hunter24 - 2014-09-30 00:22:29

Story

Blood+ starts out very promising, with the first few episodes, even the whole first season, being suspenseful and fun. However, Blood+ suffers from too many episodes, (rather than too little). It buys its time by making the pacing so excruciatingly slow that it was almost painful. There are whole episodes where absolutely nothing happens, and it can’t be filler because Blood+ is an original anime.

While the execution of the story is flawed, the actual story itself is very interesting. The drama aspect is delivered very well, (though not so much the horror), and that makes Blood+ an emotional roller coaster. I really enjoy the concept of chiropterans and Saya’s place in it all (I won’t be specific because that would spoil the story for you) but I wish there was an actual explanation and reasoning behind Saya’s existence. They obviously had a lot of time, but it was never really elaborated on as much as I wish it was.

Overall, there were times when I really wanted to watch the next episode, yet there were also times where I couldn’t bring myself to press “play” on the remote. Blood+ needs patient viewers, that much I’m certain about.

Animation

Overall, the animation was pretty well done. The openings were impressively artistic and the whole art style, while not extremely unique, looked really good. However, the action scenes leave much to be desired. I feel like the action choreagraphy could have been made a lot better (this is Production I.G. we’re talking about), but Blood+ just didn’t deliver. I mean, a majority of the action scenes consist of Haji being impaled or just failing to dodge. (This is often the setback when dealing with an anime that has immortal characters; they just use their bodies as shields and don’t even try to dodge. That makes the action scenes way less entertaining… it just seems like they’re not even trying.)

Sound

(Thanks a lot, Netflix, for forcing me to watch dubbed. -_-)

English dubbed voices aside, the music in Blood+ was pretty good. All of the openings are amazing and easily made my favorites list. None of the endings are good, but they’re all very short so it doesn’t really matter.

The soundtrack for Blood+ was produced by Hans Zimmer, which is pretty exciting considering his earlier works, many of which of won awards. The Blood+ soundtrack does have it’s moments, however it is forgettable and fairly average.

Characters

I have very mixed feelings on Blood+ as a whole, but the characters are where these feelings really conflict.

To have a good cast, you generally want likeable and fun characters who also have development and depth. Blood+ has a cast does really well on the development and depth, but most of the characters really aren’t fun or especially likeable. Even the development is flawed, as it also has pacing problems and this causes many problems. The biggest problem is that Saya does not actually motivate herself to fight until season two. All of her reasons not to fight before then were moot compared to the reasons that she should fight.

The supporting cast is great too, but sort of boring. Kai and Riku, Saya’s adopted brothers, were okay I guess, and Haji too… but they were just lacking. And I despise the enemy, Diva, to the very core. Not because she’s evil, but because she is freaking annoying and I just wanted to sit in the corner and cry every time she was on screen, especially with her dubbed voice… ugh.

But wait! We have saviors from these boring and/or frustrating characters! Mao and the reporter guy!!! (Um, I mean, Mao and Okamura.) These are the two characters meant for comic relief, but they are by far the best characters on the show. They are fun and their interactions with eachother are hilarious. They don’t get nearly as much screen time as they deserve, but they are the best reason for watching Blood+.

Enjoyment

Like I said before, some episodes were action packed and entertaining while others were snooze fests. In an attempt to finish the last seven episodes of the series in order to just get it all over with, I sat on my bedroom floor and watched Blood+ until about three o’clock in the morning and refused to sit in my bed for fear that I might fall asleep. I was that determined to finish it.

I guess that overall it was fairly entertaining, but you need to be inhumanly patient to fully enjoy it.

Final Conclusion: 7.8/10

hegmann.burley - 2013-11-12 02:45:11

Perhaps an obscure anime, but one of the best within the vampire genre. The plot of Blood+ flows perfectly and keeps you entertained until the end.

brooklyn.oberbrunner - 2013-08-05 00:30:06

If you love the vampire theme, I can't blame you. But if you want a vampire theme with great action, amazing soundtrack, and a sensible story...this is not really something to look forward to.

This story of endless deus ex machina, socio-political nonsense and unrequited romance that went nowhere will definitely make you "oh just get to the point already!" so many times it will agitate you more than once. The first half seems promising but as the story progress its like they are rubbing the obvious at our faces yet manages to keep things at bay so that they can extend the series to a whopping 50 episodes of worthless goosechase. We encounter so much backstory and exposition that we almost get information overload in a show that does not even involve detectives or psychotic doctors, or even magical amoebas...but you get my point. In short, despite the action and the heart pounding suspense, its a huge drag and it took away all the excitement in the overall experience.

The characters range from passive-aggresive to passive-repulsive or whatever. Saya's character took too long to develop that by the time she does we start to ignore her already. Haji is just so predictable that he could pass as a male CHOBITS. Kai, although an interesting guy, is just a pain in the arse most of the time during his screentime viewers are just agitated at how useless and whiny he is. The cool guys in the first arc devolve into nothing but sideshow characters in the later arc and the supposedly double crossing characters end up as nothing but eye candy. And don't get me started with Diva, she is so undesirable for an antagonist she is like Rahxephon's Quon, only more annoying and pointless.

The show did not fall short on production value, though, that much I can say. I don't want to put it into any more detail for the fight scenes are nothing but speedlines and blood splatters anyway. All 4 opening songs are amazing but the ending songs are a bit mixed bag. The OST is jam packed with orchestral mixes and high hitting rock beats. The animation is nice as well, knowing this is still a Production I.G. anime and they don't settle for anything less in these parts. Voice acting for both japanese and english are a mixed bag too, but I enjoyed the japanese dub a bit more.

Overall, a huge wasted potential of a show. Those who tagged along their crazy trip is probably exausted at how pointless the journey truly is.

kwitting - 2013-03-31 18:29:37

1 Word Review: TrainwreckFull Review:Story: 7/10Blood+ essentially covers the conflict of Saya, her family and her chevalier versus the evil Diva and her chevaliers, along with a few human supporters. They fight and run around the world, trying to stop and kill Diva. It goes on for pretty much most of the series. We do get some background on Saya and Diva, which I'll let you watch and figure out for yourself. I'm not going to spoil it for you. We get further background on all the characters, but its relatively minor and quite honestly a little boring. The story is really all Blood+ has going for it, but then it doesn't even really succeed to some degrees. Art: 6/10I don't like it. Production I.G. has, for once, failed in my book and really dropped the ball on this one. It didn't have anything remarkable, remarkable action scenes and no really remarkable animation quality. It was truly quite drab and easily on of I.G.'s worst works in recent years. If you like good animation, steer clear!Sound: 6/10The OST was fine for the most part, but it just felt like I heard it before. I guess if I could coin a term, I'd say "cliched music". It just wasn't all that great. Out of the 4 Openings, I'd have to say they were all just equally bad or annoying. It's best to spare yourself, just skip the Opening songs. Also, the 4 Endings, were just as annoying as the 4 Openings. Avoid those pieces of trash as well. Don't say I didn't warn you of UGHness.Character: 3/10There are only 3 characters I really had sympathy for in the end -- Riku, Lulu and Joel. Everyone else could've and should've died. I felt absolutely no sympathy for anyone but those 3. Saya was a whiney little you-know-what, Solomon, Kai and Hagi were freakin' tools, need I go on? I will. David was pretty useless, he was a human shield for most the series. Louis ate food for most of the series. DO I GO ON? Amshel, Nathan, Carl and James just sat around drinking wine for most of the series. Van was eating candy for half the series and talking in his accent like he's freaking... UGH. I hate all or most of the characters in Blood+, as you can see.Enjoyment: 5/10I didn't enjoy this for the most part, the staff loved to put random, needless fillers to kick it up to 50 episodes. Blood+ didn't need 50 episodes! They could fit all the series in about 36-38 episodes, not 50! Needless to say, Blood+ was a terrible chore to get through.Overall: 6/10It was a slow, painful trackwreck. Unappealing music, animation and characters were a combo like no other, which ultimately led Blood+ to a disaster.