Blood-C - 8/10
Well, despite some of the negativity I heard before going in, and also my own feelings on the Blood film, I actually genuinely enjoyed this.
It's a series thats deeply in the Madoka vein of 'Dark Contempory Fantasy', in the sense that everything starts of light and fluffy, with a little slapstick humour, building this nice little world, before starting to slowly slip the rug from under your feet and then getting much darker and violent towards the end.
Being a japanese series as well, don't expect a happy ending here (or actually even a complete ending, this feeds into Blood-C: Last Dark, the film coming later this year), nor a plot that is fed to you 100% linearly, with aspects of the plot being hinted earlier than you necessarily realise, and also through short 'lucid dream' segments, and in essence a large part of this series is mind games, although on who's part and on whom I won't say so as not to spoil anything for anyone who decides to go and watch.
As is perhaps unsurprising, Nana Mizuki's ED, Junketsu Paradox is perhaps one of the best I've heard in recent shows I've watched.
Arguably some of the fights, especially the early ones, feel drawn out with little tension, but this is also improved later in the show, perhaps to tie with the change in the series' mood and change of pace, before the final fights which are far more claustrophobic than some of the earlier choreography, although I do think perhaps this is a weak spot of the series, compared to say some of the more fluid fights from say Shikabane Hime. Arguably part of this could also be down to my own personal dislike of some of the monster designs.
I can see why fans of violent anime who went in expecting something similar to the film (I haven't seen the preceeding Blood+ anime, but I understand this is a reboot so I don't think you need to) might be dissapointed, and have switched off after the first 2/3 episodes where this show seems to share more with school romance dramas with occasional action segments than anything else, but if you're the sort of person who enjoys that element, vampires, or dark fantasy, then there are definately things to enjoy about the series, especially if you let it run it's full course.
I'm quite looking forward to that film now!