What They Say:
The weak perish and the strong survive. As the bloodivores are tossed about by their cruel fate, Li Shin challenges Lu Yao, the strongest of the failures.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Another week, another episode of Bloodivores in the bank. Episode 6, entitled “Choices”, gifts viewers like us a relatively full plate of story development, effectively pushing the plot along into brand new territory. With the battle against the muscular teeth monsters finished at the hands of Lu Yao, both the main crowd and our small band of explorers finally escape the confines of the warehouse and into a new world. What the survivors see on the outside may dictate a worse fate than if they had stayed in the prison though, the fire to their proverbial frying pan.
The most powerful Bloodivore yet begins episode six entrenched in an intense battle with a character that hasn’t been seen since the second episode, assassin Li Shin. Lu Yao, destroyer of teeth monsters, appears to have some sort of previous relationship with Li Shin if the mid combat banter is any indication. Despite his best John Wu impressions, Li Shin can’t land even so much as a scratch on the guy, only further illustrating Lu Yao’s incredible strength. Upon Li Shin’s defeat (though not his death thanks to Lu’s mercy), it is noticed that Lu’s collar number actually raises rather than depletes as previously theorized. This revelation throws a bit of a wrench into the previous thought that trying to kill one another would reduce their collars to zero, making them explode. Before anybody has a chance to explore this new phenomenon, Lu Yao proceeds to bust out of the warehouse, bring everybody else with him (to his chagrin). That’s one group out into the urban wasteland, but what of the other duo?
When we last saw Mi Liu and Anji, she was having a heaping helping of his life force which achieved his initial goal (blood transfusion) in a roundabout way. Finally waking up from her coma, Anji musters up just enough strength to crawl to Mi Liu and wake him up from his frenzy-induced coma. Mi Liu, in his excitement over seeing a conscious Anji, neglects to see the ticket to the freedom they have been searching for. This ticket just so happens to be a gigantic hole in the wall of the warehouse left by the careening body of teeth monster, one that opens up a bleak new world. A wasteland of industrial destruction is laid out before the two, craving to be explored, and Mi Liu heeds that call. During their exploration, we get a little more backstory on Mi Liu presented through flashback…again. I am starting to grow tired of the “remember when we/I first…” version of story-telling heavily employed in Bloodivores; their use is born of laziness and poor story mapping, it feels shoe horned at this point.
This flashback in particular is brought on by Anji accusing Mi Liu of constantly lying her and the others in his posse. Considering his past, it is no wonder why Mi Liu would lie about how he grew up or where he came from; hell, he barely knows himself. Mi Liu had a very…Shinji Ikari-esque childhood; an experiment, neglected by his family, though cursed with a giant responsibility that any person would shrivel at. Pretty standard stuff really, EXCEPT Mi Liu’s odd relationship with Anji. Mi Liu’s first interaction with Anji was not of the same variety that we are seeing now to put it plainly. Reminding baby Mi Liu of his mother, he erupts into a crying fit upon seeing her for the first time, shortly vowing to protect Anji for the rest of her life (might not be much longer) onwards.
With all of our Bloodivores out in the wild, I wonder what dangers and revelations await them? Where are they? WHEN are they? Hopefully we will learn sooner rather than later without judicious flashbacking, I’m good with that.
In Summary:
Finally out of their prisons, the Bloodivores have the opportunity to explore the world around them, though it isn’t exactly a paradise. Urban wasteland sprawls out in front of the survivors, welcoming them into a world that is potentially worse than the one they just left.
Grade: C-
Streamed By: Crunchyroll