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Dark Moon: The Blood Altar (TV).


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Blood-
Bargain Hunter



Joined: 07 Mar 2009
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PostPosted: Fri Dec 19, 2025 7:29 pm Reply with quote


Dark Moon: The Blood Altar (TV)

Source: South Korean Manwha (completed @ 70 chapters by HYBE)

Demographic: Shoujo

Animation Studio: Troyca

Genres: comedy, drama, romance, supernatural

Themes: aristocracy, bishounen, conspiracy, factions, gore, magical items, reincarnation, reverse harem, royalty, school, social stigma, sorcery, superpowers, vampires, werewolves

Plot Summary: Welcome to Riverfield, where the most popular boys at two rival schools happen to be vampires and werewolves. When a mysterious new student, Sooha, transfers to Riverfield, the rivals find themselves inexplicably drawn to her. As horrible incidents start to shake the town, the boys' forgotten pasts slowly start to unravel... and their world turns upside down.

Air Date & Platform:
January 09, 2026 (Friday)
Available on: Crunchyroll

Episode Count / Runtime: 12 episodes

[EDIT: Fancy opener stuff edited. -TK]
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smurky turkey



Joined: 30 Jan 2022
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PostPosted: Sat Dec 20, 2025 4:53 am Reply with quote
Twilight is that you?
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Blood-
Bargain Hunter



Joined: 07 Mar 2009
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PostPosted: Sat Jan 10, 2026 7:49 am Reply with quote
Episode 1

Oh yeah, this is 100% Grade AAA No Foolin' Around Mondo Ultra Super Reverse Harem. Normally, that would be a turn off for me, but so far I'm game. Looks like we meet the Hairy Lads next week - i.e. a new group of boys who will be ga-ga for our sweet (but physically strong) female lead.
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DuskyPredator



Joined: 10 Mar 2009
Posts: 15852
Location: Brisbane, Australia
PostPosted: Sat Jan 10, 2026 8:39 am Reply with quote
smurky turkey wrote:
Twilight is that you?

When the guy revealed he had telepathy, my response was thinking that is Edward's power saying that "this totally is not Twilight".

But if this show is trying to have some fun I would not be able to rag on it. And giving the main heroine super strength, I must say is a bit fun.

And the implication is that the group of guys relevant next week will be werewolves.
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smurky turkey



Joined: 30 Jan 2022
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PostPosted: Sat Jan 10, 2026 10:50 am Reply with quote
It has Twilight like elements but a few things keep it from being too similar. One is Sooha seemingly being on par or greater than a vampire when it comes to brute strength. Each vampire having a unique ability is welcome too. The school only having lessons at night is a bit silly given the premise, you might as well hang up a sign saying Monster Academy.
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Tony K.
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PostPosted: Sat Jan 10, 2026 5:47 pm Reply with quote
Going into the show and knowing the source material is Korean, just looking at the key art gave me K-pop boy band vibes, and sure enough the OP is even performed by Enhypen. I'm actually kinda' curious to see where this goes. Sooha has super-strength, but is apparently not a vampire or a werewolf, happens to also really hate vampires for some reason, and has this social stigma following her around. As long as the guys each have their own little unique personality quirks and there's some semblance of okay drama/story, it might be enough to keep the show interesting.
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Edjwald



Joined: 03 Aug 2017
Posts: 3510
PostPosted: Thu Jan 15, 2026 9:15 am Reply with quote
Welp, people should start stocking up on MREs, storm candles, and toilet paper, because this is the season I've watched a sexy vampire reverse harem anime, an idol anime, and an anime about a small haunted child and decided to keep watching all of them, at least for now. That's got to be a sign of some kind of apocalypse.

The anime was a lot different than what I was expecting, heavier on the comedy and lighter on the brooding. I think this show has the potential to be what I hoped "The Gorilla God's Go-to Girl" would be.
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Blood-
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PostPosted: Thu Jan 15, 2026 9:54 am Reply with quote
That's all fine and well, Edjwald, but if you start "shipping" Sooha with certain of the boys, I'm gonna have a welfare check done on you. Wink
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Edjwald



Joined: 03 Aug 2017
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PostPosted: Thu Jan 15, 2026 5:24 pm Reply with quote
Blood- wrote:
That's all fine and well, Edjwald, but if you start "shipping" Sooha with certain of the boys, I'm gonna have a welfare check done on you. Wink

Huh? Don't you mean Sooheli? I mean (koff) of course not!
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smurky turkey



Joined: 30 Jan 2022
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PostPosted: Fri Jan 16, 2026 4:26 pm Reply with quote
2:

So the second episode made clear that there are vampire/werwolf hybrids and that the vampire lads might even be artificial/created vampires. Given that the murders are committed by a vampire there is also at least one ''evil'' vampire out there. Yeah, that is plenty to make for a fun season. Sooha being able to control or influence the vampires is also something of note and she did add another to the harem this week.
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Alan45
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PostPosted: Fri Jan 16, 2026 7:19 pm Reply with quote
@smurky turkey I got the impression that she was effecting the werewolves as well as the vampires. They appeared just as shocked at her commands.
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Edjwald



Joined: 03 Aug 2017
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PostPosted: Sat Jan 17, 2026 4:09 am Reply with quote
This mystery element that has our MC being a powerhouse with a weird influence over supernatural creatures - is she some kind of Buffy the Vampire Slayer trope? - and vampires who might be lab experiments amidst the more traditional vampires is one of the more interesting things about the show IMHO.

And I definitely didn't edit out the part about being a member of team Khan.
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Blood-
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PostPosted: Sat Jan 17, 2026 5:33 am Reply with quote
Episode 2

You mooks are ignoring the most important question of all: what the heck is "nightball?" Two of the vamp lads were wearing what looked suspiciously like rugby jerseys... so is nightball simply rugby that's played at night? I guess we'll eventually find out. Solon is still pursuing his hopeless campaign to have the boys limit contact with Sooha. Good luck with that chump, Well, what do you expect from a vampire/werewolf hybrid? Hope that didn't come off as racist... hey, some of my best friends are vampire/werewolf hybrids... honest!

Werepire? Vampolf?
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Edjwald



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PostPosted: Sun Jan 18, 2026 5:35 am Reply with quote
Half human/half vampires (when a vampire gets impregnated by a human the old fashioned way, or a pregnant woman gets bitten) are called dhampir, but a vampire/werewolf hybrid would be a tough one to name well unless you totally made up something that sounded vaguely Romanian. Ah, yes, the legendary Umholdur.

How about mutt? Fangclaw? Oopsy? Melvin?
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Blood-
Bargain Hunter



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PostPosted: Sun Jan 18, 2026 6:44 am Reply with quote
Good, we're agreed: werepire it is!
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