Blood Lad

Blood Lad is a classic example of taking a typical genre type and applying a currently popular twist on it; in this case you end up with yet another supernatural comedy Most titles that fall under this category are barely passable, but Blood Lad seemed to stand out from the rest of the crowd so I gave it a chance. I mean a vampire boss that is more interested in the otaku culture of Japan over fresh human blood… that doesn’t sound too unoriginal and downright unbearable, right? Well I’m going to tell you why I was neither right nor wrong in Blood Lad’s case.
...
The story follows Staz, a vampire boss of the demon world. He is feared across the demon world for being one of the most powerful bosses around and is also known for always accomplishing any goal he sets out for. So when Fuyumi, a young and big-breasted Japanese girl, accidentally makes it into the demon world and is killed, Staz decides he’ll help bring her back to life. Already two typical character types have been established: an overpowered hero and a big-breasted, clumsy heroine. So, if it sounds to you like a pretty typical hero saves damsel-in-distress story then you’re absolutely right—because that’s what it is. But that is not all it is. Let me explain.

One of the best things about this series was the comedy. It wasn’t forced, it wasn’t complicated, the references to Japanese culture were easy to understand for any anime fan, it was not overused and it was just downright hilarious. But the credibility of the series cannot be justified by just one aspect of the plot even if the show is prominently defined by this aspect—and that is where Blood Lad quickly let itself down. At first, the comedy held up the dialogue in a good way but it soon became hard to overlook the lacking parts of the rest of the dialogue. The comedy became repetitive and started to let down the dialogue and eventually the plot also. Where Blood Lad’s story went wrong is when they failed at mixing bad drama and action with good comedy—and then tried to patch up their faults with more good comedy. After this much repetition, the good comedy became bad comedy and the plot became even less comprehensible because of the overuse of unneeded gags.

Just like the story, Blood Lad’s art started out great but was relatively let down by a certain aspect. Prominently the most annoying part of Blood Lad’s art was the obscure and abstract changing of colours, backgrounds and art within certain scenes at an attempt to pair with the comedic side of the plot. At first it worked well but this soon enough, just like the use of comedy, became forced and overused. Apart from this annoyance, Blood Lad’s art was actually one of the series’ strong points. The animation was always fluid, the art was consistent, the character designs and the design of the Japan influenced ‘demon world’ worked very well together and over all the animation, when not overused, matched the mood of the series and the genre by having simple and somewhat goofy character designs like typical comedy series do but also mixing it with typical shounen character designs, this caused a nice blend of the comedy and action. Apart from the certain abstract scenes mentioned before, the art was far from an eyesore and actually helped maintain the series when it began to fail.

The soundtrack goes with the series in a pleasurable but non-memorable way. The opening song did a great job of giving me a positive view when I started the anime and when I started the new episode every week. Even when I knew the anime that was starting after the minute and a half song was far from perfect. The soundtrack worked well in matching the moods of different scenes and didn’t separate the viewer from the voice acting but instead accompanied the seiyuu’s dialogue well.

The characters in Blood Lad all play a relatively necessary role in the show but the way some of these roles were developed is probably the weakest point of the series. In some cases there is no development at all, they are simply placed in the series for the short time they are needed then used later on for gags. But, with it being a 10 episode series and of the comedy genre, which doesn’t typically have or need much character development, I do take into account that it would be very hard to develop all the characters they introduced. So I’ll only be judging the development of the main characters. Staz, obviously, has the most development as a character throughout the series and for a comedy series this should have been absolutely fine, here’s the problem though-- it didn’t feel like enough. The flashbacks and dialogue he’s involved in don’t provide enough substance to give me a reason to care about him. Little character development in a comedy series is acceptable but if it is not handled well, which in this case it wasn’t, it makes you care about the character less. If you don’t care about the main character then it is hard to care about anything he or she is involved in, which in a main character’s case is usually everything to do with the series. The biggest let down of the series was the underdevelopment of Staz, if you can’t get your viewer to care about the main character then the anime falls apart.

Blood Lad was a show that let itself down more than it let the viewers down, because it could have been much more than it ended up as.

But after all this negativity in this piece of writing I can honestly say that I still really enjoyed Blood Lad. No it didn’t impress me as much as I was expecting, yes it had a lot of flaws, but the overall charm of the series kept me watching. If you’re a fan of this anime I can understand why and I can also say I am a fan. If I can’t point out the flaws in a series then how can I properly call myself a fan? Blood Lad was a fun experience and I still hold to my previous comment that it was neither unbearable and unoriginal nor bearable and original, because honestly from a critical standpoint Blood Lad didn’t impress me or frustrate me—it just gave me enjoyment.

After reading this review I hope you have a good idea on all the flaws of Blood Lad. But if you were interested in this series like I was I encourage you to look past the flaws and have fun with this anime, it might not be the most empowering, impressive, revolutionary anime in existence but it is great for some enjoyable watching and sometimes that’s all that matters. If you can look past that fact then who knows you might really enjoy this anime. Give it a shot.

"Every vampire fiction reinvents vampires to its own needs. You take what you want."

When and why did vampires become so popular in the past few years? The only conclusion that I could really come to was the Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer. It's the series that sucked the blood (and money for that matter) out of adolescent girls everywhere. Why? Somewhere along the line I think our society forgot what vampires are supposed to be. The premise of ‘Vampires’ were originally made to be terrifying beings that were both intimidating and powerful. If you don't know what I'm talking about regarding what a vampire ... ideally should be, I would promptly direct you to Hellsing Ultimate where you may bask in the bloody goodness that is Alucard.

The story of Blood Lad is pretty unoriginal. Vampire meets a human girl, the human girl gets into trouble, and the vampire becomes the hero to save her. Pretty cliché. The plot of Blood Lad, however, is pretty good. The demon world is interesting in itself based on the premise of the 'bosses' that control territories, the hierarchy of demons, and the Demon Acropolis (where top tier demons reside). Material is presented at a good pace that keeps the audience interested rather than confused; at a ten episode run, that's quite a feat. One last thing that I want to mention is that Blood Lad is lined with constant references to other anime and anime characters. If you're like me and enjoy knowing what is being referenced, you'll think or say something to the equivalent of, "Fuck yeah! I got that reference. Sweet!" as you give yourself a high five.

The art/animation of Blood Lad is good. It's an anime of 2013 and thus there it's essentially a basic standard to have good animation and art. The action scenes look nice, the characters look good, and everything flows well overall. Nothing to complain about here, but also nothing to brag about. The sound portion is decent enough. The OP and ED are both pretty good; I enjoyed them both, but they aren't something that warrants watching and listening to every episode. There are a wide array of voices for the characters and I liked how fitting they were for their respective characters.

I enjoyed watching the characters of Blood Lad interact. Each of them is interesting in their own sense of the word. Staz, the main protagonist, is a vampire of prestigious class/breed and 'boss' of a territory in the demon world. He’s also and an otaku that aims to quench his thirst for something that isn’t blood; he's infatuated with all things from the human world, but mainly things from Japan. He collects anime, manga, video games, Japanese attire, and becomes entranced by anything new from the human world. This is also part of the reason he is attracted to Fuyumi, the female lead. Fuyumi is a human girl from Japan who ends up wandering into the demon world accidently and subsequently turned into a ghost after dying. She entrusts her future to Staz in hopes that he can return her back to being human. She's really shy, quiet, and humble for the most part. Bell, a spatial magic sorceress, acts like a second female lead. She's provides quite a few comedic moments and often teases Staz. She's clever and deceptive, but also is also quite the softie. While those three are the really prevalent characters, many other characters take up their fair share of screen time such as Wolf, Braz, and Liz. I don't think there was a character I legitimately didn't like in the whole series, however there also wasn't much meaningful development for the series’ characters either.

Overall Blood Lad is entertaining to say the least. I enjoyed what it had to offer for a story about vampires and the supernatural. Fan service is really prevalent in this series and did become slightly a nuisance for me; it seems they took every opportunity to showcase cleavage and added it in. The series runs for only ten episodes, which is a shame because it leaves a lot of questions unanswered and feels rather incomplete. If you're looking for a fun, simple show to watch, Blood Lad might be what you're looking for; just don't expect any deep themes or depth that makes a series great.

Oh, damn, those vampires again, it seems they are everywhere, and why am I complaining when I am reviewing a vampire anime? First lets make it clear I picked up this only for the fact that it seems like it would be a comedy and for the Seinen tag. Turns out it is mostly a comedy anime but I don't understand why its Seinen? This is typical Shounen manga with damsel in distress formula with a supernatural comedy twist, but definitely not Seinen ( some uncalled for ecchi doesn't make Seinen,sorry), so stop advertising false information.

Story
The story of Blood Lad follows our "hero" Staz who ... is a vampire in the makai (demon world) who doesn't drink human blood & is also an otaku, he is a leader of a small portion of demon world but mostly spends his time watching anime, reading manga and playing Japanese video games. One day our "heroine" Fuyumi accidentally wanders into the demon world and ends up in Staz's territory, Staz is so excited to finally meet a human girl but when he was a bit busy protecting his territory Fuyumi gets killed and turns into a ghost. And thus the story begins as our hero decides to revive Fuyumi into a human again. But wait there is a catch, Staz is not as heroic as it seems, actually he has a strong desire to drink Fuyumi's blood so he secretly wants to resurrect her for that. And thus our heroes trial begins as he tries to find ways to reach his goal. The story was a bit boring at the start but after a few episodes it starts to get a bit interesting, mostly due to some nice side characters most of whom actually are cliche Shounen characters but none the less likeable. The main likeable thing about the story is not its premise or the character backgrounds (which are too generic if you ask me) but the comedic side of it, the continuous pun at typical Shonen's like Staz trying to use Kamehameha was really funny stuff and it keeps the show enjoyable but when the writer tries to make things a bit serous with romance and family chemistry stuff then it starts to fall apart cause the main storyline for this anime is not original at all, we really have seen all those cliche stuff way many times before.
From me story gets 6.5 out of 10.

Characters
The characters are not the strongest aspect of this anime, Staz is actually alright when he acts his funny self but his back story and all other aspects of his character are to bland for me but at least he is better than our heroine Miss-I-am-so-innocent-and-dumb-and-typical-with-unnaturally-big-breasts Fuyumi, come on we had these kinds of heroines for so long its just unbearable now. And those unnecessary ecchi stuff, provocative dresses and shameless fan service is just too awful to waste my breath on.
But not all is lost in the character department either because of some strong side characters, I mean Braz, Bell & Liz are almost impossible not to like and although a typical rival character I did like Wolf, and other side characters like Staz's gang members (Deku,Saty,Yoshida) were written with quite a lot of care it seems. So all I can say about the whole character business is that if Kodama would have given his main characters the same level of care as he did most of his side characters it would have been a way more better anime in my opinion.
The characters get 7.5 out of 10 (and that's mostly for all the characters minus the main two).

Art/Animation
Unarguably the animation is top notch and the best thing about this anime, the action sequences are colorful and a delight to watch, the character designs are lovely and the whole animation is fluid and crisp, it is one of the things to be amazed of in this show. But sadly that is not enough, you need good story and solid main characters to tell the story with your nice animation.
The animation gets 8.5 out of 10.

Sound
The sound effect is appropriate for the show but nothing that really pulls your attention into it. The Opening theme is "ViViD" by May'n which is a nice opening for the show but doesn't really makes you want to get the listen to it as a separate form of entertainment. The ending theme is "BLOODY HOLIC" by Yuuka Nanri which is rather bland is my opinion and really doesn't go with the show, it tries somehow force the romance into the front of the situation which unfortunately I say is not the strongest aspect of the show, its the comedy that is, the opening song at least acknowledges that.

The sound gets a 6.5 out of 10 from me (its okay but really nothing to write home about).

In the end of the day the writer did try to make a show which tries a different take on the vampire theme and the otaku twist is nice with the pun at other animes & manga bit is nice but unfortunately it seems that he himself sometimes forget what his initial intentions were and tries to inject serious stuff into the fold and force some unnecessary ecchi and romance into the mix which turns a otherwise quite innovative and fun idea into a cliched mental anguish for the viewers.

OVERALL SCORE
6.5 out of 10.

I will keep this short and sweet.
This was a funny anime, very short, easy to binge watch.
The story has potential, but it doesn't really go anywhere.
It is very rushed and you did not get attached to the characters.
Overall it was a mediocre anime in which I enjoyed the comedy, but I would not recommend wasting your time on it.

I just want to mention first that I have read the manga for Blood Lad (up to where it’s translated) and that this was actually my first manga ever (so it’s a bit special to me). However, that doesn’t mean it’s one of my favorites and really I think it’s just average overall. I’ll be making many comparisons between the manga and anime (without spoilers of course).

Story – 6/10

I do really like the unique the initial plot. It follows Staz who is a vampire that is the leader of a section of the underworld. Staz also happens to be an otaku for all things from ... the human world, especially things from Japan, from anime to figures to Final Fantasy. And yes, they make a lot of references to different things (Dragonball might have the most). One day, Staz hears from his henchmen that a human girl suddenly appeared in the streets. Being who he is, Staz can’t resist meeting her. However, due to an unfortunate series of events involving giant plants, the girl (whose name is Fuyumi) ends up dying only to turn into a ghost. Staz (for reasons that are somewhat selfish) vows to help Fuyumi get her human body back. They travel everywhere in search of clues and even go back to the human world for a short time. They slowly piece things together about how to return Fuyumi to her human form but what they uncover is a much bigger story that pulls them in even though Staz really wishes he could just get this all over with at times.

When it was announced that Blood Lad would only have 10 episodes, I was kind of skeptical how they would fit everything in, and, whether or not they would go past where the manga is translated into English as there are about 15 chapters that are not translated (about 1/3rd of the manga at this time). While not too many problems came from having a shorter series, the anime was very fast paced. Blood Lad is a series that tends to jump around a lot and lose focus of the overall plot amidst a sea of side plots. With the fast pacing, there were times during some episodes where the plot switched between places so fast that it became hard to follow. Most of the episodes also end at awkward points in the story and kind of cut up the story in ways that I think mess up the story (at least if you are watching one episode a week like I did).

Art – 7/10

The anime was done by studio “Brains Base” who is known for works like Baccano, Durarara!!, Amnesia, Natsume Yuujinchou, etc. While they’re previous works (as far as I’ve seen) usually have very impressive art, I felt they went a little overboard with Blood Lad. The animation looks great and the fight scenes are well animated, but the anime was just way too colorful in my opinion. The Blood Lad manga had a much darker edge (despite being a comedy manga), and the wide array of colors in almost in almost every moment of the anime kind of dampens that effect at times. But there are some places, like Staz’s otaku room, which do benefit from the colorful animation, but they are few and far between.

A problem with the art that the manga also suffers from is in its character designs. While I really like some of the characters’ designs (like Staz, Braz, and Akimu), there were many that I thought were just strange. Fuyumi and Bell especially look awkward and Wolf’s face in his werewolf form just looks kind of strange and unnatural the way it’s elongated. The characters are also very vividly colorful especially when it comes to hair color, which goes back to the last part. Still, Staz and several other characters do have very good designs.

Sound – 6/10

The soundtrack is also very average. I really only noticed one track that stood out to me while the rest was mostly average, but I also never noticed any really disliked. The one good track sounds kind of mysterious and is used in the few darker scenes or just before the comedic scenes (the latter of which kind of ruins its effect).

The voice actors did a great job of portraying their roles with Staz’s being the standout performance. His voice actor, Ohsaka Ryota, does an amazing job portraying the otaku vampire and all of his craziness. With Fuyumi (who’s just kind of bland to start with) her voice actress did fit the role well, but was still boring. I also found Wolf’s voice in his werewolf form to be very annoying and kind of cheesy.

Characters – 5/10

This is where the anime drops in my opinion. While Staz is great and sometimes unpredictable, some of the other characters (especially Fuyumi) are very one dimensional and boring. It was the same way in the manga, too. Fuyumi is just one of the most boring female protagonists I’ve ever seen. She’s your typical damsel in distress who gets thrown around by everyone (with occasional fanservice) and doesn’t ever do anything herself. Since the entire plot and most of the side plots are centered on her, it really ruins the story at times because of her being unable to do anything while everyone else fights to help her regain her humanity.

Now for some of the better characters. Hydra Bell is a demon who uses magic that opens portals to wherever she wants to go and can even view things in other places just by making a rectangular shape out of her fingers. She enjoys messing with Staz and testing his powers to see how strong he really is. Wolf is a territory boss just like Staz. He and Staz have known each other since they were kids and have an interesting relationship as rivals. Braz is Staz’s older brother who Staz hates. He often experiments on Staz and is kind of one of the antagonists of the series. Liz is Staz’s younger sister and the jail keeper of what appears to be the largest prison in the underworld. She hates Staz because he gets most of Braz’s attention.

The rest of the background characters are either forgettable or were just introduced around the end of the anime and barely get any screen time. It’s a pretty large cast of characters for an anime with only 10 episodes.

Enjoyment – 6/10

I thought the series was rushed too much and would have done much better with 12 or 13 episodes. The manga was already fast paced and the anime only sped that up as it sometimes put about 3 chapters into a single episode. The art is just too colorful in my opinion, and the soundtrack really doesn’t stand out at all. While Staz is a good protagonist, Fuyumi is just a horrible heroine. The rest of the cast is both good and bad as well. It’s definitely not the best show this season, though it’s not really the worst either. If you’re looking for vampire anime (despite being extremely different) I would recommend Shiki instead. If you’re looking for comedy and action then try Blue Exorcist which has a very similar feeling and similar protagonists.

The Video review is up on my youtube, but here is the written Review.

Story - 4/10

Vampires used to be seen as fearsome creatures back in the day, but these days they are usually seen as heroes or anti-heroes. The story begins as a normal day of a vampire named, Staz Charlie Blood, his own territory boss, until, Fuyumi Yanagi, an ordinary human girl wanders herself into the human world and is taken to Staz. Now naturally when you think of vampire, they’ll of course suck her blood, but unlike his ancestors he avoids attacking humans. However Staz does find an interest in her, until ... she is killed and turned into a ghost. So the main premise of the show is that Staz is trying to find a way to resurrect Fuyumi back to a normal human. So he can find that satisfaction he had for her when she was alive, because when she turned into a ghost he lost that attraction. It’s a basic plot, but following the story is kind of hard.

The show is only 10 episodes long and usually one episode has like around 3 different plots. The story jumps around a lot, and that can be confusing. It felt really rushed and even in the end it wasn’t satisfying, as if it was setting up for something bigger. This in turn is kind of disappointing because I was really interested and hooked into the world of Blood Lad. The Demon world, is such a unique and exciting place. I like how the writers were able to put all these supernatural creatures, from vampires to werewolves to frankenstein and many more creatures into one show, and it actually makes some sort of sense. Because there is so much different powers and abilities in this world, if you were to look away for just a bit you could miss out on something. Because there is so much things going on, it’s quite easy to miss something along the way.

Characters - 7/10

Staz Charlie Blood is the main protagonist of the show. He is the boss of a territory in the Demon World. He is rather powerful often usually able to defeat any opponent, and that is proven further down the track as he becomes stronger. What you probably didn’t expect is that Staz is also an otaku. He is obsess with Japanese culture whether its video games or manga. But it’s more like he’s obsess with the human world, as hinted when he saw Fuyumi. Despite looking unreliable, he is dependable, once he’s made up his mind he tries very hard to achieve his goal, even though he may not look like it, he has enough motivation to. What I like about this character is the mystery surrounding his past and his motives. Because he has interesting past, but also his motives are mystery as well, which really adds to his character, if he didn’t have those mystery surrounding him, he would be a generic never say die character, with a bit of cockiness added. The fact that he’s an otaku, many common anime lovers can relate to a protagonist. Because to be honest, not a lot of people are a fan of vampires, because you know…twilight.

Fuyumi Yanagi is the main female heroin in the series. Actually I wouldn’t really say heroin more of a constant damsel in distress. She is a normal Japanese School Girl who accidentally wanders into the Demon world and gets herself killed and therefor she becomes a ghost. Although she is very kind and supportive person, she is completely useless. Yes it does make sense since she comes from the human world, it would make sense for her not to have any powers. She’s pretty much just around for plot device. She relies a lot of the other characters around her to get things done. She is Staz’s driving force, but also everyone else’s object, because she literally gets tossed around by everyone. Seriously she’s rather generic and kind of annoying. She’s also kind of there for fan service. The only the conflict I did enjoy from her was as the series went on, she grows accustom to the demon world which brings the question, does she want to be a human or stay as a demon. But that storyline is short lived and left unanswered.

Bell Hydra and Wolf are the other main characters of the show. Bell is a mischievous treasure hunter and her defining appearance is her oversize big ass backpack. Who knows what she carriers in there, maybe just a lot of different frames she uses as portals, because that’s her power. She's around to pretty much ruin people’s day, she’s not evil, but she’s very tricky which can annoy some, and I like her interactions with Staz, because she rivals him. Wolf is Staz’s friend and rival, not much can be said about him other than he is wild. He’s motivation for helping Staz is because he simply has a crush on Fuyumi. But even he was barely given enough screen time to be interesting, there was really any development in him and he is supposed to be Staz’s rival, and Staz did develop.

Most the characters have an interesting backstory and past, but because of the run time and how short the anime was, it wasn’t fully explored. Most of the characters only had a few episodes to shine, but there wasn’t enough development in them. Even some of the later characters in the series were hinted of motivations for doing what they were doing, but that is left unanswered, so you’re wondering why was this character introduced in the first place. Also because the ending is left open ended, the character development just felt like one piece of a great puzzle that was going to be something bigger. So it really feels incomplete and it’s disappointing because I felt there could’ve been potential for these characters.

Animation and Sound - 7/10, 6/10

This was probably Blood Lad’s strongest point lies, which is the art style. It’s a unique art style, all the characters besides Fuyumi have the evil anime eyes, so you can’t really tell who’s good and who is bad, which I like. Also the Demon world is surprisingly full of colours, everything really looks unique and because they jump around the demon world a lot, you get to see a lot of different settings. Also all characters look unique as well and they look good. Albeit the colour scheme is still very basic and you can see as if some of the backgrounds weren’t completed, but that just goes to the art style. Some people are going to have a problem with the art, because it’s not typical and does look sometime simplistic. The animation does shine around some of the fight scenes though, the effects look good and every character has their own power and animation which is a really shining point in the anime, but it’s too short lived most of the fight scenes.

The soundtrack is ok, it’s nothing special. The soundtrack suits the mood and different settings and locations of the show. The show has a good mixture of gothic music to suit the theme of the show, I particular like it the most when they play some punk rock in it. Of course being a vampire theme anime you’re going to get some organs in here and there, but that’s not to say they have some comedic music in there from time to time. The opening and ending themes are ok, the ending does it job, however I do enjoy the opening as it really sets up the show very well, not to mention it basically shows what’s going to be happening in the whole show.

Enjoyment - 7/10

One thing Blood Lad does very well is having a character with an otaku background. So despite being a vampire he is somewhat relatable. But because when you have a character based on an otaku population, most of the jokes in the show are based on different anime and manga etc. And if you don’t get the reference you’re probably not going to be laughing as hard, but if you do get the reference they make you can enjoy the show. Some of the other jokes tend to involve slapstick comedy, so other than parodying and slapstick they don’t have a huge range of jokes. Because during my time of watching Blood Lad, I don’t think I laughed really hard. But only some jokes where I did get the references, I got a good satisfaction out of it. The genre really surprised me, because I was able to see so many different supernatural things in one place and see how the world unfolds around them, which is what I like about the show.

Verdict - 6/10

For the story of Blood Lad I give it a 4. For the reason it’s incomplete and hard to follow, yet it has a simple premise. Plus the story felt really rushed and yet, it didn’t conclude properly. The only thing I really enjoyed was the whole concept of the Demon world, as I felt I really needed to see more because it was an interesting world.

As far as characters go, they get a 7 from me. Reason being I think most of them were interesting to a point, but they just weren’t fully developed and left out, so I was disappointed. But I did enjoy the character interactions with each other and I think Staz’s mystery really adds to him. I did find the characters likable by the way.

For the animation and sound I give it a 7 and 6 respectively. The art style is unique and that’s positive, but because it’s unique it may not appeal to too many people and plus some of it looks basic. But I like how everything is unique and actions scenes were great, but short lived. The sound does it’s job and opening theme setups the anime really well.

For my own personal enjoyment, I give it a 7. I’m not a huge fan on vampires, but the anime was able to create a character I normally don’t enjoy as much to a character I like because he’s relatable. And I understood some of the references the anime was making, and it made me laugh which it should be doing for a comedy series. But I found myself confused sometime because the story constantly jumps and expects me to be paying attention to everything, expects it to be funny even when I don’t get the references.

So after rounding all the scores up I give Blood Lad a 6/10. It’s not a bad anime, it’s above average because it’s uniqueness and likeable cast of characters. The main character is relatable, however if you don’t understand some of the references, you’re probably not going to enjoy it as much. I recommend this anime to Vampire fans, as I think that’s the only type of people who may enjoy it, because it’s hard to follow.

I found Blood Lad on accident and saw it was only ten episodes, so I said, Why not? Overall, it was alright, something to watch if you're bored but not something I would recommend.

The story was decent with some sprinkling of action, character conflicts, some humor. Most refreshing was the fact it wasn't your typical vampire story. Stay, our vampire protagonist, isn't fighting of his bloodlust for some human he meets randomly and falls in love with. This story is at least more complex than that and with the help of many different species of monsters this is not your average ... vampire story. That being said, the characters do nothing to help the story for me. With only ten episodes you can't go deep into character building, but these characters at their core do nothing for me. Most fall flat or have contradicting character traits that don't really work for me. The art I found to be refreshing, however. It's filled with color and the character designs really follow the monster anatomy.

So again, overall, I guess this anime is alright for one of those days you're super bored and have nothing else to watch.

There exists an alternate world full of demons which one can reach through magical portals. A somewhat air-headed human girl named Fuyumi accidentally travels though such a portal and is soon captured by demons. Luckily Staz, the head of the demons, is a carefree vampire who wants to break away from his clan's past and has no intentions of harming Fuyumi. Unfortunately, he's not terribly attentive and Fuyumi is soon gobbled up by a giant flower-monster. Greatly attracted to something unknown about Fuyumi, Staz vows to restore Fuyumi's ghost to her former body, which is now a frowning pile of bones.

Blood Lad is a light-hearted ... action/comedy with a fair dosage of ecchi. An extremely short and ultimately incomplete work, this is a good watch as a shonen piece. There is not enough depth or complexity to warrant the seinen tag nor is there enough character progress to warrant a romance tag. If you're looking for some bloody quick action (of the fighting/magic sort) by all means give this a try. If not, I'd wait to see if there is a sequel before jumping in. As it is, there are too many unanswered questions for this to be a fulfilling watch.

Animation:
Blood Lad seems to be going for a cool shonen look. The coloring is quite saturated (except for the vampires' pale skin) and lots of characters have rather funky clothing. Backgrounds are rather simplistic and detailing is only average at best. Character styling is definitely unique with a lot of interesting designs and twists on established monster stereotypes, my favorite being Yukiotoko, a snowman who is cold from his own existence. In certain short sequences characters are drawn with different hair colors, a stylistic choice I guess. What kind of irritated me was the fact that the protagonist Staz was drawn with such a lack of emotional range. He is either calm and collected or grinning and collected. While a laid back protagonist is fine, having some emotional range would do a lot to engage the viewers.

There's plenty of action in this show with a range of physical and magical battles. There are quite a few non-traditional attacks that differentiate this from your typical show but nothing that will knock you off your feet either. Expect a fair amount of blood and carnage though, with this being a pretty light-hearted show, nothing is really gruesome in an Elfen Lied sense. There is a fair amount of ecchi in this show ranging from finger licking to bouncing body parts and skimpy clothing.

Sound:
Blood Lad opens with a rock based OP fit for the amount of action in the show. I don't really like the melody and don't particularly care for the singer's voice. The ED is a slightly slower rock piece with a much better singer and melody. The "cool" theme is further reflected in the BGM, which has a percussion-heavy tune with electronic, guitar, and brass-based instruments that gives the series a unique feel.

The VA cast is relatively young and new but does a fair job at bringing some life to the characters. I think Emi Bridcut did a great job as Hydra Bell, who has by far the most depth out of all the characters.

Story:
This is a fairly light-hearted show though there are some pretty late plot twists/revelations. The show has quite a few subplots running alongside the main plotline of trying to revive Fuyumi. Annoyingly, these subplots are developed a lot more than the core goal. In fact, once Staz decides to revive Fuyumi, he seems to be doing everything but that (i.e. getting endlessly sidetracked). Thus, while we learn a lot about Staz's family and the demon realm, we still don't have a good grasp of how Fuyumi can be a human again.

As explained above, expect meandering arcs about various subplots, many of which have their own rising action and climax. While the story progression is fair, there are still way too many unanswered questions at the end of the show. The final conclusion is more of a teaser than a conclusion, which obviously begs for a second season. The caveat is that the events of this show are the type that a viewer soon forgets (think the gap between White Album and White Album Second Season). Thus, I recommend waiting for a second offering for a more complete viewing.

Character:
While the show has a lot of interesting and unique personalities, I felt there was a lack of actual development. Hydra Bell is probably the only character that shows any growth and development through the piece. Staz starts as a lazy but powerful vampire and ends the same. Fuyumi starts as a clueless living girl and ends up as a clueless ghost. Wolfboy starts as an underdog fighter and remains such at the end. While you get fair exposition on important characters, we'll have to wait till the second season for any real development.

Value:
If you walked into this series based on a potentially intriguing relationship between Staz and Fuyumi forget it. Drop this and move on or this show will leave you with an agonizing, unfulfilled feeling. Otherwise, add this to your list and wait for a second season. Blood Lad is a unique but incomplete work; a concept that, due to such a partial execution, really doesn't hold its own.

I liked this anime because it had a nice air and mood to it. All the characters were funny, but some like Staz or the mom were frustrating to watch. The mom because she didn't consider any of the characters. As for Staz he's a great character, but he never showed any emotion-for anything! Fuzumi was also annoying because she had that nice, innocent girl act and I'm not into that. It was good though as for the plot and creativity, but it was kinda a cliff hanger for romance. You think something romantic would happen, but it would just stop. If your going to ... add romance go through with it, don't half-ass it. However if you like supernatural animes with comedy and action this is for you. If your looking for romance, strong female leads and good endings than this isn't for you. If you already watched this and wanna find out what happened read the manga because its exactly like the anime except it keeps continuing. Overall it was an OK anime, but I wouldn't recommend it.

WARNING: THIS MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS. I'LL TRY TO BE SUBTLE WITH THE SPOILERS BUT JUST FOR A WARNING IF YOU HAVEN'T WATCHED THE SHOW, DON'T READ THIS.

When it comes to vampire anime's, it's dark, gloomy, depressing, and the characters are just blood sucking hotties. So when I watched Blood Lad, I expected myself to watch something similar to what I watched before in vampire anime's... but it surprised me when it didn't.

Story: 6

The story is about a vampire named Staz who is an otaku when it comes to anime and manga. He rules the East Demon World but is somewhat lazy when it comes to ... the part of "ruling". One day, a human girl appears in the Demon World and Staz instantly takes a liking to her, wanting to know the culture of the human world. One thing leads to another and the girl dies and becomes a ghost. Now it's up to Staz to try to resurrect her back to life.

I would like to say the story is very refreshing for a vampire anime. However, the more episodes you watch, the more you kind of forget what the main goal of the story was. Each episode ends with them trying to get something which just keeps piling with more stuff along the way. With those things coming in, it might take forever in order for the main character to get back to his main goal.

Art: 5

The art style was really good. It was bright, colorful, and just something nice to look at. The character art was good, but the background art made it have more lower points. For me, the background was just blurry blocks that could have shaped a building or some sort, and they just colored it with whatever neon color they wanted.

Sound: 7

The opening had this upbeat rock music that I really liked. The OST was pretty good too but it didn't have that much significance for me to listen to it again. The voice acting was good but sometimes it just sounded a bit too forced for me. I guess it's just my way of thinking.

Character: 4

One of the lowest I have for this, the reason why I chose this is because the only noticeable character development I found was the main character himself. Otherwise than that, the other characters just kind of stayed the same as they were when we first saw them. I don't want to be that mean because the show was just 10 episodes so they couldn't bring out character development for all the other characters but still... just try and show a little of development some.

Enjoyment: 7

Despite all my protests, I liked the show. It was very refreshing to find a different story line than all those other vampire anime's. But it was around the last episode that left a lot of questions unanswered. I don't want to say any other spoilers otherwise than that.

Overall: 6

In conclusion, Blood Lad is an anime that was fair enough and I could recommend to you guys if you want to watch a different vampire story!

Although this is mainly my fault, when I saw pictures of Blood Lad for the first time, I was expecting a serious vampire anime. Without looking at the genres or reading the synopsis, I went to watch it and was surprised to be introduced to a weeaboo vampire and a shit ton of jokes thrown at my face. This was fine, I love comedy anime, but the comedy in this show just wasn't very funny. I actually almost dropped it in the first half because I was painful bored. The story wasn't interesting to me and the jokes were unfunny. The second half, however, I ... did find entertaining at the very least, though the same problems were there, just less prevalent. Most of the jokes weren't funny and the story was mediocre at best.

Now into the specifics. As for the art. I did like the art style, though I feel like some aspects were poorly drawn. Like the eyes were sometimes way too big and the boobs. I'm not one to get upset over big anime boobs but the boobs in this show just looked stupid most of the time.

As for the characters, they weren't very interesting. The character who interested me the most was Bell and even she wasn't very intriguing. Also, some parts of their character just made no sense. Bell being in love with Staz felt randomly thrown in there and Staz's personality was inconsistent. This may be a little nitpicky, but these are things that bugged me.

I think Blood Lad is what to me, your average, mediocre anime looks like. Silly, dumb jokes, fanservice, trope-y characters, etc. It's an anime you watch when you're bored and want to watch something mindless, not something you analyze or recommend to others.

Overall the anime is well animated, voice acted well and utilises camera angles to convey power and equilibrium in character conversation. However it suffers greatly from information over-load: setting up for a second season that has yet to happen.
In ten episodes were introduced to: Fuyumi; Staz; Bell; Liz; Braz; Dek; Mimic; Mamejiro; Saty; Nyen; Heads; Wolf; Franken; Beros; Goyal; ‘Wolf King” and Arkim
Each having there own backstory, motivations, and inter-character relations which on top of explaining the structure of the demon world and the different areas/districts inside of it plus the hierarchy of control: makes it very disconnected.

Every episode adds more unnecessary information ... or going on unrelated tangents confusing what the actual plot is as many different story’s are playing out side by side: Staz wants to resurrect Fuyumi; Braz wants to kill the Wolf King; Wolf wants to take-over every territory; Franken wants to create the perfect demon through Arkim; and a some point your watching Braz rolling down a hill while Staz tries to escape the dimensional highway while Dek/Mimic fight off a hoard while you think “what happened to the book we spent 3 episodes getting?”

The final episode ends with Staz yet again promising Fuyumi to bring her back with seemingly no progress made and five new characters introduced just one episode prior. Needless to say, a very unsatisfying end.

However I did enjoy watching it in the sense of bubble gum, an easy to ingest piece of media that doesn’t take itself to seriously and was 20x better while relaxing with a can of cider.

I conclusion if you want to watch a short anime that you could binge in a day or simply want to “switch off” analytically then I would highly recommend, anything else then you should look elsewhere.

This series was really promising but honestly it left me feeling more conflicted than satisfied. And not the good kind of conflicted. It's not that the characters are bad, the overused vampire thing or anything like that, it's just something is unsatisfactory about this anime. (possible spoilers)

Story:
The story was so cute at first! the first episode really intrigued me, i thought that Fuyumi was precious and Staz was so cool! not to mention Wolf and Staz's friendship was really sweet, but something about this story was so meh. It's slightly above average. Not saying that you shouldn't watch, if you like easy to keep up ... with and adorable anime i suggest this.
The fights were lame, the fights felt like they only existed to show how strong Staz is, which inherently isn't a bad thing if it feels right. But in Bloodlad's case, it just feels so boring, like the fights feel so empty and meaningless.

Characters:
Fuyumi may be a boring, airheaded, walking pair of tits but i love her! i feel like if she was more fleshed out like Staz was it wouldn't be as enjoyable. sure she has her moments where she feels more real but i like how dumb and adorable she is. As for our main character Staz, he's pretty cool, i mean hes super over powered but i enjoy his selfishness at the start and how he starts thinking for Fuyumi more towards the end. Wolf is super cute and i love him period. He's not like super duper important but once again his and Staz's friendship is lovely. Bell is cute, she's kind of annoying but the moments when we get more of her are nice. Staz's brother is so fucking lame, his character is just "oh im scary and you can trust me but you cant" and it's just annoying but i suppose that's the point.
There's so many cute characters, the world seems so big and so full of all these colorful characters.I feel like they're the best part of the show, especially the cute little followers of Staz who watch over his territory, i really enjoyed their scenes.

Art:
I DIG THE ART. i started watching simply because the art looked nice. i love the style and the colors are nice too.

Overall enjoyment:
the series was fun, it's definitely got a nice uniqueness to it, and i like that, i haven't found a series like this in a while. But it wouldn't be the first thing i go out recommending, and i definitely am not going to think about it in a couple weeks. I'll probably either give the manga or the OVA a chance since I'd like to know what happens to Fuyumi and Staz but I'm not entirely sure. If you want to finish a fun little anime in a day then i suggest Bloodlad, it's nothing ground breaking but it's very fun with some cute and lovely characters.

It was pretty interesting but it's a shame that the anime didn't finish the story. I think it would have ended at ep 12-13 but they cut it at ep 10. It's a shame really cause ep 10 caught my attention.

Anyway if you just wanna watch something different yet nostalgic to older anime then I recommend this. The story is fair and enjoyment is fair as well.

I didn't have anything in particular to like about it but I will say that it had some favorable refrences to other anime such as dragon ball, the charm of this show is very much like Gintama too. ... I don't have anything in particular to dislike either, the show was a nice watch and that's just it.

I don't really know what else to write so I'll just hold a key until I can submit this.................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................God damn it why won't it submit yet xD

It's simple: the world needs more 10 episode long series. Especially those of a fighting, Shonen Jump style. Not everybody has time to watch a thousand Bleach episodes. Hell, at this point in life, I'd struggle to get through a 24 episode series. 10 episodes is a sweet spot--I can knock it out in about a week without too much effort.

Length is both Blood Lad's best quality and worst enemy. It was nice being able to watch through a series for once, rather than start a few episodes and get intimidated by the length. on the other hand, to get to 10 episodes, Blood Lad ... just threw the concept of narrative into the air and shot it with a shotgun. Is it worth extoling a short length when the story so obviously needed extra time to flex its muscles?

Aside from the weird jumps forward in time that it does in between episodes, Blood Lad simply doesn't have an ending. It just stops. I'm not sure if it's because they ran out of money, or just because they didn't care, but either way it fails to conclude.

If the anime was completed & continued, Blood Lad would be a fun & entertaining ongoing series as the characters, world, interactions & fights are solid but sadly there is only one season and most of it by the end of the final episode was set-up and worldbuilding.

It lacked answers to questions, payoffs to events and overall there wasn't a conclusion to anything that was presented from the shows start.

If the show recieves another season by some chance, I think it would be worth the watch for those who want story and a fun world but as it stands you should only watch it for ... the jokes/references. Something that you could do on YouTube and save yourself from watching 10 20+minute episodes. Which is a damn shame.