PinkuBentoBox

Y’know, it’s kinda funny, really. I took the time to track down and re-read the Blood 2002 manga in preparation to continue this series…figured I’d brush up on just exactly how things went there, expecting this series to actually factor in those events. And then I get to episode two, and suddenly any chance of the manga actually being involved? Gone. Seriously, after this episode there’s literally no chance that the manga—probably not even the movie—will factor into the plot whatsoever. Is this a setback? Yes, a considerable one. However, I think there is a bright side, too. The show has already proven that it has the chance to tell one helluva story well past my initially low expectations, and now not having a source to adhere to, it has more freedom to tell a really spiffy alternate rendition. There’s even still a chance for my knowledge of prior incarnations to come in handy, as it’s not impossible for the series to take elements from both movie and manga and tie them in, in some new and different fashion. So, let’s see if it can pull that off, shall we?

Psst! Pretty pictures inside!

It seems there was something I’d forgotten going into episode one’s entry. Mr. Bishounen Cello-Man? He has a name. Though it hasn’t been announced yet in the series, he apparently goes by the name of Hagi. And fairly early on in this episode, the question is again raised as to just what this guy is. There’s the clawed hand, obviously, but also his apparently superhuman strength and speed, and also the fact that his blood apparently has some sort of effect on Saya that causes her to awaken to her true “vampiric” nature. I had speculated previously that he might be a Chiropteran that was experimented on, and after re-reading the manga, it appears I may have really hit on something with that. Albeit something much bigger than I had initially planned.

You see, as the manga explains it, Chiropterans were not originally the “Jerry Mice” that Saya hunts in the animated and illustrated portions of the story. Originally, they were some sort of “evolved” human or somesuch, that was persecuted by man and cross-bred in order to create superhumans out of us Homo sapiens. The result were mutations—vampiric entities like the Mouse-like monsters seen here—and the pure-bred Chiropterans slowly died out. Now, in the manga, Saya’s “mother,” or the woman she and her lesbian rapist sister were pulled from, was the very last pure-bred Chiropteran, who died in captivity a century earlier. Saya and Maya (her sister) were also the last remaining success stories to come out of the cross-breeding experiments, with one catch: Maya had a deformed arm bearing resemblance to that of the Mouse-like Chiropterans, because she was the prototype that would lead to an improved Saya. In Blood+, Hagi has at least a deformed hand, if not the full arm, as well. Is he perhaps one of the semi-successful prototype crossbreeds?

Assuming that Saya, like in the manga, is a pure-bred Chiropteran clone, this may explain the reason Hagi’s blood caused her to temporarily awaken in the beginning of this episode. Perhaps something in the purer Chiropteran blood can have a positive effect on others of the same species. At the same time, said purer Chiropteran blood might have an adverse effect on the Mouse-like Chiropterans. Said theory would explain why Saya pricks her thumb on her sword, allowing her blood to run the length of the blade and into the creature, and why the creature then seemed to be in greater agony for it.

Any ideas why the Chiropteran then mummified when it fucksploded? And why it seemed a bunch of crystalline dust shit spewed out of it alongside its blood & entrails?

Also, Saya’s “vampirised” eyes & lips? Sexy. Anyway…

Seemingly as soon as the Chiropteran is killed, the helicopters dispatched in the last episode arrive on the scene and the US army takes over. Interestingly, as soon as the helicopters make the scene, Hagi takes both Saya and Kai and gets the hell out of there. It would seem, contrary to earlier speculation, that Hagi is not affiliated with the US military, and as a result, is also not working for our candy fetishist, Vin Argeno. And Argeno himself appears similarly not to be involved with the US military directly, but rather another agency that simply contracted their aid to track down his “Mice.” Interestingly, he seemed surprised that the Mouse Chiropteran was dead, and wondered out loud who could’ve done that. I find it rather surprising that a man working on some Chiropteran-oriented project would not be aware of a woman who was once rather effective at slicing said creatures into tiny bits, but we’ll get to that in a second.

I get the feeling that female doctor might know more about the situation than she lets on. I mean, to just accept Saya into the hospital, and acknowledge her wounds and her being covered in foreign blood without questioning it? I’m starting to suspect she might be in league with George and David, and the group they represent. Also, notice she took the blood-stained clothing with her. She mentioned something about “taking care” of it. Could this perhaps be a hint that she’s confiscating the uniform to attain samples of the Chiropterans’ blood? Of course, this is assuming she really is in league with David. And there’s also the chance she might be in league with Argeno, though somehow I’d think being part of the group watching over Saya would make more sense, seeing as Argeno seemingly has no knowledge of Saya at the moment, and would if he had a doctor monitoring her.

I guess I ought to make some mention of Kai, though I’m rather reluctant to do so. To be honest, he doesn’t really interest me as a character. Protective punk older brother watches over little sister figure. The end. We’ve seen it all before. He seems to be taking it hard that he couldn’t defend Saya this time around, but that seems about the extent of his character at the moment. Pretty stock really, pretty dull, which doesn’t make me feel all that great that I’m hearing he’s the focus of later episodes.

The news report covering (or rather, covering up) the Chiropteran’s appearance at the school mentions a man named Charles Hatcher as a “suspect” in the murder spree. Now, I wonder. In the movie and manga, Chiropterans could assume a human form to disguise themselves until they saw fit to take their natural, mutated appearance. Could this Hatcher perhaps be the human form of the Chiropteran that was killed, or is this just generic coverup? Probably nothing worth pondering more than a few seconds, as it probably won’t play a role anyway, but it does make an interesting footnote. And could it perhaps mean that the organisation Argeno works for and the US government are conspiring together, using soldiers as test bodies in continued Chiropteran cross-breeding experiments?

And on a similar note, we turn to Argeno’s autopsy of the dead Chiropteran. While overseeing it, he says something fairly intriguing. ”To think we’d find it in this form.” Did Argeno mean “this form” as in cleanly bisected by a bladed weapon, or “this form” as in transformed into its beast-like appearance? And going back to what I was saying earlier about Argeno seemingly having no knowledge of Saya, comments made here once again hint at that notion. And here another thought occurred to me. Saya, or at least whatever role she filled, has seemingly been inactive for years, possibly as far back as the incident illustrated in the Vietnam War. Supposing Argeno’s organisation does indeed have knowledge of Saya, but her inactivity for some close to forty years has led that group to forget about her. Or at the very least no longer regard her as an active threat. I get the feeling this is probably the more likely explanation, and that before long Argeno and his group’s collective memory will be jogged once she ends up giving a few more of their Mice the Ginsu treatment.

Just who is this Mao chick that’s hanging all over Kai? Some on again-off again girlfriend type? Based on the baseball remark, it would seem the two have been some form of together for a while. Whoever she is though, she seems to have a bit of a jealousy problem regarding Saya and Kai. She seems to think Saya is just some freeloader trying to move in on her turf or something and steal her man. What a bitch. It was kinda nice seeing Kai leave her ass high & dry in this episode. I wonder if she’ll actually have any genuine role in the series beyond a simple background character, though. Unless there’s some insufferable filler where she tries to get at Saya for “stealing” Kai away from her via some sort of high school shenanigans (which I dearly hope does not happen), I doubt it greatly.

It would seem as though David is definitely not affiliated with Argeno’s group, based on his mentions to George about having to investigate what happened at the high school as opposed to knowing in advance. So, the group that controls Saya and the group thet produces Chiropterans are two entirely different entities. I can’t help but wonder if Hagi is then affiliated with David’s group, seeing as he took lengths to avoid being spotted by the troops in league with Argeno. But then, even that I’d begin to doubt. David mentions to George that his group’s approach regarding Saya was to simply sit back and wait until she began to show signs of awakening. Hagi, however, was taking some pretty serious strides to actively force her into awareness. There’s always the chance, however, that they’re simply two agents looking to approach the same objective in different ways. Perhaps Hagi has a more personal attachment to Saya than David, and is trying to awaken her more quickly because of it.

Based on the “this program is brought to you by” screen for the series, if Hagi’s not currently affiliated with David’s group, I get the feeling it’ll be just a matter of time regardless.

Back to David, he mentions that they can’t be sure Saya won’t become like “that time,” which he later refers to as the Christmas bombing raids against North Vietnam. Clearly, these are the events depicted in the first episode’s intro. Barring some really out-of-the-way attempts to be vague with wording, it’s pretty clear by now that the Saya in the intro and Saya Otonashi are one and the same. Also, notice how differently David regards Saya here than in the movie and manga. There, David was conceivably of a role similar to George, taking sympathy on Saya and looking after her. Here, he quite coldly regards her as a weapon, a tool for his organisation’s use. Assuming this is supposed to be a revision of David’s character from past incarnations, this personality shift is quite a significant one. Though, perhaps his perception of Saya will change in time?

Hearing her adoptive father and David discussing her past, Saya runs away from the hospital and meets Hagi again on the beach. Interesting how he just happens to appear in front of her and then disappear just as quickly at just the right times. He’s definitely shadowing her. He also mentions “walking the path of thorns.” What could he mean by this? Is he referring to her service to the humans as a Chiropteran hunter and the difficulties of such, or something much greater? Perhaps something relating to her past and that European estate type setting. We already know Hagi is somehow connected to her during that time, so I could conceivably see him referring to some Chiropteran (as in…the purebred ones) rite of passage or something like that. Though I suspect it’s going to be the more obvious answer of…yeah, government-mandated monster killing.

Kai appears right around this time, gets his ass handed to him by Hagi, and proceeds to give Saya the usual, cliché, “protective oniichan” pep talk. He then gives her a handy catchphrase to use whenever she’s feeling down: nankurunaisa. Don’t have much to say about it, except that I’m guessing this phrase ends up being foreshadowing for the demise of one or all of the Miyagusuku family later in the series. Especially Kai. Y’know, some kind of ironic twist where the emotional pillar that taught her a phrase about everything being alright is now monster chow or something.

Getting back to much more interesting things, however, that’s a very fascinating photograph David’s holding. It seems to date back to the 1800s, and depicts both Hagi and a long-haired Saya. And Hagi has his human hand in place of the Chiropteran one. What were they in a past life? Siblings? Lovers? Engaged? Also, does this mean that David is aware of and perhaps already working with Hagi? David’s assistant—apparently his name is Lewis—confirms that there’s a second Chiropteran skulking about. How did he find this out? Do they have informants within Argeno’s organisation? Perhaps Lewis is the informant, though I doubt that.

Back at the Miyagusuku home, George gets a rather strange call from, of all things, a Chiropteran in human form. Now just how in the hell did that Chiropteran know the Miyagusuku family’s phone number? And how did he know that Saya was there? Also, poor puppy. ;_; Anyway, the next episode seems to be all about George and how he met Saya. Sadly, I get the feeling he might be killed off in the next episode. Damn, and I was liking the guy, too.