Blood-C 12 (Fin)

Fumito reveals himself as the mastermind of Saya’s entire ordeal. He captured her, a being with the strength and abilities to go toe-to-toe with elder bairns, but rather than human blood, she feeds off of elder bairn blood. He made a half-elder bairn play the role of her father and created the whole shrine maiden artifice as a vehicle to propel her to fight the bairns Fumito sent at her. After killing all the cast save Amino, he escapes to Tokyo, shooting her in the face as she lunges at him…but the game he started isn’t quite over.

For those who wanted the bloodiest, most disturbingly goretastic finale, well, you got one; though most of that gore was covered up by censors. That’s okay, I just ate a rich dinner, and was thus relieved to only have to catch the gist of the carnage. I’m not sure if a future Blu-ray release will be uncensored or not, but if it is, I must remember not to eat a big meal prior to re-watching it. Notably, after making themselves far less likable last week, Nono, Nene, and Tokizane get their bloody, karmic comeuppance. But there wasn’t just grisly death on display; we were also treated to some exquisite Saya ass-kicking that got downright lyrical and reached a fever pace.

Fumito’s obviously an immensely powerful person, but also an immesely sick, disturbed, evil person, and the multiplying elder bairns he unleashes on the fake village to slaughter all the extras just drives that point home. That being said, he’s a human being. He doesn’t believe Saya can kill a human, but if ever there was one for whom she could make an exception, it’s him. This whole series could be boiled down to one, long, harrowing, emotionally and physically torturous practical joke played on Saya. Come next June, she’ll look to settle the score in the film that will wrap this story up.

Rating: 4

Blood-C 11

Tsutsutori, Nono, Nene, and Tokizane reveal themselves as actors in a grand experiment with Saya as the star. She is a not-quite-human entity with superhuman powers. Fumito captured her and began fooling around with her memories. Whenever she attacks an elder bairn, she’s drunk its blood, making her remember some of her real memories of meeting with Fumito. The teacher, twins and Tokizane are tired of this, and want out, so they try to restore her memories permanently to stop the cycle. But they run into Amino and Itsuki, and eventually Fumito also shows up, likely to stop them…

When it was finally clear last week that the whole story to that point had been some kind of simulation, I immediately thought of the Truman Show. Like Truman, Saya is initially utterly convinced that the world she’s living in are real and her friends are really that. It’s pretty cruel for it to turn out to be a production. Even more amusing is how different the actors are from the characters they’ve played: Nono and Nene are immoral, conniving, vain bitches, Tokizane is a greedy, selfish coward, and the teacher is…well, she was always flirty with Saya, so she didn’t change much. Class Rep Itsuki is still a stickler for the rules, but without the friendliness of his character. One of the best lines of the series came from one of the evil twins: “How are these uniforms realistic in any way?”

It turns out they are: black and red hides the blood. Just like a tiny, isolated village makes it easier to keep Saya involved. I’m surprised the elder bairns are real, and in fact still a threat (though not to the main cast, who bear protective talismans), and seem to also be variables in Fumito’s experiment. This is why they kept asking her to “honor the contract” – she was killing them during Shrovetide, a period when it’s okay to eat humans. Throughout all of this explanation though, Saya is fairly inert. She just kneels there on all fours, breathing heavily, unable and/or unwilling to take it all in. But however much she knows, now we know why those school scenes were so tacky!

Rating: 4

Blood-C 10

Saya fights an elder bairn that’s nothing but a head, a spine, and hair, who may or may not be her mother. Tokizane is killed. Her father disappears. Fumito serves her more coffee and grimauves. Her teacher Tsutsutori asks if she can take a look at the shrine library, and when they discover all the books are brand new, and all blank save the one about the legend of the elder bairns, Tsutsutori insists Saya stop “playing this game”…then Nono and Nene reappear, as if they were never killed.

What’s in her coffee? What’s in those grimauves? What exactly is up with Saya? The mystery thickens this week, as many things we’ve held true to this point are upended. The ghost story Tsutsutori tells in class sounds the same as the legend in the book, but why is the book new? Why are the others blank? Fumito is acting stranger than ever. What’s hiding behind his kind smile? Why is his arm heavily bandaged after Saya’s father disappeared. Did he off him?

As for Tokizane, his insistence on running in to help Saya had a predictable result: his death. It was far quicker and less gory than those of late. But with Nono and Nene back from the dead and Saya having all manner of visions, I’m starting to wonder myself if anyone at all is even dead, and that the legend is a fabrication. Each week there’s a veneer of repetition that could grow grating, but each week a new revelation comes to light, though we’re still a long ways from the truth of things. For now, Saya is just trying to keepitogether.

Rating: 3.5

Blood-C 9

Murphy’s Law is in full force as a crustacean-like elder bairn kills Saya’s entire class, getting cheap shots in as she battles it. When it takes Yuuka, her last close friend, she goes into red-eye mode and viciously slays the beast. Only the class chairman survives, along with Tokizane, who skipped school. After her teacher asks her if she killed everyone, Saya wakes up, numb with loss, but also lost herself; beset by images in her head whenever she tries to remember anything.

So, after establishing a very pleasant, chummy atmosphere at Saya’s high school – a safe haven of sorts – the last few episodes have methodically, mercilessly, and effortlessly torn to gory shreds any sense of security and virtually all solace. All is lost. Saya proves yet again that while she excels at slaying elder bairns, her everyone-protecting skills leave much to be desired. Of course one can hardly blame her; circumstances couldn’t be worse, as the venue is rife with defenseless, horrorstruck students. It doesn’t take much for them to all become corpses or simply piles of miscellaneous pieces in pools of blood. It’s sickeningly visceral, horrible stuff.

It’s also obvious that if we ever get straight answers about who exactly Saya Kisaragi is, what her true role is, who she promised, and why she keeps eating grimauve, it may not be till the bitter end. The series continues to keep its cards close, and despite all the hints the dog is throwing her way, Saya remains extremely confused about her raison d’être. If she is the town’s protector, well, she’s failed. Dozens of people are dead and she couldn’t stop it. At this point, I’d be questioning whether what I’m doing is right or even beneficial too.

Rating: 3.5

Blood-C 8

Tokizane learns about the elder bairns when he sees Saya finish one off; he pledges to help her however he can. Saya’s father seems out of it, as Saya even find him unconscious at home (he’s last seen talking to Fumito). The dog visits Saya in the bath, urging her to remember who she made her promise to. Three days pass without an attack, but the day the school re-opens, Saya’s classroom is viciously attacked by a new elder bairn.

Things are just not going well for Saya’s Pledge to Protect. Many of her classmates are slaughtered like pigs in front of her, and the episode actually ends before we see her take her katana to it. To be fair, this is a particularly nasty customer, teeming with spiky legs the size of tree trunks and a massive maw. Now her two worlds are irreversibly mixed, and so far it’s like oil and water – they’re not getting along. Kudos to the writers for lulling us into such a bubbly false security in earlier episodes, only to meticulously, mercilessly tear it to shreds in the last few.

Part of me is starting to suspect that the kind young cafe owner, Fumito, could the person Saya made the promise to. It’s just a wild guess, but I can’t think of another reason for him to still be around having such strange scenes as the one with Saya’s dad. Like Saya, we’re still very much in the dark, and Saya’s too busy killing bairns to do any sleuthing, even if she were so inclined. For now, I have to wonder whether she’ll be able to slay the bairn in her classroom before it can kill anyone else.

Rating: 3.5

Blood-C 7

Not only has Saya begun to doubt whether she can keep her promise to protect everyone (so far, she has good reason to), she isn’t even sure when she made the promise…or to who. Now the dog has decided to start talking to her, but isn’t ready to give her any definite answers…only that he’s supposed to fulfill a made wish. Her father is comforting, but silent. The restaurateur is still a little creepy, and her teacher seems to know too much.

From time to time the series has transitioned to the scene in the mansion with the floating orbs of blood. Finally, we see that Saya herself was once in this mansion, staring across the table at Mr. Ominous Voiceover. We don’t exactly understand the nature of the request yet, only that he meant for Saya to be an experiment of some kind. I can’t help but speculate that this guy may be responsible for her red-eye superpowers.

She definitely need them this week, as the latest elder bairn is not only very chatty and mocking, but also has eight arms that threaten to julienne (Sayenne?) her. She goes into red-eye mode and bisects him, but not before he lets off some very self-doubt inducing slogans. Also, Tokizane shows up just when she’s coming out of her trance, kneeling in a pool of blood. Something tells me he isn’t freaked out.

Rating: 3.5

Blood-C 6

Saya is good at killing elder bairns, and by extension protecting her friends and her town...from a distance. But as it’s been demonstrated, once an elder bairn has a victim in sight, Saya can’t do much to save them. She can’t fight and protect Nene at the same time. And so Nene becomes the first of Saya’s classmates to die. The scene is portrayed with all the necessary horror. We knew it was pretty much inevitable, but it still hurts to watch (though less bloody thanks to network censors).

Just when you thought, well, she has an identical twin, they wouldn’t kill off both in the same episode…well, they do. Nono doesn’t just die, she’s possessed by her own shadow while pleading for Saya to tell her where her sister is. The shadow consumes her and Saya, and when Saya defeats it, Nono is torn to pieces in a rain of blood. I cannot overstate the gruesomeness – especially when neither Nene nor Nono had anything to do with this elder bairn business until that cliffhanger. The contrast from the lighter moments of the series couldn’t be more stark. Hell, they couldn’t be more lannister.

Fumito is as creepily supportive as ever, Tokizane wants Saya to spill the beans about what’s troubling her, and that little doglike animal that’s been showing up so often finally talks to her, telling her to “wake up”. Saya is coming to grips with the fact she’s little more than a deadly weapon with no free will of her own, not a shield that can protect her friends. And I don’t think it’s helping her sanity. One thing’s certain: the lighthearted school moments are over with.

Rating: 4

Blood-C 5

This week’s Blood-C was bangin’, switchin’ up the formula a bit, whereby the battle comes first, then the lighter high school stuff. Then it does something else: it finally combines those worlds, much to Saya’s horror. We’ve arrived at the crossroads, people. The bloody crossroads.

The latest elder bairn she kills once again refers to the contract between them and humans. We don’t know exactly what the contract is, but it probably means looking the other way and letting them eat humans in exchange for relative peace, or something. Regardless, the doubt and confusion stirring in Saya starts spilling into her normal life. And it hurts her lil’ noggin, too.

A thunderstorm cancels her gym class, so they tell horror stories instead. After a half-hearted attempt by the class prez, the teacher steps in and, well, there’s no other way of saying it: she describes exactly what’s going on on the other side of Saya’s life. She’s even about to reveal the answer Saya wants so badly – what is the contract? – when Saya faints. Tokizane, who has exchanged knowing looks with her all along, catches her. I really hope this guy does someting soon. Something.

Back home at the temple, her classmate Nene, who wanted to hear the teacher’s story, comes to apologize, and boom, a massive elder bairn bursts out of the ground behind her. Shit just got real. It’s a cliffhanger, but damn, it’s a good one. After seeing a woman Saya saved earlier scream and recoil in horror when she held out her bloody hand to help her, I’m guessing some of Saya’s friends will be equally horrified when they see the bairn-slayer. Which is unfortunate, because she’s awesome.

Rating: 4

Blood-C 4

This is such a schizophrenic show, but that’s why I love it. The light high school scenes remain as bubbly as ever, though Saya’s classmates are aware of the missing (now dead) baker. But the night battle with the elder bairn(s) this week are more intense than ever, with MBS seeing the need to censor some of the more disagreeable gore. Saya was constantly on her toes, and it truly looked like she could lose this time around.

The last bairn she killed told her to “honor the covenant.” She dutifully tells her father this, and he basically tells her not to listen to their lies; it’s part of their tactics. But this new one – an evil Big Bird flanked by two acid-spewing sidekicks, has a lot more to say. The covenant apparently amounts to letting his kind get away with eating a few people here and there (which he does), in exchange for not bothering Saya’s kind. He dismisses Saya as nothing but her daddy’s tool.

Saya goes all red-eyed and manages to take out the bird-headed menace, but not before he takes three victims – villagers she wasn’t able to save. Not only was this the toughest and most taxing battle to date; she wasn’t able to fulfill her promise to protect everyone. And now her head is full of all this “covenant” talk, despite her father wanting her to fight, not think. As for Fumito…her just kinda creeped me out this episode. What is he hiding?

Rating: 4

Blood-C 3

Another easygoing first half, in which Saya sings to herself some more, is come on to by her teacher, eats lots of cake and guimauve, and bowls over her friends by confessing she doesn’t own a television! Everything is so peachy! Well, we knew that wouldn’t last in the second half; as a town baker goes missing for several days. The police warn everyone not to stay out at night. Can Saya and her dad keep this stuff secret?

I’m not sure how, as the baker meets an extremely gruesome death at the hands of a dastardly new elder bairn – taking the form of a train. I really love the duality of Saya’s character in scenes like this; not so much as flinching even in the face of absolutely horrid things, and even cracking a satisfied (sadistic?) smirk while dispatching this latest foe in a cloud of blood. I guess she should be happy she doesn’t wear a white school uniform, but still, she must be putting her dry cleaners’ kids through college!

The battles in Blood-C are the best of this season so far: quick, good old-fashioned one-on-one battles full of constant peril and lots of icky gore. No babbling at one another, no silly inner dialogue about tactics. Though before the bairn dies, it tells her to “Honor the Covenant.” Not sure what that means, but I’m sure it’ll come into play soon.

Rating: 3.5

Blood-C 2

This week Saya continues to juggle her cute, klutzy, kind side at school with her ass-kickin’ superhero shrine chick persona by night. It continues to be a most intriguing juxtaposition of lives. The school scenes are as light and breezy as her battle scenes are dark, exciting, and genuinely scary at moments.

After all, her mother used to do what she does, and she died doing it. You can tell her doting pop hates putting her in harms way, but apparently there’s no way around it; only she can wield the sacred sword. This week she fought two; a humanoid demon and a giant evil plant. She won, but got more and more messed up.

Her extracurricular activities are leaving marks that questions will be asked about, and somehow I’m doubtful Saya’s not looking forward to talking to her friends about such things. So far, she’s fighting the elder bairns deep in the forest, isolated from civilization. But that could change, and with it her secrets may be revealed. Rating: 3.5

Blood-C 1 – First Impressions

I have never watched any of the Blood franchise before this new series by CLAMP and Production I.G., so I know nothing about it. But after watching a recently-released extra episode of Shiki (review pending), I was looking forward to another summer horror series to sink my teeth into. Little did I know that the horror came in the form of twin gingers who say everything at the same time!

No, I’m not talking about the Weasleys, and no, it wasn’t really any big deal. The twins in question are just classmates of the protagonist, a bespectacled girl named Saya Kisaragi. She’s kind, bubbly, easily distracted, a bit of a klutz, and not punctual. She sings to the beat of her footsteps, and is generally very upbeat. But she’s also extremely athletic and a shrine maiden. Her duty requires her to go out in the night and slay things; presumably evil things. It isn’t pretty, but she manages to get the job done. She leads a complicated life. I like ‘er!

I actually enjoyed the contrast between her sugary-sweet day life and the malice that lurks beneath – and that between the no-nonsense Slayer Saya and the full-of-nonsense School Saya. Obviously she can’t let others know about her duties; they might end up in danger, or at the very least think she has a screw loose. But I can’t help but expect her two worlds to come crashing together, and there will probably be some of that titular blood.

Her battle in a shallow lake with an “elder bairn” was really nicely orchestrated and was also built up very nicely, both by all the lightheartedness of the first half, and numerous long pauses of pregnant silence. These moments of unease come at perfect times. The stylized character design, with long legs and small heads, took a bit of getting used to, but its not nearly as strange as Shiki, which also grew on me gradually. Even though I’m a Blood newbie, this wasn’t hard to follow, and I’m looking forward to how it progresses. Rating: 3.5