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「こころにも」 (Kokoro ni mo)
“The Heart Too”
Sometimes it really feels like CLAMP is mocking us, like when the dog says “some pretty big things happened today”. I couldn’t help but laugh at that line while thinking, “Well thank you Captain Obvious, we just saw Yuuka added to the long list of casualties along with the rest all of Saya’s classmates after all.” The cynic in me took it as a message from the writers as well — an inside joke of sorts telling dissatisfied viewers that they got their interesting developments this week so they can shut up now.
With last week’s episode, I was already on board with the idea that Blood-C had moved well beyond the random Elder Bairn of the week. Still, all the graphic killings aren’t enough to make me overlook how we as the viewers could’ve been better strung along by the story — a sentiment that carried applied to this episode as well. While I really liked the intense atmosphere at the school when Saya was desperately trying to save her classmates yet watching them die one-by-one before her very eyes, I couldn’t shake the feeling that the indiscriminate slaughter was an attempt to try and make me forget about the earlier episodes. However, to the series’ credit, those episodes did work well in establishing the unassuming nature of not only the town, but of the series altogether.
For me, the dog’s rhetorical questions continue to be driving aspect of the story, pushing Saya to uncover the truth behind her very existence. The inference that Fumito and Tadayoshi have been meddling with her memories is stronger than ever, and the questions I had about Saya’s mother are now front and center too. Then there are the Elder Bairns themselves, who continue to confuse Saya further because they’re aware of who she truly is. My prevailing hunch is that everything Saya’s been led to believe is a lie, so I kind of get the feeling that she may not even have a mother — not a human one anyway. The more I see the memories she’s on the verge of remembering, the more they seem to be about herself rather than her mother — possibly from a past life in Blood: Last Vampire — with the way they keep coming up during fights. i.e. Her mind may have forgotten who she really is, but her body has not.
Now that the support cast has dwindled down to only Itsuki, Shinichirou, and Kanako, I think it’s only natural to start suspecting everyone. Kanako is a given, but Shinichirou’s fallen back under the radar after being conveniently missing during the classroom massacre. However, I’m still inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt given his tendency to arrive fashionably late. The same goes for Itsuki, who hasn’t really set off any flags except maybe how he miraculously survived the Elder Bairn’s attack. He looked genuinely scared though, even when he risked his life to help Saya, so I doubt he’s in on things. If anything, they probably only spared him this episode to kill him off later on.
Action-wise, things were very reminiscent of the first episode where the music really helped set the tone. The key difference here was the sense of urgency was much higher with people dying left and right, even by falling shards of glass. As per the above, the intensity made the entire episode unsettling yet exciting to watch, which includes Saya losing it and hacking away at the Elder Bairn’s corpse. Now all I need are some answers to the conspiracies in this messed up town.
* Full-length images: 08, 20, 28.
* ANN recently interviewed director Mizushima Tsutomu and screenwriter Fujisaku Junichi regarding Blood-C. Worth a read if you’re like me and questioned the series’ direction early on.
Preview
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Saya should be proud, she actually DOUBLED the total number of people she saved today. She might actually start saving more than one person per fight now. Assuming there any actual people left.
Bweh, I managed to survive all 12-eps of DeadmanWonderland, but the first 11min of this episode had me flinching. O_e
Ugh, yes. I mean, I’m pretty desensitized to gore altogether, but the fact that the realistic sounds of a monster crunching up and cutting students one by one is definitely disturbing and really gross. Combine that with the fact that when the DVDs release the censors will be gone…yeah.
The only disturbing thing I find in this episode is how dumb these morons are out of all the place they could have run, they had to back themselves up in a corner and run to the roof. So whatever is chasing them up to the roof then what are they goner do? JUMP, bunch of morons.
I’m just gonna go out and say what everyone’s thinking. Saya really sucks at protecting people. It’s not like I hate her or think she’s particularly annoying, but it’s really, really true.
Jokes aside, while I did think this episode was very, very cool (you’re crazy if you’re unable to admit that), I think that the censoring hurt pretty badly this episode. Also, the dog is kind of… starting to annoy me 😛
HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! SPOT ON!!!! she is INCOMPETENT, truly. and the actions of the classmates was truly unrealistic “standing around like asshats waiting for the slaughter” you know how fast peeps would have evacuated that bitch in real life???
BUT on another note, whats with the censoring?? correct me if I’m wrong but in the other ep didn’t an officer get cut in half?? arms and all, and didn’t she pierce a dudes throat and then CLEAVE him down the middle like a hot dog bun????? the cop and the monster sure looked humanoid to me. SO WHY CANT I SEE THE KIDS GET CHOPPED UP!? oh the hypocrisy
Saya – offically the worst tank ever. Though she has some good DPS…
Someone tell her to watch “Aliens” for the challenge debuff “Get away from her you Bi…ch!”
Gratz to class rep for attaccking the monster and surviving as a reward! (Or is there a hidden meaning?)
Was there black helo in the sky before they met Kanako-sensei?
Oh and Saya finally starts to ask her “father” questions… Like, why the fuck only my class was present today?
ewok40k: Had me laughing there. Find the taunt button, Saya! And get a shield, perhaps unless you’re sporting glowy blue eyes.
More and more, watching this show makes me want to rewatch Elfen Lied, to remind myself of how a competent show handles gore.
Anyway, I could only muster the tiniest amount of care when Yuuka got killed, and was mostly irritiated that the Iincho lived, since he’s just so profoundly uninteresting. Not that any of the secondary cast was interesting, but he was by far the worst.
The “romance” between Saya and Tokizane still very much requires the ” ” around it, and we still have not actually learned anything of substance from the very first episode, nor have we really had any new questions laid upon us.
At least Saya noticed the massive incongruity about there being no one else at school, but…shouldn’t people have noticed that when arriving? Ugh.
Elfen leid had no reason for its gore. It killed for shock value. And while this show is killing off some people for shock value you can tell when they kill yuuka the “shock” isn’t their main goal. Other classmates had bigger “impacts” with their deaths. Yuuka was at least a character with a name and she was almost killed off camera. They had to give you a 1 second shot of her laying dead so you knew. Almost more of an after thought “oh btw that was her”
As for competent I guess we can just agree to disagree. I am highly enjoying this while I thought elfen leid was a boring stupid show that you watched for one reason. Because you wanted to see how stupidly violent they could kill the next no name person on the show. And that started from episode 1 with the no name assistant who was down on her luck.
That “no name assistant” in Elfen Lied got more personality in a minute and a half of screentime than Yuuka did in 9 episodes.
Completely agree with Fencedude
I still do not understand how Itsuki survived. He distracted the Bairn while Saya was in mental chaos… then Bairne went to the roof?! What did I miss there?
Anyways, I sense a Shinichirou vs Itsuki showdown… somehow.
Also, we know now that Kanako has everything to do with this. But it is still not clear what her relationship is with Tadayoshi and Fumito; also it’s not clear if Kanako is even human. I am going to take a wild guess and say Kanako is not human either; maybe she is Saya’s mother (hahahaa).
Also I want to say that originally I hated Blood-C and loved Sacred Seven. My opinion has turned 180 this week.
To be honest, Blood C has become the number one show that I look forward to every week. The development has been nothing but stunning, the horror buildup fantastic (at the expense of fleshing out the characters, sure, but it’s not too bad) and I’m really coming to enjoy Saya and sympathize with her plight, to be honest. She’s not human, nor does she act like one, so I don’t understand why people hate her (or this show) for being ‘weak’ when let’s be honest- if you saw a bunch of people dying around you, the first thing you wouldn’t do is pull out a katana to fight them? Blood C is terrifying in that it’s a show that smashes the whole “I’m a protagonist let me save everyone with my deus ex machina powers!’ trope that usually happens in every single anime show.
That’s fine but it’s just strange that she can remember a promise to protect everyone, and willing does try to follow up on it, yet she can’t muster the power to kill the Elders until the people she’s trying to save are already dead.
Stranger still is that before Nene and Nono are killed, she doesn’t truly feel remorse or sadness. She’s just like “oh, the baker died? But I have school tomorrow! Lalala~~~”
Though it is something different, it doesn’t change the fact that such a thought process doesn’t sit well with many viewers.
At some point, it will probably be explained fully as to why she’s like this. For me, hints so far point to how she isn’t “fully” human and has probably only recently woken up either from some other form, a kind of hibernation, or had been induced with amnesia. This explains why she’s too innocent, and how she doesn’t recall who her mother is.
Yeah, I think she has amnesia or something, and she is also being drugged. I don’t think her attitude is strange at all. I think she is not capable of killing the Elder Bairn unless you see her eyes change, and she may not even know that she can change that way (again: amnesia + drugged). If she knew what she really is, she would probably have known how to use it better (assuming she isn’t too drugged to change in that way).
This show has officially been dropped!!! This isnt blood the last vampire. this is monster hunter with no rhyme or reason!! No story, no vampire parts, just senseless violence ,blood splatter and ridiculous looking monsters that talk and eat people!! Totally not what i expected.
*brofist*
Saya still does not feel “anything” for Tokizane even from his obvious confession this episode. This heroine is letting me down somehow and that’s not just from her zero skills in protecting people. And why are people not in panic about these incidences? Run for your lives everyone!!!
I’m dropping this after all. There really isn’t any interesting plot here. Every episode some monster appears, kills people quite bloodily, is then killed by Saya, then Saya despairs a bit and we repeat the process from step one. The first time the killings started was a shock, but repeating it over and over again every episode and having no substantial plot to keep things going? Terrible writing.
I’m not that much of a gore lover, so if you take that away there isn’t really anything here for me.
Dropped.
Welcome to Higurashi’s Town. You are in an experiment. Your friends are dying. You are going crazy.
Calling the police won’t help. Help yourself or die.
Thank you and see you again.
after watching this episode, i suddenly got the feeling that this show was made for shits and giggles. like come on! i got excited after watching the episode before this one, and i was really expecting some badass development on the story and this is what i get.. oh my f*ckin gaaahh, and yeah i really hate that talking doggish cat.
I gave up on CLAMP a long time ago, to me the only thing good left in them is their art not the stories they make
I feel sorry for the monsters… They just want their Queen back.
I give up … this series is utter bollocks!!
Its silly how her sword only works when she gets angry. Also she goes in super mode only when someone in her circle of friends is killed? What a sadistic heroine. I bet she allows the furukimono to kill people cuz she likes watching all the blood fountains.xD
No death was needed in the first episode. 😀
There was nobody else involved in the first episode. Whenever there are people to protect, she only really does go all out when it’s pressing for her. I guess she treats the other villagers as food too or trash probably. Recall the baker, where she just stood by and waited even as a hypnotized man is entering an obviously suspicious empty train car.
Wowza, we actually get a really good episode this week and everyone still comes in and says they’re dropping the series.
I wouldn’t say Blood-C has remained at the same, average standard it maintained, but I’m not entirely impressed by what I consider to be shock fiction, especially when it came to the death of the twins. Still, the gradual steps towards the uncovering of Saya’s real identity were not too shabby.
I like the ‘in your face’ comment about the directors. These developments should pretty much silence a normal viewer with complaints. At least those without hard heads. =P
Interesting that you pointed out the mystery aspect here, something that mediocre viewers seem to have miss – Who amongst the survivors aside from Fumito and her ‘father’ (and possibly Kanako) knows more or are more deeply involved than they are letting on?
I’d long suspected that Saya was…Not exactly the daughter. If I may be so bold to suggest, she might actually be her mother, the one talked about by her ‘father’. I’ll leave the rest up to imagination.
And also….Coffee is bad. VERY BAD.
Also, it’s interesting what Tsutomu Mizushima says in his interview about the purpose of the first five episodes. That just ramped up my interest a notch to re-watch the whole series from the beginning and take notes.
All the blood and gore and Im still bored as fuck. It’s like Im readin Ultimatum again.
Dropped
hehe.. It’s kinda funny that they’re running out of characters to kill.
But it’s actually getting boring for me again. Character development for Saya (and whoever is left) is moving fine. Story-wise, S-L-O-W! Sure you get to see a blood-fest.. but take those action scenes out, and you only get a few lines of plot development.
If this was an RPG, it feels like they’re leveling-up characters and not moving on the story yet. Not that it’s a bad thing, but it’s a little boring.. :p
To be honest, I only watch this anime to see what monsters they can make up, I only skip to the fight scenes in every episode HAHA.
The plot is very boring and dumb.. When ever Saya can actually cut something is when her huge red eyes turns red…Wow~ And for this episode it took her so much anger to get her red eyes activated which caused everyone’s death WTF?. Might as well bomb the whole village so there’s nothing to worry about, or everyone should just GTFO from the village.
One guy actually made it outside and was in the green until Saya kicked it into the hallway and caused shards of glass to rain down on him, then there’s the guy on the roof whos escape she blocked just long enough for him to accidentally push her out of harm’s way before dying (he had it coming though).
Except for the baker and the guys in ep4, the deaths have been more hilarious than tragic. I’m starting to feel Happy Tree Friends vibes from this.
Well at least Saya fought better in this episode…
At this point Blood-C seems like a bad dream that I just want to wake up from. I had such high expectations, but I still in a way want to just see this through just because it’s Clamp and maybe, just maybe something epic will happen. My main complaint though is that every time I see Saya fighting, I think of her in a Geico commercial or something. “Geico, money so easy to ‘save’, even Saya could do it”.
Dang, I thought I was watching some Final Destination movie where people can’t escape death!
Instead of just thinking that she is an incompetent heroine, I’m actually wondering if there is a (legitimate) reason or purpose as to why Saya can’t seem to save anyone.
I still feel really bad for all those kids though.
so are all of you going to hate on the clamp women just because they made one bad show hmm because ya know all their previous works were epic fails too right. i just think it’s shallow to give up on them just because they made one bad show that’s like giving up on your favorite food just because it was made poorly one time and also take into consideration that they are getting OLDER and why bother dropping the show at this point anyway? they is only three episodes left. might as well in my opinion see it through to the end. even if this show does disappoint in the end atleast have the decency to forgive them because their previous works rule out one bad show
Finally…Saya made the biggest discovery in her life…“Why are my classmates the only one at school when it happens!”
THAT’S ENOUGH I must stop watching this series or it will cost me my monitor..I mean seriously couldn’t she start the fight a little earlier or try more hardly to save someone…and what about the government or the press…AAAAAAAA I know I will punch my monitor someday because of SAYA!!!!