Blood-C does more of the same, which is both good and bad.
What They Say:
A brand new “Blood” brought to you by the dream-team of Blood x CLAMP. The original animation “Blood-C” at last begins.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
With the first two episodes of Blood-C, we’ve gotten a series that definitely wants to give us a tease of things without much in the way of payoff. As we’ve gotten to know Saya, she’s been fun to watch in both her incarnations. While I know on some level I should not like the klutzy and slightly off-kilter daytime version of her that goes to school, trips here and there and wears an eternal smile, there is some sort of charm to her that I have a hard time really getting upset about it. The night time material certainly isn’t providing a payoff, but it’s interesting to see what her potential is. But at the same time, I watch her daytime version and wonder if they can pull off an entire series where less than nothing happens like this. It’s like a game of chicken.
As the days go on, we do get a little more look at some of the people that populate the town, though it’s more just a few of the adults, such as her father who apparently has to have weak coffee cause he can’t handle more, and one of her teachers that’s just a little too friendly and close with her personal space. Saya has that kind of spaced out look at times, her only other daytime expression other than big smiles, but even that is fleeting considering some of her fellow students that brighten her day. There’s a lot of nice little moments with Saya and the others as they spend time together, and while you feel there may be hints about more things about her, such as the revelation that she doesn’t watch comedies or variety shows and the like, it doesn’t really seem to mean anything other than a very slow way to point out that she has no nightlife. Which we already get.
This episode does spend some time at night though with the last quarter of the episode given over to it. It does start off properly moody, something the series has done well with when it comes to these sequences, before it gets to the meat of it all. Having her on a hunt gives us a little more than we have before, where it’s mostly just been her right on the scene, and it’s more of a casual walk than anything else as the suspicious person is almost ambling along. It does take a turn to the creepy as the real threat is revealed, and it doesn’t hold back which is a plus, but it’s curious to see Saya taking a very, very cautious approach to it all. The action continues to be the best part of each episode when they do it, but it’s such a small part that it’s hard to get enthused about it, particularly as there’s no real context for it all yet.
In Summary:
Blood-C was one of the few series that I was actively looking forward to from the summer season based on name recognition of the show itself and the people behind it. But with three episodes so far, it’s been the emptiest of all the shows I’ve been watching, which is saying a lot considering some that I do watch. This episode doesn’t change much from what the first two were like, though it does start to nudge a little more information out there, but it’s already feeling like a whole lot of too little, too late with it. The production values are stellar, but it’s hard to even say the story has any potential because there really hasn’t been a story to grasp onto yet. Saya sure is pretty but that’s not enough to go on.
Grade: C+
Simulcast By: Nico Nico
Review Equipment:
Sony KDS-R70XBR2 70″ LCoS 1080P HDTV, Dell 10.1 Netbook via HDMI set to 1080p, Onkyo TX-SR605 Receiver and Panasonic SB-TP20S Multi-Channel Speaker System With 100-Watt Subwoofer.
