BitSnark

Four episodes. Yup four episodes, thats how much of Blood + I have seen this week and I have to say that if the early episodes are any kind of indication, we’re all in for a treat next year when it gets licensed.

As befitting it’s OVA and manga heritage, Blood + is full of great, highly kinteic and not to mention gory fight sequences. But its the story and the characters are the things that this time provide the hook.

Adopted into a family living in Okinawa, Saya has no memory of anything that happened more than one year ago. Living the life of a normal school girl she goes to school with her friends, enjoys time with her family and so generally just lives a normal life. This comes to a screeching stop however as it appears that after a massacre in Vietnam that she perpretrated, her new ‘family’ are no more than caretakers for her while more sinister groups wait for her to ‘awaken’.

Of course she is needed to awaken so that she might fight the chiropteans, the same blood drinking shape shifiting creatures that appear in the manga and OVA. It isnt until the appearance a mysterious stranger who has a deep, forgotten link to Saya’s past, that Saya begins to slowly rediscover herself as a cold blooded and detatched killer.

Another aspect of the characterisation that is keeping me hooked, is simply how her regular down to earth foster family, find themselves eneveloped in all the horror and violence that Saya beings with her. This is further compounded by the juxtaposition of Saya’s relatively calm ‘normal’ life, with that of her inner self and all the misery and death that comes with that.

Purely on production values alone, Blood + Excels here too. Featuring character designs that are completely removed from the OVA and in fact sport similar traits to the designs found in Bleach, they are nonetheless detailed extremely well and are animated to a high standard. The high standard of art animation also extends to the fight scenes which are extremely visceral. One such example is when we see Saya awaken for a short time, and she slices her sword into one of the chiropteans her blade gets stuck in it’s gut and as she begins to push the blade through, massive jets of blood spray across her face and all around the room. A bit Kill Bill(ish) maybe, but damn impressive to behold all the same.

The Hans Zimmer scored music is absolutely fantastic, bringing something more epic and grand than the typical J-Rock stuff that we might have otherwise been laundered with. You simply have to listen to the soundtrack yourself, it is really THAT good.

But in conclusion I think that everybody should give the series a go and watch a couple episodes and see if they like it. Most will I believe and if the series lives up to it’s early promise, we all have a lot to look forward to in 2006.

*Clears space on his shelves for the inevitable first volume art box release*