SPNA – Savage Blood

Weird.

In the intro to this episode, Jensen calls this the “first anime original” episode.  However, Ghost on the Highway is an anime original that comes before this.  Looks like it must have been an airing vs production order conflict as this site lists “Blood of Beast” (I’m guessing another translation of the title the DVD went with) before Ghost on the Highway.

Of course, while Ghost on the Highway was nearly a remake of Route 666, this one… is nearly a remake of Bloodlust.  Well that’s not true.  Sure both shows have cow mutilations as a consequence of vampires trying to not eat humans, but while that show had two vampires running from an over-zealous hunter, this episode has a father and son vampire running from an over-zealous hunter.  Said hunter is named “Gordan” in the live show, while the anime’s named “Jason”, obviously the two episodes have nothing in common.

So yeah, like before, this episode gives Dean a chance to shine, and one of our first flashbacks to the boys’ growing up with John.  That part I liked as it contrasts with the vampire dad and proves both fathers love their sons, but have to be hard on them to survive.

The kid though… (yes in this universe the vampires can apparently breed like normal creatures in addition to their usual method) I swear is voiced by the same person that did the trans-cop from Ghost on the Highway.  No offense to whoever that person is, but I find their voice to be VERY grating (especially as they’ve played two episodes in a row now as whining characters).

Still, I prefer the original story motivation where the vampires are just trying to survive whereas in this one it’s implied that they adopted “animal eating” because of the mom dying by hunter.  Not that there’s anything wrong with personal motivations behind characters (heck, I even use it myself) but it is a bit overplayed to the point that doing something just because it’s right or in the interest of survival is a bit of a twist.  Not to mention, Jason is even more of a caricature than Gordon.

With all that, I’ll have to down grade this episode to only one shell.

Still, if this is the worst episode of the anime, we’re in good shape.

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Special Note: I had missed that there were post-credit codas to each episode and quickly went back through all the previous ones.  Those who enjoy such things, will find a goof in episode two where Sam’s lips move, but it is apparently Dean’s voice actor (or an impressionist) doing the line.