aisha.herman - 2015-09-02 10:31:41

This isn't your typical Ecchi or Vampire anime.  While the story and characters are good, I couldn't help but feel like it was a step off from being Great.  A good anime.

harvey.thurman - 2015-08-23 22:28:38

The storyline is average, good humour, its a story about a guy who faces numerous problem after recently inheriting the blood of a very strong vampire. The ecchi is also weak comparatively, well i guess that is to be expected since its an old anime but in any case its definitely worth the watch
i'd give it a 7.5/10

ilene.heathcote - 2015-02-25 23:25:28

While I tend to dislike any part of entertainment which involves vampires. Mostly since vampires have been done in various ways and the mythos to vampires can get to be too overused and already touched upon. This was not the case with Strike the Blood. The story is quite unique. It handles the vampire concept in a brand new way and in any case the series does not merely involve vampires but other sets of supernaturals.

vhill - 2015-01-30 03:44:04

If you are into vampires or not, doesn't matter.

Great story, small plot twists and a very enjoyable relationship between the main characters is what this anime has to offer, ohh and a lot of sexual biting, Super recommendable.

rosetta.daugherty - 2015-01-25 16:34:55

All in all a hidden gem among that typically low-class genre: the harem anime.

Like most harem anime, Strike the Blood is primarily comedic in scope with predictable "accidentally a pervert" tripping scenes common to the genre. Each girl is passably different enough to touch on the usual palatte of girls that you would see in any regular old harem anime.

However, it stands out by giving a protagonist that's actually somewhat interesting. Rather than an overly innocent innocent stock protagonist, Kojou is fleshed out as reasonably human. He has desires. He has fears. He makes reasonable mistakes rather than absurd ones.

The sound and animation are pretty appealing as well. Most of the characters are individually stylized with good designs. The music score and voice acting aren't amazing, but generally speaking few anime actually are. It's pleasant without any notable flaws, which is about most one could expect.

World building proceeds at a steady but slow pace as the story plods along. Episodes pass in singles or pairs of short arcs, but don't have that stale flavour associated with the usual format of that type of progression. We can actually see as viewers how changes in character relationships and personal development do carry over.

All in all I hope that Strike the Blood gets a second season. As it currently stands, it's an enjoyable season that whets the appetite for more, but doesn't truly feel complete.

georgiana.oberbrunner - 2014-04-06 13:33:49

Strike the Blood was an experiment. For me, it was my first proper foray into the ecchi genre (having decided that the first two episodes of Chobits doesn't count).

When I think of ecchi, I think of over-sexualised female characters and empty or uninspired plots, first and foremost. In particular, I held the belief that all ecchi was like High School of the Dead, which I flat out refuse to watch based on what little I have seen of it in clips and reviews.

Thus, I was expecting large breasts jiggling everywhere and panty-shots galore. I went in to Strike the Blood thinking I would probably end up dropping it fairly quickly out of distaste for the kind of thing I believed ecchi to be.

Evidently, I didn't drop it, as I only review shows that I have finished (although I do finish most shows I watch, possibly thanks to some compulsive disorder I am only semi-consciously aware of). So here we are. My review of Strike the Blood. The big question is, if it was good enough for me not to drop it, just how good was it?

Not particularly good, but not particularly bad, would be my answer to that question. Why? Well, let's get started (yes, we are just starting now).

Strike the Blood is a series about a boy named Akatsuki Kojou, who is in high school. He is also the fourth progenitor, a powerful being who has inherited and can control twelve familiars, which are magical spirits or something like that (it's not particularly well-explained or developed, like a lot of things in this show, as we'll soon cover). He is also a vampire. The origin of his powers is shrouded in mystery, and remains that way (during the course of the anime, at least).

He lives on a man-made island in the middle of the ocean. A place where regular humans and non-humans (demons, werewolves, and all kinds of monsters) co-exist inexplicably, although it would appear the human denizens are unaware of their existence. It is never really explained how things work on the island, what with all the supernatural beings going around.

One day, Kojou realises he is being followed by a middle-schooler, who shortly turns out to be a Sword Shaman of the Lion King Organisation, a shadowy group with a hidden agenda. She, Yukina Himeragi, explains, after proving her remarkable abilities in combat and accidentally flashing her panties to Kojou, that she has been sent to observe, and, if necessary, kill the fourth progenitor, should he prove to be unstable or out of control. And so begins their relationship and the series.

What follows is a series of 3-4 episode arcs that stick to a fairly simple formula: bad guy(s) appears, attacks the island/a person/people on the island, Kojou, Himeragi and/or additional friends/allies try to stop the bad guy(s), they aren't strong enough, Kojou drinks someone's blood, gains control over a familiar, defeats bad guy. Throw in the occasional panty-shot, breast-grope/jiggle, shower scene, or utterance of the word "hentai", and you've got your series.

So the story is fairly formulaic, and rather cliché. Nothing ground-breaking or even particularly good happens in this anime. It brings forth some entertaining elements but never properly explains or foreshadows any of them. Each episode, something new is discovered/explained to suit the events currently occurring but largely has no consequence in future episodes, eg "this bad guy can't be defeated by any of Kojou's current familiars, because reasons".

Now, it's not all bad. One thing I did appreciate is that some characters or locations introduced as part of one arc retain their presence/significance in future arcs, but it is somewhat uneven. Certain things occur in the story that are left unexplained or completely ignored by the cast, and I worry (well, I don't really care) that Strike the Blood isn't popular/successful enough to get a sequel in which some of the answers could be delivered.

The ecchi elements don't really bring anything to the table except for detraction from the plot, but that's to be expected. I actually found it to be rather tame compared to what I was expecting, and it never got to a stage where I was put off by it, but rather, I just found myself a little annoyed that the ecchi/fanservice elements were getting in the way of the story as part of some attempt at humour.

The characters don't help the story either. I have not watched, nor have I plans to watch, a straight up harem series. Perhaps in a similar manner to Sword Art Online, Strike the Blood's protagonist slowly forms his own harem as the series goes on, which I found to be quite unnecessary, but it probably comes with the ecchi turf.

As a result, the characters around Kojou never get any development or spotlight beyond talking or thinking about Kojou himself, or the present situation they might find themselves in (but even that usually involves Kojou). I didn't find any of the characters to be particularly deep or interesting (and a few even got on my nerves a little).

Heck, even one of the male characters comes on to Kojou. His reasoning behind this is probably the best out of the entire harem, and that's saying something.

It's not often that I leave the protagonist to last. Kojou is a fairly boring one, with little if not no more depth to him than his harem. He does not appear to change over the course of the series except in power, and this only helps him during fight scenes. Outside of these scenes, he is typical and kind of boring, although admittedly he was a tad cool when summoning his familiars, but again, fight scenes.

Speaking of fight scenes, how about some talk on the animation? It, like the show itself, is pretty average for modern anime, perhaps a little under par. The fights themselves vary from static to relatively dynamic, but large portions of them involve people speaking long, impractical sentences to call forth familiars or work their magic. Nevertheless, I didn't dislike them.

The character designs are pretty basic, although some do have these interesting curls at the ends of their hair. Nice touch; it wasn't something I'd really seen before.

One thing I really loved about the animation were these magical runes used by a certain character when they used magic. They were pretty cool and detailed and actually gave good credence to the magic being used.

Fourthly, the sound was nothing special. ED1 was my favourite and the rest I didn't particularly care about one way or another. The battle music did it job and the voice acting was solid, as far as I could tell. Not much else to talk about here.

I already talked about this, but Strike the Blood was an experiment for me. I wanted to broaden my horizons and experience more of anime, so now I have watched a entire ecchi-classified series. Did I like it? Meh. I can do without it. The ecchi was tame enough that I wasn't turned off the show, but at the same time it was just like dead weight slowing the series down. It did nothing good for the show, in my opinion. Instead of trying to arouse the viewer through sexual stimuli, how about trying through engaging dialogue and narrative? Pretty out there, I know, but I guess I knew this was what it would be like going in.

Also, sexualising 14 year-olds. Not really my thing, thanks very much. To each their own, but whenever Himeragi would be somehow involved in the fanservice, I kept thinking, "she's only 14 damn it!"

The ecchi genre exists because sex sells. Will it sell Strike the Blood? Probably not.

tillman.green - 2014-04-02 17:43:00

Thunder's Review no.4: Strike the Blood

I followed this anime whole way down to the hell where it have ended. Much virgin blood was sucked and a lot of underwear exposed. Occasionally I enjoyed the ride but the road was rocky and full of holes. Those holes were full of predictable randomness not seen in ages and suited final destination perfectly. Welcome among all these vampires, witches and loli teachers, this is Strike the Blood. 

The Story 2/10

The best way to describe this show is simply saying that it's a harem with vampires and magic. Beginning is generic but fairly interesting, there was some space for development but all hope for the good story is quickly washed away in a couple of episodes. The world that could be interesting setting with different vampire lords and organizations controlling it is never explained to us and all we see throughout the whole series is one city.

Our protagonist is of course your typical high school student who accidentally happens to be the strongest vampire in the world, oh and there are a lot of girls falling for him just because he's a nice guy. And do I have to mention that Itogami City that he's living in is a place that all demons are sent to to live in "secret"?(weekly destroy the city and a lot of explosions scenario)There is nothing outstanding and even decently original or interesting in the Strike the Blood's story, actually there is no plot! All plot lines are resolved in the series of short arcs, few episodes long each. Episodic nature at least suit Strike the Blood as a one time per week time waster. I doubt that I would care to watch something with no overall plot, episode after episode constantly.

Okay so we know that there is arguably no plot, then what's with those episodic arcs? Well, this is old shounen formula done even worse than usual. Villain of the week appear, our main character can't bit him but then just get power up by turning his vampire urges on and sucking blood out of the one of attractive girls in the show (read, any girl in the show). It ended with me just waiting for some girl to undress and be done with it. It was funny first time but seriously EVERY time?! The only times when you'll be surprised will be those moments when they introduce new characters or threats to the city. I doubt I've ever seen such a random plot twists. There is absolutely no foreshadowing, everything is just thrown at you without warning.

Strike the Blood doesn't handle its more serious plot twists well, actually when serious stuff  is happening your only motivation for keeping watching is another ecchi moment or some short fight scene. Fight scenes can be fairly enjoyable, at least at the beginning, but there is barely any tactic involved and all characters are just screaming names of their insane shounen attacks again and again and again... Overall I think that best parts of the show was those that nothing happens in and all the characters were just fooling around. Seriously, comedy parts were the only think I was interested in and every week I prayed to myself for as much of it as possible.

I don't want to spoil wonderful ending for you, just know the word that describe it best: random.

The Animation and the Art 6/10

Animations in Strike the Blood are fluid enough, especially in fight scenes. Characters are well drawn and there are some really attractive girls out there if you're in for that kind of stuff. Some backgrounds may be call beautiful and overall animations and art stands on more than decent level, but is drowned down by some cgi. What this anime misses is original art style, especially on characters. There is nothing that make me remember how characters looked. I can barely remember which girl had which hair style. On the other side you usually doesn't remember pretty girl from the porn video you watched so I guess it's fine.

The Sound 6/10

Both openings were ok, at least when it comes to watching them once per week. Overall soundtrack wasn't bad and was kind of nice background music but nothing more than that. There was no tracks that stand out enough to make me listing to them afterwards, I'm sad every time it happens. Music is very important part of every show and this anime really needed something to make up for the random story. Sadly music wasn't this something.

As far as voice acting goes I don't have anything special to say about it, it wasn't bad but I heard better.

The Characters 4/10

In show with such a troublesome plot there should be great characters to make up for it. When characters in Strike the blood aren't worst I've seen, they are not that great either. Our main male lead, Akatsuki Kojou is fairly likeable but also fairly generic teenager that a lot of girls are falling for just because he's a vampire that sucked their blood. There is also our main female lead Himeragi Yukina. She can handle herself in a fight and are ready to beat up Akatsuki every time he do some perverted thing he haven't actually done. There are of course few other girls that are there to interact with Kojou in interesting ways ("cough", fanservice). Some characters have interesting backstories to them when others have almost none. We get to know most things about most secondary character within duration of few sentences. So basically we don't have a reason to care about most characters in the show.

Our main cast get some simple character development, but it's very slow development and by the show's end characters aren't much different than by its start.

I guess all characters do their job as plot devices, even if they are there this whole time to do something important just once. Just don't go in this show expecting some interesting individuals with their own ideologies that actually makes sense. Villains are unworthy of mentioning. When the biggest part of characters are mediocre, villains in this anime are below that standard. Their goals are simple and simply evil. At least we have decent quantity of attractive girls to look at.

The Enjoyment 5/10

When Strike the Blood doesn't try to be serious it's actually quite enjoyable. Too bad that it didn't have more comedy or maybe some overall plot but I guess it would not work with that sort of show. There is nothing outstanding about it, soundtrack and animations are just decent. You can still probably like it more than I do if you really like anime stereotypes and you didn't grew tired of them yet.

Strike the blood is rather mediocre show that failed when it counts the most. What we got is vampire teenager with harem of girls, a lot of anime stereotypes, good comedy that was a light in the dark in this show, messy "plot" that ended in a very random way and a group of rather weak characters. It wasn't worst thing that I've seen and sometimes you need something mediocre to appreciate better works.

adolphus.olson - 2013-11-18 16:22:49

Strike the blood is your typical harem ecchi. It's a simple, "turn off your brain & look at some short skirts" type of show.

The story is overtly complicated so far, dropping hundred of makeshift words, powers, location and being an overall mess. This is what, in my opinion, drives the show down to the ground.

The animation can be beautiful at times, specially when it comes to some outside background and is mostly fluid and "glitch" free. Some scene involving a heavy focus on animation will every now and then drop in quality, but it is barely noticeable.

The soundtrack is fine but there is nothing noteworthy about it. The opening and ending are enjoyable on a week-by-week basis but quickly get annoying.

The characters, especially the main protagonist, are all fairly blend and stereotypical.

Overall Strike the Blood gets a 6/10, which is just above a completely blend show thanks to it's animation. Unless you are a huge fan of the ecchi genre or need to shut down your brain for 20 minutes I suggest you skip over this one.

thaddeus75 - 2013-11-06 03:54:30

Strike the Blood seems to be flying under everyone's radar this season, this is the first vampire anime I've seen in a while, that's not Hellsing, with a pretty decent plot. For the most part its your typical shonen action anime/light novel adaptation reminiscent of A Certain Magical Index/A Certain Scientific Railgun, with very strong male and female leads both of whom both seem to hold their own in battle and have more realistic personalities (anime wise). It borrows elements from both Kyoukai no Kanata & Index/Railgun but is lite on the tsundere, romance, and fanservice(for an anime with the ecchi tag). It has its own unique twist on the whole "protect the world from supernatural beings/school life" genre that pulled me in during the first few episodes along with strong male and female leads, and is scratching my itch for an action shonen anime this season, so y'all should check it out!

MID SEASON UPDATE:

This anime started becoming more of a harem towards episode 12, that being said, it is a very "bearable" harem in that the male lead is somewhat likeable, not dense/has a brain, and the female lead and other female characters have more depth to them rather than blindly glomping the male lead. In addition it seem to be borrowing elements from Hagure Yuusha (action girls and a competent male lead), and The World God Only Knows (Keima/Casanova-like male lead). The plot and action are kind of brainless, and my opinion is also somewhat biased due to the nostalgia I have for Index/Railgun but I am still looking forward to the rest of the season. Risa Taneda is definitely starting to become the "imouto female lead"

ritchie.jerrell - 2013-10-27 07:45:04

This anime seems pretty under rated by people not watching this series as much as the other new anime that's come out so far in 2013. I've really enjoyed this series so far. Just randomly clicked on episode 1 and then that led to me watching the rest of what had already aired which is episode 4. But regardless of that I'd recommend this to a friend or anyone, it's very catchy and the characters are likable. The whole teacher being a loli is weird but I'll look past that. The story development is pretty cool in it's own way and as the episodes go by the story of course gets deeper. Just smoke a fattie and lay back while the anime flows threw you in tsunami waves! :O