Blood+

Saya Otonashi is a seemingly ordinary girl living a mundane life with her adoptive family in Okinawa City. In fact, her only peculiarities are suffering from anemia and being unable to remember any of her life beyond the previous year.

However, Saya's forgotten past quickly comes back to haunt her—one night, she is attacked at school by a creature that feeds on human blood. Just when all hope seems lost, a mysterious man named Haji appears and fends off the creature temporarily. But when her rescuer forces her to drink his blood, Saya suddenly enters a trance and slays the monster with ease, using her own blood as a catalyst.

Saya then learns of an organization named Red Shield, founded for the sole purpose of defeating the hellish beasts. Now Saya and Haji must work together with Red Shield to fight these fearsome monsters and unlock the secrets to the girl's past.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Haji Main

Konishi, Katsuyuki Japanese

Otonashi, Saya Main

Kitamura, Eri Japanese

Miyagusuku, Kai Main

Yoshino, Hiroyuki Japanese

Diva Supporting

Uechi, Aki Japanese

Goldsmith, Solomon Supporting

Tsujitani, Kouji Japanese

Moses Supporting

Yanagi, Naoki Japanese

Miyagusuku, Riku Supporting

Uechi, Aki Japanese

Mahler, Nathan Supporting

Fujiwara, Keiji Japanese

David Supporting

Kosugi, Juurouta Japanese

Fei-Ong, Karl Supporting

Sasaki, Nozomu Japanese

Ochikoshi, Tomonori Producer

Maruyama, Hiroo Producer

Morishita, Katsuji Producer

Oomatsu, Yutaka Producer, Script

Reviews

Dec 30, 2024

Dompa112

Recommended

Another one for my favorite list. Hidden gems. Anime that to me came out of nowhere really and just hit really hard. It was only a day or two prior to watching it i even heard about it. I had tone of other shows on my plan to watch list but was just browsing randomly when i took a interest in this. I dont even remember what it was that drew me in. Im not even that big on vampire themes. But yeah maybe the feel of a darker more serious anime. And it truly delivered.

All around i can only give praise. Story got ... me hooked. Both for the overall plot aswell as its great characters. The musical score all from OP/ED to the the original ost. The ending and conclusion was great aswell. Always like early 2000 animations. It delivered on being more dark and mature not having any stuff like fan service or that quirky anime humor.

All in all a great show. Looking for a more darker and mature anime, regardless wheather you into vampire theme of not this is a great watch. 9/10

Reviewer’s Rating: 9

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Dec 24, 2024

stayKrillinEm

Mixed Feelings

I have many thoughts on Blood+ but let me start off by saying it is good. It is a solid and simple story. And that also my problem with it…

Keep in mind, Blood+ actually has alot of stuff that I love. There’s the music, the atmosphere, the mystery, the globe-trotting adventure, and some really brutal twists. I came especially for the romance and its…ok. Let’s just say my 14 yo self would've adored it. But I wasn’t expecting Blood+ to pull such pretty hefty drama from such an average story. Maybe its the great animation and soundtrack, probably the nice development in certain characters who ... annoyed me (Kai and Mao specifically). And yeah, watching Saya come to terms with her past and grow as a warrior is compelling and def helped. It has a lot going for it
And at its best, Blood+ is a pretty thrilling adventure!

But at its worst? Its like the foundation of Blood+ is solid because its story and characters are so…average? Not in a good way. And cliched. Its close to boring by the 2nd half of the show (after ep. 32)

Here are my issues:

1. The fights were not that good at all. Really unimpressed with the sword fighting. It is very bloody though.

2. I was so ready to drop it at the before ep. 9 because none of the emotional moments between the family ( Saya, Kai, Riku, and George ) were working for me. I think because its a lot of it was tell, don't show and corny dialogue. Yes guys, i remember how happy your childhood was, you told me every mjnd numbingly happy detail of it since ep 1! With flashbacks!

3. The story relies alot of conveniences from pretty dumb decisions on the characters part. I won’t go into detail, but both the protag and antags are bad for this

4. The only way I could watch this was the dub. I didnt like the dub very much.

4. The biggest problem: the villains. Diva and her chevaliers were the most interesting to watch at the start, and the mystery surrounding their goals, how the show explores their weird family dynamic was pretty cool! But their motivation felt unsatisfying to the max and its pretty rushed. Diva had so much potential as a villain, but I lost ao much interest in her becuase we never see how she feels, what her thoughts are, or even what her past was like, unlike Saya

But look all this complaining aside, I still sat down for 3 days binge watching all 50 episodes because despite its many flaws, it still kept me invested. So overall, its a good show. Theres enough to praise here, but I guess it was just an unsatisfactory ending to an ok story/ a great mystery that got to me

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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Oct 30, 2021

tsujiri

Not Recommended

Funny

TLDR: Watch Episode 30, and then return to the beginning (anytime from Episode 1 - 5). You'll thank me later.

Full version: Plot holes, plot holes everywhere. I was very excited going in. 50 episodes of what seemed like a promising series, good looking characters, and a bad ass female heroine? Sign me up, vampire novels (especially from Laurell K. Hamilton) are some of my most-loved books. Well, if you're also a fan of those books, don't bother with this trash, it's closer to Twilight in terms of poor quality.

Biggest problem: It moves too slow.

No anime, movie, or media, should take 30 episodes (that's ... 30*30 mins = 900 mins = 15 hours) to tell us a backstory that literally took 15 MINUTES.

I'm serious - if you skip Episodes 1 - 29, you won't miss anything. We don't learn anything about the protagonist (Saya), except that she has PTSD flashbacks every episode. The same two flashbacks. On repeat. No one explains anything until episode 30 (more than halfway through!), where there's a full conversation - and fully colored - flashback sequence.

The remaining 20 episodes have slightly better pacing, but can also be skimmed through. There's a lot of repetition, filler, and side character scenes that don't contribute to any developmental plot.

Main character:
Saya starts as an oversensitive and useless girl, and later becomes an insensitive and somewhat useful girl. That's all. I wasn't a fan of her at the beginning, but I really started to dislike her in the London arc.

It's totally understandable that most humans would need time to transition into e.g. the military, the battlefield, anywhere with a lot of violence and potentially death. PTSD and other triggers are natural. But Saya's aversion to killing does not seem to be something she can overcome at all, costing the precious lives of basically everyone else around her. And when she does manage to 'kill' monsters, her rate of success is about 1 out of 6. That's right.

1 out of 6, less than 20% effective.

I was expecting a goddess of destruction, and got a goddess of hesitation. Considering how she's repeatedly worshipped as the 'world's only hope' or salvation from monsters, 20% is a pretty dangerous rate to hedge your life on, imo.

Which leads me to another important point...

The bad guys in this show who don't die, get stronger. The heroine and her team members who die / don't die, seem to struggle to live even one more day. There is a weird power imbalance that could be described as watching a sports team play a game where they NEVER WIN. Throughout the series, Saya's team suffers from severe injuries, death, and tragedies, while the antagonist and gang remain... untouched. It is the opposite of most hero stories. So, even if Saya is weak, her team is sadly, not much better.

And yes, in case it isn't already obvious, the producers kill off a lot of amazing characters (but don't worry. The manga rights all these wrongs, and keeps the RIGHT people alive).

Side characters:
Almost all the side characters were entertaining and had excellent character depth. It was like all the creative writing that should've gone into Saya, went into the background characters instead. You start rooting for e.g. David and Julia, enjoying Lewis, Riku, Min, Moses, and Solomon (my favourite boy). The side characters kept me watching the more than Saya. Granted, not everyone was neccessary (like the Schiff), but the dialogue and personalities came to life for each of them, and is possibly the series only redeeming point. Heck, I'd rate Saya a 2/10, and the supporting characters a 10/10.

The only 2 side characters I could do without, would be Kai and Haji. Kai is full of denial, selfish, projecting his insecurities on others, an arrogant troublemaker, and incestuous towards his sister. He always causes problems for others, and then doesn't take responsibility afterwards. I firmly believe he should've stayed in Okinawa and gotten married to Mao. He would've been happier, and his life goals would've been the same.

Haji had a lot of potential, but slowly became a silent 1D character, more like a human shield and servant for Saya. His past and personality should've been explored more, and there was a hint of it in like, the last 2 episodes, and then it was gone. His strength was also weak compared to many bad guys, always in defensive stance vs. attacking, and unable to wound any of them. A lot of good intention, but overall a passive and forgettable character.

Other notes
- Plot holes around Saya, her parents, chevaliers, the species, biology, are never explained fully, if at all. I was frustrated throughout the episodes and referenced the manga often, just to understand what the * was going on. They don't even mention the word 'vampire,' even though that's what they are, extremely evolved bat creatures.

- Content is predictable for anyone who knows basic World History and world geography. Judging from the rave reviews, a lot of people don't.

- I couldn't stand the music / soundtrack. The series plays like 10 variations of the same song (the antagonist singing), at least once per episode. It's not even a full song, by the way, just a 20 second melody. Gets tiring, fast, so mute your volume and read the subtitles if it gets unbearable for you too.

- Considering how burdensome Saya was, I was really hoping she would die at the end and give it a clean break. Nope. Instead, all the irritating characters stay alive, and the best ones remain dead.

All in all: This series was a waste of time, psychologically dark, and I wouldn't recommend it. The manga appears to be much better and a quick read, though there are many character differences.

Reviewer’s Rating: 3

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