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Shenl742
Joined: 11 Feb 2010
Posts: 1525
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Posted: Mon Jul 04, 2011 2:51 pm
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I'm kind of curious about this.
The original Blood the Last Vampire was a cold, souless shell of film that was too short, relied too much on traditional horror movie cliches and who's good animation was hampered by too much darkness.
Blood+ felt about 10 or so episodes too long, had a lot of heart and emotion in it, but to the point that it became kind of shmaltzy. And it relied too much on standard anime cliches.
Who knows if this can strike some kind of comfortable middle ground...
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Araiht
Joined: 09 Dec 2010
Posts: 3
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Posted: Mon Jul 04, 2011 4:44 pm
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At least in this forum THERE IS MORE common sense regarding this Blood- C(rap) thing. In "My Anime List" those praising this thing seem to have a pretty low IQ. But maybe I'm the problem.
This first episode of Blood-C is AN OVERALL DISAPPOINTMENT.
I've waited for years for a second Blood anime series and they come out with this thing: I disliked EVERYTHING, from the opening to the closing theme. The more I watched through it, the more disappointed I was.
The clumsiness of Saya, far from being comic, is annoying; her cheerful philanthropy, father-complex and her overall persona are unconvincing. The high-school setting full of characters whose potential future utility in the development of the series is to be doubt: they could have known better.
Certainly Blood+ started in a similar fashion, but I mean: WTF?
In twelve episodes is pretty unlikely that the creators will be able to redeem themselves in the eyes of the Blood franchising fans (and I mean those with a bit of brain). I've followed Blood for years and I just didn't know what to say about this new adaptation.
Blood+ was ONE HELL of a series: the script was an amazing job at a literary level. I really really appreciated the writers of the series. Ryoo Ikehata adopted a writing approach that could be appealing even for older audiences.They made A HUGE mistake by appointing CLAMP to write the script. Blood HAS NEVER BEING aimed at "kind hearted-head-over-heels-mahou-shoujo-lovers" audience. I always liked it because it has a kinda "serious bloody-melancholic-kick-ass" aura.
Blood-C looks to me like a regression after all the great job that had been done in the first series (certainly it was not A TOP ONE graphically, but when it comes to the story, well, WAS REALLY GOOD); everything looked less serious in this first episode, too teenage-like, thus annoying and disappointing.
Ok, is just "the first episode", but if just with the first episode is this hopeless, the next ones are set to be the same, or worse. It's a pity, it's really a pity.
Should I try to like this thing by conceding CLAMP the benefit of doubt? I don't think so. You couldn't even draw parallels between the series (and unfortunately I'm able to say this with just one episode; but I should calm down a bit. Maybe I'm being exaggeratedly arrogant).
What I wonder is WHY, OH WHY did "they" feel the need to do this to the Blood franchising?
In which way an alternate retelling by CLAMP (of all authors ._.) can contribute positively to a further development of Blood?
The OVERALL aura of this Blood-C(rap) disturbs me: it doesn't even get to be mediocre. It ranked even lower. Is this maybe a tentatively regression to grab the attention of younger audiences? I don't get it at all.
Blood-C(rap) is a devolution - alternate re-telling or not - not an evolution of the Blood franchising and it's pretty probable that they will regret it.
Last edited by Araiht on Mon Jul 11, 2011 7:02 pm; edited 1 time in total
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ArsenicSteel
Joined: 12 Jan 2010
Posts: 2370
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Posted: Mon Jul 04, 2011 6:00 pm
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Shenl742 wrote: | I'm kind of curious about this.
The original Blood the Last Vampire was a cold, souless shell of film that was too short, relied too much on traditional horror movie cliches and who's good animation was hampered by too much darkness. |
Well there is a first time for everything I guess. The Blood movie took horror genre cliches(not sure why this is becoming a Four Letter word nowadays) and wrapped them up into a animated horror film, which is an underrepresented genre in anime, well enough to support series and multiple novels to expand upon with the movie touched on.
Quote: | Blood+ felt about 10 or so episodes too long, had a lot of heart and emotion in it, but to the point that it became kind of shmaltzy. And it relied too much on standard anime cliches. |
It is an anime and nobody is going to reinvent the wheel to come up with new cliches.
Quote: | Who knows if this can strike some kind of comfortable middle ground... |
Blood-C already has plenty of CLAMP c*****s thrown at the audience in episode 1.
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Shenl742
Joined: 11 Feb 2010
Posts: 1525
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Posted: Mon Jul 04, 2011 6:15 pm
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I don't think horror cliches are intently a four-letter word, it's just that I felt I saw some horror-things in TLV that I've seen before and don't really want to see anymore, whether they're being used in a live action or an anime.
What I meant about anime cliches is that (horror crap aside), TLA felt kind of "distinct" but ended up not being that good. While Blood+ more or less felt relatively better to me, it felt a lot less "distinct". If that makes any sense.
And hey, I like Clamp c****s (whatever that means?) so yeah, I guess I'll have my mouth open so it'll all fall in.
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RedSwirl
Joined: 08 Feb 2006
Posts: 344
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Posted: Fri Jul 15, 2011 7:42 pm
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*sigh*
I'll give it another couple episodes.
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Blood-
Bargain Hunter
Joined: 07 Mar 2009
Posts: 24157
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Posted: Fri Jul 15, 2011 7:48 pm
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I'm still liking it - a lot, actually. Although the opening scene did something that is a real pet peeve of mine: had an action scene in darkness. I don't know how it looked on your screen, but on mine it was too dark to make out what the hell was going on. Drives me nuts. Deadman Wonderland was a big offender in this regard, too.
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One-Eye
Joined: 08 Mar 2011
Posts: 2267
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Posted: Fri Jul 15, 2011 8:50 pm
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The fighting in darkness always bugs me too, it often looks a bit muddy I find myself out of reflex cranking up the brightness on my screens to try to see more. I also agree Deadman Wonderland does this too and it annoys me.
So are we despairing yet? Its dragging in a few parts here and there for me, and the singing is starting to tick me off. I'm hoping that there is some kind of absurdist take on some of this stuff or that there will be some kind of 360 to what's going on, because if I'm supposed to take this straight up at face value its not working for me. I'm going to give this 1 or 2 more episodes and if I don't see anything interesting happen then I'm dropping it.
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Yttrbio
Joined: 09 Jun 2011
Posts: 3670
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Posted: Sat Jul 16, 2011 11:46 pm
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Taking a look at the monsters she fights, I think Saya's just got an overactive imagination that takes hold when her dad makes her go gardening.
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Unicorn_Blade
Joined: 18 Jul 2010
Posts: 1153
Location: UK
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Posted: Sun Jul 17, 2011 10:37 am
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I just washed my laundry too... , unfortunately it was raining, so I had to hang it out in the house, and then I went shopping, and ate my lunch, lalalalala...
Awful. The whole episode was so average with some horrible dialogue and awkward scenes- why would you want to force lunch onto someone? I don't know, looked totally unconvincing. This is sooo far away from the previous Bloods it should not even bear the same name really.
Last edited by Unicorn_Blade on Sun Jul 17, 2011 2:02 pm; edited 1 time in total
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st_owly
Joined: 20 May 2008
Posts: 5234
Location: Edinburgh, Scotland
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Posted: Sun Jul 17, 2011 10:47 am
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I'm not familiar with either of the other 2 Blood franchises, but I decided to give this a go when I saw it on NicoNico. If you treat it like a high school life story with a bit of demon fighting etc,, it's not that bad. It's certainly not fantastic, but there's far worse out there.
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Unicorn_Blade
Joined: 18 Jul 2010
Posts: 1153
Location: UK
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Posted: Sun Jul 17, 2011 1:59 pm
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The problem is... well, it still shares the name with the other two. If they wanted to make any high school drama with a girl killing monsters with a sword, they could have just done it without pretending it has got anything to do with Blood. Even if I think of it as a separate entity, it is still quite bad. It does not hold together. Saya tripping over her own feet while crossing the street on her way to school and performing somersaults and pirouettes and whatnot in mid-air at night time. "If you don't eat you're sad"- who came up with this sort of lines? Not even mentioning the Rebecca Black style singing. Everything about it feels mediocre and repetitive- I will give one or two more eps to go and if thing will not speed up, 'sayounara' to Blood it will be.
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damien007
Joined: 23 Jun 2010
Posts: 180
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Posted: Mon Jul 18, 2011 8:55 am
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st_owly wrote: | I'm not familiar with either of the other 2 Blood franchises, but I decided to give this a go when I saw it on NicoNico. If you treat it like a high school life story with a bit of demon fighting etc,, it's not that bad. It's certainly not fantastic, but there's far worse out there. |
this
I haven't seen a single Blood show before this one and i can honestly say im thuroughly enjoying this show so far. The mellow clampy sequences at the start of both 2 episodes i found relaxing and enjoyable. The fights with those monsters are also among the best coreographed fights I've seen in a long time. I dont mind any of the characters and i dont get all the hate on saya. I honestly believe this show would be really well recieved if it didn't have blood in its name -_-
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Blood-
Bargain Hunter
Joined: 07 Mar 2009
Posts: 24157
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Posted: Mon Jul 18, 2011 10:20 am
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And I just want to point out that I've seen the Blood: The Last Vampire movie and half of Blood+ series, loved them both and am I enjoying Blood-C as well, so exposure to the earlier works does not automatically preclude liking this one (at least in my case).
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SethMosrite
Joined: 27 Nov 2010
Posts: 173
Location: Boston, MA
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Posted: Mon Jul 18, 2011 10:48 am
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I don't understand all the negativity. It's not like the Blood 'franchise' is Gundam. It consists of one pretty but shallow 50 minute 'movie' and one decent tv series that dragged on too long. Blood-C does not have some incredible legacy to live up to.
As for a ditzy hero flipping a switch and kicking ass, this happens all the time. Just airing right now, Gintama, Beelzebub, Blue Excorcist and Sacred Seven all use this cliche to varying extents.
I really enjoyed the first two episodes. The action sequences have been the best of any show this season. The supporting cast hasn't been fleshed out yet but there is potential for drama with the good boy-bad boy love triangle. I'm also looking forward to stoic dad kicking some ass and back story on mysterious cafe owner. Saya's singing is cute.
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swienke
Joined: 18 May 2009
Posts: 245
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Posted: Mon Jul 18, 2011 1:15 pm
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This series is.......weird.
Having just watched the second episode, I still really have no idea what to make of the series so far. The light, fluffy, and fairly stupid school scenes are so dramatically different from the dark and gorgeously brutal fight scenes that it gives me a headache trying to figure out what the show is aiming for, and the slow pace is somewhat frustrating. Were it not for the fact that this is a CLAMP show (and those awesome fights), I'd be tempted to drop the series as a completely pointless piece of drivel, or at least leave it until later.
.....But it is a CLAMP series, and that makes me wonder whether there might be far more depth here than is readily apparent. The vague yet strangely alluring philosophical musings at the beginning of each episode hint at something more going on than just the standard slice-of-life mixed with action series vibe that the surface gives off, while Saya's obsession with her father and the way she seems to effortlessly switch from complete ditz to frighteningly competent fighter and back again is unsettling and further undermines the light and fluffy aesthetic.
The question though, is whether or not the sense of unease that I'm feeling is something that the creators were originally going for. If so, if Saya is actually supposed to be disquieting, then we may have something fairly impressive on our hands. It's not as though this is without precedent for CLAMP either: Tsubasa Chronicle started out fairly lighthearted before the hammer came down and the whole series twisted into something that could give a lot of Greek tragedies a run for their money in the dark and despairing department. And yet, none of the little clues are strident enough for me to actually be sure that they're clues and not just a complete lack of skill in handling the characters. The show could be deeper and more complex than it appears on the surface, or it could just be a lazy, unskilled hack job, and at this point I really don't know which.
As it stands, I'm going to continue watching and hope that the show will veer into CLAMP mindscrew territory within a couple of episodes, but if not I may have to drop it.
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