When you think of franchises from Japan, you probably think of Dragon Ball, Godzilla, Pokémon etc. but I doubt many of you think of the Blood franchise. It’s certainly not one that would spring to my mind either but I took a look at it the other day and I noticed that it actually has quite a few notable entries now which prove to be surprisingly diverse in terms of both style and media. Therefore, I thought it might be interesting to do an overview of the Blood franchise and look at the various works within it.
Of course, the logical place to start with any overview of a franchise is the first entry and Blood is no different. The origins of this series begins in 2000 when a 45 minute film called Blood: The Last Vampire was released by Production I.G. The film is set in 1966 and follows a girl called Saya who hunts down creatures called Chiropterans, vampires that physically resemble bats. The film was well-received and proved to be an international hit where it sold very well on VHS and DVD. Spin-offs such as manga, light novels and even a game soon followed but the original film itself never got a sequel.
In 2005, the franchise saw its first TV series released in the form of Blood+. Again animated by Production I.G., the series ran for 50 episodes and reboots the franchise by moving the setting to the present day where Saya, living with an adoptive family, is attacked by a Chiropteran and learns that she has the power to slay these monsters. As you would expect, the series provides a lot more information about the background of the Chiropterans as well as the background of Saya herself. It was this incarnation of the franchise that I first heard of, hearing nothing but positivity towards it, but, unfortunately, I haven’t gotten the opportunity to watch the series yet even many years later. Still, the series received its own helping of spin-offs in the form of manga, light novels and several video games.
In 2009, the first live-action adaptation of the Blood franchise was released, adapting the original anime film and being coproduced by a surprising variety of countries, those being Japan, France, Hong Kong, China and the USA. The plot is quite similar to the original but introduces new subplots and changes many of the characters, something that would seem inevitable since it runs for just over double the runtime of the original film at 91 minutes. The film itself was received rather poorly by critics and made $5.8 million at the box office. While I’m not aware of what the budget was, I’m sceptical that this movie was a financial success.
Then we get to perhaps the most long-running incarnation of the franchise, Blood-C. I’m sure some of you may be scratching your heads at this statement but bear with me. Released in 2011, Blood-C was another reboot of the franchise, following Saya as she attends school by day and fights monsters, now called Elder Bairns, at night. Animated by Production I.G., the series also collaborated with famed manga group Clamp who provided the character designs and much of the script. While the series was generally well-received, there was some controversy over the slow-pacing in the earlier episodes as well as the twist in the last episode. Almost a year after the series concluded, the film Blood-C: The Last Dark was released which served as a conclusion to the series and received a mixed reception. As far as I was concerned, Blood-C was finished but I was shocked to learn recently that there have been several live-action films that serve to flesh out Blood-C even further. Asura Girl: Blood-C Another Story was released in 2017 and serves as a prequel to the series while Blood-Club Dolls 1 and Blood-Club Dolls 2, released in 2018 and 2020 respectively, cover events that take place between the TV show and the anime film.
The Blood franchise is certainly quite unusual but nonetheless fascinating. I, of course, would love to see Blood+ someday and even take a look at the Blood-C live-action films but we’ll just have to wait and see. Let me know your thoughts on this overview of the Blood franchise, which entries you’ve seen, what you thought of them, whether you knew that the live-action Blood-C films existed and any additional information you might have on the topic.
Hopefully you have found this article interesting and informative and, if you wish to seek any of the works I mentioned, don’t hesitate to use amazon.co.uk and amazon.com for all of your needs!