Blood+ / First Impressions

Summary:
The Shifu are down to eight now that Dismas & Gestas have been killed. One of remaining, Guy, admires the full moon, but says to himself that if he doesn’t do something, he won’t be able to see the next one. From Iceland, Van Argeno reports to Solomon that they’ve found a gene manipulation facility, sponsored by a man named Goldsmith. But after Van mentions an accident and corpses devoid of blood, Solomon tells him to stop the investigation and quickly hangs up the phone. Meanwhile, Mao and Akihiro have made their way to the French countryside, but their car has broken down. While Akihiro is getting water, Mao daydreams that Kai has found her. Solomon drives up to their stalled car, stops to talk to Mao, but then decides to zoom past using the side of the road. Mao recognizes him as the CEO of the Cinq Flèches Group. She and Akihiro eventually make their way to a farm where they inquire about the Chateau Duel. The old man tells them that all of the bad 1967 wine was bought by the Cinq Flèches Group. Mao notices that the building isn’t the same one as on the label of the wine. The old man identifies the chateau in the label as a place over the nearby hill. It was owned by a man named Joel Goldschmidt. The story is that there was a fire that killed everyone 100 years ago. However, it is said that people inside had their blood sucked dry and were dead before the fire. In addition, there was a girl with a blue rose seen there.
Also in the countryside, Hagi and Saya are nearing their destination, but Saya has grown weak from not eating. Hagi offers her his blood, but she resists and continues walking. As day turns to night, the two find themselves on a bridge surrounded by Shifu. With Saya in his arms, Hagi bounds away, but the Shifu in close pursuit. Guy, who is watching from the sidelines with Irene, talks about needing a special blood to purify his cursed body. Irene becomes alarmed that Guy’s arm has developed cracks and red markings. Hagi hides Saya in a tree trunk and then goes to single-handedly try to protect her from their opponents. He does very well in handling all of them until he realizes that Guy is going after Saya. He tries to turn around, but the Shifu work together and manage to impale him twice. With Karman’s weapon still protruding from his chest, Hagi confronts Guy. Guy feels that he doesn’t have much time left, so he quickly pins Hagi to a tree and drinks his blood. As the other Shifu arrive on the scene, they see the markings on Guy’s arm. Saya emerges from her tree trunk calling Hagi’s name, but Irene is waiting behind her. Saya narrowly avoids Irene’s sword, but the rest of the Shifu get alerted to her presence. She tries to threaten them with her blood, but they don’t fear it. In fact, it’s quite the opposite – their hopes lie in it. Because cracking has spread to Guy’s face, the urgency of the situation goes up a notch. Karman pulls Irene’s sword out of the ground and is about to stab Saya, but then dusk starts to break. With their weakness being sunlight, the Shifu have no choice but to make their escape. Hagi dislodges himself from the tree and stumbles towards Saya. He gives Saya a drink of the blood coming from his hand to wake her up. Having seen Hagi take so much damage just to protect her, Saya apologizes. On his final resting place, Guy tells the others that his death is satisfactory because he was able to verify that Chevalier blood didn’t purify his body. His last wish is to someday walk under the sunlight. As the rest of the Shifu watch, his body is bathed in the light of the sun and starts to burn a fiery green.

And then there were seven… With Guy’s death and the curse, this episode reveals a lot about who the Shifu are. The reason they were after Saya and the Chevalier was to find a way to purify their bodies. The whole sunlight thing seems a bit stupid though. If Guy was going to die anyway, why didn’t he stick around and drink some of Saya’s blood even if it meant that he was going to be exposed to sunlight? And didn’t Dismas & Gestas attack the Cinq Flèches facility during the day? They seemed ok there. At least Guy’s death wasn’t a complete waste because the Shifu learned that Chevalier blood doesn’t cut it in terms of purification.
The battle sequence this episode is pretty cool. Though he still took a beating, I’m surprised that Hagi managed to hold his own for so long. There are some lovely noises of him getting impaled over and over, and of him pulling his body through Karman’s staff after the Shifu leave. *shudders*
Mao and Akihiro finally get some screen time again, and Mao provides some funny moments. I get the feeling that we’re going to learn more about Joel Goldschmidt, the mansion, the fire, and the girl with the blue rose come next week when Saya and Hagi arrive there. Actually, I guess that means that Mao, Akihiro, Saya, and Hagi are all in roughly the same area. Maybe they’ll even encounter each other.

54 Comments

  3. Oh God what a wonderful episode…I’m getting deeper and deeper in this show… 🙂 In the prologue for the next episode we can see a litlle boy-i think that is Haji and a girl with long hair-I think Saya…Well so many secrets are still hiden from us… 😛

    Kaya¸
    Reply

  8. I wish i could get this series in the states, i have been keeping up with it through the net and i been looking forward to reading about this ep. Am I the only one that can’t see the summary?

    Angel
    Reply

  9. One day Hagi will kick ass big time. I mean, he can’t spend the rest of the series taking beatings on a regular basis. I guess his abuse is a testament of his undying love for Saya

    Christi
    Reply

  10. I have been wondering why is Saya like the “second” to her sister Diva. I know that Diva can create these creatures but if Saya is the older sister why wouldn’t she be the more powerful?

    Angel
    Reply

  12. Who knows… But if you think of it we don’t know much of Saya’s past, so we can’t say that she is not powerful-but certain she has some special power. I only hope, that Saya and Haji at the end will be together, I don’t want to see Saya with somebody else (OK Solomon is also good but Haji is kind of interesting…) but I’m afraid that there is no future for Saya and neither Haji-the fact is that they are Chiropterans and how could they (especialy Saya) live with other people knowing that they must feed on their blood… Oh sorry I’m straying ;P

    Kaya
    Reply

  13. One day Hagi will kick ass big time. I mean, he can’t spend the rest of the series taking beatings on a regular basis. I guess his abuse is a testament of his undying love for Saya. He drove his body through a long pointy spear when she fainted. And just to let her sip a little blood. This fangirl is swooning behind her laptop. Apparently he’s known Saya since he was a little boy. And people here were suspecting Haji of being the pedophile. Loller. This is a 52 episode affair.
    And at least we learn more about the shifu. Did someone mention something about a blood awakening? It looks like their time is running out. Also, vintage vampires who flee from the sun. How cool is that?

    Christi
    Reply

  16. to Angel:
    as of now (3:49 PM EST), the summary’s not up yet. that’s why you can’t see it :). when it says つづく (tsudzuku), it means “to be continued”, meaning that Omni either hasn’t put the summary up yet, or that there’s still more to come (when the word is found at the end of an unfinished summary). hope this helps 😉

    thanks for the caps as always, Omni!

    cilik
    Reply

  18. I love Hagi. But then again. EVERYONE loves Hagi! And I never for a moment thought Hagi is a pedophile because I know Saya can look a lot older as we can see from the old picture in episode one, in any case, in anime often make girls look younger than they are and guys older.

    Anyway, Hagi did kicked ass, he just had to protect Saya that’s why he failed this time. I can’t wait for a time when he and Saya will work perfectly together and kick everyone’s sorry butt.

    Ori
    Reply

  19. Why does Hagi have to kick ass? He’s a lover, not a fighter, and that deserves respect.
    He puts so much care into the quality of his cello. Hagi just shrugs off the hurt and knows nobody can ever kill him.

    I don’t like Shifu. They’re too tacky, and not in a fun way like Karl playing phantom.
    With super-human abilities, Karman needs glasses. Moses’s “reaper” scythe is just trying too hard to look cool. If they all die like Spencer, Makkoi and Rodgers, I don’t think I’ll feel anything for them.
    Saya should go berserk again and clean off these extras.

    ChuChu
    Reply

  21. FWIW, Sony listed “Blood+” as a 50 episode show when they put their press release out on the international rights to the show. I’m not sure what happened to the two extra episode but going by the three shows that preceeded “Blood+” in its time slot (“Gundam SEED” (50eps), “Fullmetal Alchemist” (51eps), “Gundam SEED Destiny” (50eps), that total episode number probably is correct.

    MeggieMay
    Reply

  22. I love the blue after-image effect things they started using for battle scenes. Battle scenes are just SO MUCH more exciting to watch now, not to mention Shifu vs. Hagi was just SUPERB.

    I have mixed feelings about Shifu, I mean Irene is likeable but that guy with glasses is just a freakin’ tard. I personally wished they’d be more “mysterious” rather than having loud arguments with each other though.

    Rasmiel
    Reply

  23. It looks like all three sides share the name Goldsmith (Goldsmidt). Solomon is listed on the company website back in EP14 as Solomon Goldsmith. The mansion named the Zoo was owned Joel Goldschmidt, who may be related to Red Shield’s leader Joel. The man who created the Shifu or Sif or Schiff through genetic experimentation is also named Goldsmith, probably Boris Goldsmith, ex-colleague of Ted Adams & Phillip Rosenberg.

    Tom&Jerry
    Reply

  24. So I finally watched Episode 21 (It’s been a busy day) and it was ok but I know what this show is capable of so I was disappointed. The twist about why the Shifu are after Saya was the most interesting part. Perhaps they hope her blood can make them become human again (if they were human to start with)? The sun thing was anticlimatic and I couldn’t care less about Guy, being that he was just introduced this episode, so his sad end didn’t resonate. What did have an emotional affect was the humor that comes with Mao and the OMGness that comes when Hagi pulls his entire body off a spear. He just can’t go an episode these days without being disembowled!

    Lexiefaye
    Reply

  25. The fight between Haji and those Shifu was amazing. I knew he had it in him but never knew how much. He got beaten by them because his attention and concern was on Saya as soon as he realized that Guy was headed that way. Threw his concentration off. I do not need to see and hear him pulling himself off that spear.

    It does show how much he’s devoted to Saya and maybe how much he loves her. One can hope.

    koyuki-san
    Reply

  26. i havent seen the ep yet, but the sound effects at the end where hagi is un-impaling his self just sound alittie funny. since he gets like implaled in ever ep. (sarcasm 😉 )

    Angel
    Reply

  27. o yea. sorry about the ” where is the summary thing” everytime i log here its up, i never logged on when the ep is being posted. i always catch up like a day after or somthing.

    sorry no more freaking i promise… well unless hagi dies.. then i will freak, or maybe if saya ends up with karl or kai.. then i will freak… or…. if diva marries hagi, or… i think i will just quit while i’m ahead 😛

    Angel
    Reply

  31. i thin the blue rose gurl is diva. she does look alittle like saya, but i think that is because they are suppose to be “sisters” i do wonder what the blue rose means though. since its impossible to have a true blue rose and that it is around diva often in the show and almost lures karl.

    😀

    Angel
    Reply

  34. That girl with the long hair has to be saya sister. And yes, i know they look exactly alike but seriously,i think that is it.

    Remember when saya first heard hagi’s music back in episode 1? Where she is then running through a castle then corridor, then you see blue roses and a door, she opens the door and at first you think it is saya with long hair, sucking blood of her adopted father? That had to be diva, i really believe it, and i think that it is diva here witht he blue rose.

    Elegant Destruction
    Reply

  35. hmm the shifu being vulnerable to sunlight while the chevaliers can walk out in daylight like nothing plus chevalier human forms being normal looking while shifus have batlike ears

    Francisco
    Reply

  38. go question, who could resist a kiss like that ^.^ there isnt much chemistry between the two its more one sided. even if u couldnt remember your past with hagi wouldnt you atleast feel more towards him, i just dont see her attraction to him.. heck.. i think i like him more then she does…lol

    Angel
    Reply

  39. yeah..i thought so too..wish they could hurry up with the subbing…i still at 19..
    i tink that saya feels that hagi is more like a family..so she isnt attracted to him..
    at 17..saya said that hagi is more ike a family..n at the end she said sumting abt the promise..most likely a marriage..isnt that a little weird?

    hagi freak
    Reply

  40. well, ofcourse i agree with you. I am alittle perplex about it though. I think infront of a “14 year old girl” in ep 17 she may not want to explain she is like 200 years? and has a lover that looks 25 even though she knew him forever etc. later ya find out that 14 year old isnt a 14 year old..so i guess that would be in vain.

    inlove with hagi or angel
    Reply

  43. I’ve got some info. to share today (maybe u already know but..)

    so those Sifu guys were speedy, but most of them were kinda crappy.
    Moses is the guy with half his face covered by his hair.. the dude with the Reaper blade
    Karman is the one with glasses.. the guy ppl doN’t like. lol
    ELene is the blond girl^^

    ok now Joel.
    THat guy who’s the top in the Red Shield (Joel) could be related to the other “Joel”s. (as someone said before.. sry) but on the official site it says that the “Joel” of the Red SHeild just has the same name as the “Joel” in Joel’s diary. Is it really a coinsidence or is it the same person? (not showing off, but I can read Japanese so.. )

    oh, and a question…. is the pairing KaixSaya or KaixMao? I get confuzed… I mean I’d rather choose KaixMao cuz Saya’s with Haji~.. ya.

    P3cH1
    Reply

  44. Can someone tell me more about the book: Blood the Last Vampire: Night of the Beast, is it the same story as the movie (Blood, Last vampire) where Saya goes to a US military base to kill 2 girls(chiroptera). But does the book Blood the Last Vampire: Night of the Beast tell about the Red Shield and five brothers and more about Saya’s past?
    Does Blood: the last vampire book series by Christopher Pike has anything to do with Blood+ that we are watching?

    Eldarwen
    Reply

  45. Poor Haji! Saya needs a new sword, stat. I really want to see them fight together again, properly in sync. There was a moment during the fight on top of the train (ep 16/17/18?) when I seem to remember Saya speaking to Haji telepathically.

    Either way, Saya needs to get serious because she’s beginning to be more of a liability than a help. I’m hoping she has some hidden powers or just hasn’t reached her full potential. As much as I love this series, and I really REALLY do, so far the baddies deserve to win based on kick-ass ability.

    penny4em
    Reply

  46. does anyone know the song hagi plays with the cello in the first ep.? i found the one song in ep 17 he plays. but i love classical and i know i have this song somewhere, if i just knew the suite or somthing.

    angel
    Reply

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