Bank Robberies! Vampires! Excitement?
What They Say:
A case of insomnia swept across the globe. As a side effect of the drug developed to suppress this sickness of causes unknown, the “bloodivores” were born. Born from bloodivore and human parents, protagonist Mi Ryu (Mi Liu) was known as “The Child of Hope” tying bloodivore and humankind together. However, when Miryu (Mi Liu) is arrested as the principal offender in a bank robbery, he is taken to a special prison operated by the Bureau of Special Threat Management for observing bloodivores.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
When news started churning out of the studios about the Fall 2016 season, Bloodivores was earning more attention than one would think a show of its subject matter would garner. Being about modern day vampires and their struggle for survival, it isn’t exactly the plot that was attracting the media’s eye. The interesting little anomaly of Bloodivores being a Chinese-Japanese collaboration (a rare and relatively new phenomenon) is to blame for the attention. Unfortunately, upon my first viewing of the pilot episode that may be the only interesting factor. Generic in almost every possible sense of the word, Bloodivores struggles from the starting line to make the viewers really care about the characters or the peril they find themselves sequestered in.
The pilot begins with a bass heavy techno accompanied fade-in to a speedometer reading at a blistering 300 Km/h (186.4 mph). That’s FAST, which the subsequent zoom-out to a CGI Porsche absolutely fails to capture; both within the sports car and the police officers engaging in what must be the most lukewarm pursuit in law enforcement history. After some failed attempts at stopping Mi Liu and Anji, the Porche’s passengers, and some judicious usage of hand grenades, we cut to a slightly less pulse pounding scene. In the hustle and bustle of an urban environment, the camera focuses on a giant screen conveniently explaining exactly what makes this universe different from our own; a drug to cure a mysterious virus that has genetically transformed some of its patients into a vampiric species dubbed “Bloodivores”. Bloodivores are treated as a second class citizen of sorts, as witnessed by Mi Liu and his quartet of tropes during the chaos caused by and the subsequent beatdown an inflicted person receives outside a bank at the hand of police officers. The visuals here may once again betray viewers here, as the city feels relatively lifeless. Gray buildings on top of gray streets traveled by well…gray people. Given the use of CGI in the opening scene, I figured EMON would’ve squeezed in a few extra folks in the background.
This gang of vampires turns out to be more than just Bloodbuddies™ though, it turns out they are also a band of bank robbers headed by the cocky, disconnected young Mi Liu. The fact that all of these characters are so generic (The hot-head, the quiet one, the emotional woman) makes it quite difficult to actually care about them, even when the robbery goes incredibly but predictably wrong. Once taken into custody, we soon learn that Mi Liu is not in fact all Bloodivore, but a half-breed known as the “Child of Peace”. I imagine this title is due to the hope that Mi Liu being a product that bridges the gap between human and Bloodivore will somehow make him an instrument of commonality between the species that can bring peace to all. One glance at Mi Liu’s rapsheet shows that he has thoroughly rejected this title, but not so much that he is prepared for the twist! What was originally thought to have “only” been a bank robbery is accompanied by 15 counts of murder!
What follows next must be the quickest trial in the history of the modern court system, with the four of them being found guilty of the murders and sentenced to death posthaste. Those familiar with Netflix’s Making A Murderer will quickly feel some similarities to Steven Avery’s famous murder trial ala being convicted despite a complete lack of any scientific evidence to support the verdict. The group is then carted off to what one would imagine is the holding cells until their execution…but they never make it. A brief introduction to a member of the BST, or Bureau of Special Threat Management, quickly shows their management style, swift and brutal. As the convoy is approaching the prison, the vehicles pull over and our protagonists are treated to a down and dirty street execution. The doors are swung open and a hailstorm of lead penetrates the van like a hot knife through butter, thoroughly eviscerating our heroes…or does it?
In Summary:
Thoroughly vanilla, Bloodivores feels like it’s going to be one of those shows that trundles along the middle of the pack this season. I didn’t hate it but then again I didn’t like it either, hell I didn’t feel much of anything as I believe at this point the plot and characters are so barren that a consensus cannot be found. This pilot isn’t even bolstered by lush art or smooth animation as it appears to be on the low end of the budget scale as well. BUT if you are a big fan of outrageous corporate irresponsibility and vampires, there could be something here for you.
Grade: C-
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
