Blood Plus

The best way to describe Blood+ is to say that it would have made a REALLY GOOD 24 episode series. Pity the creators had to drag it out into a 50-episode "epic".

It's a shame really, because overall the anime is very good. The series is well animated, especially the battle scenes. The main story- involving Saya being inducted into Red Shield and their subsequent quest against Chiroptera- is interesting enough. And the characters are both well drawn and well developed. I was particularly taken with Saya: for once an anime high school heroine who isn't an obnoxious snot or a fan-servicey bimbo. Some of the antagonists- such as Solomon- are also well developed as real people with understandable motives, rather than just 'bad guys'.

All good enough so far. The problem is the story begins moving away from these aspects, and delving into different side plots involving new groups of people interested in the Chiroptera. The story begins skipping around from place to place, moving the action back and forth between countries, and introducing a host of new characters, which makes it increasingly difficult to follow exactly what is going on. Since very few of the characters are essential to the main plot, and none of them are as interesting as the main cast, all these side-plots end up feeling like filler. The sub-plot involving Kai's girlfriend and the journalist is a good example: it's not that they're poor characters or haven't got legitimate motives for what they do....they just don't end up adding much of value to the story. Likewise some of the antagonists are not that well developed, and seem to be there purely to widen the range of people for Saya to fight.

In all, whenever the series focussed on Saya, Red Shield, and the central story, I loved it. Had the series as a whole kept that focus, it could have been one of my favourite anime. Whenever it began wandering off into the side plots I began losing interest. I'd still give it a rent, because when it's good, it's really good. But give me a tight, fast-paced, short series over a bloated, rambling epic any day.

You can relate to me if you like anims like Naruto, Cowboy Bebop, Mononoke Hime, Samurai Champloo, Spirited Away, Whisper of the Heart etc...

bitem_e pretty much sums it up for me. The Animation, music and character design are excellent but the down fall is the story line. They tried to create curiosity around something that's so "simple"... if that makes sense. Unlike Naruto, you never know what’s around the corner and it keeps you guessing, whereas Blood + you can tell what’s around the corner but they give you the confirmation 30 eps later. It just dragged on a bit.

Overall, I did enjoy watching Blood plus regardless of parts where they dragged it on. I did enjoy the fighting scenes, the cool custom designs, the music and most of all the relationship between Haji and Saya. That made it worth while.

**Spoiler coming up. Do not read the following if you dont want know*******

Since only Saya's blood can kill these monsters why not coat bullets with her blood and kill them that way? Saves swinging a sword.

I'm not sure if this is just a watch, it's above an avoid at least. don't get me wrong, the animation is great, the story is indeed, satisfyingly violent and bloody. the character design is great, the OST i don't notice so much, but i am in love with the opening song. the thing that upsets me is the pacing of this story. the first two episodes were FANTASTIC, all the complexity laid out for you, all the fluid violence, and mysterious evil characters and potential romances and what not. it was very promising and hooked me instantly. and then...then it died down...and dragged on...and on...and on...and although episode 12 was a nice break from tedium i was so bored by then i didn't care. yea, more evil heinous things, more angst from saya, more dead good sacrificing good guys. blah blah.

i mean all the other episodes, there's a little bit of fighting here and there, but NOTHING compared to the first episodes. i know she's just growing into herself and finding out about herself, but damn that's a long time to do it. it's great that she has angst and everything, but really it's annoying to be honest. a single intense and melodramatic episode where she loses everything because she won't fight would have done it. how long can you drag out mystery and angst? it's tiresome. at this point i'm not sure if i want to continue, which is why i'm reviewing. and why i can't say for sure how it'll go. who knows,there ARE 52 episodes maybe once she finally accepts her past and what not the fluid and kick ass fighting scenes will come back instead of lame cheesy cut scene fighting where there's hardly any motion at all. NOIR was just as complex as this series but it was never so boring. yea, i'll hope for the best. i'm at 15 and it's died down again, i wanna go another ten in hopes it'll pick up. but honestly at this point i just don't care.

Shinsen has released episode 32 of this very intense, very complex and very bloody story. While I am hooked, I do have to admit that this is not a nice story.

With about 15 main characters and some 20 other minor characters between the two or three different factions, the plot is very complex. I will even not attempt to offer anything other a simple summary (or else I could go on for pages.) But the animation and story-line of this series are very good. So if you enjoy complex and bloody anime series, you should really enjoy this series..............­..

I posted some snapshots of episode one, if you interested.