Blood C is literally a creative liberation from the two sister series in the Blood franchise; the only connection (so far) is that they all focus on a girl named Saya who wields a sword and fights monsters. Blood + had 50 episodes, and thus had plenty of arcs and time to develop its very large cast- Blood C, on the other hand, at the most, has 12 episodes, and thus uses most of its time to build up atmosphere. Which it excels at, at the expense of fleshing out the secondary characters. Before you rain on my parade, there are a few things to note; Blood C is part of the Blood franchise, which includes the movie Blood; The Last Vampire, and Blood +, the sequel anime show. Please, please stick this in your head now: Blood C has absolutely nothing to do with these two installments. It is a mere sister series with the shadow of the concept. Thus treat this as an entirely new show.
That said, I will put it out forward: Blood C is either a show you are going to loathe or that you are going to love. Most people hated it, some people liked it. I loved it. It is not for people who are looking for interesting fabulous fleshed out characters (this is coming from someone who is the biggest sucker for character development). This is a show that focuses on atmosphere and building it. It is a horror series. It is not an action series, though the action scenes in this show are some of the most creative, well animated ones I have seen.
It is literally horror at its best- I assure you that if you're a sucker for the type of horror which is more psychological than just pop-outs, this show is for you. If you hate slow build ups, move on. The first half of Blood C focuses on instilling the surreal setting and life of the show into your head. I won’t deny it; the first four episodes or so are pretty dull because they are monotonous; Saya sings a song to school, chatters with her buddies, and fights a monster. What you don’t realize is that this is all- and I mean all of it, pay attention to all the details- for a very good reason, which comes later. This is the part where I admit that there are some flaws; this could have been easily condensed into three episodes max. It still does a good job of developing a very eerie aura though; you have the constant feeling that something is very wrong about this town, and yet you can’t place your finger on it. There's an eerie tension consistently kept despite the seemingly innocuous events; a tension that's about to snap and yet you don't know when or how.
So whereas the first half spends its time just fleshing the atmosphere and setting of the world Saya lives in, and the latter half spends the next half tearing that world down. Allow me to present you the latter half of Blood C, which absolutely shines like no other. Halfway throughout this show, you are literally smacked in the face. Repeatedly. In each episode. This is the real deal- you are given cruel reality of the situation; and goddamn, it is cruel. It is merciless. I am not just talking about the gore, which mind you, is on par of that of Narutaru, which has some of the most disturbing scenes I have seen yet. The gore is of course, censored (not the show’s fault, the network’s fault, something which will be fixed when the DVDs come out and dear lord then you can let your stomach churn), but that’s not what makes it horrifying; it’s the way the gore happens, the way no one is spared in this show, the sounds which are so gruesomely realistic. This is not a show for the faint of heart. But the gore is only the sprinkles on the actual cake. The cake is the series of red herrings and plot twists that wrench your heart. You will witness in horror, how everything in front of you, how every trope known to anime kind, is smashed and ripped apart. If anything, Blood C excels at building atmosphere and horror. The fight scenes are as fabulous as they are gruesome. But yes. Blood C's purpose and key to the show is how it builds up the plot layer by layer, paranoia by paranoia. The villains are completely ruthless, and there is no battle fought without someone dying.
The characters are where things get messy. There’ s two very good reasons why none of the cast except Saya is fleshed out. Nevertheless, they are pretty stereotypical, and are very CLAMPish. But once again; you don’t really end up bothering about them for good reasons. Saya herself is very likeable; you come to empathize with her situation if anything and while you might get irritated with her….inepititude, at times, you have to understand what she’s going through. In the end, this show is about her for reasons you have yet to find out, so don’t be quick to judge!
Which brings me to the last, and most important aspect of an anime; how it ends. I have two huge problems with anime, as someone who has seen more than enough for a lifetime.
1.) The ending is rushed. You have no idea how frustrating this is. This is not a tv drama in which a season’s ending can be bad and can pick itself off the ground later on. This is a conclusion and nothing is more irritating and annoying than loving a show only to see the worst plot holes and resolution possible.
2.) Animes that build up to a movie, or huge series, tend to be terrible. Let’s look at two prime examples; .hack//ROOTS was the buildup to the game series, .hack//G.U Trilogy, and it just failed as an individual series because it only left us with very little to deal with and just a fancy commercial to buy the games. Higashi no Eden had wonderful, wonderful potential but got axed by the fact that it was nothing but a mere leg for the two movies to follow. As individual series, these tend to absolutely collapse.
Blood C completely surpasses these two typical faults and succeeds. It paces itself extremely, extremely well; the finale was fantastic and does not leave any open ties that cannot be answered by a movie sequel. The buildup to the finale itself is wonderful, for the most part; while the first part lags a little, it’s not a huge problem and hell, once you’re in, you are stuck in for the biggest ride. Not only does it separate itself as an individual show, and actually solve most of the problems raised in the show and leave a resolution (or many) for it to be complete on its own, but it manages to still raise questions and leave some unanswered so that it can tie itself over with the movie. You are left with a feeling of excitement and resolution; you want to go back and rewatch the series again, but at the same time you’re excited that some big questions are going to be answered in the movie installment.
What's even greater is the subtlety- you can go back through this series and catch on the really tiny moments and dialogue that what were once usually tasteless random things, are now essential ‘oh!’ moments where you realize there’s two (or more) things being said. I’m a huge fan of subtlety and I guess that’s why I’m such a passionate fan of this show, and I’m really glad they’re doing stuff like this.
Basically, Blood C was fabulous for me. It had the layered buildup of Shiki, the horror of Ghost Hound and themes of Jigoku Shoujo, and gore of Shadow Star. If you like horror, and well paced ones, then totally go for this. It’s not for everyone though, and it’s definitely not for the faint of heart. It takes huge, huge risks, risks that most series would not go for, but it manages to complete the leap and land with a very solid and steady landing. I personally, I believe Blood C is a remarkable show that pushes the boundaries of the Blood franchise and creates horror by clashing it with the mundane, ordinary life- only making it more frightening than ever.
