Blood Lad: Shonen Action Done Right

 Video review available on my YouTube channel.

     Blood Lad is the story of a vampire named Staz.  He is an otaku that is obsessed with the human world, specifically Japan.  Everything he knows about Japan he learned from watching anime, reading manga, and playing video games.  One of his dreams is to meet a person from Japan.  Lucky for Staz (unlucky for her), Fuyumi Yanagi somehow manages to accidentally cross over from the human world to the demon world.  Staz rescues her from the gang of demons that are on the verge of eating her, he takes her back to his home and immediately starts grilling her about Japan.  He gets called away briefly and when he returns he is shocked to find out that she has been eaten by a carnivorous plant in his absence.  She becomes a ghost since she died in the demon world and Staz vows to resurrect her physical body and return her to normal.

      What makes this show special is that it manages to take a lot of the elements that make fighting anime fun and exciting and condense them into ten solid, well-paced episodes.  There is plenty of fanservice but it's not as excessive as similar shows.  The characters are developed well for being such a brief series and the action scenes are short but intense.  Brains Base (Penguindrum, Baccano!) provides the animation, everything is consistent from start to finish and the world they created is filled with many vibrant colors.  If Blood Lad  is on the TV you can't help but be drawn to it, it is very eye-catching.  The music is well crafted also, it fits the mood of the show and gets your heart pumping when super powered demons are trading blows with one another.  If you're a fan of shows like Dragon Ball Z, Hunter X Hunter, YuYu Hakusho, etc. then you definitely owe it to yourself to giver Blood Lad a shot.  My only complaint is that another season has yet to be announced.

The manga is available from Yen Press in physical and digital formats.  Viz Media licensed the anime which is currently streaming on Hulu.  A date for the home video release has not been announced as of this writing.

Sunday Without God: A Memorable Premise with Forgettable Execution

     Decided to watch Sunday Without God this weekend. Two words came to mind near the end of the show, squandered potential. The show has a captivating premise; God has abandoned the world he/she/it created, in doing so the remaining humans are no longer capable of dying or reproducing. God's last act of mercy was to bestow upon the earth beings known as Gravekeepers, they are the only things that can lay the undead to rest.

      Interesting premise right? Unfortunately the show never goes as deep into this concept as I would have liked it too. Another minor issue for me is the heavy moe character designs. Given the premise of the show, the fact that most of the characters look so cute and happy really takes me out of the story. I was fascinated by the world created in the first half of the series then disheartened when the second half devolved into a weird-crap-of-the-week format.

      The series concludes with the possibility of a second season, though one has not yet been announced. Should a season two be made I will give the show another shot. The highs and lows of Sunday Without God average out to it being a mediocre title at best. The concept had to potential to make this a show that could have been debated for years to come. Sadly, it was not executed well enough to make that a reality.

Check it out on Crunchyroll and judge for yourself!