Blood-C: The Last Mind is a stage play based on the Blood-C series written by Jun'ichi Fujisaku and directed by Shutaro Oku. Fujisaku also wrote the scripts for the 2011 television anime. The play is an Interquel that tells a new story linking the timeframes of the television series and movie Blood-C: The Last Dark, as well as expanding on some events which occurred between the prequel manga Blood-C: Demonic Moonlight and the television series. The play ran at the Setagaya Public Theater from July 2 to 5 in 2015.
This page contains unmarked spoilers from both Blood-C and Blood-C: The Last Dark.
Blood-C: The Last Mind provides examples of:
- Adaptation Expansion: The play expanded the storylines which were not explained or shown in the TV series and the movie such as Fumito's other experiments and Saya's past. It also expanded the roles of Yuka Amino and Tadayoshi.
- Bad Boss: Soen. When one of his men Haijima is wounded in a fight againt Ran, he has him thrown into the hospital as a test subject, ultimately leading to his death. He later kills Toyama for no reason other than being annoyed with how long it was taking to sacrifice Benimura and Kuroda to a blood-crazed Haru.
- Becoming the Mask: Despite knowing it was all fake, Tadayoshi's ghost has fully embraced his role as Saya's father, saying it was one of the times he was happiest.
- Bittersweet Ending: Saya manages to prevent Haru from turning into an Elder Bairn, manages to save all her allies and seemingly dismantles Fumito's operations in the town. However, stopping Haru from killing Fumito costs Saya her revenge, and both Fumito and Yuka manage to escape. Haru has also lost all memory of Saya. Saya leaves Haru and the rest of her allies behind to pursue Fumito to Tokyo for the events of Blood-C: The Last Dark.
- Blood Knight: The only thing Soen seems to care about is killing lethal opponents like Saya and Ran to prove he's "greater than any mere mortal".
- Broad Strokes: The stage play opens with a retelling of the ending to the 2011 television series. Things play out largely the same as the television series, with Saya being forced to duel Tadayoshi to the death, everyone left in town being killed and Fumito escaping while shooting Saya in the head, but with several key differences:
- Itsuki does not appear and isn't gunned down trying to protect Saya. Kanako also does not appear and is not killed by Tadayoshi; rather, a random townsperson is intentionally fed to Tadayoshi by Fumito to trigger his bloodlust.
- Yuka Amino is directly shown poisoning Tadayoshi with Saya's blood herself.
- Yuka and Fumito both appear in their Blood-C: The Last Dark outfits rather than their civilian clothes.
- Tadayoshi never transforms into his Elder Bairn form before being killed by Saya, although this is possibly symbolized by the red cloaks that he and the Elder Bairn test subjects don when they go crazy and start attacking people.
- Saya briefly duels Soen and his men. Soen never appeared or at least was never identified by name in the television series.
- Saya actually catches Fumito before he escapes, but can't kill him due to her contract not to kill humans. Fumito then shoots her in the head as punishment for "ruining" his experiment while fleeing on foot rather than to keep her from attacking his escape helicopter like in the tv series.
- Continuity Nod: The amnesiac Saya briefly hesitates to accept a cup of coffee from Haru, referencing her discovery that Fumito was drugging her through her coffee at the end of the television series.
- Tadayoshi tells Saya that his new name was given to him by Fumito, referencing the epilogue of Blood-C: Demonic Moonlight.
- Mahito tells Saya that all he ever gave her were "false memories", referencing the spell which erased Saya's memory so she could live life as an ordinary schoolgirl at the end of Blood-C: Demonic Moonlight.
- When Saya meets Tadayoshi while Mahito is dying, he says that its been a while, but she does not recognize him. This references the fact that Saya's memories of their initial interactions in Blood-C: Demonic Moonlight were erased.
- Crapsack World: The town on the outskirts of Tokyo is this. It was converted from a shopping district into a town and is populated only by individuals with a certain gene type who were forcibly relocated there after the Japanese government issued a mandatory test of all citizens at Fumito's behest. Citizens are then selected at random to go to the hospital where they never return and are used as test subjects in Fumito's experiments to create artificial Elder Bairns. And anyone still out at night are likely to be killed by the Elder Bairn test subjects who have escaped the hospital.
- The Dragon: Soen.
- Foregone Conclusion: Saya fails to get revenge on Fumito, given that he is alive and well in Blood-C: The Last Dark.
- Friend-or-Idol Decision: Saya is confronted with one when she is faced with option of allowing Haru to kill and feed on Fumito, which would allow Saya to get her revenge but would transform Haru into a monster in the process. She chooses to protect Fumito in order to save Haru, allowing Fumito to escape unscathed.
- Horrible Judge of Character: Both Mahito and Tadayoshi have complete trust in Fumito, who immediately turns out to be a monster once he gets his hands on Saya.
- Identical Stranger: Saya is said to be this for Haru's deceased fiancee. She actually is Haru's fiancee, or rather she was cast as his fake fiancee in another one of Fumito's experiments, which Saya, Haru and Ran were brainwashed to believe.
- Karma Houdini: Fumito and Yuka Amino naturally, given that they both appear in Blood-C: The Last Dark. Yuka is worth special mention given that unlike Fumito, we know her actions in this play will never be punished in the movie. Yuka directly drives both Tadayoshi and Haru crazy by personally injecting them with Saya's blood, and incapacitates both Ran and Saya with an energy weapon when they try to confront Fumito.
- Knight Templar: Ran is hunting and killing anything that "smells" like an Elder Bairn, including the amnesiac Saya who is clearly not attacking anyone.
- Laser-Guided Amnesia: The bullet wound to the head given to Saya by Fumito eventually causes her to temporarily forget everything that happened in the television series when she collapses in the unnamed town just outside Tokyo. It also causes the fake personality given to her by Fumito and her real one to get mixed up.
- When Fumito rewrote Saya's memories for the Ukishima experiment, he erased the memories of the previous experiment in Haru and Ran's village. Haru and Ran's memories of the events were rewritten to a certain extent as well.
- A number of references are made to how Saya's memories were erased at the end of the Blood-C: Demonic Moonlight prequel manga
- Lighter and Softer: Compared to both the television series and Blood-C: The Last Dark. Violent and bloody things still occur, but there are jokes and running gags throughout the play, and despite all odds, Saya manages to save all of her allies.
- Nigh-Invulnerability: In addition to her healing factor, Saya reveals she also regenerates entire limbs by mentioning to Ran that Fumito has had her arms and legs cut off more times than she can count in his experiments. Soen is also not certain decapitation will kill her, only stating that she'd probably have a harder time coming back from such an injury.
- Storming the Castle: By Saya and Ran to save Haru and confront Fumito.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: On his deathbed, Mahito makes Saya promise that she'll protect his grandson Fumito and give him her complete trust, since he believes Fumito has the ability to cure Saya's dependence on blood, something he could never do. This backfires when Fumito betrays Saya and starts using her blood in horrific experiments.
- Wham Line: "Ukishima wasn't the first."
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Soen to Haijima and Toyama for petty reasons. Soen is ultimately on the receiving end of this from Fumito.
