Blood-C – 04

Life lesson: When a schoolgirl with a sword tells you to run away, you probably should

I’m not going to waste much time today talking about other things. This episode was just way too epic for that.

It’s a new day in Blood C and Saya is once again in the miko outfit sweeping the walkway when her father appears. He tells her she should rest because she’s wounded physically and mentally, but she says she’s okay. Saya tells him that she’s just a bit upset about the man killed by the Bairn and also tells him about the whole ‘honor the covenant’ thing. He tells her not to be led astray by their words and to ignore it. She does. So much for plot development there.

Miko stereotype #1: sweeping the shrine

It’s sunny out and once again, Saya feels the need to sing about it. However, all is not well with Saya despite the fact she somehow managed to clean her uniform from all the blood from the last battle (either that or she bought a new uniform). She’s concerned that her father was worried about her and vows to get stronger. Little does she know, the dog from the previous episodes is stalking her.

At school, the twins mention once again how peaceful the town is, but they note that the baker still hasn’t returned and that people are out looking for him. Right, so they notice one guy missing and cause a fuss, but have yet to notice that a nearby train station has been totalled and that their water supply is slowly being dyed red from all the blood via Saya’s nightly escapades. Oh and at this point, Saya sees the light again in the shape of a katana.

Saya’s friends continue debating whether or not the baker ran away while Saya notices the dog finally. She follows it, but her friends don’t seem to see it and completely ignore the fact that she has the ability to leap onto tree branches twice her height. Saya falls from the tree because her lunch bag gets caught and Tokizane tries to catch her, but acts more like a cushion to break her fall instead.

Lol that looks painful

He asks why she was climbing the tree in the first place and Saya tells him about the dog. He never saw it however, and changes to subject to lunch. He doesn’t have one again and Saya decides to share after complimenting his smile. D’awwww.

He compliments the bento and Saya is extremely happy. She mentions that she loves Fumito (while her friends still have no idea where she went) and Tokizane asks in what way. She mentions again that Fumito is kind, can cook and etc. but Tokizane cuts her off and asks if that’s what loving someone really means. Saya does not comprehend.

….Do they really have to add in Mokona everywhere?

…So she goes and talks to Fumito about it. Saya wonders if she upset Tokizane and Fumito says that she probably shouldn’t worry about it because he has his own stuff going on in his life. Fumito gives her more guimauve, but when Saya eats some, she sees the katana of light and blood. He asks if she’s okay and when Saya says she’s fine, he touches her face saying to talk to him if anything is wrong. It would have been cute if not for the ominous music playing in the background.

…Or maybe Fumito just really wants her glasses. Little does he know, they’re glued to her face.

There’s another bit done by the mysterious narrator here talking about overriding hated with love and trust while Saya runs around at night. She comes to a lake or something where a giant chicken Bairn attacks 3 fishermen. The first one gets eaten while Saya saves the other two from two green floating things that came with the chicken. Saya tells them to run away while the green things shoot acid at her. She cuts off one of the green Bairn’s arms and the Bairn all stop to cannibalize for a bit before attacking again. When she tries to attack again, the chicken Bairn throws Saya across the lake.

As Saya tries to recover, the Elder Bairn go after the remaining fishermen who were idiots and didn’t run very far when Saya told them to.  The chicken thing rips one in half and when Saya goes to help, she gets acid to the back and is thrown against the pavement. She blacks out for a bit.

Never before have chickens been this terrifying. Or carnivorous.

However, the Bairn never attacked her when she was unconscious and instead they finished off the one person and half killed the other. Saya tries to attack with no luck and the chicken starts talking to her, asking if she’s the one hunting their kind.

Saya realises that the chicken (I wish I had come up with a better name for it XD) is controlling the green things, but the chicken tells her that they’re the same and that the ones below always perform the will of those above. It also tells her again to honor the covenant and calls it the Shrovetide. Saya has another vision of someone in braids and killing things, and the chicken says that the Elder Barin kill for their own benefit, but if Saya interferes, then they’ll eat her as well.

Saya however, says that she only needs to fight, her eyes turn red and she starts killing things more efficiently. After she’s done, she checks to see if the other fisherman survived, but with no luck.

She goes home and seems confused about something, but before she can decide anything, her father comes out to see if she’s okay. He asks about the enemy and Saya tells him that she defeated them, but they talked to her about the covenant again. Saya’s dad says nothing.

The next day, Saya is late for school, but her teacher doesn’t mind. She then mentions that it’s another peaceful day where nothing has happened, much to Saya’s surprise. Either the town is even more oblivious than I thought, or something is going down here.

Random beams of light here too?! I hope this doesn’t mean that the animation quality is going to plummet.

Final Thoughts:

Ooooooh dear. There was so much going on this episode that I’m having trouble figuring out where to start. First off, her dad TOTALLY knows something but is not telling Saya about it for some reason. Also, Saya may be closer to the Bairn than I first thought (like how the Saya from Blood+ was close to the chiropterans) because they seem to be okay with coexisting with her as long as she doesn’t get in their way. I mean, the ones from this episode could have killed her when she was unconscious, but they didn’t. The flashback when they mentioned Shrovetide is intriguing as well (I’m thinking it was either Saya or her mother in it), are they going to bring in the whole Vietnam plot point again? Either way, I’m pretty sure it has something to do with the covenant. Whatever THAT is.

As a few people have pointed out in comments for the previous episodes, the guimauve is also pretty suspicious. I was overlooking it before, but the flashback with blood this episode was just too well timed to be a coincidence. We may also soon be getting an explanation to why no one in the town notices anything if the ending to this one is anything to go by. So much vague information in one episode!

The slice of life was bearable this episode because it was scarce and it spent its time dropping more vague information. I hate to admit it, but even Saya singing every episode isn’t that annoying anymore. I’m a bit saddened by CLAMP bringing back the whole ‘what kind of way do you love him’ thing. I had more than enough of that in Cardcaptor Sakura thank you. It doesn’t help that Saya is as oblivious as an otome game heroine (admittedly, she does have enough bishies in her life to be one) and is incapable of realising when a guy likes her. Anyways, the plot finally seems to be taking off, so hopefully it continues to progress like this from now on.

Preview:

HOLY CRAP. The weather isn’t nice for once. What will Saya have to sing about now?!

About Karakuri

University student and the one at Metanorn who's known for wearing glasses. Likes blood, insanity and plot twists, but also plays otome games and adores cute romance anime. It balances out... somehow.