I'm going to say this upfront... I wish Blood Lad was longer. A couple of episodes in and it's easy to see that the anime features a varying range of genres and themes that would be better told if the series wasn't limited to just ten episodes.
Staz Charlie Blood is a vampire territory boss in the demon world who is obsessed with the human world. But unlike other vampires who are obsessed with drinking the blood of humans, he's more interested in their culture. Staz is a certified otaku who would prefer to just enjoy Japanese manga, anime and video games instead of ruling over his territory and defending it from those who want to take over it. When human girl Yanagi Fuyumi wanders into the demon world, he is excited at the notion of actually interacting with a Japanese girl, but she ends up eaten by a carnivorous monster plant while he was distracted. He vows to bring her back to life from her ghost form, so that he can figure out why he felt bloodlust towards her when she was alive when he could care less about the blood of other humans.
What ensues is Staz and Fuyumi's search for a way to bring her back to life, with their paths leading them to meet with teleportation magician/treasure hunter Hydra Bell and Staz's old friend, Western territory boss Wolf. Much to Staz's chagrin, their paths must also cross with his older brother Braz, who he believed tried to kill him, and their younger sister Liz.
As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, Blood Lad features plenty of genres and themes. Unless the story calls for it, the series never tries to be too serious and is funny for the most part. Staz's otaku tendencies and Fuyumi's naivete are sources of fun moments. While short, the fight scenes can be exciting, especially since you're never sure if Staz can win any of the battles he finds himself in, given that he's very stoic and apathetic towards everything except his human world obsessions. As for its supernatural themes, you get the standard hodgepodge of monsters or demon types, since they are in the demon world after all.
I do feel that the supernatural aspect of the series is one of the elements that suffered from the rather short ten-episode run. While the monster types might feel familiar, the demon world that Fuyumi ended up wandering into had its own culture, politics and societal structure, all of which could have been better explained over time. Another element that could have been more compelling are the various conflicts experienced by the characters, whose connections to one another are more complex than they themselves initially believed to be.
There was enough in these elements that kept me interested to see how everything would unfold, but not quite enough for me to feel satisfied with the execution of Blood Lad. I think that it might be better for me to check out the manga version the anime series was adapted from.
Just okay viewing with this one.Labels: Action, Adaptation, Anime, Blood Lad, Comedy, Supernatural, TV
