DVD Corner

Blood-C: The Complete Series Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack Review

“Blood-C” is an empty anime series.

“Blood-C,” which is part of the Blood series comprised of “Blood: The Last Vampire” and “Blood+,” is the latest series in the franchise. In this 12 episode series, the show revolves around a girl named Saya who leads a double life. By day, she is a cutesy student who also trains as a miko with her father. By night, she is a serious, sword wielding monster slayer who must protect humans from the Furukimono (which are basically demons). Expect to see stories about Shinichiro (a mysterious student who seems to keep an eye on Saya), Saya getting bad headaches, students/friends in danger, a talking dog, Fumito (a coffee shop owner who isn’t what he seems), Itsuki (the class president), tons of Furukimono (which range in size and shape from a rock to a bird), and a experiment. I could go into more detail here, but I don’t want to say much about episodes 11 and 12 as it gets into big time spoilers.

When it comes to bad anime series, I usually have something positive to say about them. With “Blood-C,” however, I struggled to find much to like here at all. Between the annoyingly cheerful/inept hero Saya and her equally obnoxious classmates, there’s not a single likable character to be found here. Add in the fact that the series has a seemingly endless amount of bloody/repetitive battles with Furukimono and an utterly absurd, insufferable M. Night Shyamalan esque ending and I’m amazed I managed to make it through this virtually pointless series at all.

About the only positive thing I can say about the show is that some of the action (as repetitive as it can be) was well done. The highlight here was the inventively chaotic last part of episode 12 with the marshmallow looking Furukimono slaughtering and eating people left and right.

Video/Audio:

In comparing the DVD and Blu-ray, I can tell you that the Blu-ray discs (presented in widescreen 1080p) are leaps bounds better than the DVD discs. The colors are so much more vibrant and striking in hi-def.

The Blu-ray discs contain English Dolby TrueHD 5.1 and Japanese Dolby TrueHD 2.0 audio tracks. Both the English track and the Japanese track are pretty solid, but I would probably recommend playing the English track as the action sounds better on the 5.1 track. Plus, the voice acting for Nono and Nene is rather irritating on the Japanese track.

Extras:
* Trailers for “Hellsing,” “Mass Effect: Paragon Lost,” “Deadman Wonderland,” “Steins;Gate,” “Black Lagoon,” “Panty And Stocking With Garterbelt,” “Toriko,” “Chaos;Head,” “Casshern Sins,” and Funimation.com.
* Commentary on episode 6 by ADR director Jerry Jewell and voice actor Robert McCollum. A pretty dull (and sometimes quiet) track that goes into censorship, characters, plot points, etc. Skip it.
* 7 original commercials, a U.S. trailer, and 2 promotional videos.
* 1 textless opening song and 2 textless closing songs.
* Commentary on episode 12 by voice actress Alexis Tipton and ADR director Jerry Jewell. The two mainly talk about the big plot twists, Fumito, the violence, and so on. A much better track than episode 6.

Summary: “Blood-C” is one of the worst anime series I have seen as of late. Skip it and check out a good series like “Steins;Gate” instead.

January 31, 2013 - Posted by nicklyons1 | Blu-Ray review | Blood+, Blood-C: The Complete Series Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack Review, Blood: The Last Vampire