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Oh Blood-C… even with half of Saya’s entourage biting the dust, the show drags its feet. The whole “something’s off about Saya’s life” reared its head three or four weeks ago, I think? When Nene and Nono died last week, eager viewers all thought the plot would hit mach speed. Unfortunately, this has been so far from the case. Maybe the careening No.6 discreetly sapped Blood-C’s momentum or something, I dunno. I just know we have one show where the plot is moving way too fast and then we have Blood-C.

Iron Giant, of the Final Fantasy series fame, gets to be Saya’s sparring partner this week. He spends most of his time, however, laughing derisively at Saya and her father: “Ask Tadayoshi… about who you really are.” Aw, c’mon… this isn’t fun to watch. Obviously, he knows something. Obviously, all of the elder bairns know something. Just spill the beans already. What are we waiting on? Blood-C probably thinks its layering the clues one by one, tantalizing the audience before hitting us with the earth-shattering climax, but in reality, this is just a chore to watch. People might say, “You’re just not paying close enough attention,” but the issue is why? Why should I pay attention to something so deliberately obtuse?

The character development is absolutely nil. The “something’s off about Saya’s life” has long lost its luster. Don’t get me wrong — it’s not impossible to craft a good story by deliberately withholding the payoff. The anime could have really gone off-the-wall with creepiness like a Lynchian story. This way, even if nothing made sense and the audience is given no satisfactory answers, things would still be so undeniably weird and disturbing that the audience couldn’t help but watch. Blood-C’s mystery isn’t, however, very unique. It’s just a plain mystery that refuses to spill the beans. So if there’s anything that Blood-C needs, it’s a change of scenery, but we still see Saya hit all of her favorite destinations (i.e. the cafe, the school, the shrine). Even the action, the show’s one stand-out feature, is starting to get stale.

The Iron Giant dies in such a anti-climactic way. He kept taunting Saya about her dad — if it really is her dad — until she snaps and… uh, she calmly shoves her blade into his neck. That’s it. It wasn’t even quick or anything. It just happened. Yeah, I get it — if Saya went into “berserk” mode, she can easily kill everything. Still, is this something enjoyable for the audience to watch? The rest of the fight was just as lame anyway. Imagine an anime version of the General Grievous fight in Star Wars and this is what you get in this episode. Honestly, I have yet to see any anime, movie, etc. where an opponent with four or more arms actually fights intelligently. The Iron Giant moves and attacks predictably, allowing a petite high school girl to parry him with ease:

I’m sorry, but the action scenes are pretty much all that this anime has going for it. In any other show where the story is actually worth a damn, I could overlook this flaw, but this is all Blood-C’s got. It can’t afford to drop the ball here. People are already saying that they just skip to the end for the battles. Well, if the action’s going to start being this unexciting, there’s absolutely nothing left. Plus, is it just me or did every little cut spew gallons and gallons of high pressure blood? Seriously:

With its one shining jewel now tarnished as well, what else is left? Well, we have a talking dog.

CLAMP’s gotta CLAMP
So the dog is apparently the main character from the xxxHolic series. All I’ve got to ask is… why?

What does this add to the story beyond “Ooh, I recognize him?” If anything, the fact that all of these disjointed worlds and characters are connected simply ruins the story’s immersion. This is something I expect in fanfiction, not a story crafted by professionals. Of course, this is just what CLAMP likes to do, isn’t it? Hey, maybe all the pieces fit now! It’s a conspiracy of bad anime/manga getting together to waste our time! Anyway, all that the dog tells Saya is that he’s here to grant her wish and, well, evil is easy to hide. Of course, Saya’s clueless so she thinks the dog is talking about the elder bairns. This is just silly because the elder bairns have yet to hide their evilness to Saya whatsoever. But hey, that’s just Saya being Saya and Blood-C being Blood-C.

Everything else?
I’ve got nothing.