Blood-C: Volume 1 Review: Where’s the Blood?

School girls with swords slaying monsters. Anime fans, at least the guys, can’t really ask for much more than this.

Ranmaru Kotone works with manga creators CLAMP to bring the first four chapters of “Blood-C” together in “Blood-C: Volume 1.” The first volume, unfortunately, spends almost every page to expand the characters or create their life. For the title being “Blood-C” there seems to be a scarcity of blood.

At least there is an abundance of the letter C to make half of the title accurate.

“Blood-C” is the second anime/manga in the “Blood” series- coming after “Blood+.” The protagonist of the story is Saya Kisaragi, who trains under her father at their family shrine to become a shrine maiden. She is an overly-sweet girl who often goes out of her way, which tends to cause some misfortune in her life.

The supporting characters of the story seem as generic as the sweet main character. A tomboyish female best friend, a sensitive-type pretty boy opposed by the mysterious silent boy and a teacher who seems to know more than she lets on. The majority of the chapters follow Saya and her friends faffing about. They discuss how much they hate or love their small town lives. There is also a mysterious puppy who’s role is yet to be determined, but it gets far too much attention to be just another dog.

The transition into Saya’s responsibilities as a hunter of “Ancient Ones” is quite abrupt. There is no real explanation. For a volume completely devoid of violence, there is a surprising shortage of actual story as well. Most of the time spent focuses on how kind or clumsy Saya is and her relationship with all of her friends. The small moments of action that are included into the story are about the only times that any hint at a story is actually revealed.

The small bits of story that leak through this mundane read do hint at a bigger plot. Fans of the Blood series know that there is plenty of violence and murder around the corner, but they will have to wait until after this volume. Luckily, as the story concludes there is a final moment of suspense that will force you to read the next chapter.

If you are not familiar with the Blood series, then do not judge your opinion based off of this volume alone. There is much more waiting beyond this, “Blood+” is a perfect example of what to expect from the oncoming story. The volume itself provides very little suspense to keep readers interested, and is almost a challenge to read. The characters are likeable enough, but with how slow the first volume is more could have done to bring them to life.

As a fun fact, the letter C occurs approximately 230 times within speech bubbles. At least there is plenty of that in this volume.