Review Video: https://youtu.be/ZpSXIm7GbEA
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So many unanswered questions.
As we all may know kadokawa is famous for their harem/demonic/ ecchi series. High School DXD, Testament of New Devil Sister, and High School of The Dead. Today we are going to be looking at one of their series that came out in 2013 "Strike the Blood".Now before we get too far into this, I want to let you all know, that even though I'm going to be pointing out some good and bad in this review. I actually did enjoy the series to the point of re-watching.
premise:
The, basic story, is focused around our protagonist Koujo and our female heroine Himeragi. koujo was your normal every day highschool student until a prior vampire acquaintance of his forces him to become her successor. Known as a progenrator. "Spoiler" Koujo is said to be the strongest.
List of questions 1: useless hoody
Straight out of Episode one I already had questions, like why our main character is walking around with a hoody on complaining about the heat. I guess it could be to conceal his identity as a vampire or hide from the sun. But then again we have this other vampire dude who is able to walk around in day light and is just fine. not to mention Kojou's vampiric instincts and traits don't even start to show till he is turned on by the opposite sex, so why the hoody?
In the story about midway into episode 1 We find Koujo going through a motion like he's suffering from a killer hangover or migraine. This was brought on by Himeragi questioning him about how he was once human and was able to become a progenator. Koujo then replies "Sorry, himeragi I can't remeber anything from that time, every time i try I'm wracked with pain..". .... Uh ok.. What and Why does this happen? The story never goes in any further as to why koujo can't remember, anything from the incident. or as to who or what is responsible for it. I can only assume, that Avorora some how erased his memories, or that this is the price he had to pay for becoming the 4th progenator. In episode 1 we see scenes that serve as flash backs where Koujo attempts to stop Avarora from doing something before she turns to ash in his hands" But nothing that shows where him becoming a vampire starts, or anything that references why he can't remember anything from the incident. The only other thing I can think of is, maybe it's trama from the incident. Or The writer just felt they had to add some type of drama to the story in that regard, but then completely forgot what the reason behind the drama was. it leaves us in the dark about it, as this topic is never brought to light again through out the rest of the series.
Now don't get me wrong this series has it's good points. It's got some pretty good comedy moments, and if your into the ecchi like I am you got pretty much all you need, I mean it's kadokawa. But the story leaves so many unanswered questions. For example: in episode 15 and 16 Why Kojou's sister just so happens to inhabit Avarora's spirit. And Why Kojou's mother knows about it, not to mention how kojou denies the fact that his mother has any idea that he's a vampire, even though we know she does because she knew he was injured in the exact spot where himeragi's spear hit him. I even watched the OVA's thinking that maybe we could find out more about these unexplained events. But nope the OVA'S just dove into a completely different plot.
Some other things that really just grind on my nerves. Was the constant over use of "From here on this is my fight!" "NO senpai this is our fight" they could of at least switched the lines between the characters every once in awhile. To mix it up a bit.
There's still time for me to speak about how I loved that the Akebanashi Rockets did the first opening theme. I wasn't too found of the second theme though, I've never been a fan of Japanese mixed with English themes.
As far as the series is in general I honestly believe the whole harem thing was done way better in High School DXD and Testament of New Devil Sister. The irony in that is DXD was released one year prior of Strike the Blood, and Testament of Sister new Devil was released two years after. But on a scale of 1-10 this series ranks a anywhere from 5 to a 7 in my honest opinion. It's watchable, funny, and matches it's genre tags. So if you like harem Ecchi series, Give this one a go. But avoid if you want a full story.
