# Blood+
**Blood+** (ブラッドプラス) is a 50-episode Japanese anime television series produced by [Production I.G](https://www.edgepedia.org/production-i-g), Aniplex, MBS, and Hakuhodo, directed and series-composed by Junichi Fujisaku, first broadcast in Japan on October 8, 2005.[1](https://www.production-ig.co.jp/works/blood-plus/) • [2](https://www.production-ig.com/contents/works_sp/20_/index.html) It is a spiritual successor to the 2000 animated film *[Blood: The Last Vampire](https://www.edgepedia.org/blood-the-last-vampire)*, sharing the sword-wielding heroine Saya and the chiropteran monsters but with no plot continuity between the two works.[3](https://www.international.ucla.edu/ccs/article/89228)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Format | 50 episodes of 30 minutes each, broadcast from October 8, 2005[1](https://www.production-ig.co.jp/works/blood-plus/) |
| Production | Production I.G / Aniplex; copyright line also credits MBS and Hakuhodo[1](https://www.production-ig.co.jp/works/blood-plus/) • [2](https://www.production-ig.com/contents/works_sp/20_/index.html) |
| Director | Junichi Fujisaku (director and series composition); character design by Chizu Hashii[1](https://www.production-ig.co.jp/works/blood-plus/) |
| Setting | Okinawa, Japan, in 2005, beginning in the Koza district[1](https://www.production-ig.co.jp/works/blood-plus/) • [4](https://www.productionig.com/contents/works_sp/20_/s08_/000223.html) |
| Music | Background music by Mark Mancina, with Hans Zimmer joining the music production process[4](https://www.productionig.com/contents/works_sp/20_/s08_/000223.html) |
| US broadcast | Cartoon Network's Adult Swim, premiering March 10, 2007[5](https://www.production-ig.com/contents/works_sp/20_/s08_/index.html) |
| Manga | Three simultaneous manga versions serialized by Kadokawa Shoten, each with an original storyline[4](https://www.productionig.com/contents/works_sp/20_/s08_/000223.html) |
## Premise
The series is set in Okinawa in 2005. Saya Otonashi, a high school student living with an adoptive family, has lost all memory of her life before the previous year. Her ordinary routine collapses when she is attacked by a chiropteran, an immortal, shape-shifting creature that feeds on human blood while disguising itself as human, and is saved by Hagi, a young cellist who carries a sword for her.[1](https://www.production-ig.co.jp/works/blood-plus/) • [6](https://www.production-ig.co.jp/works/blood-plus/episodes/01.html) The mysterious organization Red Shield hunts the chiropterans, and Saya is the only person who can kill them; her blood causes a chiropteran to turn to crystal.[1](https://www.production-ig.co.jp/works/blood-plus/) • [7](https://scythe.net/archen/reviews/anime/blood-plus.html)
The first episode, "First Kiss" (ファーストキス), written by Fujisaku with storyboards and direction by [Jun Matsumoto](https://www.edgepedia.org/jun-matsumoto), aired on October 8, 2005, and establishes the Koza setting, Saya's track-and-field friendship with Kaori Kinjo, and her brothers Kai and Riku.[6](https://www.production-ig.co.jp/works/blood-plus/episodes/01.html)
## Production
**An original television work.** Producer Yutaka Omatsu of Production I.G described learning of the project when company president Mitsuhisa Ishikawa summoned him and director Junichi Fujisaku to a barbecue restaurant, where they met producer Tomonori Ochikoshi of Aniplex. The series was planned as an original work rather than an adaptation, which the team treated as a reason to start story development early.[4](https://www.productionig.com/contents/works_sp/20_/s08_/000223.html) Because Fujisaku had no previous hands-on experience as a director, Jun Matsumoto was brought in as chief sequence director.[4](https://www.productionig.com/contents/works_sp/20_/s08_/000223.html) Fujisaku had earlier participated in creating *Blood: The Last Vampire* (2000), where the idea of a sailor-suited girl fighting monsters with a [Japanese sword](https://www.edgepedia.org/japanese-sword) was his, and he also directed the game version and wrote the novelization within the Blood franchise.[8](https://www.productionig.com/contents/works_sp/56_/s08_/000709.html)
**Character design.** Katsuya Terada's designs for the feature film were judged unsuitable for a 50-episode series, so the team searched the web for freelance illustrators and selected Chizu Hashii, a manga artist then contributing to [Kadokawa Shoten](https://www.edgepedia.org/kadokawa-shoten)'s *Shonen Ace* magazine. Because Hashii's manga-style drawings were difficult to adapt directly to animation, Akiharu Ishii served as mediator and overall animation supervisor, adjusting the designs and contributing drawings to nearly every cut of every episode.[4](https://www.productionig.com/contents/works_sp/20_/s08_/000223.html) Saya's design was deliberately updated from the film's pigtails and sailor uniform to short hair, since the film is set in 1966 and the new series takes place in the present.[4](https://www.productionig.com/contents/works_sp/20_/s08_/000223.html)
**Time slot and audience.** Blood+ aired in the Saturday 18:00 slot on TBS/MBS, following *Gundam Seed Destiny* in a period regarded in Japan as anime golden time. Omatsu noted that Blood+ was the only anime in that slot with a girl as the main character, and that the team responded by making the male leads Hagi and Kai as appealing as possible within solid dramatization.[4](https://www.productionig.com/contents/works_sp/20_/s08_/000223.html) For Production I.G, the series marked its first TV series in a very popular time slot; Omatsu described it as the flag bearer of the company's shift toward more television work.[4](https://www.productionig.com/contents/works_sp/20_/s08_/000223.html)
## Okinawa and the war theme
Producer Takeda proposed Okinawa as the setting, and the staff made location scouting trips there. Omatsu noted that at the time of production, sixty years after the end of World War II, about 70% of the American military in Japan was stationed in Okinawa, and that the story takes place specifically in Koza, a district that prospered with demand generated by the [Vietnam War](https://www.edgepedia.org/vietnam-war) and later declined. He said he used many aspects of Okinawa for entertainment purposes but hoped young viewers would become aware of some of the problems left behind by the war.[4](https://www.productionig.com/contents/works_sp/20_/s08_/000223.html) The series opens with grainy footage of a bloody skirmish during the Vietnam War before moving to the present-day story.[3](https://www.international.ucla.edu/ccs/article/89228)
## Music
[Sony Music](https://www.edgepedia.org/sony-music) handled the tie-in music, producing eight different opening and ending theme scores across the year-long run, with the composers briefed on the series' worldview before writing. Through Aniplex, the Hollywood composer [Mark Mancina](https://www.edgepedia.org/mark-mancina) worked on the background music, with [Hans Zimmer](https://www.edgepedia.org/hans-zimmer) joining the music production process; Omatsu and Fujisaku learned of Zimmer's involvement only after it was finalized.[4](https://www.productionig.com/contents/works_sp/20_/s08_/000223.html)
## Manga adaptations
Three manga versions were serialized by Kadokawa Shoten while the anime ran: Asuka Katsura in *Shonen Ace*, Kumiko Suekane in *Beans Ace*, and Hirotaka Kisaragi in *Ciel*. Production I.G supplied the overall synopsis, but the storylines are original to each writer, and Omatsu deliberately allowed the manga authors freedom rather than requiring every detail to match the anime.[4](https://www.productionig.com/contents/works_sp/20_/s08_/000223.html) Because the anime predates the manga, the manga is an adaptation of an adaptation rather than a source the anime followed; the anime ran 50 episodes while the manga told its story in five volumes.[9](https://i-think-thinks.com/2019/04/26/comparing-and-contrasting-blood/) The adaptations diverge substantially: characters who die in the anime, including Riku, Solomon, and George, survive in the manga, and the relationship between Riku and Diva is handled differently.[10](https://bloodplusanime.fandom.com/wiki/Differences_-_Anime_%26_Manga)
## Broadcast and reception
The series aired in Japan from October 8, 2005; Production I.G's work list gives the end date as September 26, 2006,[2](https://www.production-ig.com/contents/works_sp/20_/index.html) while a scholarly citation lists the final episode as September 23, 2006, and notes the premiere on Sony's anime satellite channel Animax.[11](https://english.fju.edu.tw/word/LOD/2020/405110026.pdf) It was broadcast in the United States on [Cartoon Network](https://www.edgepedia.org/cartoon-network)'s Adult Swim from March 10, 2007.[5](https://www.production-ig.com/contents/works_sp/20_/s08_/index.html)
Commentary has described the series as slower and more conventional in style than the feature film that inspired it, dropping the film's dark character designs for a standard anime look while expanding the story across its long run.[3](https://www.international.ucla.edu/ccs/article/89228) Common Sense Media warns parents that the series is extremely violent and often scary, with gory monster attacks and sword combat.[12](https://www.commonsensemedia.org/tv-reviews/blood) A scholarly analysis by Ian Condry, a cultural anthropologist of Japan at MIT, argues that the series' narrative resolves violence not through national history but through personal histories of family, portraying a transnational intimacy that rejects simplistic notions of family defined by blood.[13](https://anthropology.mit.edu/files/anthropology/imce/people/papers/condry_Intimacy.pdf)
## References
1. [Production I.G, BLOOD+ work page (broadcast schedule and main staff)](https://www.production-ig.co.jp/works/blood-plus/)
2. [Production I.G, Blood+ work list overview (air dates and copyright)](https://www.production-ig.com/contents/works_sp/20_/index.html)
3. [Vampires and Chiropterans, UCLA International Institute](https://www.international.ucla.edu/ccs/article/89228)
4. [Interview: Yutaka Omatsu, Production I.G Blood+ Special Feature](https://www.productionig.com/contents/works_sp/20_/s08_/000223.html)
5. [Production I.G Top Page archive (Adult Swim premiere, March 10, 2007)](https://www.production-ig.com/contents/works_sp/20_/s08_/index.html)
6. [Production I.G, BLOOD+ Episode 1 "First Kiss"](https://www.production-ig.co.jp/works/blood-plus/episodes/01.html)
7. [Blood+ review, Archen's Anime Page](https://scythe.net/archen/reviews/anime/blood-plus.html)
8. [The Making of XX: Interview with Junichi Fujisaku (3), Production I.G](https://www.productionig.com/contents/works_sp/56_/s08_/000709.html)
9. [Comparing and Contrasting: Blood+, I Think Thinks (2019)](https://i-think-thinks.com/2019/04/26/comparing-and-contrasting-blood/)
10. [Differences - Anime & Manga, Blood+ Wiki (Fandom)](https://bloodplusanime.fandom.com/wiki/Differences_-_Anime_%26_Manga)
11. [Blood Plus, cited in a Fu Jen Catholic University paper (premiere on Animax; final episode September 23, 2006)](https://english.fju.edu.tw/word/LOD/2020/405110026.pdf)
12. [Blood+ Parents' Guide & TV Review, Common Sense Media](https://www.commonsensemedia.org/tv-reviews/blood)
13. [Ian Condry, Intimacy and Blood: Media and Nationalism in Contemporary Japan (MIT Anthropology)](https://anthropology.mit.edu/files/anthropology/imce/people/papers/condry_Intimacy.pdf)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Series and fictional screen worlds › Anime and manga › Anime series, episodes, and franchises › Anime television series, 2000s*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Sep 18, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Sep 18, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license