(12 episodes)
What’s it about ?
It’s a straightforward vampire-hunter show.
Characters
Eric “Blade” Brooks, our protagonist. His mother got bitten (and killed) while pregnant, and thus he’s a half-vampire “Daywalker”. Obviously he’s got something of a grudge, and goes around killing vampires by the dozen with his silver-bladed weapons.
Makoto, a young vampire-hunter who makes a team with her veteran father (so of course he’s doomed to die before the first episode ends). She gets three minutes of badassitude before getting way over her head and spending most of her screentime in distress. Hopefully she’ll snap out of it before she gets on my nerves too much.
Deacon Frost, the Big Bad Vampire, who’s recognizable as the one who bit Blade’s mother because of his characteristic 4 fangs. Obviously he makes short work of Blade at this point, although he leaves him alive for some reason (maybe because the “Daywalker” blood samples he extracts may not be enough ?).
Production Values
Decent. For once, the rough artstyle of the Marvel/Madhouse coproductions fits the tone of the series instead of working against it. The music score is better than average (this may be the first OP among those projects where the instrumental tune works perfectly with the visuals), and there’s some decent use of colour to set the mood here and there. On the other hand, I’m not fond of the frequent use of freeze frames in the action sequences (it always looks cheap to me), and the dissolving effect when vampires get dispatched looks quite weird.
Overall Impression
Well, I didn’t fall asleep, which is better than I expected (despite being a Marvel fanboy, I have absolutely zero interest in Blade as a character). It works quite well as a action piece (apart from some stylistic mistakes detailed above), and Makoto shows some potential as an action girl if she gets a clue quickly (Maaya Sakamoto’s charisma strikes again !).
Can it sustain itself over 12 episodes without becoming repetitive ? I have my doubts. But it’s earned itself a second episode, which is more than I’d thought beforehand.
