. Way to step up to the plate there Saya!
From all the animes I watched so far Saya is the only character I would NOT be around with.
Saya’s been an unfortunate mess of a character, and is the one thing almost deterring me from this series. She’s always telling herself that she’ll protect everyone yet she’s only saved one woman in episode 5. She’s probably the densest being to ever exist in the history of ever. It’s getting kind of annoying at this point, though I’ll stick with the series, if only because the preview makes the next episode a “must view” for me.
I really don’t want to call it “sluggish start.” Those episodes were building up for something so crazy, not even many creators (almost all) wouldn’t even dare to try.
Also… I think there really was nothing for Blood -C to redeem. I actually liked the “slow” start and the slice-of-life aspect of the series. It was as if it had a reason as — a pretty good one. Idk, it’s probably just me.
It seems I’m not on the same boat as everybody else, because blood-c is one of the series I wait for faithfully every week. Might be my bias for clamp, but I’m really curious where this is all finally heading. Although it seems some of common guesses do hit the nails, but I want to see how the series finally unfold!
But sure, blood c still has to redeem itself for the boring first episodes
I’m with you, for me Blood-c has been awesome and very well built and i know that all the slow development is really part of it. I think most of people here are not used to clamp works or this kind of story telling. xxxHolic, Tsubasaand other works from Clamp allgive this vibe and are f*cking great.
This is what I’ve been saying for a while now. This is pretty much how CLAMP operates with most series that they work on. It starts out slow and seemingly repetitive while dropping subtle hints that things may not be as they seem before throwing out the truths, twists, etc, but people rarely seem to (try to) pick up on them and would rather have it constantly be in-your-face-obvious or at least reveal it all very quickly which, to me, would make it boring quickly. Like, for example, I certainly didn’t expect Magic Knight Rayearth to turn out so dark and different as the first series/manga did at their end, but if they had it like that at the get-go, then where would all the development fit in? What would be the point? What else could be pulled out without completely changing the story?
People want things uber-fast because it’s most convenient for them. If it doesn’t show up fast enough (which is pretty fast), then they get up and walk out on it before they can get the experience. Then, by the time it shows up and it’s usually how they do want it (which is usually very good compared to other places), then they’re no longer there to enjoy it and miss out on it while getting it at a more sub-par level somewhere else.
The only problem with it being repetitive is that this series is only 12 episodes. It needs to move faster, they’ve wasted most of the time already IMO.
People forget that there’s going to be a movie after the end of this series that will probably givea proper end. Go see the interview on the animenewsnetwork site.
I like how Saya just watched while her classmates were being attacked. She had plenty of time to stop the monster instead of just watching and not doing anything. But it is an anime so lol.
Lots of people thought of that too, but I for one, aren’t one of those. Allow me to take words from other people from other blogging sites… First of all, She has a strange concept of human lives, which we all could agree. secondly, it adds to the horror factor, which totally worked. Lol, I was probably like, “Oh Nooee.” And thirdly, it’s an anime — that’s right, you already mentioned it xD
The moment the first guy got killed, she really should have had the sword drawn and ready to kill it before it got that far. I especially feel bad for that girl who had a breakdown before getting eaten.
I thought about that too, she too damn slow in tryingt o save her classmate, I bet you if she did save them now they will blame her for acting too slow and not save those she could have save if she acted right away.
You also have to think about the fact that Saya probably doesn’t want to show her fellow classmates and friends that she’s some extreme being who can use her blood to go all, I dunno, blood crazy, and fights those Elder Bairns with some sacred (demon) sword while everyone else is asleep. Because on the outside, she’s just some ditzy girl who loves animals and sings on the way to school and trips over anything.
Would you want to reveal yourself if you were hiding something like that? Another thing too, is possibly she was gathering information, figuring out what was the best way to kill that thing. It’s a long shot, but /shrugs./
Thing is that she’s contradicting that “I will protect everyone!” speech that she’s been saying for a past 5 or so episodes. It just seems weird that she’s so intent on saving everybody and yet when the time to save comes, the person dies regardless.
I was saying to myself, “why the hell is she just standing there!?” I was laughing when the guy tried to jump out the window…. lol, sadly he didnt make it. Honestly the battles aren’t even interesting anymore. Saya fumbles around, gets slashed up, then goes red eyes and kill the sucker with one strike. The “kill bill” style death scenes is what makes each episode entertaining.
A three story fall that you MIGHT survive vs a man eating monster you WON’T survive. He kinda had the right idea.
I don’t even know why she hesitates to take the sword out at the end. THey would have been dead by the time they said “oh wtf you carry a sword and kick these monsters butts?” I must be missing something here.
perhaps she was scared of letting her classmates know that she fights these monsters(Furukimono). Cos she was reluctant to let that black-hair-guy-I-forgot-what-name know even when he insisted. But yes she eventually relented, but under the conditions that he would let anyone else know.
Fumito drinks blood? I am not 100% sure if this was said (unless I missed something). I think what happened was that Tadayoshi wanted blood at Fumito’s place and got some on his face by accident.
But this theory is shaky at best; if Tadayoshi drank blood at Fumito’s, how come he didn’t clean up properly at the privacy of Fumito’s? And how did he faint? Did Fumito carry Tadayoshi from the coffee shop to the shrine? Or did Tadayoshi bring blood home to drink?
Tadayoshi seriously does not seem to be that evil. He seems to care about Saya, and has strong relationship with Saya’s “mother”. I think he is one of those kinds of characters who are slightly evil, loves someone greatly, and meets a gory end.
It was a subtle implication when Fumito offered Tadayoshi “something else” to drink instead of coffee. It sounded like Fumito knew Tadayoshi would always be up for “that”.
We dont actually know if Saya’s mother isn’t a fabrication and her father might not be her father at all… at least no more than Alucard is father for Victoria in Hellsing 😛
Anyway Tadayoshi raised a few death flags already. And this is certainly show where anybody can die…
Fumito just gets creepier and creepier each episode. What did Kanako mean by “Did you kill them all?” or something like that in the preview? Does that mean that the whole class thinks Saya is a weirdo after the fight so she goes berserk and kills the whole class? That might be interesting…
It seems Saya will fail to protect anyone (again!) and Kanako will suspect she kiled the entire class…
The last part of the episode reminded me of Deadman Wonderland…
I don’t know, I get the feeling Saya didn’t partake in this experiment of Fumito’s voluntarily. There’s a very hostile look in her eyes, plus she’s wearing handcuffs. It just doesn’t seem like she wanted anything to do with it.
I hadn’t seen Blood+ until a few days ago, watching all 50 episodes in two days… the anime was really good. The way they broke it down into arcs made the story flow real easily. Though i never understood why she needed blood transfusions… really well done. Now i would prefer the way that was done over lets say the way Tsubasa Chronicles was done…. and i still don’t understand the ending lol. I want to tell Clamp to stop dragging the subterfuge throughout the entire freakin’ series, the character development sucks and your M. Night Shamalan revelations isn’t working…… i look forward to the next episode 🙂
Wow, good job watching 50 episodes in 2 days. I haven’t even finished Blood+ yet and I started watching when it was airing. >.>
Could Tokizane have made the request to Watanuki?
Thus giving up his memories?
Or is it Saya herself?
Or could this be another alternate reality (Tsubasa Chronicle) and the original Saya made a request?
(Ok too far fetched :P)
I wonder if the ‘aged ones’ are experimental artifical or supernatural natural?
I wonder if Saya’s mom the original Saya?
(Who went into hibernation or really died?)
Then Tadayoshi could be Haji (or another chevalier?) 😛
Saya’s blood can kill chiropterans (and make chevaliers).
And Tadayoshi doesn’t seem to be afraid of it being on his face.
Didn’t see Tadayoshi eat much, does he sleep?
It seems like everything leads to imply that Fumito is the “gamemaster”.
Feels like whatever Saya eats is from Fumito.
Can’t really make out those sepia flashbacks.
Memories of the original Saya?
If this Saya is the original Saya then she had plastic surgery to remove those lips 😛
CLAMP, xxxHolic, Tsubasa.
Made me think of alternate worlds.
And more wild ideas come in.
So far the series has the supernatural feel, no science stuffs.
With the big chunk of the past still hidden we can only guess.
No mention of chiropterans at all, could this be a CLAMP adaption of BLOOD? 😛
This is all speculation (though i cracked my brain for it):
– Perhaps the Furukimono are like vampires who feed on human(human blood) to survive.
– Tadayoshi is being deprived of blood(aka nutrition/food) and therefore is weak (and thus fainted).
– Dog was requested in the past by the-past-Saya to remind her of the promise(and whatever that comes along with it) to make sure that she upholds the promise, if it deemed to him/dog that Saya is failing to save the people(which she is doing now, due to more aggressive attacks from other Furukimono).
– And that Dog is giving subtle help/hints to Saya to help her remember because if he spelled it out to her, it would make no sense to her. Like helping people with amnesia to remember their past, people need to give subtle hints to the amnesia-people to make them think about their past and therefore remember their past.
– Perhaps that amnesia-thingy is a spell that is now wearing off and therefore Dog is helping her out, before it is too late to save the village.
– The-past-Saya made a bet/promise with Fumito that she will save the village from the impending doom. And therefore, a reward for success and punishment for failure to uphold the promise(losing the bet). (And thus, as I’ve been saying that Fumito is the one that appears talking in that weird scene with blood vials)
*deviating from subject* (I’ve liked Fumito’s VA from the start and I’m bombing sure that he’s the one that conducted this experiment) (Tadayoshi is there for Saya as a figure of support amidst all-this-gore-and-deaths-and-blood) (Perhaps the punishment for Saya is something that she really don’t like and thus Saya gave that hostile look during that flashback, and thus was so determined to save the village)
… haizz… i don’t want to crack my brain further.. but i haven’t got the faintest idea of how that Kanako-teacher fits into the picture…