What They Say:
The fourth progenitor is the most powerful vampire once thought to exist only in the world of legends. Yet when it appears in Japan, the government for some reason chooses an apprentice “sword shaman”, Yukina Himeragi, to observe and obliterate it. Bewildered by the disproportionate task and its specific details, Yukina arrives at the Demon District of Itogami-jima to watch Akatsuki Kojo, and a student at a private high school on Itogami-jima.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
With quite the show put on with what Akatsuki did while using his powers that are admittedly seemingly off the scale, there’s a fair bit of fallout in the city at this point in terms of how its being spun. For Akatsuki and Yukina, their relationship has managed to solidify a bit more since he saved her when her abilities weren’t up to par and that has helped to soften things just a bit more. But now events have moved into familiar territory as the pair are going off into their regular lives, since they can’t spend it just battling, and that means school. And more importantly, that means Yukina gets to be a transfer student at a new school where her newness magnifies her attractiveness by tenfold.
The school time aspect of the episode does a fair bit to introduce us to more supporting characters of both genders since Akatsuki has a fair number of friends with both and a generally easy way. Naturally, his bringing in Yukina causes all sorts of trouble since he’s hanging out with someone as cute as her, but it also goes worse for him when a girl friend named Asagi finds out about it and starts to think there may be something more to it all as well. He’s just viewing her as a good friend, but it’s pretty clear that she hopes for more than just that. Her bit of revenge on him early on is rather cruel, but I’m also just laughing that they’re handing in paper reports rather than submitting everything online like my own kids do. For such an advanced place…
The school side of the episode is fun, but thankfully it’s not the sole focus of the show here as we get Akatsuki and Yukina going off on an investigative mission related to the recent events they’ve had to deal with. It’s amusing how Akatsuki feels like he’s being protected by a middle schooler – which he is at times – since she’s more willing to go forward and in a lot of ways has more skill. With the threat of the whole island being unstable, the pair find themselves in a quickly dangerous fight, complete wit ha little exposition of course, that truly puts Yukina in a bind as the enemy they’ve faced now for a couple of episodes is about to put the finishing blow to her. Which means it’s time for a little dramatics. Which works well for me, even if the context of the story doesn’t, as what Yukina and Akatsuki are facing in this arc doesn’t feel all that well defined in a way, even if we’ve had a couple of instances of dealing with them so far.
In Summary:
Sometimes a show will hit an end of episode scene that, even if over the top, really does make you want to come back. Cutting someone’s head off and clinging to it? Yeah, we’ll definitely come back for that. Strike the Blood has brought in some interesting ideas, ones that admittedly feel like a number of light novel series out there in how it’s presented, but it’s doing it well with some really neat sequences and a more levelheaded male lead than I’m used to seeing these days. The show has a kind of off episode in a way here where the down time doesn’t feel like it connects too well, but it shifts into the main story side again pretty well and promises that we’re going to see some really interesting things happen in the next episode. Few really do that these days and that’s worthwhile.
Grade: B
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
Review Equipment:
Sony KDL70R550A 70″ LED 1080P HDTV, Apple TV via HDMI set to 1080p, Onkyo TX-SR605 Receiver and Panasonic SB-TP20S Multi-Channel Speaker System With 100-Watt Subwoofer.
