thin slicing black blood brothers
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Tagged: black blood brothers
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I tossed up that old Vampire Roto League post as a tongue-in-cheek jab at the ridiculous amount of attention vampires get in anime. Vampires are to anime as WWII is to FPS… come on guys, the abominable snowman and werewolves need love too.
(Next thing you know, there’s going to be an anime about vampires storming Utah beach during WWII… OH SHI-)
Black Blood Brothers (B3) is the latest vampire offering from what looks like a rookie team. According to ANN, it’s Hiroaki Yoshikawa‘s first directing job. The series that I’m instantly reminded of when I first watched B3 is Trinity Blood… ridiculously overpowered vampire with a mysterious past? Check. Dystopic future where humans and vampires don’t get along and have territorial disputes? Check. Sacrifice of pacing and storytelling to serve up style and gruesome death scenes? Check.
The plot seems to not have revved up yet, and not much has occured beyond the character introductions. The cast includes:
Mysterious vampire who dresses up like I-No and seems to be top dawg of this series.
(I’m sick of all these badass vampire hero leads who only pretend to act clumsy. Can we make a vampire hero lead who is more like a harem lead and keeps goofing up and losing, only to be bailed out by his hawt harem of nubile demonesses? And some tripping leading to skirt pulling… is that too much to ask for?)
I notice that pretty much every anime about vampires is about some “good” vampire (with some special skill) fighting the “bad” vampires: Blood, Blood+, D, Chibi Vampire, Hellsing, Tsukuyomi, Tsukihime, Trinity Blood, et al. The only notable exception is Magipoka, which just had a vampire trying to get laid. Warrents mentioning.
Kojiro’s younger brother. I find him on par annoyance-wise with Innocent Venus‘ Gora. Not a good thing.
(I’d love to see a vampire-harem-giant mecha-magical girl series sometime. I think that would make my head explode.)
(Random info: Minami Oni has a role in Black Lagoon Second Barrage as Hansel.)
Human who wishes for peace with vampires. My thin slice of Mimiko? She looks more boyish than Haruhi Fujioka. Mimiko reminds me of Kouta from Midori Days.
(I’m really puzzled with the Japanese and their infatuation with vampires. There’s plenty of other European legends that they can hoist from… yet… vampires. Is it the blood sucking that appeals to them?)
I’m not finding anything new or fresh or noteworthy from what I’ve seen of B3. It doesn’t really excel at anything vampire-wise… Hellsing had more badass vampires, Chibi Vampire had vampires with bigger melonpan, Tsukihime had vampires participating in plot-like substance, and Trinity Blood has higher production values. B3 doesn’t really stand out– B3 is like Combat Elite: WWII Paratrooper in a sea already crowded by Call of Duty, Medal of Honor, Company of Heroes, Day of Defeat, Brothers in Arms, and, of course, Battlefield 1942.
30 Responses to “thin slicing black blood brothers”
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took you freaking long enough to update your blog jason – –
I haven’t watched it, but a guy who looks like I-No and a girl I honestly thought was a guy…, well, that’s not a winning combination.
Battlefield 1942 with Chibi Vampire characters would be a blast. Vampires vs Hunters or something like that. I would love it!
i’ve been writing (i.e. trying) a werewolf themed anime simply for the reason that they are so underrepresented in anime and american movies (wolves in Underworld = lame). trust me, there’s NO vamps in my story, since vamps are lame and weak. get some sunblock guys.
I watched the first episode and classified it as boring. Nothing worth to keep watching for me.
Just to nitpick a little bit…
Omaha beach was a much more bloody battle, and the more famous one often depicted. Utah had about 200 casualties, vs over 3,000 at Omaha.
And I’d venture WWII is actually more prevalent in RTS games than FPS… though it’s certainly arguable either way.
I am sick and tired of Vampire series as well. Only vampire series I now follow are Blood Alone and Karin: Chibi Vampire, both in manga form.
Is that a young winner-kun in the first picture?
I agree. I have some Transylvannian friends and they are dumbfounded about how popular vampires are in Western (and Japanese) culture. A lot of Eastern Europeans find it puzzling as well (I was thoroughly berated by a Russian professor once). I happen to like them even if only 1/10 of Hollywood movies, TV shows, and anime are any good. Nothing like masochistic optimism.
Coming from a vampire fan here. I don’t think there’s is enough vampire anime out there that is actually of interest. Of those mentioned and that I know of the only one I actually like is Trinity Blood, and I have wanted to see Blood+ which I did not even fully realize it was vampire themed. Chibi Vampire (which I’ve only read a little of the manga) is not quite my style. There are at least two other manga that are about vampires or vampire styled that I would love to see animated. Gothic style anime though is not quite as popular over there and there is therefore not a outpour of it. Till there is as much vampire anime as they’re surely is harem anime then I would say they’re is too much although for me there would not ever be too much vampire anime. Oh, one more thing I hate it when werewolves and vampires are in the show. It’s always bound to happen, but it has become predictable.
>>>(Next thing you know, there’s going to be an anime about vampires storming Utah beach during WWII… OH SHI-)
What? It’s already here: Hellsing Dawn. Walter and Alucard fight Nazi vampires.
well, it’s not exactly Utah beach, but the Blitz of London is close enough. still one of the better arcs to show in Hellsing though.
I watched the 1st 2 episodes and found it very annoying but being me I would have continued to watch just so I could bitch about it every week. Then Jiro said near the end of episode 2 “Is the sun over Japan really that strong?” and I decided to drop the sucker like a plague rat. Some garbage just isn’t worth the breathe used to mention it.
i guess my big rant about any series like these is the inconsistency in the canon. you’ve got vampire series that have vastly different concoctions of weaknesses for the blood-suckers, ranging from quicksilver-filled explosive bullets to just staking them (to quote Karin, “of course that’d kill us, that’d kill anyone!”). you get consistency with werewolves. silver bullet or blade, bam, done.
Wow, video game references now? I’m glad that you took a big step from the NFL.
The weakness to mercury is from a association with revenants, reanimated corpses, from which the vampire myth partially evolved. If you look into the earliest writtings on vampires you will see that they are very diverse and usually nothing like the victorian Dracula, Lambach, Orloff, and Camilla from whom most current Western conception of vampire springs from.
This anime is crap, pure and simple. In the first ep you get all the lame clichés to make the main character look cool, and they all fail miserably. Then you move on the annoying comic relief kid, the “oh-no-not-this-again” scenario, and you end up with a complete waste of time and money.
Now a
Mistype.. my bad ^^’ I was goig to say, a show starring the original I-No wreaking havoc would definitely grab my attention.
I see them as just an easy way to introduce a super-powers setup. Need a reason for your characters to be inhumanly strong, fast, tough, and possibly host to dark arcane powers, and want a gothic feel? Choose vampires! No messy psychic powers or extradimensional freakshows. Everybody already knows how it works. Easy slice.
Yor forgot to mention Hitsuji no Uta as a vampire anime… don’t worry, everyone does.. haha ^_^ ()
Hmmm… Seito Kaiba the vampire, Quatre Rabera Winner the whining loser child, and Haruhi Fujioka (’nuff said). Oh. Sure. This is gonna be a real winner here. Yeah. -_-;
Now then… You want WHAT?!
“Can we make a vampire hero lead who is more like a harem lead and keeps goofing up and losing, only to be bailed out by his hawt harem of nubile demonesses? And some tripping leading to skirt pulling… is that too much to ask for?”
Yes it is. Not everyone is a lifeless loser who feels that male leads of anime should be as much of a lifeless loser as they are.
I dont even think Blood+ comes into the catergory of vampire with special skills. so leave that anime alone!
As for this one, i think it’s good so far, but yes some skirt pulling would be very funny, would certainly entertain me to see Jirou’s face!
o.0 why have you called him Kojiro in Kotarou’s part?
WTF! It’s Takahiro Sakurai. Jesus Christ.
Also, You guys seriously need to take the sticks out of your asses and get lives. BBB is a decent show. And comparing Jirou to Kaiba and Quatre? Either A. watch some more anime or B. get a brain to compare personalities with.
I think many of you seem to be jumping the gun with this anime. Stereotypes are frequent, but it’s easy to hastily pile together quote “Vampire anime garbage”. Having that sort of expectation from the beginning is of course going to lead to dissapointment. For god’s sake, keep an open mind.
As for B3, I admit it is a little cliche at times, but the character development isn’t boring by any means. There’s definite individuality – well, as much as anime characters can be. The producing is very well done, and the voice actors do a fantastic job. Overall, it’s not the best, but it’s certainly not bad. As for Jirou’s “cliche anime bad-ass that pretty much feigns weakness of any kind” thing going for him, it’s something Japanese girls find sexy. And many Americans, but I’m sure the fanbase isn’t nearly as large.
Overall, B3 isn’t a waste of time or money in my opinion. It’s just sad that too many people label it before really sitting down and watching it (Or more than a few episodes).
I really like this show, its not as bad ass as ‘D’ but it is very plot-heavy and the fights are good enough to keep you watching. It slowly unwinds and builds and each episode leaves you guess and trying to figure out the next twist.
Well, I think Black Blood Brothers is great. The story is cliche but i don’t see it as bad thing. Sometimes cliches makes the viewer comfortable, even if you seen it a dozen times. The thing about Black Blood Brothers that i do like is that every vampire has a different weakness, in Jiro’s case water and sunlight but his brother of the same line is unharmed by it. Also the idea the Kowloon child is awesome, the vampires and human fighting together destroy this abominations is something too. I think you guys need to give this anime a chance…as a long time vampire anime lover i think there isn’t enough. If your able to name all the animes that have vampires in it then clearly there are not a lot.But i do agree that there should be more werewolves and other folklore.But Compare it to how many animes there are where a girl goes to another world and saves it. Yeah there’s a lot of those but i don’t hear anyone complaining.
Personally I really loved Black Blood Brothers as well. On point, there is an anime called Arms Alchemy which is definitely a nod towards Fullmetal Alchemist but clearly not as big a masterpiece, not going deep into Alchemy or character development (I could tell from the first episode). Black Blood Brothers is a nod to other vampire anime, however it adds it’s own spin. Yes it does have the “heroic good-guy vampire”. But he is not a slave to the humans (Hellsing). If anything, he reminds me of Trinity Blood’s silver-haired man but he is not nearly clumsy. He is also not uber-godly like Alucard. He even gets captured and nearly dies in the early episodes. The action is also pretty nice, besides, this time he’s a vampire with a freaking Katana and psychic abilities.
If you want goofy screw-up vampires try KARIN or MASTER OF MOSQUITON
well, i think this is a good anime…3 out of 5 stars.
I thoroughly enjoyed the series. I found that it had a lot of loose ends, but nothing particularly off-putting, and I forgave it since it was a 12-episode series. The novels are probably a lot more involving, and I WISH I WISH that they’d be translated.