Reviews

Apr 29, 2014
Strike the Blood seems your typical Vampire story. Plenty of female to bite on. Plenty of fights and even more romance that no one seems to realize is there. Seriously though. It is obvious to us, but none of the characters progress beyond a "I like you a bit" point. What Strike the Blood does have that sets it a bit apart is it's own little world. Many animes have combined Technology and magic, but it's usually left in 2 separate worlds that interact with each other on an occasional basis. STB split that and threw it all into a nutshell the side of a man-made island.

Current summary based on the released season:

Pros- Animation and art are definitely current. Crisp images and clear battles make you understand the flow of the show. Aerial images clearly define what you are viewing without leaving a blob of grey in the corner to make up for time. The soundtrack wasn't half bad. Some re-used themes in the music from other animes of a similar genre, but not so much that you get bored with them.

Cons- Romance. It's there, but not enough. How can you expect a "Harem" anime to get away without any true romance? Not going to happen. Visual cues tell us some, but are not enough for a majority of the audience. There is no true background. Similar shows have had this issue with "Something bad happened to our main hero but we won't tell you what it was." Bakemonogatari is an example of this. With any luck they will work with this and make a second season that explains a bit more and introduces the Romance aspect into the anime more.

Cons - (Possible spoilers) Spoilers are against the rules, but some of my cons have to do with particular aspects of the anime. Please stop reading at this point if you have not watched the show yet: As stated before, there is plenty of room for advancement into a second season, but out ending (Post episode 24 credits) kind of kills that by giving too much away. The primary battle catchphrase. It took me a while, but it became part of the show. At some point she needed to butt out and let him do something without her.
(Possible spoiler cont.)
Final Con - Lack of character backgrounds on several of the primary females. It becomes well obvious in the last half of the show that Asagi is something special and non-human. Art choices to have a characters eyes glow or change color is an indication of this, but we are never told what it was. Kanase was completely ignored after her arcs expect for the casual pop in in random episodes. This happens for every character. We are given a 30 second explanation of who they are and then we dive into the story. A bit more would be helpful in this and could have expanded the arcs across more than just 3 or 4 episodes.

Overall - I liked the show for what it is and for what it lacks. I see room for improvement in a second season and wish the company the best of luck. Let's hope they review sites like these to see what it is that people want and need.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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