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This Week in Anime - How Case Study of Vanitas is Bringing Sexy Vampires Back




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Mami-kouga



Joined: 19 Jan 2021
Posts: 148
PostPosted: Thu Aug 12, 2021 10:22 am Reply with quote
I have such a particular fondness for this show, both the humour and writing. Aside from it being overwhelmingly beautiful, it's also pretty fun seeing bits of in hindsight characterisation recontextualise the way certain characters tend to act (though ATM we've mostly seen this with Noe, though hints of it are shown with Vanitas and Domi as well).
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Chiibi



Joined: 19 Dec 2011
Posts: 4828
PostPosted: Thu Aug 12, 2021 10:27 am Reply with quote
"Bringing them back"? I was never aware that they "left". Laughing *points to Owari No Seraph*
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tintor2



Joined: 11 Aug 2010
Posts: 1804
PostPosted: Thu Aug 12, 2021 10:35 am Reply with quote
Well, vampires have often been associated with these types of relationships so Vanitas' sudden approach to that vampire is defnitely on purpose. I think people who remember Strike the Blood and Valvrave are aware.

When I started watching the anime, I had no idea what was the story about based on the opening and certain parts of the lyrics.... you know. For some reason I remembered Black Butler when seeing the series (though Vanitas kinda reminds me to Yato from Noragami)
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Mami-kouga



Joined: 19 Jan 2021
Posts: 148
PostPosted: Thu Aug 12, 2021 10:40 am Reply with quote
tintor2 wrote:
(though Vanitas kinda reminds me to Yato from Noragami)


Bright blue eyes, black hair, kind of an over the top prick, goes super cold and unnerving at the drop of a hat, 10 layers of unresolved trauma (probably)
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chrisb
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Joined: 07 May 2006
Posts: 614
Location: USA
PostPosted: Thu Aug 12, 2021 1:40 pm Reply with quote
My favorite thing about this show so far is its horror imagery. The main villain’s shadowy ghost demon form is genuinely unsettling and I love it. I miss when bad guys in anime weren’t always hot and/or complex.
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Tanteikingdomkey



Joined: 03 Sep 2008
Posts: 2345
PostPosted: Thu Aug 12, 2021 2:19 pm Reply with quote
I am curious to hear peoples thoughts on this. Can we call noe a black albino vampire?
Because the guy has white hair and red eyes. meanwhile he is by far the darkest skinned character in the series
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Chiibi



Joined: 19 Dec 2011
Posts: 4828
PostPosted: Thu Aug 12, 2021 7:37 pm Reply with quote
Tanteikingdomkey wrote:
I am curious to hear peoples thoughts on this. Can we call noe a black albino vampire?
Because the guy has white hair and red eyes. meanwhile he is by far the darkest skinned character in the series


Lol...I have also seen tan-skinned characters with white hair (like Gin in Assassin's Pride ♥) but it's probably just an aesthetic choice of "he looks cool this way". I don't think the character's ethnicity plays a part in this, necessarily.

If I were to analyze this deeper, I personally wouldn't call Noe "black" since he doesn't have any distinct POC features aside from the darker skin. But you can certainly call him whatever you want.
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Zeino



Joined: 19 May 2017
Posts: 1098
PostPosted: Thu Aug 12, 2021 11:55 pm Reply with quote
I think what set Vanitas apart from other gothic aesthetic and vampire series is much Jun Mochizuki is a very meticulously writer who has clearly done her research and thought long and hard about her story's themes. This isn't just a erotically charged bisexual adventure romp but a story about facing death, finding meaning in it and all that entails. The titular character's name is a symbolic work of art showing the transience of life, the futility of pleasure, and the certainty of death, often contrasting symbols of wealth and symbols of ephemerality and death.

And if you know anything about Jun Mochizuki from reading her past work, Pandora Hearts, is that she can be absolutely merciless to her characters, right up there with Gen Urobuchi and Yoshiyuki Tomino. This will be a series that has bittersweet ending at best. The ending of first chapter/episode gives you fair warning of what to expect.
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SHD



Joined: 05 Apr 2015
Posts: 1752
PostPosted: Fri Aug 13, 2021 6:22 am Reply with quote
Vanitas is the kind of show that I would have been all over in my early stages of watching anime, but now it just reminds me just how much my taste has changed in ways I still can't figure out. Technically I'm right there in the target demographics, I like all of the individual elements, but when I tried watching the show I just couldn't, for my life, get interested in it. There's nothing wrong with the show itself, but it's not my cup of tea anymore.

Tanteikingdomkey wrote:
I am curious to hear peoples thoughts on this. Can we call noe a black albino vampire?
Because the guy has white hair and red eyes. meanwhile he is by far the darkest skinned character in the series

But the point of albinism is the lack of pigment. People with albinism don't usually have red eyes (it's usually light blue, if at all different from the "normal" color), and black people with albinism have white skin, or at least a skin that is much lighter than what it would be otherwise. Google Kenosha Robinson or Thando Hopa.
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enurtsol



Joined: 01 May 2007
Posts: 14746
PostPosted: Fri Aug 13, 2021 7:26 am Reply with quote
When was it not sexy?
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