Anime Name - Blood Lad
Aired - Jul 8, 2013 to Sep 9, 2013
Episodes - 10
Produced by - Brain's Base
Staff - Shigeyuki Miya (Director), Yuuki Kodama (Original Creator), Masaki Mayuzumi and Toshiyuki Sakae
(Art Direction), Kenji Fujisaki (Character Designs)
Oh, damn, those vampires again, it seems they are everywhere, and why am I complaining when I am reviewing a vampire anime? First lets make it clear I picked up this only for the fact that it seems like it would be a comedy and for the Seinen tag. Turns out it is mostly a comedy anime but I don't understand why its Seinen? This is typical Shounen manga with damsel in distress formula with a supernatural comedy twist, but definitely not Seinen ( some uncalled for ecchi doesn't make Seinen, sorry), so stop advertising false information.
Story
The story of Blood Lad follows our "hero" Staz who is a vampire in the makai(demon world) who doesn't drink human blood & is also an otaku, he is a leader of a small portion of demon world but mostly spends his time watching anime, reading manga and playing Japanese video games. One day our "heroine" Fuyumi accidentally wanders into the demon world and ends up in Staz's territory, Staz is so excited to finally meet a human girl but when he was a bit busy protecting his territory Fuyumi gets killed and turns into a ghost. And thus the story begins as our hero decides to revive Fuyumi into a human again. But wait there is a catch, Staz is not as heroic as it seems, actually he has a strong desire to drink Fuyumi's blood so he secretly wants to resurrect her for that. And thus our heroes trial begins as he tries to find ways to reach his goal. The story was a bit boring at the start but after a few episodes it starts to get a bit interesting, mostly due to some nice side characters most of whom actually are cliche Shounen characters but none the less likeable. The main likeable thing about the story is not its premise or the character backgrounds (which are too generic if you ask me) but the comedic side of it, the continuous pun at typical Shounen's like Staz trying to use Kamehameha was really funny stuff and it keeps the show enjoyable but when the writer tries to make things a bit serous with romance and family chemistry stuff then it starts to fall apart cause the main storyline for this anime is not original at all, we really have seen all those cliche stuff way many times before.
From me story gets 6.5 out of 10.
Characters
 |
| Staz with his cockiness is enjoyable |
 |
| Fuyumi ( don't writers ever get tired of same kind of heroines) |
The characters are not the strongest aspect of this anime, Staz is actually alright when he acts his funny self but his back story and all other aspects of his character are to bland for me but at least he is better than our heroine Miss-I-am-so-innocent-and-dumb-and-typical-with-unnaturally-big-breasts Fuyumi, come on we had these kinds of heroines for so long its just unbearable now. And those unnecessary ecchi stuff, provocative dresses and shameless fan service is just too awful to waste my breath on.
But not all is lost in the character department either because of some strong side characters, I mean Braz, Bell & Liz are almost impossible not to like and although a typical rival character I did like Wolf, and other side characters like Staz's gang members (Deku,Saty,Yoshida) were written with quite a lot of care it seems. So all I can say about the whole character business is that if Kodama would have given his main characters the same level of care as he did most of his side characters it would have been a way more better anime in my opinion.
The characters get 7.5 out of 10 (and that's mostly for all the characters minus the main two).
Art/Animation
 |
| I really liked this scene, damn funny |
Unarguably the animation is top notch and the best thing about this anime, the action sequences are colorful and a delight to watch, the character designs are lovely and the whole animation is fluid and crisp, it is one of the things to be amazed of in this show. But sadly that is not enough, you need good story and solid main characters to tell the story with your nice animation.
The animation gets 8.5 out of 10.
Sound
The sound effect is appropriate for the show but nothing that really pulls your attention into it. The Opening theme is "ViViD" by May'n which is a nice opening for the show but doesn't really makes you want to get the listen to it as a separate form of entertainment. The ending theme is "BLOODY HOLIC" by Yuuka Nanri which is rather bland is my opinion and really doesn't go with the show, it tries somehow force the romance into the front of the situation which unfortunately I say is not the strongest aspect of the show, its the comedy that is, the opening song at least acknowledges that.
The sound gets a 6.5 out of 10 from me (its okay but really nothing to write home about).
In the end of the day the writer did try to make a show which tries a different take on the vampire theme and the otaku twist is nice with the pun at other animes & manga bit is nice but unfortunately it seems that he himself sometimes forget what his initial intentions were and tries to inject serious stuff into the fold and force some unnecessary ecchi and romance into the mix which turns a otherwise quite innovative and fun idea into a cliched mental anguish for the viewers.
OVERALL SCORE
6.5 out of 10.
If you want more info and other reviews of this show check out its MAL page -
http://myanimelist.net/anime/11633/Blood_Lad/
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