Also this is my first review, so be nice. And English is not my native language, so sorry if there are some mistakes.
Ok, So this is the third installment in the Blood franchise by Production I.G. Which is a great studio that had done some amazing things, but at the same time it's no stranger to failing miserably, as demonstrated by this particular anime.
*Story*
Well, if you're familiar with the previous 'Blood' installments, you'd know that the premise is about a schoolgirl with a sword who fights vampire-like creatures known as 'Teropterids' in the original movie, and 'Chiropterans' in Blood+. In this version she fights creatures that are nothing like vampires, but basically just man eating monsters. Which is actually a pretty cool change that I'm okay with. Anyway, Since this is a remake, it goes without saying that the premise nothing new, but to its credit, at least it tries to change it a little bit (though it doesn't pay off, unfortunately).
The story itself is very weak, because it lacks actual content and a lot of the episodes are semi episodic and they don't reveal any significant clue about what the monsters are and what's underneath the surface here. That is except for the last two and a half episodes. That means you can basically watch the first 9 episodes and be none the wiser about what's taking place than you were in episode 1. In fact, you'll only have more questions (though not many since hardly anything happens that seems important). All you have happening in each episode is some boring slice of life/school stuff.. which hardly has any bearing on the plot (and very little on character development) and then it goes straight to the next monster battle.
It has a weak presentation and despite being a much shorter series it's pacing seems worse than Blood+'s pacing. At least in Blood+ you had 50 episodes in which things actually progress through out them, even if it was a little slow.. Here you have a pointless monster of the week formula, boring dialogue and some minor clues here and there for 9 1/2 episodes and only the remaining 2 1/2 have the meat of the story (which makes it very rushed and badly planned).
So it probably could've worked (slightly) better if it was just a 6 or 7 episode OVA instead of 12 episodes + a full length movie. Speaking of which, this series might remind you of some bad Gore OVAs from the 80s, but with modern moe girls and pretty boys etc'.
Anyway, I won't spoil anything, but in the last 2 episodes of the series an insane twist is revealed that was supposedly in plain sight the whole time (which to its credit, was cleverly foreshadowed). But be warned since it is very farfetched and poorly excused, so you'd most likely be left scratching your head... Yes, even with the poor amount of story it has, it fails to make sense of it. The twist is just a bad excuse for every absurdity in this anime. I did like the basic idea behind it, but it was done very poorly.
Oh and it ends with a cliffhanger, so you have to watch the sequel movie for the conclusion (which was so boring, slow and mostly predictable, I nearly fell asleep watching it).
So In a nutshell, the story has little quantity, no quality, a corny and anti climatic conclusion. So yeah, I'm gonna say the story is pretty bad.
*Characters*
The main character's name is Saya and she has different personalities in each Blood installment. One thing they have in common though is that they all have a badass monster hunter mode and a normal girl mode.
In the original movie Saya was actually pretty bland, but that was only a 50 min movie, so there's not much time for fleshing out characters.
In Blood+ Saya had a great personality that was fleshed out properly. She was kinda cute, but I'm sure nobody would argue that she was a moeblob. Besides, she behaved in ways that were very believable and realistic. Pretty much what you'd expect from a teenage girl in that situation.
In this version on the other hand, she IS more of a moeblob that panders shamelessly to the otaku base. No attempt for realism here.
She's a cute and sensitive klutz who's good at sports.. So you're probably wondering how a klutz can be good at sports? does that add up? Though I might be wrong here, I really don't think it does.. But who cares!? she's a fetish for fanboys!
But regardless, even the part about her being "sensitive" and "caring" which is established quite clearly in the beginning of the series, is thrown out the window later on when she doesn't even flinch at the sight of her friends and others who live in her village being brutally slaughtered by monsters (and notice that this is not when she's in badass mode).
Not to mention that she recovers way too fast after witnessing these horrible deaths. Some of which she could've prevented, but didn't for no reason whatsoever (or rather, the reason is just to show gorey deaths). So the little character development it has is laughable. On top of that, Saya is the only character with a backstory and even the one she has is very lame and vague.
The rest of the cast isn't even worth mentioning. They're all familiar cardboard cutouts you won't care about, and/or just there to die. Oh and the monsters have no personality either. No surprise there though.
The characters are horrendous!
*Art*
I'm personally not a fan of Clamp's artwork and though I know some people are, I doubt even they will claim that Clamp's skinny + moe + bishounen + bright colors art style fits an anime as grim and Gorey as this.
To its credit however, the animation is fluid and certainly an improvement over Blood+.
Also the monsters have pretty creative (scary) designs and each monster is unique and fights differently. Much better than the Chiropreran in Blood+. And the monster battles themselves are very well done and with extreme Elfen Lied-style exaggerated gore (actually this is even more Gorey than Elfen Lied).
The only problem I have with the battles is that Saya could've got a little more injured to make most of the battles less one sided.
The art's really good overall though not really my cup of tea.
*Sound*
Not much I can say about this department.
The opening sounds nice, but it has a lot of engrish, which is kind of annoying.
The ending song is ok, I guess.
The sound effects are good, but they sometimes feel out of place. For example when Saya clashes with a monster with her sword, it sounds like the monster is made out of metal.
Can't say much about the OST, I guess it's pretty forgettable.
Even though I don't know Japanese, I guess the voice acting's ok, nothing special though.
The sound as a whole ain't bad.
*Enjoyment*
This is a very subjective part of the review, so let's put it this way: if you Like Gore, you will enjoy this. If you like a little bit of moeness and Gore combined you'll enjoy this even more.
That is of course if you can overlook the quality of the storyline and the characters. Personally? I didn't enjoy it much. The whole thing just felt unnecessarily mean spirited and unpleasant. Don't get me wrong, there are some nice battles that were fun to look at, but they also felt empty because there isn't much context behind it, and you don't care about the characters involved. In fact, you might end up rooting for the monsters at some point.
*Overall* 4/10
It's not the worst I've ever seen, but overall it's pretty damn bad and it takes the franchise a few steps backwards instead of going forwards.
I'll give this series some credit though - it's among the most violent anime I've ever seen (it's insane!). Though the violence in it is stylized differently, it should still be up there together with Genocyber, Violence Jack, Shigurui, the Hokuto no Ken OVA and others.
