Episode 5 Recap: New problems are brewing in town as a group of terrorists roll in to do their thing. Kojou gets mixed up in it all because well… That’s what Kojou’s do best.

Lifesong’s Thoughts: Astarate has been repurposed to fight for the “good guys” it seems. Is she acting under Kojou’s commands? This anime is striking and odd balance between playing to existing vampire tropes and just ignoring others completely. What’s the point of reinventing the wheel half way? Ah well, I suspect we will find out what level of control he has over here in time, if any…

On the positive side of things these characters finally feel like school kids. I think that it’s a positive anyway since they are in fact school kids. The old lady at the convenience store gave me a good laugh. She was confused about Kojou and Yukina’s relationship, but in reality she was actually right… Even if Kojou and Yukina don’t recognize it yet. Ironic and funny or ironic and painful? You tell me.

I feel just a tad sorry for Asagi having Kojou yanked out from under her by Yukina, but her misunderstandings are her own undoing. Maybe Kojou gets all the girls and everyone wins?… A harem anime that reinvents society can go there if it wants I guess. Is Strike the Blood a harem? I’m not sure at this point, it seems like it could become one at any moment.

Yukina’s getting caught with her pants down(or skirt up as it may be) is quickly becoming old. More honestly, it was old from the start and it’s only become more tiresome this episode. After that fluffer joke last week why is she even acting surprised? Then we get her 3 sizes and she hits Kojou again. I think Strike the Blood is trying to be funny with these moments, but it’s failing so badly I can’t be sure.

Yukina said that no one would be sad if she died, but it seems like she does have at least one friend. It seems likely that the friend who gave her the cute cross shaped hair pin and the assassin out to get Kojou are one in the same. She was an assassin right? Maybe she just has a thing for Yukina and is jealous the she got paired up with Kojou? Anime motivations folks.

I’m still somewhat annoyed by the ages of these characters. Strike the Blood feels like it’s trying to do something a bit more mature and the naivety of the characters seems to be purely for the sake of unfunny comedy, unfunny in my book anyway. Is anyone else laughing at it?

Looking forward It seems that we will get to meet Yukina’s dear old friend. If she falls in love with Kojou I’m officially adding the harem tag, but I’m not sure if I should be expecting that or not. I hope the the pretty boy won’t waste too much time in getting to the point. I can do without long winded speeches from blonde pretty boy vampires.

Episode 6 Recap: A 1st generation vampire joins the fray and forces Kojou to cooperate with him into looking for and dealing with the terrorists.

Lifesong’s Thoughts: Kojou might be in over his head now that he has drawn Dimitrie’s attention. I would like to say the same for this Sayaka girl, but she seems like even less of a threat than Yukina is. She is also significantly more annoying than I had expected.

So much for Kojou’s peaceful every day school life. Not that we have ever really known him to have one. About the only thing convincing us this is a school setting is how immature the girls act. I know that it’s supposed to be funny, and it does generally make me laugh, but it’s making me laugh in the way that I laugh at an old joke I’ve know for a long time. It isn’t really doing anything creative with the jokes or it’s characters and that’s starting to eat away at my enjoyment of this anime. I don’t need this anime to be original, but I would like it to see it show some level of creative thinking.

Amusingly I still can’t find it in myself to hate this anime and the characters are growing on me. It’s interesting to note that in a harem anime the male lead is often what determines if I can get into it or not. Usually there are likeable female characters as well… Apparently that isn’t a requirement as I haven’t really fallen for any of the heroines yet. And yes this show still isn’t technically a harem, but it’s so close to the line that it might as well be.

I do like Asagi, the super hacker thing has been kind of fun so far even though she hasn’t really done anything with it yet. Somehow it’s managed to avoid being massively stupid like hacking tends to be in anime or well… Hell hacking is almost never done right, so Asagi’s ambiguous -these guys suck at security- is a welcome upgrade from the norm.

The biggest issue with Asagi has been the overplayed will they or won’t they dynamic between her and learning about Kojou’s power. Luckily that all ends this episode when she catches him fighting Sayaka on the roof. I still think Sayaka is annoying, but at least her character served a useful point in the plot. I can only hope the next episode opens with her death and we never see her again. It won’t happen, but that won’t stop me from wishing for it none the less.

Of course the most amusing character in this show may in fact be the “best friend” who always knows more than he lets on. I wonder if Kojou is aware of his friends abilities, or if he thinks that Motoki just really loves that headset. You would think he would have asked him about it at some point. “Yo, what’s up with that headset you wear even more often than your school uniform?” Or something to that effect. If one of my friends spent all their time coping Sonico’s motif I would be worried about them.

Looking forward it seems like Asagi will be the one to save the day soon. I wonder who the terrorist in the car is? Her dad maybe? Someone important to her most likely as I don’t see him being some kind of stalker, stalkers don’t hold schools hostage… usually. This is anime, who knows!