Strike the Blood – 20
It was mildly disappointing that they did not enter “Trap Time”.
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I really hope that sign meant what I think it meant. Anyways, on to alchemists, talking cats, and other such nonsense. |
Perhaps this will finally be an arc without a lot of Kojou. Yukina and him have been separated and the enemy in question seems to be aiming at Kanon in particular (who is with Yukina). Though now that Asagi is involved, Kojou probably won’t let Kou run around as he pleases (not that he would have in the first place, because again, Kanon is being targetted). Well, an arc without Kojou would have been interesting in theory, since he’s usually the one who makes things happen and letting another character take the spotlight would have been interesting for a change. The fact that Yukina told him not to drink any blood might make things interesting later in the arc though. …And then we have the villain himself.
5 guesses as to who his seiyuu is.
Strike the Blood is moving on to alchemists now, and they seem about as overpowered as anyone else in the show. Surely there’s some sort of reasonable explanation as to how/why they can turn trees to metal, but at the moment, there doesn’t seem to be any limitations as to how this power is used. This take on how to achieve immortality is interesting at least, as is the fact that Kou somehow needs to get rid of Nina first before he can do that. That part with Kou having a benefactor and then betraying said benefactor after they shared maybe 5 minutes of screen time was probably important, but that betrayal probably could have been spotted from Kou’s first appearance. Plus, obviously the benefactor’s plan was never going to work out in the first place, since his character probably took all of 2 minutes to create. They took a generic old guy and put him in a suit. Male characters need top hats, fancy earrings or they have to be somewhat of a bishounen to get anywhere in this show. Duh.
Even going shirtless doesn’t help.
Yukina seems like the best choice to fight against alchemy, since she’s been confirmed as the Imagine Breaker person who negates magic, but for some reason, the Lion King Organization has decided to take away Sekkarou. …Maybe they have some profound reason for doing so, or maybe they actually are concerned for Yukina’s mental well-being and want to give her a break, but it kind of looks like they’re purposely letting Kanon get screwed over. After letting Meiga go in the last arc, it wouldn’t be surprising if they were doing this on purpose. Though maybe this is a chance for Yukina to shine on her own without Sekkarou. We’ve never really seen her fight without it. As for Kanon, it’s surprising that they’re focusing on her character again. Plus Kensei is way more plot relevant than I thought he was going to be. It’s nice that there’s more continuity though and thinking about it, Kanon’s past wasn’t really looked at in depth the last time it was brought up in the plot. Apparently the anime has screwed Kanon over by not including fanservice scenes, so maybe this will make up for it. …Or not, since Yukina and her are going on vacation and it looks like it’s Asagi’s turn. …For multiple things.
Amazing. It’s not Kojou for once.
Oh, right. This happened too. In a way, this was kind of watching a B-list horror movie. Someone tells the teenager/whoever to get the hell out of wherever she is. They don’t listen and ends up dead in a really predictable fashion. You know it’s coming and no matter what, the character in question is going to make the worse possible choice, but that doesn’t make it any better or less cliche. Asagi was attached to the earrings for obvious reasons, but having her ignore Kojou’s warnings for so long was really frustrating. Nobody should be worried about her actually dying, since nobody dies when they are killed on this show, but this all could have been so easily avoided.
I don’t know if I’m quite taken with this arc or not yet. Asagi isn’t exactly my favourite heroine of the show, and that last bit didn’t exactly help. Also, Yukina seems strangely okay with being weaponless against Edward Elric a dangerous alchemist who is clearly trying to target her friend. Though having Kojou meet Yukina’s teacher, having the two (maybe) separated for the arc, and having a Kaji Yuki character lose a hand was amusing. Kou grows it back though in an extremely anticlimactic fashion without even one instance of angst about the injury/ about his general powerlessness as a character before having a major turnaround for the better, so it’s probably not making this year’s ” best arm related injury sustained by a Kaji Yuki character” list. Major points lost there. Or maybe he’s going the Q-Vier route. Er, back to the actual arc, I’ll have to see where this goes.
…It goes the implied yuri route, apparently.
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.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
Yeah, the Asagi thing was pulled off kinda lame.
My first guess is Kaji Yuki! Guess two to five is…Kaji Yuki!
POWUH: Meta Team and Megane-chan with 3214 comments
Being clueless about almost everything going on in the plot isn’t exactly an attractive character trait. Even if a lot of it isn’t her fault, she walked right in to this one.
POWUH: Meta Resident and LN Informant with 1529 comments
What I found more important this episode is the revelation from Yukari that Avrora was ‘suffering’ as the 4th Progenitor.
Consider also:
1)Vatler asked Yukina WHAT the 4th Progenitor was, implying a greater mystery to its existence.
2)Kensei said the 4th Progenitor’s powers were necessary to avert an incoming disaster, and should never have existed otherwise.
What do you think it means?
POWUH: Meta Team and Megane-chan with 3214 comments
Oh, right. Some things in this show seem like they should be obvious since I spoiled myself a long time ago. What the 4th progenitor’s purpose though is still a mystery to me.
POWUH: Meta Resident and LN Informant with 1529 comments
The Japanese have used several different terms to refer to familiars:
1)Yukari’s talking cat is a ‘Tsukaima’(使い魔). Lit. pet/errand demon, it refers to Western-type familiars used by Western witches/wizards.
2)Kojou’s Familiars are called Kenjuu(眷獣). They are described as Summoned Beasts(shuukanjou,召喚獣).
Apparently Gakuto Mikumo, STB’s author, twittered his displeasure at how ‘Kenjuu’ was translated as ‘Familiar’,saying it was an inaccurate description of his terminology for the STB universe.
3)Shikigami(式神) refer to spirits summoned and bound into paper charms, like maid Sayaka & Yukina’s paper butterflies. Used to refer to Japanese-type familiars used by Japanese shamans/onmyoji.
POWUH: Meta Resident and Werewolf Chaser with 1270 comments
Abt the kenjuus, sometiumes its describe as beings living in vampires blood but other times its mentioned as beings summoned frm another dimension. Just stick to one explanation ady @_@ Or maybe I’m not paying enough attention.
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
In this case, I’d go with living in the vampire’s body because they sustain themselves by feeding on their host’s life force, which is unlimited.
POWUH: Meta Resident and LN Informant with 1529 comments
But that betrayal probably could have been spotted from Kou’s first appearance.
Kou’s got the metallic side of his body right,although he looks more like the Clownmetal Alchemist if you ask me. (-_-“)
The only things missing are him being shorter, blonder, less crazy and extremely sensitive about his height.
http://anime.wuxiaedge.com/wp-content/uploads/Edward_Elric_Angry_Rant.jpg
This take on how to achieve immortality is interesting at least…
So STB’s alchemical immortality/powers involves turning yourself into a metal-jelly person, or fusing half your body with shapeshifting metal. Not the most appealing methods, IMO. The Elrics would have been horrified.(╹д╹;)
It was mildly disappointing that they did not enter “Trap Time”.
I thought it was too good to be true for the Lion King to be THAT generous to Kojou.
LN elaborations:
1)The LNs say Kou tried to kill Kojou because Kojou was in his way in getting to Kanon. Yes, Kou is THAT crazy.
2)Sayaka’s on detention because she involved herself in the battle during the Aya arc, a clear violation of her given orders to be Lafolia’s bodyguard.Plus, she damaged her magic bow in the fighting.
POWUH: Meta Team and Megane-chan with 3214 comments
Kou kind of reminds me of a mix between Kimblee and Ed. …Not that Kou makes things explode, but that sociopathic behaviour. Ed, obviously because of the hair/arm.
…Yeah, I’ve never heard of a metal/jelly immortality. Kou seems like the type who would be fine with that though. I wonder what his teacher did exactly in the betrayal.
I hope the animators had fun adding in that sign. Unless the light novel specified the name, in which case, the author is awesome.
Ah, I was wondering where Sayaka was. Didn’t La Folia just leave Itogami though? Was Sayaka supposed to follow her on the plane or what?
POWUH: Meta Resident and LN Informant with 1529 comments
Full lyrics for ALTIMA’s Fight 4 Real:
http://www.animelyrics.com/anime/stb/fight4real.htm
Full lyrics for Wakeshima Kanon’s signal:
http://shinitakashi.blogspot.com/2014/02/wakeshima-kanon-signal-lyrics.html
signal’s album comes with gift postcards of Natsuki, Yukina, Asagi and Nagisa, drawn by Wakeshima Kanon herself. http://wakesima.tumblr.com/
POWUH: Meta Resident and LN Informant with 1529 comments
Changing room with Yukina and Sayaka:
https://fbcdn-sphotos-e-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-frc3/t1/p350x350/1939706_595380667217197_1497526157_n.jpg
Christmas STB, plus 1 sexy Vatler:
http://forums.animesuki.com/showpost.php?p=4952621&postcount=1162
Natsuki cards:
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.475925149177958.1073741850.366979593405848&type=1
The card scans come from an STB-themed card game for Japanese mobiles and Android: http://stb-social.com/
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
zztop is trying to set a record for most posts “pending” in the spam filter today. 🙂
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
What kinds and how many records does Metanorn allow? 😉
POWUH: Meta Resident and LN Informant with 1529 comments
Found quite a few things I wanted to share with on this post. Apologies everyone. m(_ _)m
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
No need to apologize. Those pics could make great avatars.
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
*sigh* I can’t believe we’re already at the show’s last arc. It’s been fun up to now so let’s hope it’ll end on a high note. So now Itogami is facing alchemists. Man, that island is like a magnet for all things supernatural.
That one’s a no brainer. You can tell who is Kou’s seiyuu is just by listening to his voice. Yuki Kaji has officially been added to the list of overused seiyuus in the anime industry. Prior entries: Kana Hanazawa, Jun Fukuyama, Hiroshi Kamiya. To be honest, I’m not all that surprised that it’s Yuki Kaji. He’s been all over the place to the point you’ve got to ask “What series isn’t he going to be in?”.
That man who Kou called his master then sacrificed him to the Wiseman’s blood was screwed from the start. Betrayal was written all over that mad hatter’s face. For an antagonist, Kou is oddly cheerful, almost child-like even when he’s killing people or turning them into metal statues. Definitely similar to Valvrave’s Q-vier.
Though she may be a cyber-genius, apparently Asagi isn’t resistant to the stereotype of girls stupidly getting into unbelievable amounts of trouble for the sake of frivolous sentimental trinkets. Natsuki warned both her and Kojou to stay away yet she goes back for a lost earring and even Kojou told her move it on the phone. These people have to realize that a lost item can be replaced but a lost life can’t. And that was a pretty nasty slash she got, getting carved from the chest down to the stomach. She should be lucky her organs aren’t hanging out.
It’s funny. These characters don’t ever die, even when they’re “killed”.
Side note: By the way, I recently the review for the Bloody Cross manga and by the looks of it, they’ve covered all the certain points of the story and characters, especially the two leads. What would make my day is if an announcement for an anime adaptation came along.
POWUH: 600-699 and LN Enthusiast with 623 comments
You forgot Sawashiro Miyuki and Kugimiya Rie for the prior entries, though the latter has declined a lot and hasn’t been getting much roles.
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
Miyuki Sawashiro didn’t come to mind because it isn’t easy for me to distinguish her voice in anime. I only got as far as the voice she used for Monogatari’s Suruga Kanbaru which she also used for Danganronpa’s Touko Fukawa/Genocider Sho. I was surprised she played Psycho-Pass’ Shion.
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
Really? There are quite a few (and there are definitely roles that sound different) of her roles that sound very similar: Kanbaru (Monogatari), Hakaze (Tempest), Inaba (Kokoro Connect), Medusa (Witch Craft Works), Makoto Sako (Devil Survivor), Kotoha (Yozakura Quartet).
POWUH: Meta Team and Megane-chan with 3214 comments
…Wasn’t being a magnet for supernatural things the whole point of Itogami?
Anyways, yeah. I wasn’t going to mention this in the post since maybe 3 people watched DiaLovers, but Kaji is using his “Kanato” voice. Of course, he used the same voice for Q-Vier too. It’s really good for making Kou seem like more of a sociopath. …Kaji is surprisingly good at being creepy.
I don’t know if Asagi knew quite that her life was in danger, but I echo your sentiments about the earring. Asagi is just a tiiiiiiiny bit bad at taking advice, it seems. Not only from Natsuki this one time, but with Kojou, her AI….
Again, I would kill for a Bloody Cross anime. Though right now I’m content with Akame ga Kill (which is probably my #2 manga to Bloody Cross’ #1) being turned into an anime. You would probably enjoy that series. No vampires in it though.