Released in North America on November 2, 2005

This is more of what I was expecting when it came to expanded media for this franchise. This light novel takes place 3 years after the movie. Unfortunately it isn't from the perspective of Saya or anyone close to her. Instead it follows the perspective of a high schooler who happens to see Saya do her usual slicing and dicing and has to live with what he saw that night. The book starts on some heavy explanations of political protests and parties of the time but its all needed for the context of our main character and why he encounters Saya that night. The book does a great job explaining any concepts or history in quite great detail. Its overall a pretty compelling mystery book that even if your familiar with the previous media in the franchise it still leaves you wondering whats going to happen next. As our character gets closer to the truth more characters start to enter the story that create twists and turns that start to reveal why Saya is there. There's a whole back and forth between characters about the human nature and they go really deep with to the point that I had to reread a few times but it's good to be challenged now and again with a book. This shouldn't be discouraging to read as the character monologuing all of this explains it in simpler detail because they know the main character doesn't understand everything they are saying. The book ends on an okay ending and there's a time jump epilogue that just tells what happened to some of the characters 30 years later and the main character has one last encounter with Saya. I thoroughly enjoyed this book but just like the movie it left me wanting more. Unfortunately the only other media tied to this movie are light novels and some video games that never got translated for North America and probably never will at this point. Blood would get 2 different animes with different continuities from the movie. Maybe one day in the future I'll check those out.