There is a remedy for everything except death
Crow's Blood is a Japanese horror suspense drama television miniseries directed by Ryō Nishimura and Joseph White, and starring members of AKB48 Mayu Watanabe and Sakura Miyawaki which was created for Hulu Japan. The show was billed as a collaboration between East and West which brought together prominent names from both Japan and the U.S.
The story revolves around High School student Isozaki Kaoru (Watanabe) who becomes suspicious of new transfer student Togawa Maki (Miyawaki) after a series of strange events occur at her school. Kaoru teams up with Sawada Takeshi, the young editor of a magazine focusing on the supernatural, to uncover the truth about Maki as well as Maki’s father Dr. Seto Akihito.
The show was broadcast on Hulu in Japan from July 23 to August 27, 2016 with 6 episodes. The series was then broadcast in the U.S on El Rey Network, which aired all six episodes on October 28th 2017.
This series contains examples of:
- Achilles' Heel: The only way to stop those who have been infected is to inject them with formaldehyde which kills them almost instantly
- Action Survivor: Both Kaoru and Sawada.
- Ax-Crazy: Happens to quite a few people but most noteablyChisa and Shinobu after they become infected.
- Bathtub Scene: Kaoru has one in the first episode.
- Berserk Button: In Episode 2, Chisa and Shinobu call Maki a "monster". It doesn't end well for them.Maki: "Don't say that..."
- Blood Bath: At one point in the series Kaoru finds Aoi floating in a pool of her own blood. She gets better.
- Bloody Horror: takes place when Kaoru goes to Aoi’s house to check on her and finds her bathroom covered in blood due to Aoi’s unsuccessful attempts to commit suicide.
- Brainwashed and Crazy: Those infected become like this, notably Aoi (at first), Chisa and Shinobu, and Mai. They become friendlier towards Maki, and by the final two episodes, she has an entire army of murderous zombie girls under her control.
- Break the Cutie: Happens to mostly everyone in the main female cast. Namely Kaoru, Aoi, and especially Maki.
- Broken Smile: Maki.
- Class Trip: The seniors take a class trip to a ‘camp’ in the middle of nowhere.
- Creepy Monotone: Maki speaks like this a lot, unless she's talking with her father, or you hit her Berserk Button.
- Creepy Crows: Crows tend to appear wherever Maki is.
- "Do It Yourself" Theme Tune: AKB 48 sings the show’s creepy theme "Black Flower".
- Eating Lunch Alone: A subversion with Aoi who seems to prefer to eat her lunch alone and read despite being friends with Kaoru and her group.
- The End... Or Is It??: The final scene of the last episode reveals that a baby that Maki visited in an earlier episode has also been infected when she develops a tell-tale nosebleed
- Everybody's Dead, Dave: Kaoru is the only student to survive her school trip
- Final Girl: Kaoru is a perfect example of this trope.
- Gorn: Several scenes involve an over-the-top amount of blood and guts.
- Healing Factor: Maki has this ability. An ability which she is able to pass on to everyone she infects.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Aoi saves Kaoru’s life then manages to take out the infected Mai, saving the life of the old woman who invites them both into her house to use her phone. She then asks the old woman to call the police to the camp before committing suicide.
- Heroic Willpower: Aoi is able to reject Maki’s influence and avoids becoming insane and murderous after she is infected.
- Hot for Teacher: Aoi is secretly dating her P.E teacher.
- I Will Punish Your Friend for Your Failure: During the climax Maki insists that Kaoru come and “answer her question” and threatens to kill Kaoru’s friend if she doesn’t.
- Intrepid Reporter: Sawada.
- Japanese Delinquent: Shinobu and Chisa
- Jump Scare: There are several in the first episode as Kaoru’s mother finds scaring her daughter hillarious.
- Lovable Alpha Bitch: Mai has shades of this.
- Major Injury Underreaction: The first sign that something is seriously wrong with Aoi is when she falls from the roof onto a concrete table and continues to talk and smile even as it seems every bone in her body is broken. At one point she even tries to wave her nearly detached arm at her friends as she is being put into the ambulance.
- Meaningful Name: A possible example with Dr. Grossman whose name is pronounced like “Growsman”. Guess what his specialty is.
- New Transfer Student: Maki.
- No One Could Survive That!: This is the general consensous of the netizens who commented on a video of Aoi falling off of the roof onto a concencrete table that was posted online.
- "Not So Different" Remark: The reason that Maki pays special attention to Kaoru is due to the fact that Kaoru reminds Maki of herself before she became infected.
- One-Gender School: The main characters attend a Girls’ High School.
- Our Zombies Are Different
- Patient Zero: Maki is able to spread the virus she was infected with, causing her cells to mutate in order to save her life.
- Playing with Syringes: This is what Dr. Seto and Dr. Grossman do when Maki is killed. They manage to save her life but she’s left with more than a few side effects as a result.
- Police Are Useless: Kaoru and Sawada attempt to go to the police for help. Unsurprisingly they seem less than willing to believe them.
- Pretend We're Dead: Hikari does this by using tonkatsu sauce to mimic the black blood of the infected.
- Sheep in Wolf's Clothing: Aoi betrays Maki and the other infected girls in order to protect Kaoru.
- Stages of Monster Grief: Happens with both Maki and Aoi with various results.
- Staking the Loved One: At one point Kaoru kills one of the infected girls who is attacking Sawada. Only to then realize that the girl she has killed is her best friend Nami.
- Surprisingly Sudden Death: Happens to Maki in the first episode after she gets off a bus only to be struck by not one but two cars.
- Viral Transformation: This is what happens to anyone that is infected with the virus that Maki carries.
- Self-Mutilation Demonstration: Shinobu and Chisa use this to terrify the school nurse.
- Terms of Endangerment: Maki addresses Kaoru without honorifics (something usually reserved only for family and very close friends) immediately after meeting her.
- Trapped-with-Monster Plot: The last few episodes have the students taking a school trip to an isolated location where their communications and exits are cut off and they become trapped with Maki and her infected minions.
- Tragic Villain / Not Evil, Just Misunderstood: Maki. She didn't want to become a monster, but had her life and humanity forcefully ripped away from her. What's worse, her own father, the one who brought her back to life in the first place, no longer views her as a person, but as a failure in his own experiment.
- Virus-Victim Symptoms: Anyone who becomes infected immediately becomes very friendly with Maki as well as developing frequent nosebleeds in which their blood comes out black.
