It took quite a while, but Blood Lad is finally out (and I finally got this out)!
As much as I was looking forward to watching the first episode, the excitement I had for it er, unfortunately died out quickly after the first few minutes. And regardless of what you might think guys, it isn’t due to the anime being released months after its announcement or the disappointing character designs, but rather how pale the first episode was in comparison to the original work.
Vampire Staz Charlie Blood is the big bad boss of one of the biggest districts in the Demon World. Simply by reading the first phrase, one would expect him to be in the slightest intimidating and ultra-cool, but in reality (and unbeknownst to the general public) he’s pretty much the supernatural equivalent of a closed-in eccentric nerd without a stable job. At the arrival of our dear human heroine, Fuyumi, Staz begins to catch more or less the familiar shounen hero syndrome and decides to help the cute heroine find her way home and out of the mess she ran into at her arrival into the dangerous Demon World.
Having read the manga beforehand, I was already aware of what was going to take place, which characters would make their appearance first and such, but usually knowing these things rarely keep people from watching the animated version of whatever they like. At least for most works I’ve followed, I don’t mind at all knowing what’s to come next.
But, as I’ve mentioned way above, the first few minutes confirmed my worst fears and made me wonder why I was forcing myself to watch this. The first episode had completely adapted the first chapters of the manga in the most unimpressive and unoriginal way possible. Before when I had hope, I expected the anime staff to brainstorm and use interesting visual works to illustrate most of the jokes, as for example the Final Fantasy one. And as you can expect, that was not the case at all. What’s worse, the rather blank moments in the manga remain…blank in the anime. The staff could have rendered it enjoyable by emphasizing the characters’ expressions, or by changing the shots (and I don’t mean focusing on Fuyumi’s body like it has done three-five times).
Getting that large cat out of the bag, I’d also like to add that the anime’s OP was unimpressive and generic in the worst way possible, rivaling even Gintama’s boring openings.
Blood Lad so far with its three episodes makes me wonder why…Oh why, can I not let it go. I’m even ready to watch reruns of Durarara for the third time at this rate.
