10 Second Anime - Blood Lad - Episode 10 [END]

Blood Lad - Episode 10 [END]

Only 10 episodes? Hydra Heads plays the father type for Fuyumi. Staz reaffirms that he wants to bring Fuyumi back to life. Vlad unveils his true Frankenstein plot. Series cliffhanger?

That dragon thing flying around really was a Hydra, who quickly turns into a lazy looking dude to talk to Staz, and provides him with a little more story about the aftermath of the doppelgangers combining. Fuyumi's father decided to raise her by himself in the human world, since the demon world would be too dangerous. Feeling responsible for Fuyumi in her father's stead, Hydra asks what Staz's true intentions are towards her. Isn't it just to suck her blood after he brings her back to life? He says he's not sure, but he want to find out if it's just that or some other attraction. Hydra takes that answer as being responsible and truthful, but also pledges utter destruction if it's not love. I liked how they completed their heart-to-heart in Hydra's man-cave which even Neyn, his wife doesn't know about. Complete with Neyn idol posters on the walls!

Meanwhile, Vlad finally makes it back to his lab with Liz's help, while Wolf is being summoned by the King, his father. Yeah, totally didn't see the resemblance there /sarc. The big reveal, besides Fuyumi's pink underwear, is that the real Frankenstein monster being assembled by Vlad is his dead father, the former king. And then the show was over.

Final Thoughts: According to the manga, the show covered about 30 chapters, and they're currently on chapter 49, so, presuming they want to, they could resume the next part of the anime in about 3 months, which means we're looking at next summer for the next installment. I liked this crazy comedy about the demon world. Lots of gags, audacious art style, a bit of fan service, some honest action scenes, and a weird story that still hits the usual themes of redemption, revenge, love, and heroism. A good piece of fluff. If they make the anime next year, I'll pick it up again.

10 Second Anime - Blood Lad - Episode 9

Blood Lad - Episode 9

Vlad confronts the current King, who killed his father, the former King. Fuyumi and Bell are sisters! Kinda.

It turns out the Vlad, Liz, and Staz are former royalty, as their father was King. Apparently, succession works the same way for the nobles as it does the gang territories: kill the leader and you become the leader. All of Vlad's machinations with his brother and the Frankenstein monster were to one day declare war on the Werewolf King, and now he thinks he's ready. The King gives him three days to start the war. Generous.

Meanwhile, Knell brings Fuyumi to his family's mansion in the sky. Some huge dragon likes flying around there. They are greeted by a butler who looks exactly like Fuyumi's dad. Um, foreshadowing much?

The reason Mother Hydra wanted Fuyumi so much is because she is her daughter. Wha! It's the way doppelgangers work in this fantasy world. If you meet your doppelganger, you don't die, like the urban legend says, you merge. The events right after the merger will have to be told later, but this explains why Fuyumi's mother disappeared, and why there's a demon-butler who looks like her dad.

So, we know about Fuyumi's side of the family now, but why is there a portrait of that big dragon hanging in the hallway? Well, the Hydra family name appears to explain that...

10 Second Anime - Blood Lad - Episode 8

Blood Lad - Episode 8

Sketchy guy is Bell's brother Knell, who took Fuyumi for their mother. Before we find out why, Staz totally pisses Bell off because he can't tell how she feels about him. She's playing with portals now.

I think Chell from the game Portal would fit right in with Bell and Knell in one big portal magic family. Her name even rhymes the same way, but it doesn't have that ringing association. As for the big fight between Staz and Bell, she places her emotional dignity well above her physical dignity. Losing the bottom half of her outfit certainly outweighs Staz finding out about her love plans for him in her journal.

One thing I like about this show is that the characters actually wear different clothes from episode to episode. It's one thing to wear a school uniform everyday, but if the characters are not in school, why should they wear the same thing all the time, as if that were their uniform? Unless they're like Steve Jobs who owned 30 black turtlenecks because that was his shtick, I don't get it.

10 Second Anime - Blood Lad - Episode 7

Blood Lad - Episode 7

Liz has some bonding time with Staz and Fuyumi, but Fuyumi gets kidnapped. How much bad luck does this poor girl have?

Staz solves Fuyumi's problem of fading away by having her suck on his thumb to get a drop of his blood. Sure, no metaphors there... But that still leaves her dependent on having regular doses of Staz's blood, so Vlad needs to take a sample of her magic to see what her soul is made of and how to build a replacement body to stick it into, since all that's left are the bones the man-eating plant left behind. Of course, with Vlad being such a schemer, the magic sample he took out of Fuyumi was mainly to get the new improved magic from Staz.

At least with Liz being left behind to spy on... er, help her middle brother out, she gets to be treated like a little sister by Staz and Fuyumi, instead of merely an underling by Vlad. That's short lived, however, since some new sketchy guy is implicated in Fuyumi's disappearance overnight. No rest for the wicked in the demon world.

10 Second Anime - Blood Lad - Episode 6

Blood Lad - Episode 6

Frankenstein's Monster takes on the Werewolf and Staz the Vampire. Visual Kei style loses badly.

Wolf is still delaying Frankenstein's escaped monster, who reveals that he's actually a phantasm merely moving the dead patchwork body parts through magic. Meanwhile, Staz's brother removed the bullet limiting his original magical power, and like any hardcore nerd, he mimics his comic book heroes, with flying like Superman, or even trying a Dragonball attack. Fuyumi, being an actual Japanese person (although presently a ghost), thinks that's a bad idea since it takes forever to charge up those big blue balls of energy. So Staz just uses his usual vampire attacks, and the pretty boy Frankenstein suffers utter defeat. Bell finally finds out who has copied her portal powers which brought Fuyumi to the demon world to begin with, and Fuyumi is almost out of the replacement monster juice keeping her from disappearing, which brings us to the cliffhanger for next episode.