Previously on Strike The Blood:

The Fourth Progenitor, the world’s strongest vampire, has been located in the Demon District of Itogami City. Yukina Himegari an agent of the Lion King Organization, has been dispatched to the city to observed the suspected Fourth Progenitor, a high school student named Kojou Akatsuki. Spoilers Ahead!

Kojou is on his way to take his make up exam when he runs into Yukina outside his apartment. She tells him she’s moving into the room next to him in order to better observe him much to Kojou’s chagrin. After taking his exam, he agrees to with Yukina to get things for her apartment. After Yukina follows Kojou when he tries to go the the convienice store at night, the pair spots an explosion at an industrial site and parts ways with him to deal with it. When she reaches the disturbance she finds out just who is willing to find Kouju as well as how dangerous her new friend can be.

Strike the Blood proves to be becoming one of the more intriguing shows of the season, and this episode is certainly a nice example as to why.

Yukina gets most of the spotlight in this episode and is easily the main focus of it. We have a look at how she gained her assignment to watch Kojou at the beginning of the episode. As par for the course the LKO is a bit of a shadowy organization with faceless leaders. They tell Yukina of her mission as well as govng her her lance, Schneewalzer. Although the reason for watching beside’s “he’s dangerous” is unknown it will be interesting to see their endgame. She also reveals herself to be an orphan that was raised by the LKO, and there is a pretty funny/cute scene when she thinks almost everything is a weapon when she goes shopping with Kojou. There is also another scene after Yukina confronts Kojou before he goes to the store at night, as she is soaking wet in her clothes after putting them on after literally jumping out of the bath to follow him (talk about job dedication).

We also see her relationship with Kojou develop a bit more. The two living next to each other creates a decent plot point for later and we start to see that Yukina may start to be rethinking her status on Kojou. They exchange some dialogue and Kojou opens up a bit more about his life. Kojou was apart of a basketball team before he became the fourth progenitor. This gives a peak into his life before becoming a vamp and he also talks about how he initially wanted to use his powers to rid the world of evil.

Yukina’s lance

We meet a couple new characters such as Kojou’s little sister Nagisa (who just happens to be Yukina’s classmate) and his teacher Natsuki Minamiya (who isn’t that much older than him). While Nagisa doesn’t do much besides be bubbly, Natsuki has an air of mystery about her as shes always in Gothic Lolita dress and she also knows about Kojou’s identity as Fourth Progenitor and the LKO, telling him not to get involved with anyone affiliated with them (a bit late for that). She is also an attack mage and was present at the crime scene in the beginning of the episode.

There is a pretty well animated action scene when Yukina confronts the person behind the industrial attack. Initially caused by a familiar, Yukina runs into more trouble when a mysterious man and girl attack her while looking for Kojou. The fight scene between and the man (who is revealed to be an exorcist from West European church named Rudolf Eustach of Lotharingia) is damn well animated and is obviously where most of the budget for the episode went. Kojou saves Yukina when the girl (Astarte) with Rudolf enters the fray. Kojou shows off some of his power but when he starts to bleed all hell breaks loose.

L to R: Nagisa, Yukina, & Kojou

“Right Arm of the Saint II” is a nice follow up to the first episode with some entertaining moments and good action bits. While its kind of hard to tell who the real lead of the show is, both Yukina and Kojou are good characters. The animation can be underwhelming at times but the good points outshine the bad ones.

4/5