Hello and welcome to Project Nitsuj. Well guys Ani-ween is over and I’ve got the Ani-ween blues so that’s why I’m going to review something that has a horror theme in it but isn’t entirely too scary to watch, Strike the Blood. While not making the top 11 best animes of 2013 list, Strike the Blood for the most part was a relatively well-received anime. The series was created by Gakuto Mikumo who started the series as a light novel in 2011 followed by a manga adaption in 2012. The story focuses on a high school boy who through a series of events becomes an all-powerful vampire and the day to day adventures of him protecting his home while meeting other characters along the way. In 2013 the anime studio Silver Link (Baka and Test) who are pretty well known for their comedy and slice of life anime turned the series into a 24 episode anime making this one of their more lengthy anime. While the series may have a lot of horror themed characters the anime isn’t really all that scary or horror based. If anything it comes off like the middle ground between Rosario + Vampire, Campione, and Hellsing Ultimate. But with this mixture of styles does this series hold up well as an anime? Well Ani-ween may be over but I’ve still thought a hankering for some blood and I’m hungry like a vampire. Let’s take a look Strike the Blood.
Opening and Ending theme
The opening is “Strike the Blood” by Kisida Kyodan & The Akebosi Rockets. I’m in the neutral zone with this opening. It’s a rock song that has a good instrumental, I like the drums, bass, and guitar but the singer kinda ruins it for me. Kisida isn’t bad she’s a good singer but I don’t know it just sounds like she’s not really into it all that much. At the beginning she sings as if she’s nervous and unsure of how to sing that note but as the sing goes on she gets better. So in the end good instrumental but the singing could have been better. The ending is “Strike my soul” by Yuka Iguchi. This is another rock song but unlike the opening which is fast-paced and trying to get you pumped up for the show the ending is a little more relaxed and slow paced. Once again the instrumental is great here but what really makes this song standout for me is the singer Yuka who does a good job singing and is the real driving force behind this song.
Episodes 1-4
We start the anime off with everyone talking about the Fourth Progenitor a legendary strong vampire that shouldn’t exist in the city of Itokami City with control of 12 powerful familiars (so in this world vampire exists and everyone’s okay with it. Yet mutants get outcasted). We see our main character Kojou voiced Yoshimasa Hosoya (Masrur from Magi) studying with his friends at a family restaurant for his makeup exams since he skipped them (smartest of all the monsters my ass). After his friends ditch him (traitors) and he leaves the restaurant where he notices he’s being followed by a middle school girl (I bet that’s a neck you’d loved to bite Kojou) and tries to ditch her in the mall but they finally confront each other. He gets her to believe that she has the wrong guy and ditches her only to see her get hit on by registered demons in human clothing. When she ignores their cries for sex they attack her and she manages to hold her own against them quite well. When she’s about to finish one of them off Kojou comes in to stop her and tells the other demons to scram (or he’ll suck out your blood and make you as lifeless as the cast of Twilight) and he gets a glimpse of her panties (interesting design). After that everybody goes their own separate ways and we get a little backstory into what’s going on here. It turns out Itokami City is a man-made island where humans and supernatural beings live. On the island the supernatural beings are all registered creatures and wear braces to keep a monitor on them and make sure they follow the rules of the island and not harm humans. The next day Kojou goes to return the wallet of the middle school girl he met yesterday and we see that her name is Yukina voiced by Risa Taneda (Zenovia from Highschool DxD). After returning the wallet the two go to a burger joint and eat where Yukina reveals that she was sent by the Lion King Organization (the organization that keeps demons in check and I assume are huge fans of the Lion King movies) to keep an eye on Kojou and kill him if he ever becomes dangerous. They believe that Kojou’s power to disrupt the balance of power between humans and demons, start a war, and will lead an army of demons to take over the world (//youtu.be/X8u7px_GzWQ ). Kojou tells her he has no intention of starting a war or doing anything bad in fact we find out that he used be a normal human being until the real Fourth Progenitor put their powers on him which he can’t remember why or how it happened (of course he can’t that’s the power of plot device syndrome). Yukina believes him (she likes him) and decides to stick by his side from now on (well aren’t you lucky a cute girl is gonna follow you around no matter what. You’re living the dream).
In episode 2 Yukina moves into the same apartment complex as Kojou right next door to him. He then goes to his make-up exams being administered by his English chibi lolita teacher Natsuki who is also a mage of the government and one of the few people who knows that he’s the Fourth Progenitor. She says he passed his test and warns him to stay away from the Lion King Organization as well as their members (one episode too late teach). After his exams he goes shopping with Yukina to get her furniture for her new place (that was nice of him). They go back to the apartment where we meet Kojou’s little sister Nagisa who it turns out is friends with Yukina (small world) and in the same grade and class as her (Kojou: Hey sis meet your future sister-in-law). She invites Yukina back to her place for dinner and she happily accepts. While in their apartment we find out that Yukina didn’t have any parents growing up and has instead been trained her whole life to serve the Lion King Organization and prepare for the day of the Fourth Progenitor (not much for a career choice huh?). After dinner Kojou goes to the convenience store with Yukina going with him (what is she Tails from Sonic The Hedgehog? Does she just follow this guy anywhere he goes? Give the man some space). While at the store they see a demon fighting against a familiar and Yukina goes to investigate where she sees a mage named Rudolf trying to kill a demon citizen. Yukina steps in to fight him and does a decent job until his familiar joins the fight and she becomes outnumbered and overpowered until Kojou shows up and is about to awaken to his true powers to end the episode (YES! Show me the power of Alucard).
Episode 3 starts off with a letdown with Rudolf and his familiar which we find out is actually a homunculus girl (who did you sacrifice try to bring her back?) retreating to fight another day (NO! Get your ass back down there and fight). We cut to the next morning where we see that because of Kojou unleashing his familiar’s powers it causes 200,000 people to go without electricity, train delays, and a total damage estimate of 500 million yen (better start asking for extra pay and more work hours Kojou). We also find out that Kojou is a virgin (Mira: Isn’t that obvious). No, not that kind a virgin, a virgin at sucking the blood of other people, he says he hasn’t sucked the blood of anybody else ever since he became a vampire which is why his familiars refuse to listen to him in a fight (Familiar: I ain’t taken orders from a cherry boy. Prove yourself a man by sucking a girl’s blood and we’ll talk). He arrives at school where Natsuki puts Kojou under house arrest to protect him from Rudolf but Kojou and Yukina make plans to find Rudolf and turn him in so that they can clear up Kojou’s name and make him seem like an innocent guy when Yukina makes her report to the Lion King Organization. With the help of Kojou’s computer wiz friend Asagi, who has a crush on him (Familiar: There you go, suck out her blood, I’ll buy you a hotel room so you two can have some privacy), they find an abandoned lab facility where they think Rudolf might be hiding and it turns out he is hiding out in the lab. He reveals that the reason he’s been attacking demons is to find this great power which thanks to his fight against Yukina he was able to find it and it was also meant to keep the homunculus girl Astarte stable because she’s been implanted with an unborn familiar which will eat away at her life because only vampires/demons can control familiars but if she fights other familiars and absorbs their powers her familiar will stay stable. This pisses Kojou off and he tries to attack but he gets swatted away (you know for being an all-powerful vampire who has the potential to destroy the world, I’m not really seeing it). Rudolf joins the fight and is about to kill Yukina with his axe but Kojou protects her and gets decapitated in the process to end the episode (decapitation~. Scene here: //youtu.be/PX0q_JI1afs).
In episode 4 Rudolf and Astarte invade the island’s Management Corporation building where at the bottom of the building is the hand of this great preacher that belonged to Rudolf’s church and what he’s been trying to get all this time. We find out that the hand was used to keep the man-made island stable and if it gets taken away all the residents won’t have time to get to safety and die (really Rudolf? You’re gonna kill thousands upon thousands of people just to get the hand of some dead preacher who’s been dead for years. That doesn’t seem very religious-like). It’s also the building where Asagi works as well so shake a leg and get there Kojou. . . oh wait he was decapitated. But if watching Hellsing Ultimate Abridged has taught me anything is that decapitating a vampire is only step 1 of 10 when trying to kill them (and bitches love cannons) which means Kojou is still alive. After he gets decapitated his body restores itself fully like nothing happened to it. Yukina apologizes to him for not protecting him and begins to feel sad but Kojou makes her feel better (can you just feel the sexual tension between these two?). He begins to feel depress and unsure of what to do but Yukina uses her spear to cut her neck a little and allows Kojou to suck her blood making him a virgin no more (scene here: //youtu.be/FJ9TJkDzS-o. (Familiar #1): Well guys he sucked someone’s blood now we gotta do what he says it’s in the rules. (Familiar #2): I guess. (Familiar #3): If we must. (Familiar #4): I still say he should have slept with her). They do a quick travel to the Management building and they have their fight with Rudolf and Astarte where we see Kojou show off some of his amazing powers. He overwhelms Rudolf (he’ll go down in history), teams up with Yukina and defeats Astarte but destroys Yukina’s spear in the process, and Yukina does a double hand palm strike to Rudolf’s chest to knock him out. Once the fight is finished Kojou saves Astarte’s life, Rudolf gets arrested, Yukina gets a new spear the next day (I guess it was still under warranty) and we end the episode on a funny note at school.
Episodes 5-8
In episode 5 Kojou’s school is getting ready for a sports festival where he and Asagi are partners in the badminton match for their class. While Kojou is waiting for Asagi to show up for practice he gets attacked by a gold and silver lion statue (I ain’t questioning it) and gets saved by Yukina dressed as a cheerleader since all the boys in her class got on their knees and begged her to be a cheerleader for them (ahh~ to be young and have no shame. I miss those days). It turns out the lions were shikigami sent by one called Dimitrie Vatler a noble who works for The Lost Warlord the First Progenitor in some part of Europe (my money says Brussels). He wants to meet Kojou and invites him and one guest to a party on his boat later that night. While they’re discussing the letter Asagi shows up and misreads the situation and thinks Yukina gave Kojou a love letter and is about to confess her feelings to him and runs away. Kojou goes with Yukina (not like he has anyone else to go with. She even gets a nice dress courtesy of the Lion King Organization to the party where Dimitrie attacks him again (I think he’s trying to kill you) and introduces himself by blowing a kiss to Kojou to end the episode (//youtu.be/4Y5rH7cN7s4).
In episode 6 we find out that Dimitrie wants Kojou because originally Dimitrie had the hots for Avrora who was the original Fourth Progenitor before Kojou and since Kojou somehow absorbed her powers Dimitrie has decided that he now wants Kojou (how shallow and disgusting). We also meet Sayaka a friend of Yukina who is very protective of Yukina almost to the point that you swear the girl had a lesbian crush on her. Dimitrie tells Kojou and Yukina that a terrorist organization known as the Black Death Emperor Faction (couldn’t come up with anything simple could you) has infiltrated the city in search of an ancient weapon called Nalakuvera which they plan to use to destroy the First Progenitor and Dimitrie is determined to stop them even if that means sinking the island to destroy them (over Kojou’s vampire body). Yukina speaks and says that she’ll handle Black Death in Kojou’s stead and they leave. The next morning Kojou awakes to a nice surprise with Asagi right on top of him hoping to seduce him (well I know one of part of his body that’s awake now). But the seduction plans fail when Yukina and Nagisa come in to wake him and we see god-like falling where they both fall out of the bed and Kojou somehow ends up on top of Asagi and we get a misunderstanding situation causing Yukina to be jealous. At school Kojou gets Asagi to find information about Nalakuvera using the student council computer just in time before a teacher comes in for a security check. As their hiding Kojou gets a nosebleed because Asagi is on top of him (lightweight. Just suck her blood already) and they go to the roof top where Sayaka attacks Kojou because she’s been following him around all day and has determined that he’s a no good man who hits on other women behind Yukina’s back (hey they hit on him) and since she can’t stand seeing Yukina be in harm’s way she decides that the best thing to do is to kill Kojou (Sayaka: If he dies Yukina will only have me to love). We end the episode with Sayaka taking a slash at Kojou’s stomach which starts to awaken his powers right in front Asagi. Did I forget to mention that nobody except Yukina and his teacher Natsuki know that he’s the Fourth Progenitor?
We pick up episode 7 where episode 6 left off with Kojou’s power awakening and being released throughout the school which shatters all the windows and knocks out Asagi in the process (I’ll just add that to your ever growing debt). Yukina comes in and brings his powers back under control and scolds Kojou and Sayaka for their actions. Nagisa shows up and together with Yukina she takes Asagi to the infirmary where Astarte (who I forgot to mention is working as a maid for Natsuki) is filling in for the nurse. While Kojou and Sayaka are on the roof they talk about Yukina and we see the dere side of Sayaka. Asagi wakes but then these demon smocks come in demanding they go with them (you’re not their type). This causes Nagisa to freak out because she has a fear of demons, yeah it turns out demons caused a train accident which almost killed her so since then she’s been afraid of demons (than I got bad news for you baby). They take the girls to a stationed warehouse and it turns out these guys are working with Black Death who want Asagi to decode the message that tells them how to control Nalakuvera because it’s been activated by them and since they can’t control it there’s no telling what it will do or attack. Kojou and Sayaka make it to the place the girls are being held captive where they meet up with Natsuki and find out that Dimitrie has been helping Black Death this whole time because he wants to kill his boredom by fighting Nalakuvera (people are risking their lives. Don’t go making a game out it asshole). Yukina uses Asagi’s cellphone (yeah not a smart move on Black Death’s part right there) and calls Kojou where she tells him to stall for time and take on Nalakuvera. We end the episode with Kojou telling Dimitrie to fuck off and getting ready to take on Nalakuvera himself (which is a horribly done CGI mechanical spider with a droid head. What a disappointment. That’s what it is, a self-indulging cheap-ass thrown together non-imaginative terrible punk-ass middle finger fuck you goddamn disappointment).
In episode 8 Kojou and Sayaka take on Nalakuvera and manage to knock it in the lower levels of the island using one of Kojou’s familiar who also knocks them down to the lower levels (Kojou: Stupid familiar. (Familiar): Shut up cherry-boy, you can’t even handle a woman properly when fate delivers it to you). While that’s going on Yukina sneaks out of the room she’s being held in (okay the Black Death group is terrible when it comes to holding hostages) and finds out that their leader Gardos has mass produced Nalakuvera and has a whole squadron of them at his disposal (also, did I forget to mention the things can self-regenerate and can adapt so the magic of their opponents will become ineffective, because they can do that). Yukina takes on Gardos and manages to chop his arm off (shades of Darth Vader right there. (Gardos): I’ll never join you, you killed my daughter. (Yukina): No Gardos, I am your daughter. (Gardos): NOOOOOOOO~) but it’s too late as Asagi has finish deciphering Nalakuvera’s tablet and now Gardos has complete control over all of them. He runs off to a control droid where he activates it and plans to unleash them on the city to show off his power. Back on Kojou’s side Sayaka begins to fall for Kojou in the caverns of the island and allows him to suck her blood which gives him the power to summon a new familiar and escape the caverns to join up with Yukina and come up with a plan to stop Gardos and Nalakuvera. Before getting knocked out after deciphering the tablet, Asagi put a virus into the Nalakuveras which will shut them down completely all the group has to do is get control of the tower Gardos is in and run the program. Kojou uses the combination of two familiars to immobilize Gardos’ machine, Sayaka uses her magic sword/bow to immobilize the Nalakuveras (hey it’s Pit’s weapon from Smash Bros.), Kojou knocks out Gardos, and Yukina reaches the control tower and runs the program shutting down the Nalakuveras and saving the day. After the credits we get another Kojou and Asagi moment (scene here: //youtu.be/InO-7KiekO4, smooth move Asagi).
Episodes 9-12
Not a whole lot happens in episode 9. Kojou is confused on where he stands in his relationship with Asagi (what’s there to be confused about, the girl wants you to use the boost to get inside her) and wonders if he should tell her as well as Nagisa the truth about him (I say go ahead, for some reason girls are into vampires these days. Just look at Twilight, Justin Bieber, and One Direction). As he’s pondering this he sees Nagisa receive a letter from a boy and thinks it’s a love letter (make way for the over protective big brother). The next day he confronts Nagisa as well as the boy on the school roof and it turns out the boy was just handing her a list of possible candidates to adopt a group of abandon kittens being looked after by Kanon an old classmate of Nagisa who all the boys call saint and next to Yukina one of the most popular girls in middle school. Other than that we see that a new threat is about to appear on the island, someone is planning something big on the island and Dimitrie tells Natsuki to keep Kojou out of it because these people are too strong for him to beat. We do get a few fun moments like Kojou and Asagi having a photo shoot together in the school (well don’t you two look pretty together) and we find out that Sayaka calls Kojou every day to talk about her day as an excuse to speak to him.
Moving on to episode 10 Natsuki forces Kojou and Yukina to help her with her mage work. It turns out this mysterious organization Mask Possession the group Dimitrie doesn’t want Kojou to fight against have invaded the city and she wants Kojou to help her catch them (think of it as extra credit). As they’re talking they notice two masked angels battling each other near the city tower and go to stop them before they damage the city. They get cornered by one of the angels and get saved by the other angel who we see is Kanon (geez the girl who boys call a saint is an angel how cliché) who straight up kills the other angel by ripping away at intestines and sucking the blood out of her neck (damn Kanon is hardcore). The next day Kojou and Yukina decide to investigate Kanon by visiting her at an automation company called Magus Craft but she’s not in. They try to speak to Kanon’s father Kensei but he’s out too and the company tricks the two into getting on an airplane (where we find out that Yukina is afraid of heights) and strand them on a deserted island (deserted? We’ll have to change that). While that’s going on Sayaka returns to investigate Mask Possession. She investigates the burnt down church where she runs into Kojou and Asagi’s friend Motoki who we find out later is the real observer of Kojou sent by the Lion King Organization. He’s also an esper and can manipulate sounds waves but he needs special drugs to pull it off. He tells them that Kojou and Yukina have been stranded on an island and with the help of Asagi they manage to find the island they’re stranded on even though Asagi and Sayaka are at each other’s throats wondering what relationship they have with Kojou (a one-sided love that seems to be going nowhere because you’re both tsundere and Kojou is dense). Back on the island we end with Kojou stumbling upon a Kanon look alike bathing in the island’s lake (deserted island my ass! Now let’s get to populating.
In episode 11 the mysterious Kanon look alike disappears and Yukina shows up ready to kill him for peeping on her bathing (you’re a little young for him. Ask him again when you’re 16. And her walking around in a hoody only makes her hotter). They decide to look for her but they get attacked by Magus Craft’s automated robot army and get saved by the Kanon look alike who reveals herself to be La Folia (fancy) princess of Aldegyr (no doubt some made up kingdom in Russia or Europe). She tells the two that Kensei was a mage in Aldegyr’s court and is after her royal family blood and wants to use it to perform some powerful magic technique. She also reveals that Kanon is her aunt because her grandfather had an affair with some Japanese woman living in Aldegyr (wow, she’s 15 year’s old and she’s an aunt. This is quite shocking, it’s usually illegitimate sister or cousin but aunt? That’s a new one for me). Speaking of Kanon we see on her part that Kensei used Kanon in his experiments to create an artificial angel to sell off as a weapon (he used his own daughter as a test subject? Asshole man, that’s an asshole move) and to add more fuel to the fire she’s a ticking time bomb who will lose all her senses as she continues to fight and evolve eventually killing herself (//youtu.be/6nSKkwzwdW4?t=3s). As they get done talking Kensei along with Kanon and his goons arrive on the island to capture La Folia and kill Kojou and Yukina (good plan but can they follow through with it). Kensei forces Kanon to fight Kojou where we see that Kojou’s powers do nothing against her and she winds up killing him by piercing his stomach (oh great he’s dead again, Yukina give him some of your blood). After seeing the body of her dead senpai, Kanon’s powers go berserk and she incases herself in a giant tower made entirely of ice to end the episode (//youtu.be/nC8zz95rm8s).
Things turn around in episode 12. Kojou’s body has healed from the spear to the chest but a piece of Kanon’s angel power still resides in Kojou and he can’t heal it. La Folia figures out that Kojou needs to activate his next familiar and in order to do that he’ll need a strong stimulus (in other words one of you girls must seduce him in his sleep). La Folia decides to do it and strips down (nice body La Folia) but Yukina doesn’t want anyone to steal her vampire-toy and she decides to do it. She gives him her blood through a kiss which wakes up the vampire side of him and he unconsciously throws her to the ground and begins sucking out her blood while on top of her (dude there are many things a man should do on top of a woman. This isn’t one of them). Kojou regains consciousness but it’s not enough to awaken his new familiar so La Folia decides to let Kojou suck out her blood which is enough to awaken his new familiar (welcome to the harem La Folia. Rule 1, there are no rules. Rule 2, no bras). With Kojou back on his feet, he and the girls take on Kensei’s goons again where Yukina and La Folia just straight own and kill the goons in flawless style (//youtu.be/FfvTXACPv30?t=4s). With the goons defeated Kojou faces against Kanon who is starting to approach the next level of her evolution as angel but Kojou uses his new familiar a two-headed dragon which has the ability to rip open holes in the dimensions and bites off the wings of Kanon to bring her to the ground (I guess she’s a *puts on sunglasses* fallen angel //youtu.be/6YMPAH67f4o). But her powers don’t seem to stopping and now that Kanon’s body can’t move between the dimensions anymore Yukina can use her powers to save her and returns Kanon back to normal saving her. With Kanon saved, Kensei gives himself up, Sayaka and the others reach the island and arrest Kensei, Kanon decides to stay in Japan (new harem member) with Natsuki as her guardian, and La Folia leaves on a high note by giving Kojou a kiss on the lips in front of everyone (Kojou, king of Aldegyr. Has a nice ring to it).
Well this is the anime’s halfway point so let’s stop here for now and continue some other time say next week, we’ll do lunch. In the mean time I think I’ll watch a movie. Thanks for reading and I’ll see you next time on Project Nitsuj.
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