Blood-C: The Last Dark
Some guys give a girl flowers. Others wipe their memories and then have them watch absolutely everyone they know die.
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So do you remember the odd world of Blood-C? I certainly remember how excited I was after the announcement because Blood+ was a lot of fun; however we all know how much of a failure Blood-C turned out to be even though I admit it had a lot of amazing moments that followed Saya kicking some monster ass and getting covered in blood…this time I am joining Kara for a breakdown of the release of the Blood-C movie by Production IG so you can expect fantastic visuals even if you hated the lame TV series. |
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Ah, Blood-C. It had an extremely slow start, but no one can deny that the ending of the series wasn’t eventful with characters dying left right and centre in ways that had to be censored. Needless to say, I’ve been waiting for this movie with excitement ever since it was announced. Yes, the anime wasn’t that great, but hey, I’m rather attached to it since it’s one of the first things I ever blogged here. |
ALL of the yuri!
The world of CLAMP is filled with lots of interesting characters types from cute girls all the way to the badass monster killers like Saya, I think this movie gives us a bit of everything in terms of character personality types! I suppose we should start with the important ones first right? Starting with Saya who I feel had the most dramatic turn from that adorable high school student from the TV series turned into a girl seeking revenge, but she has her reasons because if you remember the events of the final episodes of the series Saya discovered that she was brainwashed, drugged and she was shot in the face by Mr. Fumito Nanahara? Yeah I think you would be angry!
The other characters were given some importance as well. Mainly, Itsuki! I’m glad he had a purpose other than being the only person there without having ulterior motives to be near Saya. …Er, well, seeing how he was involved with SIRRUT, maybe there were some motives in there, but at least he seems to have been a ‘good guy’ in general. So back to his purpose, I guess we have him to thank for SIRRUT being up to date with the events of Blood-C (though I’m sure Kuroto would have found some other way to provide that information if Itsuki never existed). Finally, Yuka. She was the only other survivor of the incident and the ending made her look like an antagonist due to her involvement with Fumito, but… was she really all that bad? If anything, I’d classify her as neutral through the whole thing since she seems to have used Fumito as a stepping stone and nothing more. She had no other real involvement with Tower and in the end, she was the one to lift all of the bans on society. She’s ambitious for sure, but I can’t see her quite classified as malicious.
I’m going to hold off talking about Fumito for now, and go briefly into the Old Ones (or Bairns as they were called in the subs I watched for the anime). Their purpose seems to be that they just kind of… exist and that humans made a contract to just stop the slaughter. I still have no idea about that one chicken from the anime eating the other one since Saya is the only one who apparently eats them, but maybe that was just to emphasize that they can talk, but are far from human…? Well, at least we know that they listen to Fumito since he was part of an entire family of people raised to control the contract.
…So most of the questions about Fumito seemed to have been answered with “he had a fetish for Saya”. Why did he betray his family? I assume, for Saya. Why did he go through all of the effort to set up the events of Blood-C? To watch Saya and see what she’d do. Horrible human experimentation? You guessed it: Saya. You know what? I’ll ship it. It seems like kind of a weak reason to screw absolutely everyone over with, but it’s pretty obvious that Fumito doesn’t really have the most stable mind in the world. It seems his whole goal in life seemed to be a mix of watching her and trying to lift the curse of hers. Her needless suffering aside, his obsession with her was actually kind of a weird mix of admiration (due to her nature) and romance, but still in an extremely twisted way. He even made that final parting with Saya seem really sad. The line at the end about winning and losing was a bit sad as well since I assume he was talking about his human experimentation for Saya’s sake. If he had managed to make human-Old Ones, he would have been Saya’s prey, but she would have been able to survive off of them. His experiments failed though, meaning that he can’t lift her curse with his death there and she’ll die eventually. I think back to Blood+ (the anime, not the manga) and Solomon dying in a similar way since he had kind of the same devotion level towards his respective Saya. I guess in the end, Fumito was just really, really, really, really, terrible with directing his… passion.
I’ve spent a really long portion of my thoughts talking about the characters and the past Blood-C, but really, there wasn’t much story here. It’s basically Saya meets people on her revenge quest for Fumito, various character development happens and then she kills him. A lot of the movie was based on the newer characters (mostly Mana and her problems) and while they were connected to Fumito due to being screwed over by him, they wouldn’t have been involved with Saya and Fumito’s ongoing battle if they hadn’t run into her at the beginning. Kuroto being the exception, of course, but he had family issues with Fumito.
…It sounds so simple when written above, but really, with all of the motives and characters and other things, this was just as straightforward as any other recent CLAMP series. …Which is to say, it wasn’t that straightforward at all. It was fun to watch though and easier to piece together than that time loop thing in Tsubasa, so there’s something.
…It’s just not a CLAMP production without some kind of Mokona image inserted in there. Interestingly enough though, this seems to take place in the same CLAMP-world as XXXHolic, Legal Drug and a lot of the other series take place in since Watanuki’s shop was right there. Though of course, it’s been described as being ‘between dimensions’, so maybe this Tokyo isn’t the same one as the others. I’m curious to know what Saya’s price for the sword was, but overall, it was nice to see how well Watanuki is handling things without Yuuko. After she vanished in XXXHolic, the story seems to have skipped a lot of how his job went and the story just kind of… ended after a few random chapters, so seeing him working and being well was nice.
Having a bloody good time:
This movie was a lot of fun thanks to the outstanding artwork provided by Production IG, but I only have one complaint about this movie and that would be the pacing? It felt really slow to me with certain scenes, but that is kind of a minor thing because this is a movie after all so I will let that slide. Now the story is quite easy to figure out especially when you have someone dead set on revenge like Saya who is doing ALL THE WORK in this movie, I mean sure I did not expect the other human characters to suddenly flip a switch and transform into complete badass monster killers! That said, how fun would it have been to see the loli hacker girl Hiro Tsukiyama using a sword to kill things? Besides the easy to follow story there was a lot of character interactions between Saya and Mana throughout the whole movie, but they kind of give the impression that Mana wants to be “friends” with Saya because she was always following her everywhere. Oh and just randomly throwing this out there! This movie has a short topless scene provided by a quick bath between the two girls and speaking of service shots I have to say damn the movie version of Saya is really sexy! Not because we saw her topless I mean she looks quite mature in character design and personality compared to her happy go lucky moe TV version, but thinking back I like both versions of that character…
Fun side note this movie has other great actors besides Hanazawa Kana! It features Jun Fukuyama, Yuuki Kaji, Hiroshi Kamiya and Yuichi Najamura! Yes we have Gai and Oh Ma Shoe from Guilty Crown running around in this movie, but stand out role goes to a new face Ai Hashimoto that voiced Mana Hiiragi because she did a wonderful job! Since this was a CLAMP production did anyone else spend their time looking for the other references to their other shows? We had lots of Tsubasa Chronicle hints and some from the world of xxxHOLIC! Personally I kept waiting for Sakura from Card Captors to appear on screen. So in short if you love CLAMP and kind of liked Blood-C I think you really should check out this movie, but if you dropped the TV series and don’t really care about Saya or any of these voice actors then you might as well pass on this one even though I think it is a great stand-alone movie.
I loved every minute of this. The production was great, the seiyuu were great and even though we were out of the original setting of a quiet village, this didn’t feel out of place for Blood-C at all (minus the fact that a large fraction of the main characters survived).
I think I said most of what I wanted to say above, but to bring back my list of unanswered questions from my last Blood-C post:
-Who is Fumito’s employer? Uhhh, Tower? Himself? This one became less important in the movie.
-What is Fumito’s ‘prize’? Maybe this was just something he said to get her to participate, but this became unimportant as well.
-Why did he want to see if Saya would change or not? Due to his obsession probably.
-Just how exactly did Fumito manage to change her memories like that? (Though this one isn’t that important since this is CLAMP world and magic happens just beacause) Yep, unimportant.
-What was Saya’s price for her wish granted? -…I don’t think they ever told us.
-Who made it so that Saya can’t eat humans? -Unanswered, but at least we know it’s a curse.
-What exactly is Saya? This mystery is apparently supposed to remain a mystery. She’s ancient and there to eat Old Ones.
-How the hell do those talisman things work? Kind of answered with magic because of the fact that Fumito’s family is supposed to be experts on this stuff.
-Why did Fumito bother changing Saya’s outfit/give her glasses/ convince her that she’s a shrine maiden? (Though this is probably just a fetish) …I think we can safely assume it was a fetish.
-How the hell did a Bairn and a human manage to have sex and make a kid? They did because CLAMP.
-Does CLAMP even know anything about genetics? Answered basically with “it’s magic, so there.”
-Just how scarring will the uncensored version of this be? Not from the movie, but the last 10 or so minutes are pretty fun. Though you kind of have to wonder what happened to the guy who’s head gets twisted off’s ribs went.
Most of my questions were made vastly unimportant or answered to my satisfaction. Though about Saya’s price in the Blood-C anime and all of that, maybe it has to do with her curse? If they told us about it in here, it completely flew over my head.
Anyways, long story short, this was a fun ride and even though it concluded rather nicely here, I can see this story continuing onwards. …Which is a rather CLAMP thing to do. Even if there is no sequel, I see it being completely possible that they could even bring Saya back in their other series kind of like Watanuki in this one. Even with her revenge finished, I don’t think that Saya is quite done fighting yet and it’s not like she’s going to die from being unable to eat Old Ones right away. There’s a lot she could do in the future, there was most likely a lot in her past, and this was just one particularly troubled part of her long life.
About Tag Team
We live, laugh, enjoy and strictly believe on "more the merrier". When together, we usually come up with very chatty, conversation-based episodics and interesting posts.
POWUH: 500-599 with 519 comments
I loved the visuals of the movie and all of the deaths and blood everywhere was a ton of fun to watch. The new characters I liked but I wished everyone else got more development than just Mana(but yeah, it’s a movie so I wasn’t expecting everyone’s tragic backstory).
I just wished all of the questions posed by the anime were answered which I think Kara summed up nicely. I just wished some of those were answered. :/
And did her eye just grow back? 0_o From the ending of the anime I thought she would be wandering around Tokyo with an eyepatch.
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
From what is shown, Saya is basically a type of vampire since she feeds on blood and so she has self healing powers. Between the end of the series and the movie, six months have passed so by then, she should have been able to recover completely. If you remember the end of the series, when Fumito shot her, not only did lose one of her eyes but nearly half of her skull.
POWUH: Meta Team and Megane-chan with 3214 comments
Hmmm, well, I’m sure they might turn up later in the CLAMP-verse sooner or later.
Knowing about how Saya’s curse was started and all of that would have been nice, but then I remembered that this is CLAMP and they rarely explain everything all the way through. I’m kind of okay with that by now though.
…I guess so. All of her other injuries healed really quickly so I assume this is the same.
POWUH: iLurker with 5 comments
I haven’t seen the movie myself yet, but from what I have just heard from you guys it sounds pretty good. And I also love the artstyle of this series! Do you guys know which animation studio made it?
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
The animation is a collaboration between Production I.G and CLAMP.
POWUH: iLurker with 5 comments
Ah, so that’s what it was. I thought the artstyle was familiar!
POWUH: Meta Team and PreCure Mastah with 9203 comments
Yeah it was a entertaining movie even though I found it to be really really slow, but the character designs are CLAMP and the rest is Production IG which has always done fantastic stuff <3
POWUH: Meta Team and Megane-chan with 3214 comments
It was really good, but I’ve been a CLAMP fan for 12+ years, so I’m just a liiiiiiiiiiiittle bit biased.
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
I apologize in advance if this comment turns out to be too big. I waited nearly a year for this, just finished watched it on my PS3 and I can now say that I feel satisfied despite the story having a few holes in it because of unanswered questions. Personally, Production I.G and CLAMP did well with the animation, especially with the car chase that it almost seemed very real. That’s one of the strong points and the other is the all star cast of seiyuus that were picked out.
The beginning was similar to Blood: The Last Vampire with Saya and the whole train scene. Even though Saya was a very cold character at the beginning, I loved her a lot more here than the way she was for the series (She did look good with the glasses, however). She’s become attractive and has way more sex appeal now to boot (Specifying the short but attention grabbing scene between her and Mana) with a nice figure. I sometimes compared her demeanor to that of the lead character Selene in the first Underworld movie with her ambition for revenge.
About SIRRUT. If not for the fact they were well funded, they would have been in over their heads going against Tower. A shadow agency embeded in the government has limitless resources. What was nice was that they were getting along like family even though they’re not related. It’s plausible they’re all orphans who’ve lost their way. Whatever they went through really made some bonds between. Mana was clingly and annoying at first but it became natural seeing her hanging around Saya. I feel bad that she doesn’t know what happened to her father but it’s better that it stays that way.
I started watching completely ready to see Fumito get his for what he did in the series but in the end, he left me with disoriented thoughts. He was a masochistic yet cruel character but I wasn’t mad at him as much as I should have been because all he did was for Saya’s sake even if it was in a very twisted way. Where the questions are concerned, I’m totally on board with Karakuri. Though I think with how things ended, there might be another Blood-C series to pick up the slack.
POWUH: Meta Team and PreCure Mastah with 9203 comments
While the story failed in some parts of the movie I enjoyed the visual style and the great voice acting! If nothing else can be said it kept me entertained <3
Oh man Saya went from moe blob of the TV series to oh my god dead sexy in the movie! I mean sure 6 months passed which helped and yeah that bath scene as well. Yeah now that you mention the Underworld movies Saya does in fact act just like Selene~
SIRRUT just makes me laugh! What an odd name for a "super group" I wonder if that was a tiny shout to Code Geass's Black knights? LOL
For a badass villain he was a terrible fighter and of course I don't think he wanted to hurt Saya! Kind of reminds me how Hyoubu treats his "queen" sure he has to fight her, but in the end I don't think he would ever kill her.
POWUH: Meta Team and Megane-chan with 3214 comments
Trains are like the ideal places for mass murders to happen. There’s always a ton of people on them (especially Japan) and you can’t escape unless the train’s at a station. She’s definitely changed, but after seeing the anime, it’s completely reasonable.
Having SIRRUT being comprised of mostly adolescents stretched my belief a bit, (and I don’t see the point of them being teens, other than the fact that the harsher laws around). It didn’t seem that relevant to the whole thing to be honest. But yeah, without Kuroto, I’m sure they would have all been screwed and even at the end, none of them really know what was going on to begin with.
That’s the thing with CLAMP though. You think there might be a sequel, but they much prefer to just add in a ton of past character cameos in other series.
POWUH: and Yaoi Fangirl~ with 2320 comments
What the fuck is going on I don’t even
POWUH: iLurker with 7 comments
It’s a clusterfuck within a clusterfuck. Deal with it. Can’t find anything in the movie related to the TV series. I mean, WTF? Listing out the points will take all day and before I start rambling like a loony fan and being bias in thrashing this series I’ll stop for now.
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
This definitely sounds like a show that’s not for me, that’s for sure. 🙂
POWUH: Meta Team and PreCure Mastah with 9203 comments
Avoid at all costs Highway! Unless you are bored and want to see why everyone dislikes the BloodC universe~
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
I’d tell you to watch this only if you’ve seen the 12 episode series for some kind of connection and even that was a chore. You should do that only if you have time to burn.
POWUH: Meta Resident and Werewolf Chaser with 1270 comments
An appropriate response to CLAMP trolling ;P
POWUH: Meta Team and PreCure Mastah with 9203 comments
hahahaha well said
POWUH: Meta Team and Megane-chan with 3214 comments
CLAMP. CLAMP is what is going on xD
POWUH: and Yaoi Fangirl~ with 2320 comments
Ok, after thinking more about it, I decided on the things I like and don’t like about this movie.
First is the relationship between Saya and Fumito..Fumiko? Whatever his name is. I’m a masochist, so I ship them like mad. Their sense of love is something perfect for me, as hatred and love are balanced properly.
Fumito’s a hero in disguise. Though he’s mean, he literally did everything for Saya. Creation of the new Old Ones, all for the sake of Saka. Like damn, I need a man with such dedication to me.
The ending is also so CLAMP-ish, and I’m a huge CLAMP fanwhore. Being a CLAMP fan, I can see everything work out. Saya’s price for the sword (I bet it’s from Gate 7) is probably her living alone in this world whatever it is, since it is no ordinary sword. The whole “reward” and “punishment” thing makes sense to me because I was able to understand the message CLAMP conveyed. There is no “reward” and “punishment” because both parties got both of them.
But but buuuttt….. seeing this movie from a non-CLAMPwhote’s PoV, I can see why this movie i so crappy. Those who don’t get how CLAMP does their shit won’t get the whole “reward” and punishment” thing, making the everything silly.
Wwatanuki’s appearance is also a hindrance, because this will require non-XXXHolic fans to read them to get the whole thing about Watanuki.
Now seeing how Blooc is a franchise that does NOT belong to CLAMP completely, I have to agree to the normal audience that this movie is crappy.
But my CLAMP fangirl is happy about it.
POWUH: Meta Team and Megane-chan with 3214 comments
…I think you just accurately described why my opinion on this movie seems vastly different from everyone else’s. CLAMP isn’t for everyone and with a lot of the people coming here for the Blood part as opposed to the C, of course they’re not going to understand wtf just went on.
POWUH: and Yaoi Fangirl~ with 2320 comments
Btw Watanuki looks sexy as fuck there. Can’t wait for that new XXXHolic manga
POWUH: Meta Team and Megane-chan with 3214 comments
There’s going to be a new one?!
POWUH: Beginner (20-35) with 21 comments
Censored????? I didnt find anything censored in Blood-C (series)
POWUH: Meta Resident and Werewolf Chaser with 1270 comments
The broadcasted ver have Beam-chan and Pixel-chan co starring in the gore scene.
POWUH: Meta Team and Megane-chan with 3214 comments
Don’t forget the black hole that sometimes appeared. …Actually, now that I think back, everything except that one guy’s face melting had censorship.
POWUH: Meta Team and PreCure Mastah with 9203 comments
yeppers the blood, gore and fanservice scenes were censored all to hell with the original running xD
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
That was an injustice I’m glad didn’t follow into the movie. The fanservice from the bath scene was glorious. Censors always kill the mood.
POWUH: Meta Team and PreCure Mastah with 9203 comments
Breast scene of all time! I wanted more blood and monster killing xD
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
Yep, it was one of the best scenes in the movie. And again, Saya has one smokin’ hot sexy body. Monster girls/vampire girls (since this is part of the Blood franchise) always turn out to be far sexier than humans. You can’t beat them.
POWUH: Lovely-pyon~ with 322 comments
So…in the end, he was weirdly in love with her and all the experiments were for her sake. And….how is he not human? Was he like….half Old-one?
Man, the ending left me really confused….So he just loved her. Is that what it was? Despite me still trying to figure out the point of what Fumito was doing all that time, the ending still made me feel a bit heartbroken. I actually kinda…ship those two. Slightly…-_-“….
But story aside, art is BEAUTIFUL AS EVER! OH MY GAWD, WATANUKI YOU HOTTIE!!! I CANT GET ENOUGH OF HIM!!! *swoon*
I really like it that they interlinked different CLAMP stories together. Then again, it wouldn’t a CLAMP production if they didnt.
Overall, loved every bit of this movie! Now to go and process and figure out what Fumito was trying to do…..
Wait….one more thing…
Wasn’t Fumito the one who put the Juvenile Law thing in? And wasn’t that soon-to-be-president lady on his side? Why did she abolish everything? Was she just playing along with him?
Someone please explain what I just watched to me…OTL
POWUH: Meta Team and Megane-chan with 3214 comments
Uhh I’m pretty sure that he said that he was the first person he tried experimenting with her blood on. Maybe his insanity was due to that, but otherwise, I assume that he was able to keep himself in check because of his family being able to control the Old Ones.
Hey, I ship it too so at least you’re not alone. …I don’t think I 100% understood what was going on either, but oh well.
Yuka, the president-lady, I think was just using Fumito as a step ladder. He was handy for getting that position, but I don’t think she was ever exclusively on his ‘side’.
POWUH: Lovely-pyon~ with 322 comments
noooo, where’s my comment? ah crap, i forgot what i wrote in that longass comment now…
POWUH: Meta Resident and Werewolf Chaser with 1270 comments
Spammie, sir. It loves eating our comment up. Btw its back.
POWUH: iLurker with 1 comments
Whoa! Wait a minute. I am so confused. A bairnes and a human had sex? Where did that come from?
POWUH: Meta Resident and Werewolf Chaser with 1270 comments
The TV series. Show ▼
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
That was in the Blood-C series that aired in 2011. Saya’s “father”, Tadayoshi was a hybrid child born from the relationship between a human and an Elder Bairn. The idea of that alone is creepy.
POWUH: and Yaoi Fangirl~ with 2320 comments
I imagined this and I laughed