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| Overall | Art | Animation | Character Design | Music | Series Story | Episode Story | Reviewer | |
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| Unevaluated |
 Devil Doll
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[series:2795#752] | ||||||
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My reason for collecting this show is that Yukina will permanently be in a conflict between her task and her growing feelings for Kojou. I don't expect too much from the male lead though. But the fantasy plot may provide another reason to stick with this show, not unlike To Aru Majutsu no Index.
Last updated Sunday, October 13 2013. Created Sunday, October 13 2013. | ||||||||
| Unevaluated |
 Stretch
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[series:2795#628] | ||||||
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(Seven episodes watched): What I tend to dislike about anime with vampire themes is that the characters tend to be fancy-ass aristocratic vampires--characters which are supposed to thrill us but have in fact become pretty generic, at least to me. They are supposed to enthrall us but the plots themselves don't seem to be given all that much work; having vampires involved is treated like an excuse to make do with fairly simplistic storylines. What I like about Strike the Blood is that this show seems to buck those trends. The principal characters are given likeable personalities, like the guy who doesn't want to be a vampire, has apparently never bitten anyone but himself, and can't remember exactly what happened to transform him into one. He just wants to be left alone, basically. She's a sort of vampire hunter but has been authorized to use her own judgment regarding whether to take this guy out, and is willing to give him a chance to prove himself to be harmless. Rather than a cheap plot being shoved down our throats, there seems to be a degree of skillful mystery being subtly unveiled to us, rather than vampirism and magic for their own sakes. I don't know how plausible this island where the story is taking place is, and a new character who is introduced at the end of the episode might be doing everything I don't like, but so far the story interests me and I'll continue to watch with my fingers crossed. When in episode two Koujou remarks how he had thought about using his vampiric powers to strike at violent criminals and corrupt politicians, the thought occurred to me 'Now that would be in interesting premise'! A superhero vampire--one that uses it's powers for good. That would be a combination of two common and popular genres. I hope this series moves in that direction. Otherwise, we get the usual hokey secret organizations and magical nonsense. But Koujou and Yukina remain likeable and the fight was OK; I seriously wonder what's happening at the cliffhanger end. So, I'm getting mixed signals, some suggesting the usual stuff we've seen countless times before, others something interesting and entertaining. One unanswered question: what the hell is the 'Fourth Progenitor' anyway? Why is such a person so dangerous? Episode three was unexceptional, as Koujou and Yukina track down the villain without much trouble and make a 'horrifying' discovery--except, as the quotation marks imply, it didn't horrify me all that much. What's going on in this artificial island place is too undefined and confusing to have much idea of what to expect and what not to. The thought occurred to me that what I'd like would be for a pair of protagonists who, rather than seeking out a rematch of a fight they lost, basically sneak up on the villain and stab him in the back, or something like that. Common sense rather than bravado, you might say. Too much fighting (and cheap boy-gets-too-close-to-girl tricks), not enough character development and not enough of an interesting, easily understood main plot. That's the way I was feeling after episode four. If I don't understand (or care) what's really at stake here, then I can't care a whole lot how the fights work out. I'm watching numerous different Fall anime series simultaneously, and the premise of Strike doesn't seem to be interesting enough to stand out from the crowd. What I'd like is more about the odd relationship between Koujou and Yukina, but what I get is more and more magical nonsense. I suspect that here, and in numerous other series, magic is used as a cheap substitute for quality writing, much like fanservice. In episode five a new arc seems to take off, but again it looks like the story will be about magical detective work rather than the provocative relationship between the protagonists. That frankly bores me, and I guess I might as well reluctantly abandon this series. The premise was intriguing, but not much is being done with it and I have run out of patience. If I really did feel that the characters had been developed to their full potential, would I be enjoying this show a good deal more than I am? I suspect that what I would be feeling would be that great characters were going to waste due to a feeble plot. It's not that the characters (as they really are) are terrible; it's that I just don't care about plotlines that involve magic unless they are done very well, and this one clearly isn't. It's a garbled, confusing jumble of magical nonsense, and magic in and of itself doesn't excite me. Last updated Thursday, November 28 2013. Created Tuesday, October 08 2013. | ||||||||
