Blood of Zeus season 1 review – a wicked yet wonderful alternative Hercules origin story

By Daniel Hart
Published: October 27, 2020 (Last updated: 4 weeks ago)
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Blood of Zeus Recap
Blood of Zeus Season 1 (Credit - Netflix)
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Summary

Blood of Zeus is easily one of the best series of the year — it entwines greek mythology with anime while enjoying that alternative feel.

This review of Netflix anime series Blood of Zeus season 1 contains no spoilers. The series will be released on the platform on October 27, 2020. 

We recapped every episode — check out the archive. 


Creators Charley and Vlas Parlapanides can give themselves a deserved pat on the back for Blood of Zeus. They’ve managed to create an impressive, alternative greek mythology story and present it to the prying eyes of the anime arena — a genre that expects quality. It’s easy to walk into this anime series and expect an unoriginal tale that involves Zeus’s son. But it somehow manages to make the story feel fresh, and it fills it with an amount of anticipation that can only force the audience down one path — to binge it.

Before this review gets into the crux of the story, Blood of Zeus is wonderfully animated. It’s hardly unprecedented or innovative, but an effort has gone into the colors, and some shots are genuinely wonderful to look at. There’s an opening shot in the finale that sets up the chapter purely by the artistry alone. From a technical perspective, this Netflix series has managed to maintain a benchmark in a difficult genre.

Blood of Zeus follows the lead character Heron, who is embarking on a world which has the threat of demons, and to stop them, he must learn about his true origin and anticipate a war that involves greater beings. The anime series puts in plenty of minutes to explain the origin and the foolishness of his father Zeus to build the background. In a nutshell, Zeus could not keep it in his pants which has led to a potential all-out war.

The first half of Blood of Zeus season 1 is story-building and developing the characters while the second half focuses on the highly anticipated battle that befalls the land. There’s a strong arc of failed parenting that shines through the story and cripples the lead character — his whole being is about his fate and his untapped anger. There’s this sense that he needs to feel the bigger picture and journey with his fate rather than work tirelessly against it. The other characters support the themes and honor them — Heron may be a lead character but he is not necessarily always the most important one.

Blood of Zeus is easily one of the best series of the year — it entwines greek mythology with anime while enjoying that alternative feel. This is a must-see, and it will not take audiences long to complete.

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