Blood-C (CLAMP x Production IG)

[Kanon]

Originally Posted by hanashi

That final monologue sequence creeped me out a bit. Something about Saya's demeanor and her slack face, the heavy-domineering hand on her shoulder and gallery of glass globes full of blood...

Is it just me, or is this starting to seem like a giant experiment? I mean, think about it--there are so many possible controlled variables. The town's population is really quite small, Saya eats food from the same places (There's only one of everything, right? Even in a small town, that seems odd to me), she doesn't have a TV/radio/computer... And of course, there's the voice in the monologue asking what shapes a person, what makes them who they are, as though they're recording notes for an operation or an experiment. Maybe they're experimenting on Saya to see if they can remove the bloodlust/instincts from the furukimono?

It's the Truman show.... with vampires! Well, not really, as I doubt the whole town is in on it (I would say that at the very least Saya's dad, Guimauve-kun and Saya's teacher are involved), but I do think this is all part of an experiment. Saya seems completely cut off from the rest of the world, and it's odd she doesn't know anything about her beloved father's habits.

I don't know about the guimauve being brains (although I love that idea ) but I suspect Guimauve-kun puts something in her food everyday. That would explain why her father didn't eat nor drink the same things as her.

I was shocked Saya stoob by and let that guy get slaughtered. She didn't even bat an eye when she saw what little remained of him. I thought Saya was killing those monsters to protect people (or am I confusing with another series? It's such a common theme)? Terrific job she did there.

[orion]

I think that the line about her mother hunting those creatures was a lie and that for some reason Saya was the one hunting them and had a reset.

She might be the reason those creatures are there in the first place. Wonder what the covenant is that's not being honored.

[Ziziphus]

Originally Posted by hanashi

Is it just me, or is this starting to seem like a giant experiment? I mean, think about it--there are so many possible controlled variables. The town's population is really quite small, Saya eats food from the same places (There's only one of everything, right? Even in a small town, that seems odd to me), she doesn't have a TV/radio/computer... And of course, there's the voice in the monologue asking what shapes a person, what makes them who they are, as though they're recording notes for an operation or an experiment. Maybe they're experimenting on Saya to see if they can remove the bloodlust/instincts from the furukimono?

Hey, I like this experiment idea. It would explain a lot of weird things going on with this series: the juggling between painstakingly slow slice-of-life first halves and out-of-nowhere action packed second halves, the disturbingly emptiness of the town, the bipolar nature of Saya, the seemingly endlessly repetitive days of Saya...

Maybe they're experimenting on the influence of certain environmental factors on the nature of Saya (caused by her blood) and whether her nature can be changed (despite her blood). To say more on this:

Spoiler for speculation:

- I assume Saya is also not a human in this version of Blood, though probably not a vampire either since she doesn't need to consume blood. (Unless whatever Mr. Fumito feeds her everyday is not what it appears to be. Especially that Guimauve, hmmm...)

- The teacher said she quit being a researcher to teach at Saya's school. Maybe she didn't quit after all. Guess who is the target of her research at school atm...

- Saya is always looking around too much, even though the town is practically always empty. Maybe something or someone is watching her from afar after all. (Hey, maybe that dog is a spy? )

- The class rep...maybe he's in this too, to introduce the romance factor into the experiment. Mr. Dad and Mr. Fumito are the prime suspects in all this though.

- About her other friends...I haven't thought up their roles yet, but they're all very suspicious. [/end of crack theory]

Now to wait and see if CLAMP has more up their sleeves.

[LKK]

I am not liking NicoNico right now. My stream stopped at the 18 minute mark & I can't get it restarted. Will have to try again later.

I agree with others who've said that the whole town is suspicious. There's a lot of architecture and infrastructure for a surprisingly sparse population. Even the students remarked how few people lived in the town. But if you look at the size of the high school, the number of buildings Saya saw in the distance when she held the dog, even the fact that Saya believes that the street is a busy one though there's nary a car in sight -- all of that is too off-kilter. The students may not be in on whatever is going on (with the possible exception of Mr. Mysterious Boy), but I suspect Dad and the teacher have a clear idea and maybe the coffee shop owner as well.

[Funkatron]

Yeah, the moment Saya let that guy die, I closed the window. Not bothering with this show; it causes me to rage too much with the bipolarness

[Preacher]

Originally Posted by Funkatron

Yeah, the moment Saya let that guy die, I closed the window. Not bothering with this show; it causes me to rage too much with the bipolarness

the moment Saya let that guy die, i knew i will watch this show to the end.

[Ziziphus]

Originally Posted by Preacher

the moment Saya let that guy die, i knew i will watch this show to the end.

Ditto. That scene alone convinced me there's more to this show than meets the eye.

...even the fact that Saya believes that the street is a busy one though there's nary a car in sight -- all of that is too off-kilter.

Whenever she stops to wait for the traffic lights (why should there be traffic lights in the first place?) or look out for cars, I die a little inside. Now I begin to think maybe she has a good reason for doing so.

[hanashi]

If it's an experiment, I don't think the students are in on it. Itsuki-chan looks genuinely disappointed when he strikes out. I felt pretty bad for him in this last ep. If you have a good grasp on someone's personality type, you can actually predict the people they'll gravitate towards and you usually chat with your neighbors in class... Some of my teacher friends will intentionally design seating charts to influence students, ie, putting the shy/outgoing or hyperactive/calm students together.

It might not be a sinister plot. Otherwise, you'd think her father would have discouraged her from her vision. If she lost her memory through some sort of accident, they might be trying to jog her memory, maybe by removing stimuli and putting her in situations where she has to do fight or die. Our physical and emotional states impact our memories. But...somehow the globes of blood just don't say 'friendly neighborhood scientist' to me.

I wonder where Tokizane fits in. Maybe the son of a scientist? If she's just now noticing, he probably hasn't been staring at her for that long. I wonder what he knows.

[Triple_R]

Like others here, I do get a definite Truman Show (kudos to Kanon) meets carefully controlled science experiment vibe here.

There's some person, or some organization, carefully and meticulously controlling this town (largely if not entirely from behind the scenes), and doing so for reasons that all go back to Saya. She's the almost constant focal point of attention here, even beyond what you would expect for the lead protagonist. The people around Saya seem almost a bit too nice to her, a bit too preoccupied in ensuring that she's happy and content.

Going beyond that, I now think that Saya does have a bit of a split personality going on, and that it probably goes back to how she's being carefully controlled and managed here.


Like others, what I found telling is how Saya never even tried, really, to save that poor guy. She never even demonstrated any remorse over his gruesome demise. That seems wildly out of character for Saya given her "daytime" characterization. When you combine that with the haunting philosophical narration at the end of the episode, I think that's very telling.

To put it simply, I think that something clicks in Saya when she goes into elder bairn hunting mode. Her normal personality is somehow 'turned off' and she turns into a pure predator, narrowly focused on eliminating the elder bairn of the moment and nothing else.

I think this may be why these brutal nightly battles is having no psychological impact on Saya during her daylight hours: Part of her isn't quite 'there' when she's engaged in those fights.

Perhaps this is all an experiment to create the perfect killing machine, or the perfect assassin? Someone that not only seems perfectly peaceful, shy, and unassuming but actually is that, yet becomes a ruthlessly efficient predator when something is triggered in their mind?

Just a thought.


In any event, I'm really enjoying this anime now. It's almost becoming a bit like Madoka Magica for me, where superficial elements are pleasing to the eye, but have an intriguing irony to them given the dark truths that likely lie underneath them.

[Ahiru77]

Originally Posted by Funkatron

Yeah, the moment Saya let that guy die, I closed the window. Not bothering with this show; it causes me to rage too much with the bipolarness

Agreed. She's an awful heroine and this show is too slow.

[Casshern]

I don't understand anything in this anime. Class-rep guy confesses and she doesn't get it. Saya's friends openly talk with him about his crush on her, right in front of her, and she remains oblivious. A female teacher says "I like you" and she immediately turns red.

Everybody's talking about vampires but only the first monster looked remotely like a vampire, and in this episode it was a pink blob. Compared to a pink blob, gays with glitter have become somewhat more appealing; just when I thought vampires couldn't be represented more poorly.

[Nina.Wolken]

Originally Posted by mechalord

Oh yeah, you just want those Guimauve to be human brains. Why does Saya find them so tasty? It's the Vampiress in her... bwahaha. Omg, the cafe dude is a zombie. No!!!

I'm all for it .
The show focuses so much on those spongy pink squares that there must be some kind of explanation behind it. Same goes for how so lengthy shots of Saya's empty town.
I too find it really strange when we have Saya simply staring at the town for a good what?10 sec? 15 sec? And nothing happened. Not a single person passing by, not a car, not a sound!
So, either there is something going on or the production team is incredibly lazy. Holding my breath it's the former.

Someone said Saya may have been "rebooted", it seems possible : the clumsy girl we are presented with in the serie doesn't act her age. She is overly enthusiast toward every little things. She greats her father and chat with him like a small kid would. She falls often, has never cook by herself before episode 3... This description would fit a 5 years old, not a 16 years old. Also, being so "young", she may not grasp fully the concept of death, explaining she didn't try to save the baker.

If this theory proves to be right, that would explain why Saya was acting so childishly. Except of course for when her powers wake up and she changes of personality.

[LKK]

Originally Posted by hanashi

I wonder where Tokizane fits in. Maybe the son of a scientist? If she's just now noticing, he probably hasn't been staring at her for that long. I wonder what he knows.

I'm very suspicious of Tokizane. He's hardly said a word to anyone as far as we've seen. And based on the others' comments, we've seen about as many words as he's said to them. Yet in episode 2, he comments on Saya's facial wound and adds that he hopes it doesn't scar. To me, that personal comment screams "I know how you got that wound" with an echo of "Sorry, I was partly responsible for your injury."

[Casshern]

A brief google reveals that guimauve are just marshmallows. So mystical...

[Shiroth]

Really enjoyed this weeks episode. Pacing is just so damn good, especially thanks to the mood set in the second half. It's getting to the point where it's hard to trust anyone in this story, because we know absolutly nothing about it yet.

Seriously getting Karen vibes from the teacher, which is a great thing because i miss X/1999.

Originally Posted by Kanon

I was shocked Saya stoob by and let that guy get slaughtered. She didn't even bat an eye when she saw what little remained of him. I thought Saya was killing those monsters to protect people (or am I confusing with another series? It's such a common theme)? Terrific job she did there.

We don't even know if Saya's job is to protect people, so it's silly to judge at this point.

[Reckoner]

Yeah I wasn't very excited about the first episode, but something about the 2nd, and now especially the third is starting to click. It's really bringing out just how creep the atmosphere and everything is despite the cheerful demeanor of those around her.

Could that dog by the way be some sort of spy/transformation/familiar or what have you of mysterious boy from episodes 1 and 2? Dog doesn't seem natural whatsoever. Definitely not normal.

These episodes however are building up my expectations a lot so now I'm really expecting some nice big twists soon.

[Xagzan]

Wow, what an amazingly eerie second half of an episode. You know, when the twins say "It's too quiet," I was thinking, "you got that right sister." And lo and behold, the second half shows us just how creepy this show can be. I felt the whole train sequence was very well done, and had the right ominous tone to keep me holding my breath (although I think it might have been more effective to not show us exactly what happened to that unfortunate man in the train).

All in all, I loved the second half. And it made me appreciate more the "something off" about the town during the first half even more. Something has to be brewing behind the scenes, whether it's breeding the perfect soldier like some have said, or something else. And I hope I'm not alone in assuming the teacher has something to do with this? What with her "past research" and taking her current job to learn about something.

I also take it everyone caught Saya's blink and you miss it sadistic grin right before she drove her blade fully into pinky's head? Definitely a favorite moment of mine. There is something up with that girl. She sure seems to love getting showered in blood. Follow that with the mysterious covenant line, then the creepy hand on shoulder/fundamental change speech (wonder if they're planning to turn the townsfolk into monsters), and you've got me interested.

[ars89]

Man i really want to eat Guimauve now. Every time Saya's eyes change i get so excited. I wonder what the monster meant by his last words. The final monologue was creepy.

[hanashi]

Originally Posted by Xagzan

Wow, what an amazingly eerie second half of an episode. You know, when the twins say "It's too quiet," I was thinking, "you got that right sister." And lo and behold, the second half shows us just how creepy this show can be. I felt the whole train sequence was very well done, and had the right ominous tone to keep me holding my breath (although I think it might have been more effective to not show us exactly what happened to that unfortunate man in the train).

All in all, I loved the second half. And it made me appreciate more the "something off" about the town during the first half even more. Something has to be brewing behind the scenes, whether it's breeding the perfect soldier like some have said, or something else. And I hope I'm not alone in assuming the teacher has something to do with this? What with her "past research" and taking her current job to learn about something.

I also take it everyone caught Saya's blink and you miss it sadistic grin right before she drove her blade fully into pinky's head? Definitely a favorite moment of mine. There is something up with that girl. She sure seems to love getting showered in blood. Follow that with the mysterious covenant line, then the creepy hand on shoulder/fundamental change speech (wonder if they're planning to turn the townsfolk into monsters), and you've got me interested.

Good catch! I must have blinked, because I didn't see that grin. That was really creepy. She wasn't like that in the first episode. It's like the more she fights, the more she loses it. Who knows? Maybe Saya is ultimately the one behind all of this if her control/personality is deteriorating.

Spoiler for An image of Saya's bloodthirsty grin:

I've said it before, it's not the slickest animation but the attention to detail, especially body language and facial tics is amazing. Saya's grin this episode, the way Tokizane's eyes widened slightly when he walked by and saw Saya's face last episode--I didn't even notice some of these details until I slowed the video down.

I continue to be interested in Tokizane. I think he knows something, and he's connected to her somehow. Maybe he met her pre-brainwashing? She had some sort of vision/flashback in class in the 1st episode shortly after they made eye contact and again in the 2nd.

I went back and watched the monologues and her visions. They were scenes from Saya's POV: we saw her shoes and we saw the glass globes again, a tree and some stones (possibly a shrine) on that island in the middle of the lake, and the same tree in the daylight with what might be a damaged shrine. But you can see the lake when Saya climbs up the stairs to the shrine and that island doesn't appear in any of our views of the lake during the episode. Did anyone notice that the beastie in the first episode was wearing the same red neckerchief as the statues of Buddha?

Lastly, the golden things dangling from the globes of blood look like name-tags close up.

[hoarfrost]

Originally Posted by LordEmbok

Spoiler for Blood+:

Saya is Saya from Blood+ who for some reason lost her memory again.
The twins at school are Diva's daughters.
Saya's 'father' is Nathan after colouring his hair.

Calling it now.

Spoiler for :

Actually, it make more sense to me for Nathan to be cafe guy. That or he's Solomon's equivalent.

But I like where this train of thought is going.