• Title: Rosario to Vampire
• Studio: Gonzo
• Genre: Romantic Comedy/Harem

Ratings (out of 5):

• Story: ♥♥♥

• Animation: ♥♥½
• Characters: ♥♥♥
• OP/ED Themes: ♥♥½ (ED only)
• Overall: ♥♥♥ (Kind of like wanting to be taken to a fancy restaurant and going bowling instead– fun, but not as good as I hoped.)

Thoughts:
Hokay, so, Tsukune Aono completely failed to get into any of the high schools he wanted to and, as a result, was left behind by all of his classmates…until his dad managed to pick up some kind of freshman orientation packet dropped by a spooky priest which permitted Aono to attend the Youkai Academy. Tsukune hops on the bus to attend his new (apparently boarding) school, and on the way is smacked in the head by a girl riding a bicycle. (Why do girls on bikes always hit guys in anime? Is this some kind of Japanese equivalent to shooting spitwads at the girl you have a crush on in kindergarten? Or is it more like, “Smacking you upside the head with a bicycle: it’s like saying hello in Japan.)

The pink-haired girl introduces herself as a vampire named Moka and proceeds to drink a bit of Tsukune’s blood. In spite of this introduction, Tsukune is still shocked when, during his first class, he’s told that Youkai Academy is, in fact, a school for youkai– demons. Eventually, after a bit of emo whining and bawling by Moka and Tsukune, he informs her that he is in fact a human (and therefore supposed to be dead the moment he set foot on campus), and they learn that he can’t leave the campus for at least another month, when the next bus comes.

The good news for Tsukune is that the academy, which prepares youkai to live in a world of humans, requires all students to stay in their human forms and to not reveal their own identities to each other, so Tsukune may yet get away from this thing alive.

The plot is cute, but the art and animation aren’t as sharp as I was expecting. Also, the color scheme is a little funny sometimes, like in the picture above. The pacing felt a little off; it took about two minutes for Tsukune to explain why he’s headed to the Youkai Academy and felt rushed. Then the whole Moka/Tsukune relationship was established more or less instantaneously, and their later interactions were, shall we say, HIGHLY emotional. It felt a little overboard to me; I was hoping for a bit more comedy and a bit less emo.

There is also shit-tons of fanservice, from the first panty shot– a random nameless high school girl within the first 20 seconds, and for the rest of the episode there’s hardly a shot of Moka where her panties aren’t showing –but that’s to be expected. I guess you can think of it as kind of like InuYasha, if it were a harem romantic comedy set in modern times. And probably a LOT less long. But plenty of anthropomorphs around, if that’s your bag. And even if it’s not, it’s still a cute-looking series with nice character designs (albeit archetypal characters so far) and a plot that has some promise.

So for now? We continue.

Current Mood:  Thoughtful

A bunch of new anime has been announced recently, mostly presumably for the Fall season. I’m always so excited about new shows. I think it’s a combination of being able to announce them to fans, and also just the potential that’s there. Any of the shows could be the Next Big Thing, you know?

Anyway, some of the recent announcements…
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