Blood C – 02 Review

Okay, episode 2 is finally out. I started this episode with partial dread and hope. Lets see which wins out shall we?

Summary
Episode 02

So the episode starts with Saya fighting some monster for a good 2-3 minutes with no explanation. I would say this is an action for the sake of action scene. In the background, we have CLAMP the style ‘philosophy on life’ narrative (similar to some of the stuff in xxxHolic, but not done as well). After the narrative is done, we have Saya singing like she did in episode one as she leaves her home to go to school.

(I sure hope there is a deeper meaning behind her singing about her life, because for now it really seems like it is to show her infatuation over her father. I suppose it is to show the contrast between her normal self and her activated/fighting-chick side? I feel like I am fishing for a deeper meaning when there could be none.)

Saya then gets discovered by the owner of Cafe Guimauve (Fumito-san) and is thoroughly embarrassed for singing. The episode then spends another 4 minutes talking about Saya’s singing and her infatuation over her father and a minor discussion on sweets (Guimauve). After that, Saya continues on her way to school and guess what she does? No prizes for those who guess right but… she sings about the Guimauve that she had just recieved.

Once again Saya gets sidetracked by a pet while a ‘way-too-childish-and-reminds-me-of-Disney’ style music plays in the background. Saya finally arrives at school with a few seconds to spare. Her level of denseness is highlighted when Tomofusa the classrep hints quite bluntly at his interest in her.

During lunch time, Saya and her group of friends sit down to have lunch and the twins continues to tease Tomofusa while they discussed the town giving us a brief insight to what the town is like. Saya then chases after Tokizane (whom seems to have some sort of connection/interest/disinterest in Saya as hinted in episode 1). She offers Tokizane some food and he takes it then shows some sincerity towards her by saying that he hopes that the injury on her face wont leave a scar. Then she see the bright glare of light (mentioned in beginning of ep 1) as Tokizane is walking away.

After that she makes her way back home. Singing again. (Is this a singing show?) The main “old ones” of the week is the Elder Bairns who took the life of Saya’s mother. And so the fight/action scene starts. It goes on for a few minutes before ending with Saya having killed the Elder Bairns and saying “protect”.

Review

Oh My God. I feel so drained watching this episode.

The pacing of this show is once again so slow. The story does seem to be trying to build the story up, but at a very slow pace, the phrase snail’s pace comes to mind. There were so many redundant scenes that did not add any value to the show and it felt like the show itself is unable to decide on which path it wishes to go down on. Action or Slice-of-Life? There were more “atmosphere building” scenes than action scenes and the slower scenes actually made me fell like that is what the show should focus on being. They should drop the action and just go down a more CLAMP/xxxHolic storytelling style because the action honestly is terrible.

These action scenes felt like they were there solely just to be there as though the animators had a quota for how many minutes of action was needed. There was no build-up to the action nor was there much of an explanation except that we were told what the monster was in the period of a couple of minutes. The show spent a longer time focusing on Saya’s infatuation on her dad than they did on the old ones. One question though, why doesn’t Saya just go into “activated” mode the moment the fight begins instead of getting trashed around first?

The animation is really simple and sometimes border-lining on being too stark. Definitely nothing special.

The music in this episode had more of an impact than the actual action and animation in this episode and whilst it manages to suit the mood of the scenes, it made me feel like the music was telling the story instead of the plot itself. (Felt like Disney’s Fantasia at times)

I felt that the show really isn’t that horrible, if you look at it as a relaxing school anime done in CLAMP style. One of the more obvious things I realised was that the episode structure was basically the same as the first episode; Home, School, Home, Fight, End.

This episode can be fun to watch with the slight teasing during the school scene, however the action scenes does feel like it is throwing you off balance each time you watch it.

Honestly, this episode felt like fluff and lacked substance. Blood-C is not horrible anime, but it is a horrible anime to watch week by week because of how little we get out of each episode. Perhaps in the long run this anime would be good if one watches the whole series in one shot and won’t have to suffer through the pacing that becomes really obvious when you are stuck with one an episode a week.

Rating: 5/10

Comments: This episode really lacked substance and plot development. But the school scene was relatively pleasant to watch if you like a relaxing-and-nothing-important-happens sort of mood in your anime.