American University Anime Society’s Blog

OP Squence

ED Sequence

Summary:

For some of you that didn’t notice, I was checking this anime out while the club was watching Haruhi. I’ve also posted this in celebration of the end of budget allocations! Time to let my brain rest. It just started its run in Japan, so not much is known about the story-line, but after watching episode 1 I think I’ll follow this series as long as I have a way to download it. From what I’ve seen just add Trigun, Hellsing, and some Matrix special effects and you’ve got Black Blood Brothers! Yes, it is a vampire anime, and we’ve all seen at least one in our life, but the first episode is void of many of the vampire genre cliques.

What I’ve been able to gather after the first episode is the classic war between vampires and humans has been raging on for some years. The episode starts with the introduction of the main vampire character Jirou. Apparently Hong Kong is being attacked by a large group of vampires and when they get to a certain part of the city a large barrier blocks their path. A vampire in red wearing a much worn brown cloak stands up and decides to go out and fight the vampires. Then Ryu-dono (the guy in white), the leader, opens his eyes and the barrier disappears and Jirou goes out to fight. The fight begins uneventful until a blonde woman comes out of nowhere, and apparently Jirou recognizes her. The blonde reveals her true form a few seconds later to reveal a black-haired vampire named Cassa. Jirou seems to hold some grudge against her and calls her a traitor (and we most likely won’t know why for a while). Cassa says that the time the three (I’m guessing Jirou, Cassa, and the blonde woman) spent together was the happiest time of her life. Cassa then jumps on a building and says that she wanted to introduce her “new family” to Jirou, but it will have to wait. She then disappears and some cross and rosaries wrap around Jirou, causing him some not so nice damage.

Fast forward to the present somewhere in the middle of the ocean on a ship, as one of the workers walks down the stairs a little girl is waiting and smiles to show her fangs. Elsewhere on the ship in the storage area, a blonde boy starts banging on a coffin calling out brother. The coffin opens up and the kid gets nailed on the head, and even leaves an indent on the ground. Out of the blue the boat gets board by paratroopers, for no apparent reason. During this the little blonde kid runs into the little girl, and find out the boy’s name is Kotarou. The girl disappears and Kotarou goes looking for her, missing the guy hidden under the stairs with bite marks on his neck. As he walks out, Kotarou gets involved in a shoot out taking place on the deck. The paratroopers from before are shooting at people who are vampires (based on the fact that the helicopter has a sun beam that burns the people). All of a sudden the boat gets hit with a massive shockwave and Kotarou starts freaking out. The coffin springs from below deck, and the paratroopers just blindly start firing all their bullets at it, and they don’t even scratch it. The coffin lands on the deck and Jirou walks out and says good morning to the paratroopers (but it is actually night). Jirou then begins beating the crap out of Kotarou just by moving his middle finger. Jirou starts talking to the paratroopers and they don’t seem to really care about what Jirou has to say, even calling Jirou a Black Blood. A bunch of other vampires come out and try to convince Jirou to join their side, and Jirou really doesn’t want to. Jirou and the other vampires seem to have the same destination, the special zone. Then the Matrix special effects come into play as the paratroopers start shooting at Jirou and he just causes the bullets to stand still. After awhile, Jirou flicks some of the bullets back at the paratroopers and jam their guns. In another corner of the deck, the vampires set up some boxes marked explosive and then throw a grenade to cause a huge explosion. Jirou stays cool and hangs onto his hat, but Kotarou falls into the sea. Jirou jumps in after him. The paratroopers retreat in their helicopter and then say how they need to end the fight before sunset. The vampires escaped on a lifeboat and the leader is seen with the little girl. A flashback occurs where the little girl was sick with a serious illness and the vampire gave the girl blood to save the little girl’s life. Going back to Jirou in the water, apparently one of his weaknesses is water since he is being burned. The episode ends with some woman in bed getting a phone call to get to work.

All in all I was sold to watch this series for a few episodes after Kotarou got the crap beat out of him. I must say I liked watching Kotarou muted during anime, but I can live with his whinny voice. Yes, this is a vampire anime, but please keep an open mind. It does bring some new ideas to the vampire genre than the war between humans and vampires.

The OP is pretty good and has a catchy tune. I was thinking about the AMV Ninja of the Night during this wonderful shot. The ED is ok, its mainly just one shot the entire time and nothing really great about it. If some more episodes come out before October, I think this would be a good one-shot for Halloween.

I give episode 1 a 4.5/5.

Let me know what you guys think. If you aren’t interested with this/what I have written I won’t blog this series.  I’ve just realized that I blogged Hellsing and this, so it makes two vampire anime!  I do have other tastes, I just hope that the club will watch them sometime this year and I don’t want to blog them until I know for sure.