There is lack of caring and drama in Blood-C that makes it pure entertainment.
For one thing, Blood-C is very dry with its story telling. The first episode consists of Saya in her everyday life where she would go to school, meet with her friends and sing a joyful song, until she goes back home and beat the crap out of a monster. As Saya isn’t questioning her role, nor does she mix her secret life with school, the story really lacks at explaining what is really happening with the monsters, or the nature of their existence. In contradiction, the force of show actually resides in the fights between Saya and the enemies. Surely, the fight scenes should be labeled as pointless, too long and way too violent for no reasons, but it’s actually the first time in my life where I truly admired Clamp’s work. As it is, while the fights were great at showing off Saya’s personality, which is quite lacking logical emotional feelings, the way it depicted the monsters was absolutely fascinating. It is not rare to see an anime with monsters killing humans, but blood-c did it in a way where those creatures actually acted like real monsters. They don’t act on feelings of hate and lust of blood; they act on instinct which makes them more terrifying than your typical shounen antagonist. The big problem with blood-c is actually how far one need to suspend his disbelief. Even if the obvious contradictions worked as foreshadowing elements, it is not beyond the fact that the village is very dumb and stupid and that Saya has one of the most contradicting personality ever made in anime. For me, I enjoyed the story for what it was. It stayed true to its business, and didn’t go into something deep and useless.
And there’s a lot to say about Saya, the monster hunter. Probably hailed as one of the most worthless hero of the year, she makes use of the “protect everyone” trope quite actually well. By that, I mean that she doesn’t protect anyone, nor does she actually feel bad about it. If she would fail to protect someone, the next day she would sing a song about the nice weather. And again, she doesn’t question her supposable super powers and her extreme headache. Quite the dumb heroine I must say. On the other side, the other characters don’t really serve any purposes other than being gore material.
Visually, Blood-C has the reputation of being one hell of a bloody mess. Regretfully, most of us had to deal with the censorship that, while it wasn’t too bad, was definitely taking away some of the experience. As for the monsters design, it has to be some of the slickest and interesting ones I’ve seen in a while. In comparison, it is fair to say to it resembles some of the creatures in Mohiroh’s works. As for the character design and the environment, there’s really nothing much to say. If there’s one thing that would stand out as being original, it probably would the school uniform that I actually rather liked. The animation is actually handled quite well. For sure, some of the fighting animation might feel awkward, but the studio did use the monsters to their capacities, which makes them feel more real and alive.
The music is not really distinctive in the anime. It accords itself to the situation, but there isn’t any wow factor. Opening song is good, ending song is forgettable.
In conclusion, this review tended to explain Blood-C for what it is. Either way, you may find yourself that you’ll hate or love this show after reading this. And for me, I’ll have to place myself in the loving camp. For what it is, Blood-C works remarkably well at lacking anything deep, not trying too hard and simply being mild entertainment.
