Forum - View topicREVIEW: Blood+ Part 2 DVD
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Fronzel
Posts: 1906 |
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The time-skip and the changes in characterization that came with it ruined this one for me. Saya goes from a very interesting action heroine- one who's committed to fight, but doubtful about how to go about it and sensitive to the pains of her struggle, one who has people she loves and fights for close to her- to an emotionless action series cliche, complete with gloomy haircut and a black coat and who needs someone to teach her to feel again.
Given the trauma associated with the events immediately preceeding the time-skip, and the fact that the one who helped her wake up was her brother, this could have worked, but it's so lacking in gumption and originality that it feels like it's lifted wholesale from any number of bad action series romances rather than part of a developing narrative (though at least it didn't go through with it all the way, making it another incestous anime). It felt more like she was learning to feel emotions for the first time (how often have you seen a plot like that?) rather than recovering from a serious trauma and returning to her old self to some degree. Last edited by Fronzel on Thu Dec 03, 2009 3:49 am; edited 1 time in total |
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vashfanatic
 Posts: 3495 Location: Back stateside |
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Wow, I resoundingly agree with this article, which of course means I think it is awesomely well written! (jokejoke)
Actually, you missed a major problem with the English dub, which is that it has everyone playing gobs of multiple parts. I'm not sure if it got to the point of people having conversations with themselves, but I'm sure it got close if it didn't. Also, I'd give Marc Mancina's music an "A" rather than just a B+, but that's quibbling. You mentioned the soundtrack as a positive, and it is, so kudos to you. Otherwise, Blood+ really peaks in the middle, starting with the trip up the river in Vietnam and ending with Diva's attack on Red Shield. Prior to that it's a little slow, afterward... well, the Sif plot line never really goes anywhere. This series might have been better at 45 episodes instead of 50, with a little of the extraneous stuff shaved off. But while it may resort to a pretty predictable ending, I think I might have felt betrayed with any other. Not an "A" series, but a solid "B+" overall really fits. Which brings me to my final question: maybe you mentioned it in the review and I missed it, but does the second half have the actual subtitles for the Japanese, or is it the subtitles of the English dub? That was a real clincher in me not buying the first half, unfortunately. I was hoping they'd come to their senses and fix that. |
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Fronzel
Posts: 1906 |
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Not to mention the Sif themselves look like refugees from a Square-Enix game. |
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Big Hed
 Posts: 1607 Location: Melbourne, Australia |
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In the penultimate paragraph he talks about wanting to bludgeon his TV and the subtitler due to dubtitles, I'm afraid. |
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jr240483
 Posts: 4447 Location: New York City,New York,USA |
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I wouldn't go that far. Sure in my eyes it would be interested if it did but if it did there was no chance i would see the series getting it's Adult Swim broadcast at all. Other than that it's a very good series. Definately a must have for any fan of the original. It was unfortunate that just like moribito and Eureka 7 that it didn't do well on the AS run which was a shock cause most series that had the Production I.G label had successful runs on AS and CN. |
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pachy_boy
Posts: 1335 |
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My only real problem with this series was not Episode 32 itself, which was disgusting and shocking in a well-done way, but with some of the stuff that happens afterwards as a result of it. Later on, spoiler[Diva dons Riku’s face, and shows it to Kai. She does a typical clichéd testing scene by also speaking in Riku’s voice, and Kai just looks at her and after a while says something like, “No, you’re not my real brother.” I was like, “What the hell!?” I would think that anyone who was forced to witness their sibling being raped and killed by someone, and it shouldn’t matter whatsoever if it was a girl doing it to a boy, would more likely have felt the impulse to jump and physically assault the rapist if they confronted each other like that in this scene. And it’s not just this anime series, but it seems there are a few titles where rape isn’t taken quite as seriously as it should be. Kannazuki no Miko is a big example, and Now and Then, Here and There is the only big exception I can think of.]
But other than that, Blood + was a really entertaining series. Although it’s marked down to $70 at Right Stuf which is a good deal, I won’t be able to get it during the holidays, unless of course there’s a future Sony sale on that site. I just recently saw the live-action movie and—well, it was cheesy to say the least. With all the interviews the actors gave in the special features, it seemed none of them could ever assume that they took part in something really embarrassing. |
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MetatronM
Posts: 281 |
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How anyone can call Blood+ a "well-written" series is completely beyond my comprehension.
The last 10 episodes, for one, go absolutely nowhere (pretty much everything is set for the final confrontation around episode 41, but they manage to stall until 47 or so) and include multiple instances of things that basically amount to "we could go hunt down Diva, but let's wait until she executes her big plan instead and just sit around this table in our sweet new NYC apartment for a couple months." They also create really ridiculous false drama and/or "revelations" late in the series by making everybody react to certain events in a way that makes absolutely no sense considering the rules of the fictional universe that these characters are all aware of, and then they react in shock when events unfold as you would expect in a universe governed by said rules (see also: everything involving Hagi and Amshel in the last several episodes). There were storylines that went literally nowhere (the Sciff), a number of characters that the show treated as relatively major characters who served little to no purpose other than to have meaningless sidestories to half-heartedly justify dragging the series out to 50 episodes (Solomon, Van Argeno, Moses, Karman, Carl, James, Okamura, etc.), and an absurd cop-out ending. Not to mention the entire climax is a complete disaster and they don't even address things like the fact that spoiler[even though they stopped Diva and everything, they still did so only after her broadcast got through to most of the world and, theoretically, turned everyone into chiropterans the way it did in New York City. I guess bombing a landmark in NYC is enough to revert all the human beings elsewhere in the city and around the world back into humans, despite there being no stated way of doing this at any point ever in the previous 48 or so episodes in the series? I'm still trying to figure that one out.] And that's not even touching on Saya's complete ineptitude as a heroic protagonist. She goes through the "too scared to fight -> sees horrible things happen to people because she's too scared to fight -> finally resolves to fight -> rinse and repeat" cycle about 9 times (not exaggerating) in the first 15 episodes alone and continues to do so all the way until the time skip. When she comes back, she's intolerable in the COMPLETE OPPOSITE fashion, because there's apparently no middle ground with Saya. And then for the last 10 episodes or so ALL dialogue between Saya and Kai (well, really Kai and just about any character Kai is willing to talk to, honestly) features some variation on "let's all go back to Okinawa and be happy!" Oh, she also spends most of that time bed-ridden and in dismal health, yet she's apparently still capable of fighting the big bad villain even in that state, which makes you wonder why the hell everyone is so scared of Diva and friends in the first place if they feel like they can put all their hopes into a consistently unreliable and emotionally unbalanced invalid. And the only person in the series more useless than Saya is Hagi. His "fighting style" apparently consists of "take mortal injury, make Saya fight on her own for a while even if she can't, swoop in at the last second to throw a dagger that will mildly irritate an opponent because she's retarded and can't actually do anything for herself even when faced with death." He's pretty much the worst supposedly "badass fighter" I've ever seen in a series like this. He gets literally zero character growth in the series. He starts the series getting impaled by enemies, being emotionally aloof, relatively silent, and having a creepy infatuation with Saya and ends the series getting impaled by enemies, being emotionally aloof, relatively silent, and having a creepy infatuation with Saya (spoiler[only now he's forced by someone else to say he loves her in order to stop her from killing babies...totally character growth!]). And then there are the other completely mind-numbing things that go on in the series. Solomon meets Saya at a dance and has NO IDEA who she is until he's told, even though she looks identical to his own chiropteran queen. The fact that Red Shield members keep trying to shoot chiropterans and somehow keep on being surprised that they can't keep the monsters that are immune to being shot at bay. Of course, they also keep on being surprised that Saya isn't mentally capable of defending them over the course of the entire series as well, so maybe they really are just that slow on the uptake. And then there's the fact that Diva is a virtuoso opera megastar despite the fact that she's only capable of singing precisely one song (and hasn't really ever performed in public, for that matter). Or how about how there are absolutely no repercussions whatsoever for Mao stealing massive amounts of money from her international crime lord father. Or even that entire world is absolutely and completely homogeneous. And not in the "we're just translating this out so the viewer can understand and it's convenient for the story" sort of way. There are literally no cultural differences between peoples of any kind whatsoever anywhere in the world (at least not beyond "Russia has snow" and "Vietnamese farmers are kinda poor"). I'm not even sure why they bothered with the whole globetrotting concept when the entire world is exactly the same. Ooh, another great example of that was when there was ABSOLUTELY NOBODY around in midtown Manhattan in the evening to see two friggin' winged beasts fighting around the Chrysler Building. Why deliberately choose a setting that will FORCE any reasonable suspension of disbelief to fail? I mean, ok, if they were in some isolated part of Queens or even if they were just fighting along on the very top of the building, maybe you might be able to say nobody would see, but when you have them swooping down to street level and flying all over the place...like, really? There are several other times in the series, both in the New York segments and elsewhere, where you just had to say "really? you couldn't even do five minutes of research or maybe look up a few pictures online first?" Speaking of things breaking the suspension of disbelief, how about the hilarious preposterousness of billions of people around the world all watching the live broadcast of an opera performance by a girl who looks like a little boy who has basically never performed anywhere before and isn't known by anybody. Or, hell, the hilarious preposterousness of billions of people around the world all watching the live broadcast of an opera performance...period. I could really go on and on all day long, because there's just about not a single thing anywhere that I can think of that Blood+ did right. It's like they looked at the first Fullmetal Alchemist anime's formula, looked at their one franchise that didn't even have enough plot to be able to adequately fill a 50 minute OVA (let alone a 50 episode series), and said "hey, we can do that!" It's about as generic and formulaic as you can possibly get, complete with Mark Mancina's phoned in "Generic Action Thriller #47-A" score, complete with such great hits as "Dramatic Crescendo!," "Nothing Bad is Going to Happen to Me in Thirty Seconds," "Dramatic Crescendo (Revelationz Mix)" and "WhappitaWhappitaWhappita (Sneakin' Around)." It's one thing to get enjoyment from a series like this. It's one of the ultimate anime examples of mass market lowest common denominator fare, with cheap thrills, a plot that absolutely begs you to not think about it (lest you notice the swiss cheese-like structure), and cardboard cutouts taking the place of characters. These types of things are all safe and easily marketable, and there is something to be said for straight up dumb entertainment. But trying to pretend it's a "well-written" and "well-executed" piece of storytelling? Wow, that ended up really long. Yay for ranting about crappy shows! |
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belvadeer
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Dude dang Metatron, that was quite a explanation. I can see the series really did too much wrong for you to even remotely consider the words "I could like it". But I understand. You did touch on some strong points. I suppose if they tried to be as globally accurate as, oh say, Noir (where the art crew did visit the actual countries to draw the scenes) maybe it would have been more likeable aesthetically. I suppose the ending arc didn't make much sense. At that point, and this is for aesthetics, I was just dying to see Amshel's chiropteran form by then. Color me disappointed when I saw it. I suppose the resolution and ending were pretty much cheese in a sandwich too, but I have to admit I liked Saya, Riku and David.
Whenever I see Blood+, I can never forget the debate about how so many people here complained Crispin Freeman was trying too hard to force a French accent out 
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vashfanatic
Posts: 3495 Location: Back stateside |
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Well, in one clause of one sentence, which I missed reading this at midnight last night. I think something as stupid as dubtitles needs more than that. And MetatronM, don't sweat about ranting.  Someday I'm going to snap and do the same thing in a thread where people are praising, say, Beyond the Clouds or Serial Experiments Lain or Chrono Crusade (all of which suck a thousand times more than Blood+).
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UltimateSpaceLion
 Posts: 28 |
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'Nuff said. But I will say some more. It's been several years since I watched Blood+ (I watched it as it was airing on Japanese TV) but I can still remember feeling an anger and contempt equal to MetatronM's as the series progressed and I kept watching week after week, waiting for the show to rise above itself. The series had so much going for it and continued to squander every opportunity to pull itself together into a decent show. As Metatron said, character actions and reactions frequently made no sense, sub-plots were introduced and dropped without reason, and the animation quality frequently sucked, Carl. I can't say I remember the backgrounds one way or the other, but I do remember being disgusted by many a poorly animated sequence. Blood+ really could have been one of the greats. As it stands, it hovers in at just below average in my estimation. |
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rabrek
 Posts: 188 |
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I enjoyed Blood+ enough to buy the sets in a RightStuf special ("shelfworthy if discounted"?). Definitely not a series for everyone, and the ending was so-so. I found Saya a huge drag for much of the second season, and I was glad to have the Schiff plotline. No, it didn't really go anywhere - spoiler[I think they used it to set up the clone soldiers, and to give Kai something to do] - but I found it redeemed a slumpy stretch. Worked for me.
Ah, Crispin Freeman's French accent. Good times. |
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Monster in a box
Posts: 671 |
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I'm glad somebody was able to sum up all the things I sort of thought, and some I didn't. I actually quite liked the middle of the series to be honest, but I knew it wouldn't end well because the plot sucked. My biggest problems with the show aside from the plot were how pointless the Schiff were, and how haphazardly important characters were killed off. ("Just call for me, and I'll be there." *walks off and dies* "Who was that guy?")
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Top Gun
 Posts: 4782 |
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Heh, thanks for saving me quite a bit of typing, Meta.
I'm honestly rather surprised at this review, as I'm usually in fairly good agreement with what Carl has to say about any given series. Like Meta and a few other people, I found Blood+ to be an extremely mediocre title as a whole, a show that swiftly wasted the very real potential it had at the very beginning and continued to get worse as it went along. Saya is an intensely irritating protagonist in the way she evolves (or rather, doesn't) over the course of the series. Meta's statement about "nine times in fifteen episodes" was dead-on, not an exaggeration in the least; what makes the whole thing more unforgivable is the fact that the people around her are dying as a result of her ineptitude, and she still can't snap out of her funk and actually develop as a character. And then, when she does change during the second half of the series...she becomes as emotional as a brick. Ugh. And Hagi was every bit as bad himself; not only was he completely useless throughout the entire series, he never showed one shred of emotion. I also agree with how much the series lagged in its second half; there were any number of tangents that went absolutely nowhere as far as the main plot was concerned, and there was a good chunk of at least ten episodes leading up to the finale that served no real purpose at all. Like Meta said, it felt for all the world that the creative staff realized at some point that they were trying to make a 50-episode series with barely enough material to cover even 26 episodes, and so they had to go into full-fledged time-killing mode. This was all compounded by the gaping plot holes and feats of logical ineptitude that were on near-constant display. I've been watching [adult swim]'s most recent re-airing of the series (which seems to have been removed from the block, probably for the better), and I find myself getting completely frustrated on a minute-by-minute basis...and that's in the first half, when the story is comparatively good, before it devolves into the utter mess that is the second half. I'm also incredibly surprised to see the dub get any degree of praise. By and large, the individual actors performed their roles competently, though that's mostly due to the fact that most of them were veteran voiceactors. But it's painfully clear that the direction they received was half-hearted at best. The worst problem of all, though, is how massively over-used every actor in the main cast is, with Steve Blum and Crispin Freeman being particularly notable examples. There are certain scenes where both of them, particularly the latter, are literally talking to themselves in the same exact shot. Hell, Crispin plays two different lead characters himself...granted, he's using different voices, but it's still blatantly obvious that it's him. It's as though Sony wanted to see just how cheaply they could dub a 50-episode series, or if they could get by without hiring a single one-off actor at all. I know dubbing studios have had to have actors double-up more due to money being tighter than in the past, but taken to this extreme, the result is flat-out unprofessional. Honestly, I think the only real merit to this series, other than chuckling at Crispin Freeman's reedeeculously over-the-top French accent as Argeno, was trying to come up with as many amusing drinking games one could attempt while watching it. Is Saya having yet another moment of asinine indecisiveness? Take a shot! Is Saya whispering, "Phantom..."? Take a shot! Is Saya repeating verbatim what another character just said to her? Take a shot! Is Hagi being impaled again? Take a shot! Is Steve Blum or Crispin Freeman playing yet another background character? Take a shot! You'd seriously die from alcohol poisoning during the course of a single episode. 
So yeah...this is one review that I'm going to wholeheartedly disagree with. Your hard-earned money can be spent on far better than this, folks. |
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wOrLdIsMiNe
Posts: 7 |
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Still think Blood+ has the best ending ever ^^;
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Kohikki
 Posts: 1 |
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Argeno (and Crispin's accent) was one of the few things that made BLOOD+ bearable, if not the only thing. The people complaining are morons; and yes, I do mean that blanket statement with the utmost sincerity. |
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