One cold winter, humanity lost its battle with the vampires, and with it, most of where they called
home. A small population of survivors created a wall of light in a small town to protect them and give
them a place to live in peace. Our protagonist, Momo, lives a repressed life but still wishes to
coexist with the enemy, the vampires. Fine, the vampire queen, once loved humans and disappeared from
the battlefield. As war rages through the humans’ town, the two have a fateful encounter. Once upon a
time, humans and vampires lived in harmony in a place called Paradise. This is the story of a young
girl and a vampire on a journey to find Paradise.
(Source: Netflix)
~~~As always, a generic warning that this is spoiler free as usual but Does include reference to things that You might consider a spoiler, so maybe skip straight to the end if you consider references to just some of the events of the first episode to be a step too far. img(https://files.catbox.moe/afsqmm.gif)
Vampire in the Garden is a new Netflix anime title from the madlads over at Wit Studio, who have yet again delivered a distinct and interesting story as they continue to build their reputation beyond Attack on Titan. I’ll be honest and say I watched this entirely on a whim, with therefore no real expectations and no intention to review it. But what was initially a blank slate with sloppily drawn character and plot outlines very quickly became a beautiful and engaging piece of art in its own right, and even though it was such a Short story it definitely felt like one worth talking about by as early as the second installment of its five episode run. To give you the general outline, it’s a story about two girls - one human and one vampire - who decide they no longer want anything to do with the hatred, duties and violence of the war between their people. The pair jointly go on an adventure to discover Eden, a paradise where vampires and human beings can live together without fear or conflict.
The first episode tried to get too much done in too little time, and I thought at first that that would be how the entire thing would play out, because how can you really develop a story and a full cast of characters to any appreciable degree in such a short time? The simple answer is: you don’t! And this anime (past the first episode) didn’t even try to, in an approach that shouldn’t have worked as well as it did. You pretty much get thrown right into the deep end around the beginning of episode 1, with Momo (our main character) taking part in a military operation against a group of vampires, and she is - in a character defining moment - unable to open fire on a vampire that had the appearance of a child. Naturally, at this point you don’t know what exactly is happening or why it’s happening other than the general sense there’s a war which you nonetheless have no idea the scope or duration of or even what exact factions are involved, who was the aggressor and who’s in a better position, and by the end of the story you still don’t have this information delivered to you for the most part. Ordinarily that would be the hallmark of a poorly conceived or poorly constructed world and story, but in this case it achieves the exact opposite effect. It does a fantastic job of not biting off more than it can chew while still teasing things that hint at a much larger world, and the way it does that is by pulling away from the war and focusing on the narrower perspective of Momo’s journey and her feelings towards and relation to obligations and violence, a struggle and journey she shares with Fine who is our other main character for this story. Each individual stop on their adventure felt like getting another small window into a much bigger world, with the sense that a lot took place before and after and even parallel to what the audience got to see. In that way it gave me the same feeling as something like Jin-Roh or Maquia, which are Random Comparisons of course but still examples of the kind of storytelling featured here.
This show does have a distinct visual style, but it didn’t always land well, particularly with regard to the character designs. The vampires all have white hair and eyes that look like they have cataracts, it doesn’t Look especially nice and it makes individual vampires harder to distinguish between at points. This isn’t too big of an issue since we don’t actually end up spending an awful lot of time with more than just a handful of characters who are easily recognisable, but it is worth mentioning. Recognisable doesn’t mean Good of course, but honestly the designs aren’t anything you wouldn’t have seen in a million other anime already anyway, so you most definitely won’t mind them. The animation on the other hand was always quite good, which I suppose is as expected from Wit, but it’s still not something you should ever take for granted and it wasn’t Flawless either - there’s a few moments where we get slow panning shots and still frames but once again if you’ve watched any other anime at all you’ve probably already gotten used to that. As a final note on the actual visual aspect of things, the art did look exceptionally good at points, a fair number of individual shots and even just the backgrounds were wallpaper worthy, my complaint about the character designs was more of a nitpick than anything else in the full context of things.
The overarching message was as simple as it was heartfelt - to take charge of your own life and not be shackled by the past. It’s effectively what Fine says to Momo in episode 1, and it’s a goal that the two of them then spend the next four episodes striving towards, before coming to the realisation that there is no paradise beyond what you choose and build for yourself. And in that context, they may have found their Eden within each other’s arms, as their relationship embodied the unity and selflessness that they so desperately searched for. “The past” you need to break free from can of course be interpreted in a few ways, the most obvious of which in this story being the cycle of hatred and bloodshed that the humans and vampires seem to have been involved in for so long, but I personally quite appreciated the writers once again narrowing the scope of things to a more personal level. Momo had to grow beyond her abusive parent to truly embrace herself and her dream, Fine had to grow beyond the weight and pressure of a crown she never wanted. They’re pretty easy to relate to or project yourself onto, and that might’ve contributed to why I became so invested in both characters in spite of how short everything was.
So to go over everything, this is a short, sweet story with a bumpy start but overall excellent worldbuilding through its minimalist approach. Don’t go in expecting insane art or the best visuals ever, or a massive cast of characters that gets fully explored, it’s only five episodes after all. If you can accept the limitations it’s working with then you’ll probably appreciate it quite a bit. I for one appreciated it enough to give it a score of __80 out of 100__, just on the borderline between my favourite pieces of media, and things that I thought were just Good without enough appeal to bring me back to them. ~~~
If you've watched anime before, you've definitely seen a story like this. About a rebellious girl choosing something else over what the general norm is. You definitely consider her annoying depending on your stance on dystopian worlds. But as a character she wasn't that bad. The other characters in the story besides the main tool had fair motives but nothing too deeply covered. So many aspects of it were surface level so they didn't go too deep in areas. However, doing this as a series and not as a movie really helps convey more. They were decent elements about it, a very likable twist here and there. Nothing over the top, just a good watch. If you've never seen a similar story before, it may hold some ground for you or even evoke emotions. It has a wonderful animation here and there a good fight here and there, and some very decent dialogue. The composing was fair enough, nothing that blew me away particularly but it never felt as if it was contrary to the scene. The use of music as a cultural tool was very good and the world that was built was a very reasonable one. Nothing necessarily felt out of place, motives were based on solid ideas, there were no shock value deaths. What I do think is the best part of the series is its tone. From the first minute to the last, it quickly fleshed out itself as to what it was trying to portray. And as it went along it continued that philosophy. It doesn't go down the what's good and what's evil route but it does implore a bit of a trolley effect with a few parts but the tone that was set from the beginning held throughout. Nonetheless, whether I think it's worth a watch doesn't really matter. But if you or someone else considers this is something to give of you, you won't be disappointed. Maybe not entirely satisfied depending on what you're looking for, but you won't feel as if this piece of work was just trope after trope. It also did well to set up what a vampire society would be like, with a similar vampire hierarchy as to what we have. Everyone the main characters come in contact with have their own little motivations, whether it be running a hotel, sustainability, care for their family, vengeance whatever it was it felt real. It did not insist on itself. Trying to seem deeper than it was. It set up a story, put out a conundrum and had its characters go along. Side note, the music that was played in the series, each song or ballad was played in its native language which I found very pleasing. So the exploration of music which is a big part of this series in its own way, did not feel as if it was a second thought. I really liked; and I said it before, how they went about the aspect of culture and how it was ruined/ taken from the humans even though it was initially taught and as time went along things got misunderstood. This is my first review so I may have repeated myself quite a lot. But overall I think it's a fair show and if you feel like giving it a chance you should, hopefully I'll have better structure to any future review that I may have.
(This review was originally written on May 19th, 2022) One time, a few years ago, I mentioned to some people in a fandom that I wasn't a particularly big fan of a show because I felt that it came across as too treacly and saccharine, with the main character embodying a lot of those qualities. But apparently a lot of people didn't like this and proceeded to accuse me of only liking tragic edgy schlock and claiming that I hate it when kids shows have an optimistic tone. If anyone's seen some reviews I've done for the various seasons of _Pretty Cure_, I can attest that that's not true. I just prefer the shows I watch, books I read, and games I play to actually have substance to them, and not just lean too far into both extremes, such as being too sugary and saccharine or being too morose, dark, and bleak. Unfortunately, _Vampire in the Garden_, a new Netflix anime made by Wit Studio, is the latter. If anyone is looking for a good example of a show that's absolutely drowning in pointless edginess and misery porn, _Vampire in the Garden_ pretty much embodies all of those qualities, and not for the better. Basically, the story focuses on a world where vampires and humans are locked in endless conflict, and because vampires have heightened senses of hearing, humans have forbidden music of all kinds. Momo is a young girl living in one of the few human strongholds left, and while she's had experience with killing vampires due to her mother's job as a military general, she grows weary of all the fighting. When she gets into a fight with her mother over a music box, she runs away and encounters the supposed queen of vampires, Fine, and the two escape together. Although their initial encounter is rough, the two slowly become friends and bond over a shared love of music. But their newfound friendship is considered taboo by both humans and vampires. Momo and Fine hear an urban legend about a paradise called Eden, where humans and vampires supposedly live in peace, so they decide to try and find it, hoping to escape the conflict that they're embroiled in. But their journey is not a happy one. Yeah, the whole premise feels like a cookie cutter YA novel trying to capitalize on the vampire trend, similar to what the _Twilight_ books wound up doing years ago, only here there's no romance. But the premise like this can be done well, and others have managed to pull it off well. But _Vampire in the Garden_ is not one of them, and there's so much wrong with it that it's not even funny. For one, the series is fairly short, only going for about 5 half-hour episodes, so the pacing is very fast, having very little in the way of breaks and quiet moments. Now, I know a lot of series that have less episodes and even shorter episode run times, but have managed to make optimal use of them in order to do what they wanted, with some examples being _Yoru no Kuni_, the various _PokeToon_ shorts, and even _Pokemon Twilight Wings_. But here's the thing: All three of those short series I mentioned have one thing in common, which is the reason that people like them show much, that reason being that the three shorts managed to make you, the audience, care about the characters and their plight, mainly because the shows themselves cared about them enough to show how they grow and achieve their goals in the end, even when the roads to getting there weren't exactly pleasant. Which leads me to the main reason why _Vampire in the Garden_ fails as an anime: It's so obsessed with being as bloody, violent, edgy, and downright miserable and morose as possible that it's completely impossible to care about the characters and the situations they're in. Honestly, watching _Vampire in the Garden_ felt like I was stuck in a bloody mud pit and couldn't get out. Everything about it feels like whoever produced this wanted to make it the most miserable, morose, unnecessarily angsty anime possible. For one, none of the characters save for the main two are even remotely likeable, and even the two leads are bland as hell, barely changing much throughout the show, and any changes they do go through are so predictable you can see them coming from a mile away. The show makes absolutely no effort to develop its characters or give them any depth beyond their most basic archetypes or short flashes of their backstories that just are just there for more forced drama. Most of the characters end up dying anyway, and the show thinks it's good at making you care about them, but its method of doing so involves shoehorning in a LOT of melodrama, a lot of it in the form of characters constantly screaming, crying, angsting, and being angry with no end in sight. Any moments of levity and quiet are really short and often followed up by, you guessed it, more fighting and blood and angst, leaving practically no time to catch your breath. Also, can I just say how much I hate Momo's mother Nobara as a character? Most of her screentime consists of being a hardened military leader and yelling at or slapping Momo around. The show is trying to make the case that she wants to save Momo from the vampires, but with the way the show presents her, it never felt to me like she truly cared about Momo and was only trying to save her for her own benefit. And even if Momo did act willful and ungrateful during their argument, does that really justify Nobara slapping her and treating her like shit over really petty things? Any time Momo and Nobara are seen together, Nobara is either angry at her or pulling a gun on her, and any attempts she made to apologize to her all felt shallow and fake as a result of her inconsistent characterization. Which leads me to _Vampire in the Garden_'s biggest flaw: Momo and Fine's journey winds up being rendered completely meaningless and pointless as nothing in the show ever changes from when it first started. From beginning to end, _Vampire in the Garden_ shows nothing but the vampires and humans at war with one another, and any solutions to the problem are rendered either too good to be true or wind up never having existed in the first place. Combine that with all the blood, gore, violence, and characters being absolutely nasty to one another, this makes the series feel completely meaningless, as the characters we're supposed to care about never manage to achieve their goals, with their whole journey being in vain, nothing ever gets better for them, and any happiness they find winds up being an illusion. The war between the vampires and humans never gets resolved, and most of the cast dies at the end, making _Vampire in the Garden_ nothing more than a painful slog of nothing but seemingly endless misery and tragedy porn. Actually, Vampire in the Garden is literally just relentless, neverending misery porn, nothing more. Honestly, the only good things _Vampire in the Garden_ has going for it are its detailed backgrounds, animation reminiscent of early 2000s stuff, and the soundtrack which consists of mostly classical music and opera singing, and even those can't save the show from just being a relentless angst fest with no light at the end of the tunnel. The whole series feels like it's constantly beating you with a hammer while screaming "FEEL SAAAAAAAD!!" and it just doesn't work because it has nothing else to offer. Look, I like my fair share of tragedies and bittersweet endings every now and then. But making a show be literally nothing but non-stop angst, drama, and misery, without any meaningful reason for the audience to care about your characters and story, and have it end with basically nothing changing in the end, really doesn't work. At all. I just watched a French movie recently called _Long Way North_, and while that movie had plenty of tragic moments, it at least had the characters accomplish what they wanted to do in the end, so everything they went through wasn't in vain. The movie _In This Corner of the World_ took 70% of its screentime to establish its story and characters and make the audience care about them first, knowing to save the tragedy and sad moments for later, making it hit harder than it would have had the movie used it earlier. One of my favorite movies of all time is the 1997 _Dog of Flanders_ anime, and it starts off happy-go-lucky and sweet but slowly becomes more tragic as it goes on, and it also has a sad ending, but it actually had a point to its tragedy, to establish how classism hurts both the privileged and the working class people. Hell, what many consider to be one of the best video games ever, _Mother 3_, is universally praised as being one of the saddest games ever, and didn't need to rely on having absolutely nothing but constant sorrow and drama for 30 hours straight. My point being, if you're going to make your story a tragedy in some capacity, don't make the tragedy all there is to story, and have more to offer than just that. _Vampire in the Garden_ has literally nothing to offer except endless angst that's ultimately pointless in the end. I once wrote a fan fic years ago that many people claimed was pointlessly dark and edgy, and some of their complaints about it are valid, but if there's one thing I can say about it, it's that I at least TRIED to have there to be more to it than just angst and drama. I made sure to at least develop the characters and throw in moments of needed levity, even if I didn't always succeed, and stuff like this and Magical Girl Site are way worse and edgier than my old fic could ever be. Vampire in the Garden is on Netflix right now, and maybe it can be something you can use to introduce a teenager __to and have them transition to watching anime that's more mature than stuff like Pokemon and Naruto. Otherwise, _Vampire in the Garden_ doesn't have anything to offer unless you're masochistic enough to endure seemingly endless angst, gore, and melodrama. __Edit, 5/22/2022__: I found out I was admittedly wrong about one thing. Apparently there was a stinger scene at the very end of episode 5, after the credits, that I didn't see on my first watch. Because I didn't see this stinger, I thought that Momo's journey wound up being completely in vain, making the series feel completely pointless, but it turns out the stinger has a much happier outcome for Momo than I thought. Because of this, I've decided to be a little bit generous and bump up the rating slightly. That being said, my overall feelings for _Vampire in the Garden_ remain the same, and had the series been longer and bothered to put in some more moments of levity and flesh out all its other characters, it might have been something good or even great.
(Originally Reviewed on Serialzd) After taking a bit of a break from the genre to focus on other shit, I figured it is about time to dive back into the wild and "wonderful" world of anime, to see whatever else this genre could have in store for me. Through my endeavors in this genre so far, I haven't really seen anything too good or mind-blowing yet. Sure, there were definitely some things that were better then others, but I had yet to find anything truly spectacular that I would recommend to anybody else to give a shot for themselves. Thankfully though, this long string of mediocrity has finally broken, all thanks to the ONA known as Vampire in the Garden. Much like all of the other anime-related things I had seen before this, I had no clue what this was going into it. All I knew about it was that it was some animated thing made for Netflix back in 2022, and it wasn't based on anything else, but it was only five episodes, so I figured I would give it a shot. I mean, hey, I like vampires, and gardens are pretty cool too, so a vampire in a garden seemed like it would be a winner, wouldn't it? Well, I hate to break it to you, but there are only about two scenes in this series that actually have a vampire in a garden, so the title is almost a complete lie, but that doesn't matter, because this series, for what it's worth, is absolutely phenomenal. It isn't perfect by any means, and it isn't anything too exciting or different from other shows out there, but it manages to have an almost flawless execution that managed to keep me hooked from the end of the first episode all the way to the finish, and that's all that I care about. The story is, once again, nothing too original or new that most of haven't already seen before, but it is the way that it is presented to the audience that actually makes me give a shit about what is happening, the characters vary in quality, with the ones they primarily focus on being absolutely fantastic, with you being able to connect and understand them incredibly well throughout the series, but as for other characters, they just sort of come off as whatever, and feel like an after-thought after others, the voice acting is pretty great, with most of the characters having fantastic performances to back them up, although it does run into the problem that anime usually has at points where it sounds like they are trying a little too hard, the animation is pretty great, looking about as detailed and great as you would expect a show like this to be, the action is pretty heavy and intense when it takes place, and it keeps you glued to the screen with every shot that fired and every slash of a sword, just to make sure you take it all in, and the emotional moments hit extremely hard, especially in the final episode, where I was on the verge of tears at one point. What can I say, they just knew how to pull at my heartstrings in the right way. Now, despite how I ended up absolutely adoring this series, I can't say that it is completely perfect. Once again, the premise and story aren't exactly all that original, just being a story about war, racism, and love, all of which has been done similarly in some shape or fashion, so if you are one that is tired of seeing these tropes on screen, then you probably won't enjoy this as much as others. Not to mention, some of the episodes aren't as good as the others, with Episode 4 in particular sticking out to me as an example of that. It isn't bad by any means, and it does manage to continue the story in a wonderful way while tying together with the whole theme, but it does have a pretty typical plot that you have to sit through to get to those moments, and it did sorta lose me at points, which isn't really something you want for a show that is only 5 episodes long. Despite that though, most of the show was still able to keep me invested, and I do not regret sitting through some of the boring parts to get to more of the good stuff. Overall, despite the somewhat generic setup and some episodes not being as good as others, I was pleasantly surprised by this series in the best way possible, and I thought it was fantastic, having wonderful characters, beautiful animation, incredibly intense moments, and a story that I was hanging onto the entire time. I would absolutely recommend it to those who are fans of anime, as well as those who are just fans of these types of stories in general, because even if you aren't an anime person per se, there aren't any annoying tropes here that will distract you, and it instead will provide a beautiful tale that will keep you enraptured from start to finish... or at least, that's what it did for me. Man, it feels good to finally get a good one of these kinds of shows for a change... but anyways, I guess we gotta get back to the mediocrity, don't we? It's too bad, since I was just having so much fun with that.