Story:
Since you are most probably a returning customer to the Blood franchise, you are already familiar with the story. Sword-wielding mystery girl in a high school uniform fights man-eating monsters. Mystery is solved in a gory, splattery, bloody, dismembering, brain-bits-flying, bone-cracking way.
Blood-c has no continuity with the previous anime of the franchise. It takes the basic story and spins a different tale. So, if you, like me, were expecting more Haji—gawd, there can never be enough Haji!—you will be sorely disappointed. Sigh~ (Allow me a moment to once again overcome my disappointment in this crucial omission)
So, is this a good story? In a word, yes. But that becomes apparent only when you finish it. Once again, the first few episodes are trolling you in a very horrible way. This would have been acceptable in a 24 episode show but in a 12 episode show it did irreparable damage. So, it requires a certain masochism to get you through to the good part.
Characters:
It is very difficult to talk about the characters without including major spoilers, so I'll do it this way…
Saya is a high school moe-tard klutz by day and a kickass, monster-slaying, katana-wielding warrior by night. How could that possibly be combined, you ask. Watch to the end and be amazed.
The rest of the cast—no, I am not being lazy, it has to be this way—are just as they should be. Watch to the end and be amazed.
Animation:
Anorexic 7-feet-tall people design courtesy of CLAMP aside, this anime really rocks the fight scenes. Smooth, sleek, gory; these scenes are the main reason to watch this anime. Every time it was blood--fest time it was like the anime became ten times better. Even the animation came alive.
Music:
I noticed three distinct soundtrack groups. One for the horrid slice of life wannabe. One for the creepy times and one for the fight scenes. I must say the creepy times soundtrack impressed me the most. It was exquisitely creepy.
OP: Awesome. Fluid and beautifully stylised animation with a standard j-rock ditty. I wish the whole thing could have been like the OP.
ED: Boring. I skipped it every time.
Overview:
It is very difficult to recommend this because it sabotages itself with a horrible beginning but if you are into gory stuff, this will not disappoint. It is not called “blood” for nothing, you know. Some of the brutal stuff I saw popped my eyes out and I was even watching the censored version. I would have liked to see it uncensored but there is no way I'm watching this again. I would rather re-watch Blood+ ...where Haji is.
