Streaming: Funimation
Episodes: TBA (a second cour has already been announced)
Source: Manga
Episode Summary: The vampire Vanitas was born under the inauspicious sign of the blue moon, causing others of his kind to shun him. In order to seek revenge, Vanitas created a powerful grimoire with the goal of eliminating other vampires. Noé, a young vampire, travels to Paris in search of this grimoire when it suddenly falls into his lap (in a manner of speaking). As Noé attempts to help a young woman who has collapsed on the deck of the airship he’s riding to his destination, he’s attacked by a young man in black who comes crashing through the windows of the airship.
The woman is a vampire who’s been attacked by a malady that steals vampires’ true names, thus corrupting their power. The brash young man in black uses the power of the grimoire he holds to heal and return control of her body to her. He claims to be a vampire doctor operating under the name “Vanitas,” although he was given this name and the grimoire from his master who formerly held both. Is Noé’s encounter with this Vanitas fate or luck working its magic? As Vanitas hassles Noé to become his meat shield, he wonders just with whom he’s become involved.
What do you do when your last, best hope of salvation lives within the actions and whims of a complete crackpot? From the outside, The Case Study of Vanitas seems like it might be an elegant gothic horror piece. And while those elements are there, as soon as the OP animation starts to roll it becomes clear that its tone is not all seriousness and refinement (boring!). Rather, while there’s plenty of atmosphere in this premiere, the real draw is the manic genius/straight man dynamic of Vanitas and Noé. As someone who enjoys the anime subgenre that can best be described as “two idiots get into trouble and perhaps homoeroticism together,” it’s truly a cherry on top of a series I was already looking forward to.
In fact, as soon as Vanitas came crashing through the window, I knew I was on board with what the anime had on offer. I get a little bit tired of action anime that takes itself too seriously; as much as it might try to build excitement through characters performing amazing feats and fighting impossible foes, if the inherent unreality of a scenario goes unacknowledged it ends up sticking out like a sore thumb. On the other hand, I prefer it when stories face up to and even embrace their own ridiculousness because it then becomes a lot easier to go along for the ride. Vanitas is a pompous blowhard who seems to lack a sense for danger; who better, then, to come crashing through the window of an airship and hassle an uptight, straight-laced foil? It’s just the sort of thing for which I reserve my precious suspension of disbelief.
To go along with the fanciful action is an ornate sense of set design, which combines historical Paris with the brass and gears of steampunk. To be honest, when steampunk seemed to be at its height several years ago I got a little bit tired of everything being reinterpreted in that aesthetic. However, now that broader geek culture has seemed to have moved along to some extent there’s a refreshed sense of novelty when it comes to this particular type of alternate history setting. What if the development of technology had gone a different route? While that idea may simply serve as a backdrop for Vanitas, I feel like it adds to the show’s charm.
Pros: One of my side hobbies is learning about historical clothing, and while it’s difficult to compare a fantasy/supernatural setting 1:1 with actual history, one thing I’ll say is that I was impressed by how this episode featured a variety of “Victorian style” dresses and didn’t appear to really duplicate any of them. There are a couple of crowd scenes during the episode, and I feel like animating all of them (even in the limited way they’re animated) must have been quite the task.
The opening scenes of the episode are presented in a very cool, slightly unsettling storybook style that’s very attention-getting. I think this also speaks well to the intention of the overall visual design.
I like how, in this interpretation of vampire lore, vampires aren’t automatically a species existing at odds with the human race. In traditional vampire scenarios, one always has to wonder how the vampires manage to survive and perpetuate themselves if they have to drink blood to survive. If they’re near-immortal and drinking blood all the time, in the process turning some of the humans upon which they feast into vampires as well, at some point mathematically they’d probably run out of humans. In this scenario, drinking blood doesn’t seem like a necessity for a typical vampire. This kind of begs the question, though – what’s the point of distinguishing vampires from humans if they aren’t adversarial races? But it’s a small criticism.
And there’s a cat! Even the worst of anime isn’t completely lost if there’s the presence of a cute cat, but in this case it’s simply the icing on the cake.
Cons: I think the story is maybe ever-so-slightly up its own ass with its specialized terminology (“Malnomen” for the ailments that corrupt the names of vampires, for example).
There are also several “chibi” moments with the characters. While for me this just feeds my appetite for “silly boys being silly,” it definitely messes with the tone at times and I imagine it might be outright irritating for some viewers.
Content Warnings: Violence, including some physical violence and vampire bites with blood. Bullying/shunning.
Would I Watch More? – I really enjoyed this premiere. While, as I mentioned, I’m trying to keep my watch list from becoming to bloated this season, there is definitely some room on it for cute vampire boys.