Blood Lad – 05
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This week in Blood Lad: how to revive a human at long last! Oh wait. Nevermind. Staz and the gang have a few more hurdles to jump through first. Tehe~
Family Problems
Not so bad after all?
This time we finally get to meet big bro Braz in person. He wasn’t as stuck-up as I imagined he would be, but the guy certainly does look down on others as though he’s always in control. And to be fair, he did have complete control over the situation. What’s surprising though, is the revelation of the truth behind his attempts to “kill” Staz. Turns out he wasn’t trying to do his little brother in. On the contrary, he was actually thinking about Staz’s well-being. Apparently Staz’s body couldn’t withstand the usage of his powers when he was young, so Braz had no choice but to seal them away to prevent him from killing himself unconsciously. This, and the initial friendly exchange between the two brothers almost had me thinking that the relationship between them wasn’t so bad after all. At least Braz isn’t trying to imprison Staz or have him repeatedly beat up by zombies. And here I thought Liz would be the more temperate one.
Nevermind, he’s still an a-hole.
But then Braz reveals his true colors once negotiations break down. While he does care for his brother’s health, it seems he’s more interested in Staz’s powers in the end. Remember all that talk about unlocking Staz’s full potential that we thought was a lie? Yeah, that turned out to be the truth, ironically. And in that vein, the whole situation with Staz’s body being unable to handle his powers was in fact a direct result of Braz’s meddling in the first place. So really, Staz’s well-being isn’t so much a concern to Braz as it is a necessity for him to see these powers in action. Put this way, Braz doesn’t look too good of a brother after all. Especially when he then resorts to having Liz threaten Staz with death to get what he wants.
Liz throws the cutest tantrum ever.
And speaking of Liz, there’s even more evidence that Braz is just a self-centered prick deep down. He talks about how much he cares for his siblings, but in the end he’s so narrow-minded that he doesn’t even realize he’s been neglicting his little sister. Oh, you’re upset I forgot how you hate coffee? You’re also upset because I never visit you? Well, I apologized, didn’t I? As if a simple “I’m sorry” fixes everything, assuming he’s even being sincere with his apologies. Honestly, I was starting to dislike Liz a little since she appeared to be the one hung-up on reputation and appearances. But now we see that all of it is just a front for her jealousy of Staz. A rather extreme tantrum, if you will. And if it were all in her mind and Braz treats her equally badly well, she would get no sympathy from me. But that’s not the case. As much as Staz doesn’t appreciate the twisted attention he gets from his big bro, it’s even more torture for Liz to be cast aside completely.
RPG Quest Continued
Frankenstein’s monster.
With the Blood family affairs out of the way, it’s back to the usual wild goose chase again. The disappearance of Fuyumi1 is only the beginning of the tangent, as now Wolf has been roped into dealing with Frankenstein’s monster. Similar to The Creeper of Jeepers Creepers, this monster is intent on assimilating superior body parts from its victims. And you’re not going to like it when it sets its eyes on you. I’m not sure how Wolf would fare against such a formidable foe on his own, but at least it looks like Braz also wants Staz to take care of this problem. So perhaps we might get to see some double-teaming from them next episode once Staz gets out of Liz’s prison. In the meantime though, Fuyumi is being sustained by MAGIC in a bottle conveniently provided by none other than Frankenstein.
Mmm, delicious demons.
Speaking of which, we get some interesting details on the root of the disappearing act. Apparently Staz’s emergency magic transfusion in the human world is backfiring now that they are back in the demon world. While his magic allowed Fuyumi to survive in the harsh conditions of the human world, apparently the demon world doesn’t allow the existence of multiple types of magic in one being. So Fuyumi has two choices to survive: she can either fully assimilate Staz’s magic (supposedly leaving him dead) and become a complete ghost-vampire hybrid,2 or Staz’s magic can be removed completely from her and she will revert to just being a plain ghost. Obviously Staz isn’t dying any time soon (not if Braz has anything to say about it), so the only choice here is for the vampire magic to be extracted. Which brings us back to Wolf’s deal with Frankenstein.
Extras
I wonder how much longer it will take before the thought of resurrecting Fuyumi is completely forgotten. Here it’s mentioned during Braz and Staz’s conversation (which went by more smoothly than I expected), but the show seems to be directing us towards the new problem of preventing Fuyumi from disappearing in the first place. Add in a few more layers of complications, and perhaps soon we’ll lose sight of the original point of the quest. But who knows. Maybe Blood Lad will surprise us by making it relatively straight forward now that Staz has made contact with his know-it-all brother. Ah, who am I kidding. It’ll never be that easy.
1Insert Haruhi reference here.
2Here I thought space vampires were outlandish enough.
About Sumairii
POWUH: 600-699 with 691 comments
i liked this week’s episode, the rock!
and
Liz is soo cute T-T
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
Yeah, she’s cute. Even more so when she’s throwing a tantrum. Let’s add Liz to the already heavy list of vampire lolis.
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
Braz’s personality is far worse than I thought. It’s a shame Liz is putting everything she is into trying to get the attention of a bastard who only does things for his own benefits and doesn’t consider how others feel. As morally bankrupt as he is, it’s hard to believe he did what he did for Staz’s sake.
But I did like how quick on the draw Braz was figuring out what Staz was after and I imagine it’s the same thing he’d be after as well. When a vampire is hunting a human, they’d prefer them to be a virgin.
Frankenstein is the same as Braz in the vein of using people to get what he wants. I didn’t surprise me that someone so ambitious was holding information back. Moreover, to get someone else to do his dirty work. I honestly don’t see what these scientists hope to gain by creating these monstrosities and they never consider the possibility of severe drawbacks. And if he’s so intent on creating a hybrid, he should try on himself instead of conveniently taking advantage of people like Fuyumi.
POWUH: 600-699 with 691 comments
awww c’mon Braz has a wondefull personality(at least to me) hes the best character in the show up until now
POWUH: 600-699 with 691 comments
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
No way. With street smarts, he’s the kind of guy you’d want to avoid at all costs.
POWUH: 800-899 and Mad Scientist with 814 comments
Why risk your own life when you can do your experiments on someone else? As you say, Frankenstein is just as manipulative as Braz so I would think it’s only natural for him to attempt to exploit Fuyumi.
As for why he’s even trying to create hybrids, I guess it’s because that’s the only goal he knows; his family has been doing it for generations. That said, I don’t think Frankenstein is really malicious. He’s like a scientist who is meddling in things he doesn’t truly understand.
POWUH: and Athenaeum Châtelaine with 2212 comments
That was a pretty good episode. What is it with vampire families and drama? It’s always drama! Well, Braz turned out not as bad as I had though. It seems that he does care for his brother is a pretty twisted way. Despite his deadly interest Staz’s power, it seemed in a turned about way, that he did so to keep his brother and thus his family on top. He wants what he thinks is best for his family and for Staz.
Liz is the neglected sibling because of her brother’s weird bromance she got left out and is by herself. However, this isn’t really unusual saying that they are the two oldest boys and usually they tend to gravitate towards one another in a way that a single sister can’t. It’s a little like my little brothers vs me the only girl. It’s really a shame she doesn’t have any friends that can fill the void.
Well, we get to see more about the demon world and the monsters that Frankenstein is creating. But unlike the humanized, victimized monster created by Mary Shelley, this monster that Franken created….has silver hair, and happens to be voiced by Koji Yusa. 😀
Well, that has thus sealed for me who my favorite character is going to be. Staz is cool, Braz is deliciously mysterious, and Wolf is great, but when you have the combination of silver hair, glorious violence, dark one liners, and Koji Yusa in the same package, it’s just hard to compete. 😉
Akimu for the win~!
Well, I’m interested in seeing where this goes next week and seeing if this will be a pretty big plot point or if it will be a short arc. At this point I really don’t care about Fuyumi. The girl is a blank slate and pretty much only a plot device and a sex object that gets a couple of minutes of “meaningful” dialect that just falls flat. I’m more interested in the demon world and what will happen next with the plot.
POWUH: 800-899 and Mad Scientist with 814 comments
Yeah, it’s a little sad that Fuyumi has been demoted to PLOT considering she started off as a seemingly strong female lead. As a guy I can’t complain with her assets though. Guess I’m not helping the case.
Perhaps she’ll be back in action soon enough? I can’t imagine her spending the entire rest of the show being the helpless damsel in distress now that she supposedly has so much potential to become a powerful demon.
POWUH: and Athenaeum Châtelaine with 2212 comments
Also, I don’t know…but I think you maybe being a bit harsh on Braz. I thought the guy was a psycho last episode and I don’t think he’s exactly a “good guy” now, but I do think this episode has made me understand him more, especially since I can kind of identify with him also as the eldest sibling. In terms of his actions with Liz, I can actually totally and whole-heartedly understand him. Firstly, Braz looks quite a bit older than Staz, much less Liz. Most of the time when there’s that much of a gap, the oldest sibling just doesn’t associate with the youngest that much. So, I’m not really that surprised he forgot what drink she likes, or didn’t notice that she was lonely. However, that doesn’t mean he doesn’t care about her. When both he and Staz simply sat there calmly while she had her little tirade, I got the feeling that this wasn’t that unusual to them. When afterward he drew her to his side and patted her head, I got the feeling that he does care about her and I bet you that if anyone dares mess with her, he’d kill ’em in an instant.
As for the way he is with Staz. I think that the fact that there is less of an age gap and that he’s a boy and he’s Braz’s first sibling all probably played a factor. With him, Braz might have had a mix of jealousy and responsibility towards him. Also as a boy, he probably expects more out of Staz and so went the extra mile in trying to make his brother stronger and thus his equal. Unfortunately he made a mistake a made him too strong too fast and so he had to thus fix his mistake whatever way he could. However, now at this point in time, Braz probably thinks of his brother as that teen sibling who just doesn’t get it and needs his butt-kicked
by zombiesevery now and again to make his see reason.Now, I might just be reading too much into this, but that’s kind of how I understand it.
POWUH: 800-899 and Mad Scientist with 814 comments
I’m admittedly most definitely being too harsh on Braz. But it’s still very interesting to hear your opinion from the POV of the eldest sibling. I’m the youngest sibling in my family and sad to say I always hated my brother’s guts. But now that I barely see him, I don’t care so much for all the grievances he’s caused me.
But enough about me, the point is that I sympathize with Staz more in seeing his older brother as a selfish maniac who does what he wants and only every once in a while acts nice as if to keep up with some false image of being a good sibling to keep the younger ones from fully hating him. But maybe that’s me reading too much into it.
POWUH: Metanorn Lover with 175 comments
well give two probs with same issue going right now.
staz’s brother appear give want staz do his dirty work & wolf has to do dr.franken dirty work as well give both had to beat a artfical demon.
but for staz want power bring fuyumi being human & his sister only doing this cause want older brother notice her.
yea we’re so asking wonder when staz’s parents will show-up?
POWUH: 600-699 with 691 comments
indeed…it probably be a historical and intense day
POWUH: 800-899 and Mad Scientist with 814 comments
I doubt we’ll ever see them, but I would also be very interested in meeting the Blood parents. =)
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
I agree. Given how we’re already halfway through the series, the odds of seeing the parents are slim to none. Besides, none of the Blood siblings have even mentioned them which would have an indication that they would eventually appear.