Blood-C

"What do you think people are made of? I'm not talking about blood or flesh. We do care about what's on the exterior, but we want to focus more on what people even now still call the "inside." You can also call it "nature." I guess you are either born this way or raised to act this way. Are people born like this or do they become like this? The answer is..."

Kisaragi Saya is a second-year high school student and miko at her family's Shinto shrine.  During the day, she's a normal (if klutzy) student, while at night, she uses the shrine's sacred Goshintou katana to kill furukimono (translated as Old Ones or Elder Bairns), monstrous creatures which eat people.

Charlotte, is that you?

Back at the start of the summer season, Blood-C was one of the shows I was looking forward to the most.  I had watched and enjoyed Blood+, the characters looked interesting, the action looked good, and the main character and ending song were done by one of my favorite seiyuu, Mizuki Nana.  My feelings about the show now that it's over?  Well... this scene from the first episode sums the whole series up pretty well.

Splat

First, the good side.  The show itself was decent.  The furukimono go from being no threat at all in the beginning, to being able to massacre an entire town by the end of the series, and the final revelations about the town and furukimono attacks all being orchestrated as a means to test Saya are worthy of being a major turning point in a story. Character deaths are also gradually ramped up, from none at the start, then a few extras, then, eventually, including most of the main cast as well.  Of course, this comes with the drawback that once you realize they're simply killing everyone, you stop caring about who dies, but the first few named character deaths were appropriately surprising.

Today's weather: blood in the streets

Which then brings us to the bad.  Blood-C had one major, major problem, which ends up ruining the show completely: pacing.  Almost nothing of importance happens in the first six episodes, then a little development in the seventh, and then back to nothing happening until the last two episodes.  You could watch the first episode, and then the last two episodes, miss almost nothing, and maybe get a better experience overall.  And after that, CLAMP leaves the story incomplete, leaving the conclusion of the story to next year's movie (I hope).