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Anime Review: Strike the Blood - Episode 9

Review by: Jesus Chavez
Twitter: @Sponger64

Strike the Blood: Episode 9 starts off with a scene showing us a powerful angel-looking figure that seems to  foreshadow a thing that Motoki and Natsuki describe at the end of the episode (But we'll get to that later).  It then transitions to Himeragi and Kojou on their way to school in a monorail, with Kojou having a flashback to when Asagi kissed him.  Himeragi then asks him if something is troubling him, which he then responds to "not really".  Kojou looks away since he's at a very "interesting" angle, and it leads to some fan-service/comedy.  In the next scene, Kojou and Himeragi are walking to school.  Kojou tells Himeragi that Sayaka has been occasionally calling him in the middle of the night ever since the events from the last episode, and that he hasn't gotten a lot of sleep.  Himeragi then says that Sayaka once hated using phones since she had to hear a male voices when using it, even if it was one of her superiors.  Confused as to why Sayaka has been calling him, he leaves to class.
                                                              Kojou trying not to look

Transitioning into the classroom, Kojou is telling Motoki about how he's tired, and Rin messes with him using some pretend fortune telling that gets him to reveal that he's being troubled by a girl (though they don't know that he's talking about Sayaka).  Asagi then comes in and also says that she hasn't gotten a lot of sleep.  Rin smirks about the coincidental situation, and makes a joke about them being close.  Asagi says that "it's not like that", which Kojou then questions since Asagi kissed him out of the blue in the last episode.  Asagi tells Kojou to come to the art room alone.  Kojou asks why, but she only vaguely says to come if he "wants to know".   Making it to the art room, Kojou finds out that what Asagi meant was not some sort of love confession, but instead having him as a model for her art project.  Being bored by Kojou's normal modeling, Asagi tells him to wear a costume with her.....which leads to some fanservice.  Kojou agrees to wearing a costume, and it leads to a comedic moment of the two of them blackmailing each other by taking pictures of each other in their costumes.  After their little moment, Asagi begins to question that Kojou is hiding something from her.  She then says if Kojou tells her what he's been hiding from her, she'll tell him what "he wants to know".  Himeragi finds Kojou and asks why Asagi was in a maid outfit (since she's been watching what they were doing the whole time).  Dodging the question, Kojou asks Himeragi if she should tell Asagi that he's a vampire, as well as the fourth progenitor.  Himeragi responds by saying that it's up to him.  Kojou decides to give it some thought and sees that Nagisa was given a letter by a boy.  Himeragi tells Kojou that it's possibly a love letter, which leaves Kojou worried.  Kojou later that day receives a call from Sayaka telling him that she she'll be busy and won't be able to visit him and Himeragi for some time, which possibly means that we might not see her in this current story arc.
                                                                       Kojou and Asagi

The next day, Kojou tries to find out what she's been doing with that boy that gave her the letter.  It leads to a very funny scene (that you should check out for yourself) where we find out that the boy was just helping out taking care of a cat.  It's here where we're introduced to one of Nagisa's friends named Kanase Kanon, who was the cause of this misunderstanding since it was her cat.  We get to see that she's a very shy girl who's taking care of a lot of cats in an abandoned monastery that looked after her when she was little.  The final part of this episode shows us Motoki and Natsuki talking about how there is something going around that is causing havoc.  We also learn that the progenitor from the warlord's domain, and that the royal family of Alegyr are somehow involved in this case.  In exchange for the information Dimitrie (AKA, the first progenitor) gave to Motoki and Natsuki about the situation, he asks that they don't involve Kojou in this case since he claims that he can't defeat her.  The last scene depicts what looks to be Kanon crying while she's transforming to possibly the angel-like figure from the beginning of the episode.
                                                                    The last scene

My overall thoughts: It was a pretty dialogue heavy episode that could bore the viewer since there wasn't a lot of action, except for a little in the beginning.  It's mainly an episode focusing on what's happening between Asagi and Kojou since the last episode, but it also developed the next story arc that's going to happen.  This episode felt like filler in the beginning, but it started developing the plot halfway through.  The comedic moments were subtle, but entertaining.  The fanservice was minor compared to previous episodes, so it wasn't a bother (then again, this series is categorized as ecchi, so it shouldn't bother you in the first place).  The harem aspects of the show became more evident in this episode as well, so if you're a fan of that then you'll enjoy this episode. I thought it was an OK episode overall, it just needed some more action.

Grade: B-
You can find Strike the Blood on Crunchyroll

Jesus Chavez

I'm a 16 year old who's trying to learn about the entertainment industry

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