Blood Lad – 09
Well this is awkward.
This week in Blood Lad: everything important happens. Don’t worry Fuyumi. I also thought that was a lot to take in at once.
To Depose the King
It’s good to be the king.
So basically everything is still keikaku doori for Braz. As some of you had speculated last time, Wolf-Daddy did in fact kill the Blood siblings’ father, who was the previous demon king. And of course, when you kill the king, you take his place as the new one. This revelation pretty much affirms that Braz and Liz have good reason to hate Wolf-Daddy, and though it’s never explained what happened to their mother, I can only imagine she shared a similar fate. That, or she died even before then due to other reasons. Anyway, Braz is plotting to overthrow Wolf-Daddy, and has purposefully allowed himself to be brought before the king so that he can formally announce his declaration of war. A rather bold move, but I would expect no less from the always confident and composed vampire. This is a guy out on a mission, and I have a feeling Wolf-Daddy should be worried about being the one doing the underestimating here.
Wolf-Daddy defeats Blood-Daddy.
Who Braz has intended for the new king isn’t explicitly revealed, and I honestly have no idea. We see that he has prepared a new vessel for Akimu, and that vessel is shown on screen when he mentions Wolf-Daddy’s replacement. But just who does the body belong to? Also, what role does Staz’s power play in all this? On the surface, it looks like Braz is just beefing up Akimu for a showdown with Wolf-Daddy, but surely there’s more to it than that. What’s in it for Braz if a freakish monster gets put on the throne? Given the rivalry between the Bloods and the Wolves, I would imagine that even if Braz doesn’t intend to put himself on the throne, he is setting up a fellow vampire for the position. Yet there’s all this hinting at Akimu’s involvement. Perhap’s there’s something about him that we haven’t been told yet?
A present for Akimu.
There’s still a lot about the guy that we don’t know after all. What we do know is that the “core” of his body is Pantomime, a former agent of Wolf-Daddy’s. This Pantomime guy supposedly is the originator of Akimu’s spatial magic. But his name suggests to me that rather than having an inherent knowledge of the magic, he only has it due to some ability to copy others’ abilities. Which seems to me a rather impressive skill to have. Yet Braz intends to move Akimu from that body to another? What could possibly top being able to copy other abilities? Although I suppose it’s entirely possible that Akimu has never been able to utilize this power since we’ve never seen him copy abilities himself. And again, we still don’t know why Pantomime or Akimu are involved in the first place. Surely Braz didn’t turn the latter into the former simply to piss off Wolf-Daddy.
Powers Galore
She sure is shocked to see her own powers at work.
Speaking of powers, we get to see a few new ones at work after a brief lull for exposition. Last episode we were introduced to Beros and her “power-sealing” ability. Here we see it in action. And true to her word, it’s a pretty bloody affair as her magic manifests itself as a ravenous dog that chomps enthusiastically away at Braz’s arm. Technically speaking, Beros isn’t explicitly preventing her targets from using their magic. But clearly she can provide a pretty strong deterrent nonetheless. I would like to remark at this point however, that this display of her magic is also another impressive display of Braz’s cunning as he puts her to sleep after being freed. We know that he’s always at least two steps ahead of the game and Beros clearly has an arguably soft spot for him, but seeing him manipulate her so easily was still strangely satisfying.
It’s hunting time!
Moving on, we have Chief Goyle, who is Beros’s direct superior. As his name suggests, he is related to gargoyles, and we see that his power is to summon one that can hunt down the object of his hatred without fail. Also, his little hunting buddy can merge with his arm to form a deadly claw, which is apparently strong enough to break through a vampire’s defensive barrier. Personally I’m not too famliar with gargoyle lore so I don’t know how appropriate his abilities are for his name, but perhaps those of you more knowledgeable readers can shed some light on this matter.
A fitting ability.
Last but not least, we are at long last introduced to Braz’s powers. Yes, the guy can do more than shoot revolvers and be a sly sunovabitch. And as it turns out, what he’s able to do is control his blood at any distance. So all he has to do is bleed a little and now he has a convenient and unexpected trap. This, of course, comes in handy when he’s cornered by Goyle and doesn’t want to deal with the guy. So instead of duking it out with the Chief, he threatens to really kill the blissfully sleeping Beros using the pool of his blood he left by her. Goyle, being a stand-up guy who cares about his subordinates, relents after (mistakenly) trying to call Braz’s bluff. So yeah, we have another gratuitous example of Braz’s cunning at work.
Sudden Development
That was unexpected.
That said, it’s now time for Fuyumi’s part of the show again. We last saw her being taken to a magical castle riding a fluffball. Now she’s arrived, and conveniently so have Bell and Staz. After a brief reunion the group is taken to see Neyn, Bell’s mom. And here the show takes off. Apparently Bell’s mom is also Fuyumi’s mom because the two are doppelgangers who somehow merged when they coincidentally met in the human world. Yeah. That makes Bell and Fuyumi sisters of some sort. But clearly they have different fathers. Because Fuyumi recognizes the Hydra family’s butler as the doppelganger of her father. And when Bell refers to her father, we see a shot of the dragon (technically a Hydra, if the family name is any indication) that we’ve previously seen lurking about the castle. I guess that makes her half dragon? I don’t even know.
Hot milf action.
Anyway, Neyn’s motive for taking custody of Fuyumi is thus revealed to be her form of motherly love. She hasn’t seen her human daughter for many years now after the merging business, so I can understand her wanting to get Fuyumi back. Accordingly, she refuses to let Staz have her girl and instead offers her own neck for his biting pleasure. Staz is briefly tempted (they share the same blood after all), but then he realizes that Fuyumi has something her mother doesn’t: her virginity. Cue angry Bell warping him to a Castle in the Sky reference. And then it’s hinted papa Hydra finds him. This’ll be good.
Extras
So it looks like things are finally drawing to a close. And that’s only appropriate enough, considering Blood Lad is unfortunately only 10 episodes in total. There’s a final bit of drama introduced when Bell reveals that Fuyumi will forget everything once she’s resurrected as a human. But as before I highly doubt we’ll ever see a human Fuyumi again, even though next episode really will be the finale. I’m sure she’ll reject her humanity in favor of living with Staz and the crew. Plus, there’s also the showdown with Wolf-Daddy, which will suck time away from any conclusion on Fuyumi’s end. Unless of course things will be purposefully left unresolved in anticipation of a second season. But this kind of tactic doesn’t really work well unless such a continuation is essentially guaranteed. So I really hope Blood Lad isn’t taking this route, especially since things are looking a little cramped at this point.
About Sumairii
POWUH: Metanorn Lover with 175 comments
well now bit double story going on on it
braz meet wolf daddy cause of braz’s experiment cause more tense “hello my name is braz you killed my father prepare to die” revenge doing.
& whole reason for mama bell to meet fuyumi cause she also fuyumi’s mom cause reveal if human world version meet demon version face to face they combine into one person.
yea with all this wonder what next?
POWUH: and Athenaeum Châtelaine with 2212 comments
This episode was two things: it was simultaneously, the best and yet, most frustrating episode in the entire run of the show.
Talk about a revelation dump, we get so much information and plot development here, it’s quite astounding to behold. So, let’s start with first things first. In the case of the Blood siblings, we learn that they used to be the ruling royal family of demon world, until a takeover by the werewolves. Poor young Braz watched his father die at the hands of Wolf-Daddy and I’m guessing has been subsequently raising his little brother and sister on his own, all the while hiding behind an acquiescent facade while actually slowly planning to take back what is rightfully theirs.
Seeing how young Braz was when his parents were killed, you can guess that Staz was a toddler and Liz a baby. To know that he not only raised the two as such a young age, but also planning his vengeance on the wolves at the same time, put him in a new light than before. While Liz of course is as angry at the Wolf King as Braz, Staz doesn’t seem to really care about the injustice against his family, which I kind of find as a point against his character. When he first talks about their parents being dead, he pretty much says, “they’re gone, get over it”, however I expected from that statement that they simply just died, not that they had been violently murdered during a coup d’etat staged by the werewolves. That is kind of a big deal, Staz.
Sometimes I like Staz and his laid-back attitude, and sometimes I think he is too laid-back. That there is more going on in the world then just his otaku collection. And it is in episodes like this that really show that.
This episode was actually, mostly Braz’. We learn not only a bit of his backstory, but we also learn some of his motivations, his plans, and that he is the absolute king of manipulation and ulterior motives. We learn in this one episode that he has declared war against the werewolves and that he has been planning his steps towards dethroning the current king for quite sometime now. We also learn that he is either responsible for, or had a hand in, almost every event we’ve seen thus far and that nothing is by accident. He has a hand in Fuyumi being here, and is friends with Bell and Knell’s mom. He probably already knew the revelation about Fuyumi’s mom, which accounts for his strange statement to Bell. He is the one who gave Franken the components to build Akimu, who was originally, one of the king’s agents named Pantomime, and he’s using all three to help him in his plan to overthrow the Wolf King. This episode was full of so many puzzle pieces that are filling in the missing holes, and we are learning just how much a badass, Braz truly is.
Fuyumi actually has a part in the revelation pool here as well, as we learn that not only is her mother here in demon world, but that she and Bell are sisters?! Well, sort of. It seems that they decided to now introduce the concept of doppelgangers and that if the two identical people should ever meet, they will combine and fuse together to become one being, which is what happened to Nyen Hydra and Fuyumi’s mom. Nyen IS technically Fuyumi’s mom and she just wants her daughter back after all these years.
We are also introduced this episode, to the character of Chief Goyle, who is okay character with a thing for glasses. I don’t know much about gargoyles, though I of course watched the TV series, read a few different novel series and such. Their mythology is a little more inconsistent than vampires and werewolves and not as well known. (Interestingly enough, a fun fact is that technically, only the stone statues that act as a spout to covey extra water from off of roofs and stuff, are considered “gargoyles”, all the others that are simply statues, are called “grotesques”.) The only things I remember that stay pretty consistent is that they turn from flesh to stone at some point, usually at dawn, and they have an inane want to protect, and were used with the belief to be able to protect buildings such as churches, from evil. In many of the novel series I’ve read, gargoyles can transform from a human form to that of a monster form, either at will, or during the night.
Chief Goyle’s ability being linked to his emotions is not one I know from popular gargoyle myth, though they are know to have a keen sense of smell. I thought he at his monster companion was okay and kind of silly, similar to my feelings on Beros. And Braz like always, has some of the best powers. His ability to control his blood at any distance is not an unfamiliar one to the vampire or the anime world, but I find it suiting to him. His little red grim reapers are so adorable! 😀
However, despite how great this episode was, it is quite frustrating that this is the second to last episode. They’ve just now gotten to the meat of the plot an they’re now going to cut it off so suddenly. From what I’ve heard, this is pretty much where the scanlated chapters of the manga also stop, and that no one has really picked it up to finish translating the rest, which is disappointing. I have a feeling this is going to have an open-ending and that we’ll have to either wait for a sequel or wait for more of the manga to be translated.
I really like this series and I hope it gets a sequel, especially since now at the end, I’m beginning to really get into the plot and not just the hilarious random comedy.
I give this episode a 9/10.
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
Well, the chances of another season depends on how popular the first one was and how far the anime has caught up to the manga. For now, we’ll have to deal with what’s already on our hands. The bright side is, thanks to MAL info, there’ll be an OVA lurking about after the show is over.
POWUH: 800-899 and Mad Scientist with 814 comments
I’ve made it no secret that I’m no fan of Braz. But I have to admit after this episode I really do see him in a completely different light.
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
True. You may not like him but you have to admit that he’s badass.
POWUH: 800-899 and Mad Scientist with 814 comments
Also I agree I’m very disappointed that all of this comes at the penultimate episode. Shows seem to tend to do this laid-back and then rushed at the end pacing. But the pervasiveness of this pattern doesn’t make it any more tolerable.
Now that I think about it though, if only Blood Lad were a full 12 or 13 eps, these revelations might come at a perfect moment here. Except it’s not. Or more likely if the show did have 2-3 more eps to work with, the revelations we see here would again be introduced at the last moment…
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
Tsk, really. How could things get so good when it’s almost at the end of the show? And there’s only one episode left. Personally, Blood Lad became awesome in the second half. Can’t say much about the first.
Here’s a piece of advice for anyone in that world: Never piss Bell off. Geez, if you get shot in the head for confusing people, what happens when you double-cross her? She was annoying at first but quickly became a favorite to see.
Braz continues to prove that he’s an individual to best have with you instead of against. So all his experiments was to avenge his late father but the twist is that he doesn’t have any interest in the throne which was something I assumed he’d want given that he’s so good at manipulating people into carrying out his whims. You can’t tell me he’s doing all this to put Staz as the new king. His way of doing things makes you wonder if he has all planned out or just makes it up as he goes along. Vampires manipulating their blood as a weapon is something I’m beginning to see very often in anime/manga (Blood Parade, Bloody Cross, Vampire Knight). That should become another factor that affects their hunger for blood seeing the possibility that the more they use it, the more exhausted they become.
The doppelganger revelation was the kicker and also explained the disappearance of Fuyumi’s mother. Even if they’re identical, because each is a difference species, I imagine that when they joined together, there should be some conflicts in their process of thought. The difference in eye color could be an indication or if it was complete, the two colors would have at least mixed. Only the hair color changed. I mean, each one was living a different life and did things in their own unique way.
I have a feeling if Fuyumi does get resurrected, something will happen that will preserve her memory. One thing to remember when watching these shows is to always expect some clichéd anime logic. Anyway, if Bell and Fuyumi are siblings and Fuyumi finds out Bell has feelings for Staz, that would be grounds for a sibling rivalry. But the chances of that are low because Fuyumi is so nice.
POWUH: Meta Resident with 1692 comments
Staz isn’t the type who’d want to sit on the throne. Instead he’s the type who’d be behind the throne manipulating the one on it. So it’s quite possible he does have Staz in mind for the new king.
POWUH: Meta Resident with 1692 comments
Dammint, I meant Braz isn’t the type who’d want to sit on the throne.
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
The old “True seat of power behind the throne” routine, eh?
POWUH: 800-899 and Mad Scientist with 814 comments
I think the bigger problem is that the throne is a very exposed position. It seems to me that Braz prefers to work in the shadows, where he can strike without being seen. Being the king would put him under such intense scrutiny that he’d pretty much be unable to do anything himself.
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
Being on the throne means you’re the target. Being behind the throne means that when the horse you rode there gets tired, you can get another horse…
POWUH: and Athenaeum Châtelaine with 2212 comments
I have to agree. I think that Braz learned from the experience of his parents’ murders, that being in the forefront makes you a target for others who want that power. However, if you instead are the puppeteer from the shadows, if one puppet gets destroyed, discard him and then replace him.
And no matter who he places on the throne, I have no doubt that everyone would know that it was really Braz and the noble Vampire house that were the ones in power. Braz, despite his intelligence is vain like most stereotypical vamps, so I have no doubt that though he will not himself be king, he will have no problem showing (if not explicitly saying) which species truly rules.