Next up we’ve got Blood-C filling the “horror” genre spot in my genre review collection. Now this is a genre that I don’t normally seek out, like when it comes to movies and whatnot, but when it comes to...
Next up we’ve got Blood-C filling the “horror” genre spot in my genre review collection.
Now this is a genre that I don’t normally seek out, like when it comes to movies and whatnot, but when it comes to anime for some reason this genre just works for me and I’d certainly like to explore more. I always write about how I like darker tones and themes, and this genre is often all about that!
Synopsis
The daughter of a shrine priest is tasked with protecting the small village she lives in from strange creatures that seek to consume humans. High school student by day, village protector by night – failure is not an option, as she is the only one who can properly fight against this mysterious enemy.
Action / Horror
At first this series reminded me a lot of Corpse Princess, this sort of action horror type where a lot of the story revolves around fighting and defeating enemies in a dark setting. Blood-C fits into this sort of subgenre, I guess you could call it. There is a LOT of gore in this series, many fights, lots of death, and so on.
One thing I noticed about Blood-C that I actually really liked is that many of the fights have this sort of “helpless” element to them, which fits the horror bill so well. Normally I feel like fights and action would take away from the horror feel of the story, but Blood-C manages to keep both because these fights are not your typical shonen fights. Collateral damage, mistakes, lapses in judgement or motivation, etc. all lead to these battles that end up feeling very bittersweet. Like the enemy was defeated, but at what cost?
To me, that aspect is probably the best point of the entire series, as it allows the series to blend action and horror so well. But that’s not all this series has to offer!
Mystery / Thriller
Aside from the action, gore, horror, and so on, there’s another element to Blood-C that impressed me, which is this overarching mystery surrounding our protagonist and her opponents.
The anime doesn’t make any attempts to try and hide the fact that something is afoot, as from the very beginning we get these strange cuts where a character is making these vague statements, sometimes eluding to our protagonist, that make you wonder who he is, what he’s talking about, and what is his relation to everything going on. The very existence of these cuts tells you that there’s something or someone in the shadows making remarks about what’s happening.
And so, as the story unfolds and things ramp up, things get much more thrilling. I found myself casually watching the first few episodes one night to having to force myself to stop watching the next night because I was just so curious what would happen next. The cliffhangers in Blood-C really got me in a lot of episodes.
Things are very clearly not what they seem, but at the same time, all we can do is just watch and wait for answers.
Rating
I’ll give Blood-C an 8 / 10.
I really enjoyed it – this series just gets more and more exciting right up until the end.
Is this the kind of horror that would keep you up at night? Not at all. But what you do experience in this series is certainly very horrifying at times, in more ways than one, and some scenes in particular are very striking to the point that I can’t see myself forgetting them anytime soon. And the gore is just nuts, no punches are held when it comes to drawing blood and taking limbs or lives.
I didn’t expect to enjoy it as much as I did, so this was a bit of a sleeper hit for me.
That said, if you’re not really into gore or darker themes, you’re probably safe to just avoid Blood-C.
Until next time,
Thanks for reading!