Blood Lad

Title:Blood Lad
ブラッドラッド
Overall:Watch
Keywords: , , , , , , ,
Notables: NOMIZU Iori
OHSAKA Ryota
R1 License - Viz Media (Shopro)
Blood Lad follows Staz, a vampire that is obsessed with the human world, and Fuyumi, a human girl that was killed and turned into a ghost after wandering into the demon world. Staz promises to help Fuyumi regain her humanity by bringing her back to life, not so much out of charity as because that means that he would be able to visit the human world.
(Synopsis courtesy of ANN)

12 episodes(?)
OverallArtAnimationCharacter Design MusicSeries StoryEpisode StoryReviewer
Watch 7 6 7 6 5 5 Ggultra2764 [series:2762#1552]
Blood Lad is sort of a parody of cliches common in shounen action titles with its focus on vampire otaku Staz, who has a fascination with the human world and develops an interest in human girl Fuyumi as a result of this fascination, which leads him to want to restore her life after she is killed during a demon plant attack. The series is mostly a mix of comedy and action with Staz getting into fights with other demons and often making nods to cliches and story elements from other shounen action titles, with bits of fan service coming at points from Fuyumi and Bell Hydra. While there is back story revealed about a number of the major characters in the series, they are mostly story elements used from other shounen titles and the characters mostly fall under the typical archetypes of shounen titles as well. The comedy was flat to me as shounen action fans are more likely to get a kick out of the title references and cliches and the action mostly resorts to animation shortcuts and characters being cocky with their powers or conveniently pulling a victory when it seems like he or she has lost. Overall, Blood Lad's mostly forgettable fare for me and it is more likely shounen anime fans would get a kick out of this.

Last updated Sunday, September 21 2014. Created Sunday, September 21 2014.
Unevaluated Stretch [series:2762#628]
(Two episodes watched):

The strange premise of this show--an otaku vampire and misplaced human girl--clearly had a lot of potential. Maybe it will still live up to some of it, but I was disappointed with episode one. The situation was strange, but somehow not funny; the episode could hardly summon a smirk out of me. My mind was left to wander, and I could think of a number of changes that I would have made if I had been on the staff. A better joke writer, above all. The fact that it took this entire episode to just set up the premise--that Staz and Yanagi will travel to earth--but they won't actually go until episode two frustrated me. This show reminded me of Maou-Sama from the Spring season, which was also about a demon world leader coming to earth, but so far seems to have done a somewhat better job of it. Perhaps the biggest disappointment was that at one point Staz, who in theory would mercilessly suck the blood of a human girl, finds that he doesn't know what to do with her. Awkward male and female teens trying to get to know each other would be great fun even without the strange twist of vampirism. One of the changes that occurred to me: suppose Staz tries to bite her neck, but she slaps him, and he's so nonplussed that he can only say 'What did you do that for?!'. It probably doesn't sound all that funny, but almost anything would be better than the jokes this show delivered. It seems that instead of building much personality among the main characters, this show is going to take another route instead, using fanservice and mediocre jokes. Judging from the artwork above, it looks like we'll get a lot of shallow characters without any deep ones. That's a pity. This business about Yanagi being a ghost now seemed like nonsense to me and like great potential being thrown carelessly away. I'll watch another episode, but unless there's a major improvement that will be the end of Blood Lad for me.

One thing I hate is when a show adopts a weird premise--like demons visiting modern-day Japan--and then procedes to do little more than that. Instead of expanding on the premise, and having things which could never in a million years happen yet here they do (and what's more they make some sense), this show relies on tired old gags and stereotypical characters. All sorts of intriguing and potentially hilarious things could happen as Staz tries to enjoy his otaku side in places like Akihabara, but so far this story is taking place mostly in the demon world. Well, maybe the clash between Yanagi's personality and the culture of the demon world could be put to use; but no, instead we get fights between demon 'bosses'. Perhaps the problem is that demon world isn't really all that different from modern-day Japan, just the characters look like they're cosplaying. So, in the end the premise pretty much goes to waste and little that is memorable comes of it. I hate waste, and this seems like a terrible waste to me.

Last updated Sunday, October 12 2014. Created Wednesday, July 10 2013.

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