Blood+ starts off decent enough. Saya, our protagonist, is revealed to be the only one capable of killing the human killing, blood sucking chiropterans. Early on, a bit os a standard "mysterious past" is established, although over the course of 50 episodes, it's never explained as well as it probably should have banned. Those hoping for a one woman show, like Blood: The Last Vampire, may also find it interesting that Blood+ sort of becomes a band of travelers movie with Saya's close friends, Riku and Kai, and her guardian of sort, the mysterious cello playing Hagi.
One of the biggest problems of this show is that so many of its elements are very, very conventional. Saya is an amnesia sufferer who has "forgotten" about her past as a bloody killer. The American military is interfering in the role of vampires, which would have made for a decent little conspiracy story, if predictable, if it was fully explored. We are also treated to a bevy of corny "live your life for today" speeches from the likes of Saya's friends. It's all very standard fare.
This wouldn't have been too bad, and would have been saved in part by the decently exciting action, if the series wasn't so arbitrary. New rules and twists are introduced haphazardly to the plot at seemingly unfit times. The Schiff, who are basically manufactured vampires, are tossed into the mix lazily, and their new set of rules and characters pops up and then is sort of left behind as the series progresses. This is how a lot of the second half of the show works. As Saya pursues Diva, the head honcho of the bad guys, all kinds of unexplored sub-plots are layered on; besides the aforementioned Schiff, we have some conflict between Diva's guardians (they're the bad guy equivalent of Hagi, basically), and political dealings with the American military, but they all feel terribly unimportant and underdeveloped, because the show ends up basically becoming one long, protracted chase scene, with Saya desperately trying to locate Diva and defeat her once and for all. This is extended by a relentless number of fight scenes that begin to lose their importance as we realize they are basically just delaying the final showdown.
The show becomes simultaneously bogged down by the unneeded subplots, as well as too narrow-minded in how it chooses to be "mysterious" about all the characters and backgrounds. No, a show needn't spell out everything for the viewer, but we're never really given much to go on, if anything, from Saya, Hagi, and Diva and her cronies. Even as one of the antagonists essentially falls in love with Saya, it all feels very rushed and heavy-handed. While the pacing manages to keep the show watchable, it becomes so repetitive and predictable that it fails to stand out.
The ending itself is something pretty much any viewer will be able to see from a mile away (and it has to do with another weird arbitrary rule that seems to be heaped on just to attempt to make it sad). Because of this, the emotional punch it is supposed to provide is more like an emotional feather dusting.
There are some positives, the animation is good, even if it lacks the dark appeal of The Last Vampire. The various world locations we get to see manage to help keep things varied. Kai becomes an interesting character with a soft-side to go along with his rambunctious one, that we can really empathize with. The action is generally pretty exciting at first. But the show just wears out its welcome with the arbitrary introduction of new ideas and characters that are often abandoned simply to fit the plot. It makes you wonder why they were needed in the first place.
Ultimately, this all leaves Blood+ as a watchable, but simplistic and by-the-numbers vampire flick.
3/10
