Strike the Blood is back with new girls but the same old schtick when it comes to fanservice…
Credit to nylon66 here and there for the original images.
Anime
Strike the Blood IV BD Volume 1 released last week and nylon66 has early images.
Unfortunately, it’s a 12-episode OVA instead of a TV series. And there are months between volumes (like with StB II & III). Hopefully, StB IV has more fanservice than StB III since StB III really dropped the ball when compared to earlier seasons — thus continuing a trend that started with Strike the Blood OVA and Strike the Blood II but went backwards with Strike the Blood III.
The surprise this time that StB IV doesn’t start off with a big bang for fanservice after fizzling out at the end of StB III. That would have been smart. There are some new girls. A nun and a catgirl. And one of them delivers. Once. But that’s it. More like throwing ecchi fans a meager bone instead of a nice, juicky steak that we were hoping for…
StB has been pretty good about having some nipples even if just a few every couple of episodes ever since it shifted from a TV series to OVA series. Until that streak was broken with StB III. Here’s hoping that StB IV does better especially since there are twelve episodes instead of ten.
Images
EP 01
EP 02
Omake
WebMs (Album)
EP 01
EP 02
Impressions
Welp that was a bit disappointing. Even if a very early impression. Even if ecchi fans got to see some nipples again. Exactly once and only once. Even if there were skimpy bikini shots, panty shots and boob mashing. Any and all fanservice occurred in small measured doses. And the body washing scene with two girls was not animated at all. Confounding…..
Once again, the faces of the main girls seem to be more derpy than they used to be. More like CG and less like 2D? Why mess with a good thing??? When there was nothing wrong with how the faces looked in StB I & II and the first OVA. Looking into this a little more, it looks like the derpy faces started when Silver Link stopped working on animation production after StB I and II and the first OVA. That’s a real shame…
Strike the Blood staff used to have a good handle on what works for them. Plot that doesn’t forget the PLOT. But plot and characters first and foremost. With PLOT in measured doses. Which worked as long as they continued to deliver quality over quantity. Unfortunately, that no longer seems to be true starting with StB III which only had nipples for 30% of the episodes instead of the usual 50%. Possibly more fallout from Silver Link no longer being on the production team. At this rate, ecchi fans can expect to see nipples once every three episodes or so or around four episodes out the planned twelve episodes.
To be honest, if the StB staff is so intent on cramming in plot to the detriment of PLOT, ecchi fans would have be better served with a one-cour TV show instead of another OVA. StB III had about as much fanservice as the TV show. Maybe a little more. But only four scenes would have needed to be censored. And with a TV show, scenes can be uncensored and added for the BDs to get back to the expected level of fanservice…
I’m still a fan. Even if StB seems to be going backwards instead of forward when it cames to that rare combination of plot and PLOT and great girls that made up the old StB magic. And I still find StB entertaining to watch again and make media from. But they can and have done better in the past. I sincerely hope that StB IV proves me wrong in the next ten episodes but only time will tell…
Notes
This is just an early look at StB IV Volume 1 done for news purposes.
