Blood Lad - Episode 10 (Completed)

You know what they say about what happens when the cat's away, and it seems as if the proverbial mice of Staz's area of the demon world have finally caught on to the fact that he isn't around.

This, however, isn't really Staz's major concern, as he instead finds himself facing Bell's father Hydra - a simultaneously angry yet friendly fellow from whom Bell has inherited her powers, who wants to have a bit of a man to man (well, demon to vampire) chat about the history of Bell, Fuyumi and their respective parents.  In short, Hydra is a little worried about Staz's intentions not only towards Bell, but more importantly towards Fuyumi - just why does he want to resurrect her exactly?

Staz admitting that even he isn't sure whether he simply wants to drink Fuyumi's blood or something more wholesome doesn't really help in the matter, but Hydra ultimately makes our anti-hero make a pledge - that he'll let Fuyumi and only Fuyumi decide whether she'll allow Staz to resurrect her, and similarly that she'll be the only one to decide whether he can drink her blood.  With that agreed upon, all that remains is for Fuyumi herself to agreed to return to the mission to resurrect her, while meanwhile Braz continues with his own nefarious plans and Staz's homeland somehow remains safe for another day.

So goes an unsatisfying end to an unsatisfying series - a sequence of rushed and half-baked partial resolutions to plot points still left broadly open in the (surely vain) hope of a second season.  To be quite frank, this show really doesn't deserve one - from beginning to end it has been almost universally unfunny, poorly animated, sloppily scripted and plotted and needlessly burdened with half-baked fan service.  Everything about Blood Lad has been painfully average to a degree where it's largely been a virtual masterclass in tedium - sometimes being abjectly mediocre is worse for the viewer than being downright bad, and this is undoubtedly one of those occasions.  Never mind Fuyumi, let's just hope that nobody chooses to resurrect Blood Lad in animated form any time soon.

Blood Lad - Episode 9

Braz has been summoned to meet the demon king - a terrifying prospect in itself; but for what reason has Braz been granted an audience with the top man in the demon world?

It seems that the king's interest is in Braz's dealing during the whole incident with Akim, and more specifically the fact that this nasty piece of work looks exactly like somebody in the king's charge.  Braz is quite open in his response to this, suggesting that the two individuals are one and the same while openly admitting that acknowledging this is his declaration of war upon the king.  Although the plan from here is to lock him up, Braz has no intentions of being taken into the king's custody, and thus makes good his escape, even if his getaway isn't entirely a clean one as he finds himself being pursued by a potentially hard to shake opponent.

Meanwhile, we get to the crux of why Bell's brother has been tasked with capturing Fuyumi and taking her to the family home - put simply, Bell's mother Neyn is in fact also Fuyumi's mother, although in a sense she also isn't Fuyumi's mother too.  To cut a long story short, Fuyumi's mother in the human world was the doppelganger of Bell's mother in the demon world, causing the two to fuse and merge when they inadvertently met one day.  What does this mean?  I really have no idea.

Even when it has two major concurrently running story threads to play with, it seems that Blood Lad simply can't help being boring - there's no real verve to anything that it does, and at times it feels as if it's more interested in playing dress-up with its characters than really building any interest in its story.  If you've enjoyed the series from the start, then I guess you still will at this point as it's effectively still doing the same thing, but personally I continue to find almost nothing of value in the animation, humour or story-telling of the series - a shame, as its premise holds at least a reasonable amount of promise.

Blood Lad - Episode 8

The search begins (again) for Fuyumi in this week's Blood Lad, but no sooner does it start than Liz in particular runs into a new problem.

The issue in question is Beros, some kind of demonic policewoman who duly arrests Braz, thus removing any possibility of him helping or offering up additional information about where Fuyumi might have gone.  For Liz's part, she's unable to find Fuyumi even with the aid of the tracking device planted on her, suggesting that she's currently somewhere outside of even Braz's reach.  As Staz beings to find the clues he needs to track down his missing friend, so Fuyumi pops out into the open for just long enough to both alert Bell of her whereabouts while also allowing Liz to track her location for a split second.

Given her abilities it's none too surprising that Bell is first on the scene, but she's quickly confronted by a dilemma as it's none other than her brother who has captured Fuyumi at the behest of their mother.  As blood runs thicker than water, Bell sees no choice but to help her brother in whatever odd job it is he's involved in, which puts her into immediate conflict with Staz... a difficult battle at the best of times, but even more so once Bell finds herself in a decidedly compromising position that leaves her no option but to switch sides again and help Staz's rescue mission.

Even as it continues to move along at break-neck pace, Blood Lad remains incredibly dull to watch as it runs through its gamut of bad jokes, sloppy action and fan service without ever really providing much in the way of entertainment or notable humour, not helped by the fact that its constantly shifting narrative goals have very little to distinguish themselves from one another.  In other words, Blood Lad's constant rinse and repeat in terms of its story-telling is about as interesting as washing your hair.

Blood Lad - Episode 7

Now that Staz has his brother onsite (if only somewhat), it's time to get down to the serious business of resurrecting Fuyumi.

Inevitably this isn't the kind of process that can be completed with merely a wave of a magic wand, so Staz is left to play "blood bank" to her again while Braz begins the process by taking the samples he needs to create Fuyumi a new body.  Of course, he isn't doing this merely out of some sense of charity - in fact, he's more interested in getting a hold of evidence of Staz's new, unlocked powers that were also contained within the samples taken from Fuyumi.

As Braz heads off to begin his work, Liz is left behind to keep an eye on his little brother.  In spite of her best efforts to remain focused upon the task at hand, she can't help but be won over by Fuyumi in particular as the latter bathes, sleeps with and helps out the former - a first for this decidedly lonely young girl.  When Liz wakes to find Fuyumi gone and only a note in her place saying "Don't look for me", it's clear that the note is a hoax and that Fuyumi has been kidnapped.  Cue a search for the mysterious individual who seems likely to be at the centre of it all.

Once again, Blood Lad manages to produce an episode that is as dull as it is rote - I can't deny that the show's story keeps progressing and moving it an impressive pace, but when none of those developments are interesting in the slightest there really isn't too much to praise about it.  Mix that in with the clunky animation and humour that rarely (if ever) hits the mark, and the only reason I'm still watching the series at this point is so that you don't have to.

Blood Lad - Episode 6

With his powers revived thanks to the removal of that pesky bullet, Staz is now adequately prepared to take on a rampaging monster at his brother's behest.  Not that he particularly wants to, mind you...

Staz's arrival on the scene is not a moment too soon either, as in spite of his best efforts even Wolf's strongest powers have little effect on this particular enemy, between his almost zombie-like properties and his ability to manipulate and shift through space a la Bell.

If Wolf has met his match, the same cannot be said for Staz, and things really come to a head when his opponent disses him for attempting a Kamehameha - if there's one thing you don't do it's cast aspersions on one of Staz's animated idols, and the next thing we know it's game over and the day is won.  Things still don't seem to be going exactly to plan in the aftermath of this however - Wolf is more interested in another match-up with Staz than checking in on Fuyumi's condition, Franken's own hopes of dealing with Fuyumi are also dealt a blow by the appearance of Braz, and it seems that his big brother also has another mission in hand for Staz to boot.

After a number of tepid episodes of Blood Lad, this week's instalment did at least feel like an improvement of sorts - its riffing on Dragon Ball Z amused me (perhaps more than it should have), and a random reference to Hayao Miyazaki also tickled me, if only because I imagine even Staz wouldn't want to get on the wrong side of the old geezer.  It's actually enough to get me wondering why the series doesn't lean harder into its protagonist's otaku tendencies - yes, it makes for lazy comedy, but in a show that can hardly be described as doing anything original it would potentially hold up a lot better than the half-baked gags we've been treated to for the most part.  Mix that in with some stronger action elements (although I'm not sure what the series can do now that it's made Staz so insanely powerful), and you might have actually had a more watchable series on your hands.

Blood Lad - Episode 5

With Staz imprisoned and his only hope of escape being the defeat of a pair of powerful zombie opponents, and Fuyumi quite literally fading away, it's fair to say that things aren't going too swimmingly for the main cast of Blood Lad.

As we've already learned however, Staz isn't one to give up easily, and every time he gets knocked down he gets straight back up again for another bout.  Eventually news of his incarceration reaches his brother, despite the best attempts of sister Liz to hide it, leading to these siblings being reunited as we learn the full truth about the bullet lodged in our protagonist's body.

Meanwhile, it seems that the only option for Fuyumi's survival is to merge and take over another demon - another vampire to be precise, meaning Staz.  But is this really the only option?  It seems that Fraken isn't being entirely upfront about things due to an agenda of his own, and there is in fact another option to save her - however, what Franken really wants is someone capable of defeating the almighty monster he created and inadvertently let loose.  Funnily enough, Braz is also after the same thing, and naturally he wants Staz to offer a helping hand in return for having his full powers unlocked.  No prizes for guessing where we're headed from here, then.

Even five episodes in, Blood Lad continues to have a major case of attention deficit disorder, jumping onto the next plot point having barely had time to finish up the previous one.  This is the kind of thing you can get away with if you have some panache and intelligence to your story-telling, but Blood Lad boasts neither of these things, and instead resembles little more than an occasionally amusing jumble - a badly animated jumble at that which I'm struggling to say anything particular positive about, as you might have noticed.

Blood Lad - Episode 4

The next step in Staz's tour to find out how to resurrect a human has been set, and it's fair to say that it's a destination that our protagonist is really not thrilled at the prospect of visiting.

The place in question is the Demon World Acropolis, home of various elite demons reside - demons including Staz's very own brother.  With Bell and her ever-handy portals on-hand, travelling there is a breeze - or rather, it would be had Wolf not pushed his friend into said portal too early.  Instead, Staz ends up in Bell's bedroom, where he eventually finds himself regurgitating his life story - how he was used as little more as a guinea pig by his brother, who finally sealed Staz's magic inside him using a bullet to the heart.  If there's one thing Bell can't stand it's things being locked away, so she makes Staz promise to get the key to this lock from his brother while he's visiting.

The trouble is, Staz's homecoming very quickly turns out to be far from happy one - let's just say that his little sister is far from thrilled to see him, leading to Staz being thrown away and locked into a prison.  On the bright side, there is one route of escape available - an opportunity to challenge some rather tough-looking fellows who have never been beaten.  Meanwhile, things aren't going too well for Fuyumi, as a lack of bllood from Staz is causing her ethereal form some rather severe issues, by which I mean "my legs seem to be disappearing" kinds of issues.

Having ragged on this series somewhat over its early episodes, I feel like the show has leveled out into a strange level of mediocrity where it's just about interesting enough to keep watching, but not quite dull enough to drop.  Blood Lad looks set to be the kind of series that's "just there" - it does nothing offensive (unless fan service really gets your goat) but nothing spectacular or particularly funny; perhaps it's for the best that it airs on a Sunday evening when I'm often in need of something entirely undemanding.  That, ladies and gentlemen, is what I believe they call "damning with faint praise"...

Blood Lad - Episode 3

Bell has given Staz a rather important clue as to the whereabouts of the Book of Resurrection; now all he has to do is go and get it.

The trouble is the supposed current owner of the book is Wolf, a rival territory boss renowned for his strength and with an impressive land mass to his name.  Oh, and it just so happens that he's a childhood friend of Staz.  Thus, there's nothing for it but to set off and ask Wolf for the book - simple, right?

Having found their target more by luck than judgement, they find that Wolf doesn't actually have the book, nor is he willing to use his clout to aid in its search - at least, not without some kind of recompense.  So it goes that a challenge is laid down - a face-off between Staz and Wolf, with Fuyumi as the prize.  Even though the focus of the challenge is moved from bowling to boxing, seemingly to Staz's disadvantage, there's still no stopping our vampiric protagonist when push comes to shove - but is this entire endeavour in vain?  It seems that the all-important book was closer at hand all along; the trouble is, the only person actually capable of reading it is the one individual Staz really doesn't want to deal with.

Three episodes in, Blood Lad keeps on rolling in unspectacular fashion - it might raise the odd smile but its comedy rarely hits the mark, and there's just something irredeemably dull about the show's setup and the way it progresses things, not helped by Fuyumi in particular more of a walking pair of breasts than an actual character.  I should probably drop the series at this point, I know, but for some reason I feel compelled to give it at least another episode or two just to see where it's headed next.

Blood Lad - Episode 2

It's off to the human world we go for this second episode of Blood Lad, as Staz seeks to honour his promise to return Fuyumi to life and resurrect her body.  Of course, he doesn't have any ulterior motives for visiting the human world at all...

Rather handily, the curtain to the human world leads directly into Fuyumi's world, although Staz is decidedly disappointed by how clinical and bare it looks.  Still, there's little time to consider this, as Fuyumi tries to return to her normal life only to find questions everywhere about where she's been and who the Hell the creepy guy now hanging out with her is.  Luckily, Staz has an answer for this, that being his saliva in distilled form, which allows him to exert his will over anyone in range of a spray of said spittle and make it seem as if Fuyumi was never away.

Although is this really what Fuyumi wants?  She thinks not, but Staz's heart is certainly in the right place, and with her demonic body unable to stand long in the human world without disappearing entirely Staz is the only one capable of sustaining her.  There are only more problems rather than solutions on the horizon however, as Staz and Fuyumi run into the original owner of the portal they used to travel to the human world, Bell Hydra.  Although the portal was stolen from her, that doesn't stop her from kidnapping Fuyumi and getting Staz to run errands for her - then again, it seems like she might also have some useful information that will be of interest to Fuyumi and her hopes of becoming human again...

While its low budget animation quality certainly doesn't help (at times this show looks more like a Flash animation than anything else), there also isn't really anything else much to sink my teeth into (with every pun intended) from this series thus far.  It's successful humour is pretty thin on the ground, Fuyumi is perhaps the most boring female character ever to grace an anime adaptation (although at least her stupidity is used for at least one decent gag), and although its plot is fast-moving, that doesn't really deflect from the fact that it feels arbitrary and by the numbers at this point in time.  Perhaps it'll find its feet as it extends its cast, but I'm not holding out much hope at present.

Blood Lad - Episode 1

Staz is one very modern vampire - not for him a life of sucking blood from human females; why do that when you can just lounge around in the demon world enjoying your fill of Japanese popular culture?  As far as he's concerned, he's living the dream as the boss of a territory in the demon world and all of the anime and manga he could read.

However, life suddenly promises to get a whole lot better for Staz as he receives a report from his henchmen that they've found a human girl who has somehow managed to wander into the demon world entirely by accident.  Again, blood-sucking is secondary in Staz's mind as he salivates over the prospect of meeting an actual living, breathing human... and a girl nonetheless!

Unfortunately, this chance encounter is cut short by some trouble in Staz's territory, and by the time he's dealt with it he returns to find that a remnant of that plant-based mischief has eaten his precious new lady-friend Fuyumi, who is now little more than a naked ghost.  Far from impressed by this development, Staz swears to return Fuyumi's body to her - an idea that only becomes more appealing once it's clear that this will also involve Staz visiting the human world.  So, off we go into the unknown, as Staz and Fuyumi begin their adventure to bring the latter back to life.

Blood Lad arguably occupies an unfortunate place coming so soon after the marvelous Hataraku Maou-sama, a position not helped by the fact that self-referential otaku comedy has also been done to death by this point in time.  Still, this opening episode does what it can to make the whole thing appealing - a little fan service here, a carefully controlled smattering of otaku humour that works just about perfectly, and an oddly likeable cast.  Perhaps these positives will be enough to sustain it even in the face of low-budget animation and a tendency (in this opener at least) to rush through things to move the plot forward - only time will tell whether the series can progress to new heights or at least keep a level of consistency to its comedy and narrative, but as opening gambits go this was a mildly fun and inoffensive little slice of comedy if nothing else that has at least managed to quickly set up its main premise without too much fuss.