©2011 Production I.G, CLAMP / Project BLOOD-C TV

After three (3) episodes of random fights and nothingness per se, they have finally started a story.

At the start of the episode, Saya remembers what the Elder Bairn, the monster who have killed the town’s baker, had said before it died — “Honour the Covenant.” — and had asked her father about it, but has ignored the question and basically telling her not to worry about it… but she still worries about it. From the looks of it, it’s probably because she thinks of herself as a failure for not protecting the baker, and I cannot blame her for that, but then again she just looks at the guy while entering the monster train and choke him until his body parts and fluids splatter into pieces.

On the side note, I guess we can say that Shinichirou Tokizane is showing some interest to Saya by being her saviour, but backfired when he got hit by Saya’s knee instead… That’s gotta hurt. And then she tells him about the owner of Cafe Guimauve, Fumito, and because she is oblivious to Shinichirou “signals”, she tells him that she “loves” Fumito but I guess in a platonic way, and as expected… He misunderstood.

What’s the next thing he did after school? Visit Cafe Guimauve and she told him about Shinichirou’s reaction. Totally oblivious, right? And as expected, Fumito tells Saya that they may be just too young and cannot understand what she’s telling him.

And then the light that is showing since Episode 01 has appeared as a Katana and appeared to be used in slashing someone… or something. And now the mystery has deepen drastically.

And at night, things go awfully wrong once again. Three fishermen were attacked by three monsters, which she later discovers that the two ogre-like creatures are some kind of a puppet to the bird-like creature. Saya has tried to save them but it may have been too late for them. Look at the censored screencap.

And the Elder Bairn with an awfully low voice mentions that she is no different from them, and she controls the ones below him but there are some things that cannot be controlled. The monster has told her once again to “Honour the Covenant.” and then added, “The Shrovetide.”

Shrovetide. Came from the term, “to shrive” (hear confessions), and is defined by Abbot Aelfric in an Anglo-Saxon “Ecclesiastical Institutes” translated from Theodulphus, a Latin verse dialogue, “In the week immediately before Lent everyone shall go to his confessor and confess his deeds and the confessor shall so shrive him as he then may hear by his deeds what he is to do [in the way of penance]“.

And now I want to ask how does this “Shrovetide” related to Saya Kisaragi’s life? But then an image or likeness of a past Blood character shows up, an image of what it looks like Saya of Blood the Last Vampire. It seems the Blood-C team may go for interlinking the two (or even three) Blood series… or Saya of the anime movie is actually Saya Kisaragi’s mother. There are many possibilities, but then again we it is somewhat expected… especially when she goes “in the mood” and her eyes become red.

And as expected, the Elder Bairn was killed after she goes in the mood. But now, there are now more questions needed to be answered and mystery deepens. But finally, we now have a story.

Overall, it took the anime a bit longer just to get into the plot, and that was somewhat disappointing, and some people even says that Blood+ is much better than that. But after this, I can at least say that I can finally say that there is something mysterious and deep about the characters — and what is “the Covenant?”

EPISODE RATING: 4 out of 5.