Title: Blood-C
Genre: Action, Mystery, Drama
Artist: Ranmaru Kotone / CLAMP
Publisher: Kadokawa Shoten (JP), Dark Horse (U.S),
Serialized in: Monthly Shonen Ace
A review copy was provided by Dark Horse.
The stakes are raised in this second volume of Blood-C, as more and more people are disappearing from Saya’s normally quiet and cozy hometown — people Saya knows and loves. The Ancient Ones’ attacks are also becoming more aggressive; when Saya starts blacking out every time she time she tries to save another person from being attacked, she starts to wonder if she might be the one with the townspeople’s blood on her hands.
Despite the fact that this volume is far more intense than the first — the Ancient Ones aren’t exactly playing nice anymore — we’re still left with plenty of unanswered questions and not a lot of plot advancement. Saya is still constantly reminded of a “covenant” that she can’t seem to remember, but now has to deal with the grief that losing her friends one by one brings. The first is Nene, a classmate, and the rest of class is left in fear of what may come next. As Saya tries to deal with the shock of losing a friend right before her eyes, Nene’s grief-stricken sister becomes yet another monster Saya has to defeat. Making things more jarring is the fact that every time Saya attempts to save one of her friends in battle, she blacks out with fuzzy memories of what happened; a bit troublesome if you wake up surrounded by blood. Meanwhile, Saya’s mysterious classmate Shinichiro has taken a particular interest in her and becomes increasingly determined to protect her, all while an odd dog spirit continually reminds Saya of her “wish” and covenant.
This volume was pretty action-filled so it flew back quickly. At the same time, however, it’s a bit disappointing that a) it feels like nothing really happened and b) there wasn’t anything particularly unpredictable. Volume 1 let off with Nene’s looming attack, but this volume shows a few more attacks while Saya still wrecks her brain over what the heck the “covenant” is. Her classmate Shinichiro is the stereotypical, mysteriously aloof boy, who, while seemingly always in the background as Saya’s life falls into disarray, suddenly proclaims that he likes Saya and wants to protect her. And ultimately, I have no doubt all of these strange occurrences in the city have something to do with Saya’s late mother.
Perhaps it’s a bit premature, but there’s nothing particularly surprising here. After two volumes, Blood-C is still a decent action series with nice art by CLAMP; that being said, I don’t think the series’ potential mysteries are compelling enough to pull me along into the next volume.
