(L) Blood+ TV Series

[kari-no-sugata]

Hmm. Anyone feel sorry for Solomon this ep?

Spoiler:

Not only did he take a massive blow to the chest, but he smiled it off.

Then he spends most of the ep trying to persaude Saya that they're all one big happy family and shouldn't be fighting. (Doesn't seem to have realised that family fights can get particularly bad.)

Looks like he might succeed when Hagi gets in the way.

Then, guess who turns up, but the killer little sister with the glowing blue eyes, sucking the blood of someone Saya cares about. Not only should this prompt Saya to remember the reason why she decided to fight Diva, but has given her a whole new reason to do so.

So all of Solomon's efforts are going to be meaningless.

PS Riku's certainly die if he looses too much blood. Regarding him getting "infected" - well, remember when George fought that Yokushuu early in the series and got slashed and sent to hospital. They were worried he could get infected. But Diva isn't necessarily the same. At the very least though, I'd expect it to make Riku even more sensitive to special sounds etc...

[rondo]

Spoiler:

Solomon can use sound as a weapon similar to Anshel. Maybe that's a clue about Diva's powers or maybe abilities that Saya might gain in the future.

Kai losing faith on Saya after reading the diary makes me really not his character. I can't wait till David has to beat him up again.

Maybe Riku is a relative of Saya. Or maybe his blood can help the Sifu. I hope Riku stays cute and doesn't become a chiropteran kid.

[wrex_japan]

Originally Posted by kari-no-sugata

Hmm. Anyone feel sorry for Solomon this ep?

Spoiler:

Not only did he take a massive blow to the chest, but he smiled it off.

Then he spends most of the ep trying to persaude Saya that they're all one big happy family and shouldn't be fighting. (Doesn't seem to have realised that family fights can get particularly bad.)

Looks like he might succeed when Hagi gets in the way.

Then, guess who turns up, but the killer little sister with the glowing blue eyes, sucking the blood of someone Saya cares about. Not only should this prompt Saya to remember the reason why she decided to fight Diva, but has given her a whole new reason to do so.

So all of Solomon's efforts are going to be meaningless.

PS Riku's certainly die if he looses too much blood. Regarding him getting "infected" - well, remember when George fought that Yokushuu early in the series and got slashed and sent to hospital. They were worried he could get infected. But Diva isn't necessarily the same. At the very least though, I'd expect it to make Riku even more sensitive to special sounds etc...

No, not really. After all, he was just forcing his views on Saya without considering any of her feelings. I believe his agenda was one-sided and selfish. He wanted Saya as a lover or as a bride.

Spoiler:

The only thing I felt sorry for was his suit. :P Him getting a hole ripped through his chest calmly was just a calculated move to get Saya's trust so that she'd listen to him in private. He tried to brainwash Saya into believing their cause and made her cry. No, I don't feel sorry for him at all.

[Guido]

That's what I've been wondering about Riku.

How come he can hear the cries of the Chiropterans?

Back to the Vietnam arc, Argeno remarked that Riku is capable of hearing the sounds.

A side note for Diva, she might be in personality terms to another character from another anime, Elda, which resembling her, Diva does as she pleases.
She takes orders from no one and is master to her own desires. However, it's safe for me to assume that Diva would not engage in an action that results counter productive to herself.

It's too early to point out or even come to think of it, however, I do not believe that Diva would want to put through all the courses of action that the Chevaliers are taking nor allowing them to determine her fate for much longer.

[Mangaka-chan]

I just watched the sub of episode 21 and something Solomon was thinking about puzzled me.

Spoiler:

I quote Bakakozou's translation of the part where Solomon has just driven past Mao and her stalled car. He thought: "Amshel-niisan...why did you make something like that?" What or who does Solomon mean by "that"? And what Guy said about the Sciff being different from the Chevaliers only by one thing, the blood of Saya (or Diva). I'm starting to wonder if Amshel somehow has a hand in creating the Sciffs.

Anyone have any ideas?

[wrex_japan]

Originally Posted by Mangaka-chan

I just watched the sub of episode 21 and something Solomon was thinking about puzzled me.

Spoiler:

I quote Bakakozou's translation of the part where Solomon has just driven past Mao and her stalled car. He thought: "Amshel-niisan...why did you make something like that?" What or who does Solomon mean by "that"? And what Guy said about the Sciff being different from the Chevaliers only by one thing, the blood of Saya (or Diva). I'm starting to wonder if Amshel somehow has a hand in creating the Sciffs.

Anyone have any ideas?

It's ambiguous even in Japanese, so you have to guess by context.

Spoiler for This is the literal Japanese:

He said, "Nii-san, naze anna mono... yahari." The literal translation is "Brother, why did you... that kind of thing... Could it be?/Of course!" In Japanese, the verb comes in the end and Solomon didn't say the verb... he just trailed off. However, what he says is accompanied by the flashback with the Shifu/Schiffs, so it's open to interpretation. It could be, "why did you (create) such things," or it could even be, "why did you (deal with) such creatures."

[Mangaka-chan]

Originally Posted by wrex_japan

It's ambiguous even in Japanese, so you have to guess by context.

Spoiler for This is the literal Japanese:

He said, "Nii-san, naze anna mono... yahari." The literal translation is "Brother, why did you... that kind of thing... Could it be?/Of course!" In Japanese, the verb comes in the end and Solomon didn't say the verb... he just trailed off. However, what he says is accompanied by the flashback with the Shifu/Schiffs, so it's open to interpretation. It could be, "why did you (create) such things," or it could even be, "why did you (deal with) such creatures."

Thanks you wrex for clearing that up a bit. It would be interesting if he was thought since I had a feeling Amshel is the most evil out of the five Chevaliers ever since he smirked in episode 22.

[mycen]

What I did not like about Blood+ was the way they introduced side characters and killed or abonded them relatively quickly. The special forces red shield team got introduced and killed off 1 to 2 episodes later (The same happened to Elizebeth). I am pretty sure we won't see Min any more.
Don't get me wrong.. I think Blood+ is a pretty good anime and we are only halfway through ... It is just that the army of side characters that they have makes me somewhat disconnected... Remember the pitfall of having 3 main characters in GSD... the end result being chaos and discontent among Gundam fans. Let's Hope Blood+ does not repeat this..

[Sonhex]

Well this doesn't only happen in Blood +; plenty of shows introduce new characters, (often on a weekly basis), use and dispense with them for whatever reason the plot demands. However, in Blood + I think the characters that have arrived and 'exited' quickly served their purpose without seeming to clutter the story too many loose ends. Maybe Min is the exeption at this point. But we aren't even half way through yet (yay!) and I think will meet Min again. Remember Min was in school while her father was working in Hanoi, which may indicate he also works elsewhere. A familiar face in a foreign land is a tried and tested plot device. So I wouldn't be surprised if Saya and Co bump into Min in some other port of call. The story did follow-up with Kaori after all. I'm sure we'll also meet Kaori again actually, when the series comes full circle back to Japan...

[Sonhex]

So some thoughts on Ep.24...

Spoiler:

...well I like Diva. She's playful, cruel and totally evil; dancing with the 'dead' Riku whilst singing that song of hers. The best bit for me was when David shot her without hesitation and she hung there for a second in shock, her spine broken, before laughing and reviving. Sent shivers down my spine. In terms of her abilities she's seems pretty powerful and fast, like her Chevaliers. A worthy villain me thinks but seriously, Saya has no chance against her unless she improves her skills. I guess she's got the rest of the series to do that.

On the downside I'm getting a little tired of Haji the 'Deus Ex Machina'. It was predictable that he'd save Saya in the end. But Diva was so close to killing Saya, I held my breadth during that scene. Also Haji's battle with Solomon was a real let down. Why didn't Solomon use that devastating air attack from last week?

So Riku did die and Saya was forced to revive him using her blood ala Haji. This is a really interesting development and I want to see what Chevalier Riku can do. I can see Kai being sidelined further after this.

Final thought for the day - do Chateaux's really keep Katana's in their armouries?

[EDIT]Does anyone who is Diva's va? Is it Eri Kitamura also? Her laugh sounds a lot like Ami Koshimizu (Anemone from Eureka 7)...[/EDIT]

[wrex_japan]

Originally Posted by Sonhex

So some thoughts on Ep.24...

Spoiler:

...well I like Diva. She's playful, cruel and totally evil; dancing with the 'dead' Riku whilst singing that song of hers. The best bit for me was when David shot her without hesitation and she hung there for a second in shock, her spine broken, before laughing and reviving. Sent shivers down my spine. In terms of her abilities she's seems pretty powerful and fast, like her Chevaliers. A worthy villain me thinks but seriously, Saya has no chance against her unless she improves her skills. I guess she's got the rest of the series to do that.

On the downside I'm getting a little tired of Haji the 'Deus Ex Machina'. It was predictable that he'd save Saya in the end. But Diva was so close to killing Saya, I held my breadth during that scene. Also Haji's battle with Solomon was a real let down. Why didn't Solomon use that devastating air attack from last week?

So Riku did die and Saya was forced to revive him using her blood ala Haji. This is a really interesting development and I want to see what Chevalier Riku can do. I can see Kai being sidelined further after this.

Final thought for the day - do Chateaux's really keep Katana's in their armouries?

[EDIT]Does anyone who is Diva's va? Is it Eri Kitamura also? Her laugh sounds a lot like Ami Koshimizu (Anemone from Eureka 7)...[/EDIT]

Spoiler for regarding Riku:

He wasn't dead yet. The ambulance was just not going to make it on time, so the only way to save him was to make him a Chevalier.

Summary and screencaps here.

Diva's seiyuu is Yajima Akiko...she also plays Riku. ^_^ She was Anna in Battle Athletes Victory and R. Dorothy Waynewright in Big-O, among many other roles.

[kari-no-sugata]

Spoiler for my thoughts on ep 24:

Hmm, Diva is kinda deliciously inhuman isn't she. Her first reaction on seeing new humans is to comment on whether they look tasty or not

Unsurprisingly, Saya was the one to left Diva out from the prison. Yet, we get almost no new info on what happened after that. eg, when did Amshel become a Chivalier? Anyway, at least Saya remembers what it is she had to do - kill the Yokushuu and Diva.

I wonder if the basic difference between Saya and Diva is the amount of blood they've sucked up? Saya's almost never sucked anyone's blood, while Diva does it all the time. When Hagi gave Saya some blood in ep 1/2, Saya seemed to be VERY strong right then - eg knocking that "mouse" flying into the wall. The reason Saya collapsed near the end of the ep is because she didn't have enough blood.

Yeah, I'm a bit tired of the "Hagi turns up at the last second to save Saya" too. Bit too predictable. Still, that scene had a lot of tension...

Diva and Solomon both think Diva's blood would be poison to Saya (since the opposite is true), but do they have any basis to think that? I can't think Saya's created any other Chevalier apart from Hagi (and now Riku) so I don't think there'd been any examples of Diva's blood killing Saya (or her Chevalier). After all, Diva does ask - she's not 100% certain. Maybe it'll turn out in the end that her blood isn't poison to Saya even though the opposite is true.

btw, Riku wasn't "dead" - just suffering from severe blood loss. They could have tried waiting for medical team to arrive... but it seemed like they wouldn't be on time.

PS Kai no baka. He said if Riku dies he'd be all alone (ie doesn't include Saya). Ah-ahh... you've made her all depressed now.

[Sonhex]

Spoiler:

Ah, I wasn't certain about Riku. Yeah Kai really showed his true colours in that scene. He was both selfish over Riku and cruel toward Saya. I wonder how Riku will react - will be blame Kai or Saya for being stuck a child forever?

One thing worth mentioning - Diva's blood fell on Saya's top. So looks like next episode Julia will be able to analyse it and perhaps shed light on the differences between the siblings. And maybe confirm if Diva's blood is indeed deadly to Saya...

wrex_japan thanks for your blogs

[wrex_japan]

Originally Posted by kari-no-sugata

Spoiler for my thoughts on ep 24:

Hmm, Diva is kinda deliciously inhuman isn't she. Her first reaction on seeing new humans is to comment on whether they look tasty or not

Unsurprisingly, Saya was the one to left Diva out from the prison. Yet, we get almost no new info on what happened after that. eg, when did Amshel become a Chivalier? Anyway, at least Saya remembers what it is she had to do - kill the Yokushuu and Diva.

I wonder if the basic difference between Saya and Diva is the amount of blood they've sucked up? Saya's almost never sucked anyone's blood, while Diva does it all the time. When Hagi gave Saya some blood in ep 1/2, Saya seemed to be VERY strong right then - eg knocking that "mouse" flying into the wall. The reason Saya collapsed near the end of the ep is because she didn't have enough blood.

Yeah, I'm a bit tired of the "Hagi turns up at the last second to save Saya" too. Bit too predictable. Still, that scene had a lot of tension...

Diva and Solomon both think Diva's blood would be poison to Saya (since the opposite is true), but do they have any basis to think that? I can't think Saya's created any other Chevalier apart from Hagi (and now Riku) so I don't think there'd been any examples of Diva's blood killing Saya (or her Chevalier). After all, Diva does ask - she's not 100% certain. Maybe it'll turn out in the end that her blood isn't poison to Saya even though the opposite is true.

btw, Riku wasn't "dead" - just suffering from severe blood loss. They could have tried waiting for medical team to arrive... but it seemed like they wouldn't be on time.

PS Kai no baka. He said if Riku dies he'd be all alone (ie doesn't include Saya). Ah-ahh... you've made her all depressed now.

Good question about Anschel... I also wonder WHY Diva made him a Chevalier. We know why Saya made Haji a Chevalier; it was basically out of love/compassion/friendship, but I don't see why a literally bloodthirsty inhuman deciding to give blood to others.

I hope Kai will redeem himself later.

[ShellyKukai]

Thanks for the summary Wrex.

Spoiler for Ep 22-24:

I suspect Ansel was employed by Joel while Saya was still under his care. It could be Ansel has was attempting to work behind Joel's back for some time, or made Diva an offer she couldn't refuse. I think Ansel is using her feelings of bitterness to his own advantage. If I were some crazed researcher turned vampire I would consider repopulating the earth with monsters too. And Diva has no respect for humans because she was locked up in a tower for years upon years while Saya was wearing pretty dresses and being waited on 24/7. Heck, Joel even bought her a husband. Not that Saya's circumstances were that much happier, she was also a pampered prisoner/oddity of sorts. But was treated with affection. Wow, it looks like Saya, Haji, and Riku are now a family <3

[mycen]

I wonder if Riku's original half vampiric blood would be able to offset his turning somewhat... don't wanna see Riku stuck to his child form..

[rondo]

I blame David for not taking better care of George's kids.
How could he have let this happen to Riku? Saya and David should get into an argument over this because David kept the truth from Saya, brought Riku with him, and didn't look after Riku.

I wonder if Riku needs to share blood transfusions with Saya.
How come we never see Hagi feeding on blood at all? Isn't he hungry?
He was with Saya the whole time and he didn't have any blood (and how can his clothes repair itself).

[Mangaka-chan]

Spoiler:

I totally did not expect Riku to turn into a Chevalier even though some people thought it would be possible. Still the question for me is how will Riku handle all this and will Kai drift away further from Saya? It's actually kind of nice to see a character like Kai who is uncomfortable after knowing your adopted sister isn't what she appears to be. Most animes with a situation like that would have a "we are still a family" moment in no time but not Blood+. It would be really sad if the siblings drifted apart but heck it feels a lot more realistic

[mycen]

The series should start delving into the history of Saya's bloodgroove katana soon and where she learned how to use the sword etc etc... Afterall Saya is gonna need a new weapon soon to deal with Diva and her chevaliers.

Can't really blame David for what happened to Riku. Riku did want to accompany them on their journey... Saya and Hagi needs to have a constant supply of blood otherwise they won't match up to Diva and Ansel...

[Mangaka-chan]

Just a random thought but...

Spoiler:

since Diva said Riku's blood was delicious and she also said Kai looked delicious, I wonder if that means she might end up sucking on Kai's neck one day. Then Saya will have to give him some of her blood too and the three of them plus Riku will really be a family for eternity.

what do you guys think?