I figured this close to Halloween I needed to do some Halloween themed posts and what works better than a series about vampires? Blood+ is part of the Blood Franchise including Blood:the last Vampire and Blood C, but since I haven't watched either but know that niether of them relate to this series oher than the main character being a sword wielding vampire slayer named Saya, we'll ust ignore them for now. Saya is at the center of the series, a seemingly normal sixteen year old girl-until she realizes she's been sixteen for two hundred years and is humanity's greatest weapon against vampires because she is one herself. The nature of vampires, or as they are referred to here, chiropterans, is so complicated I will have to dedicate about half of this post just to trying to decipher what exactly they are. Chiropterans, like ants and bees, are separated into different castes biologically, but they are even more complicated in how they form. The only true natural chiropteran is a queen, and every queen is born as one of a set of twins with opposing blood types, meaning that if either sister ever has contact with her sister's blood, she will die, specifically she will petrify and crystallize. A queen will reach maturity around age sixteen at which point her body will cease to age, instead she will undergo hibernation in a cocoon for a period of about thirty years, then awaken and remain active for an indeterminate amount of time before resuming hibernation, the cycle only ending when she becomes pregnant and then apparently she becomes mortal and her blood loses all its potency as it passes into the next generation. But there is more, particularly regarding how she becomes pregnant in the first place, in order for a queen to become pregnant, she must mate with a chevalier, which is a male human that has consumed the blood of a queen. Once a man consumes the blood of a queen, usually offered freely by the queen specifically totrigger the transformation, the chevalier stops aging. The chevalier also inherits the blood type and weakness of his queen meaning that if he comes in contact with his queen's sister's blood he will petrify. In addition he also develops the ability to transform into a monstrous creature with enhanced strength, claws, wings, sometimes tentacles, practically whatever is necessary to protect his queen, which is exaclty what the chevalier does for the rest of his life, which lasts exactly until he is killed in the way described earlier, as he is otherwise immortal, not only does he not age, he regenerates like all chiropterans and never hibernates so he watches over his queen while she sleeps. Chevalier are important to the life cycle because they must mate with the sister of the queen that created him in order to recombine the blood types and produce the next generation of chiropterans. In addition to queens and chevalier, there is also a third type of chiropteran that does not remain human in appearance but rather reveals the reason why they are referred to as chiropterans, they appear to be giant vampire bats. It is never explicitly explained how they happen other than the fact theat they make more of their own kind by biting humans like vampires traditionally do. My hypothesis is that they are the result of queens giving blood to females or chevalier trying to give their blood to anyone and ultimately resulting in an abomination. In the series, this last type are the shock troops that Saya cuts down on a regular basis. There's also a fourth type that is created artificially called Schiff, only a few appear, they retain human form and have superhuman speed with limited shapeshifting (never more than their hands turning blue and revealing claws) and they suffer from a weakness they call the Thorn which is that they slowly petrify and it gets worse with any exposure to the sun, and direct full exposure to the sun will cause them to ignite in flames and die in minutes.
Now that you know what they are, it's time to hear who they are. Saya and her sister were found by a man named Joel Goldsmith when he extracted them from the womb of their dying mother who was herself in a state of stasis and fully transformed as a chiropteran(an ability we never see the current queens ever exhibit themseleves). Joel raised Saya as his daughter and adopted a boy named Haji to be her companion, at first acting like it would be her brother but secretly hoping they would mate and he could study their offspring. Although Joel seemed to be a loving father he was actually running an elaborate experiment and allowed his assitant Amshel to care for the sister to study her more in depth. The sister was isolated and abused in the name of science. Eventually Saya discovered her and noticed her one defining trait, a surprisingly beutiful singing voice for which she was named Diva. Saya allowed her sister to be free, not knowing the consequences. One day, while she was out with Haji, he fell off a cliff. Saya had needed a lot of blood transfusions, and although she did not understand the importance of blood for her (all chiropterans feed on blood) she instinctively gave her blood to Haji turning him into her chevalier. When they returned home the Goldsmith estate had been burned to the ground, the only survivors were Diva and her chevalier Amshel and his brother Solomon who had also been made a chevalier. Saya realized her sister was a destructive force that had to be stopped and pursued her with vengance. In time, Saya joined forces with Joel Goldsmith jr. who formed a group called Red Shield, consisting of anyone who lost someone to the chiropterans and sought vengance. Saya became the key to their objectives when it was determined that Saya's blood is the only thing that can destroy Diva and her brood. Diva manages to stay out of harm's way along with her chevalier which grows to include Nathan, Carl, and James. Nathan in particular is strange because nobody remembers Diva converting him and he may in fact be a chevalier from a previous generation who has outlived his queen. Amshel assumes leadership and proceeds to use the chiropterans as an army to try to take over the world, though the unintelligent masses get cut down quickly by Saya, prompting him to experiment to create better versions, leading to the Schiff and later the Corpse Corps, a refined form of schiff that have no Thorn but are also mindlessly obedient to the chevalier. Meanwhile Saya uses a special sword that is shaped so that she can easily cut her finger to draw her own blood which then runs through the blade and can cut down any chiropteran. At one point during the Vietnam War, Saya flies ito such a blind rage she cuts off Haji's hand, which regenerates but is forever disfigured in the shape of a third class chiropteran's claw. All of this occurs over a period of about two hundred years leading to Saya awakening from hibernation with no memory of her past. She is found by a man who adopts her and tries to convince her that she is part of his family along with his sons Kai and Riku. The series actually starts at this point with Saya believing she's normal. Then the chiropteans come for her and Haji helps her by giving her the sword which she reflexively uses to kill a few chiropterans. Eventually the truth comes out, her "father" is actually a member of Red Shield and he has been trying to protect her, but now she must finish what she's started. Kai and Riku attempt to follow Saya, resulting in Riku being killed by Diva, and Kai joining Red Shield to help stop Diva once and for all. They also ally with the Schiff, although the Schiff are murdered in a test run of the Corpse Corps and only one remains, a girl named Lulu who joins Red Shield as well to avenge her brethren. The whole thing ends up in a dramatic showdown where everybody-and I mean everybody who was inroduced in the series and didn't already die yet-fights for the fate of the world.
Blood + is a pretty good anime, I mean, vampires and sword-wielding slayers, it's the horror action genre at its best. The only weakness is that you will need to take notes on the bizzare biology of chiropterans to figure out just what the hell is going on. Other than that, enjoy!
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