The Fall Anime 2025 Preview Guide - Li'l Miss Vampire Can't Suck Right

Luna Ishikawa is a dark and mysterious vampire—or so she'd like her new classmates to believe. The truth is, while she may be one of the not-so-mythical bloodsuckers, she doesn't really live up to the hype. She's short and clumsy, and she can't even suck blood properly. So when her classmate Tatsuta Ootori discovers her little "drinking problem," he can't help but lend a hand.

Li'l Miss Vampire Can't Suck Right is based on a light novel series by Ren Eguchi and Masa. The anime series is streaming on Crunchyroll on Sundays.

Well, that was cute. Here we have the classic story of the popular high school ice queen and the normal guy who sits beside her. Like these tales tend to go, the ice queen has far more going on underneath than it appears, and after the normal guy discovers her secret, the two become unlikely friends—and eventually romantic foils. However, while the basic framework is far from original, it's what this anime builds on top of it that matters.

Of course, the twist for this anime is right in the title. The ice queen character, Ishikawa, is a vampire. In class, she plays into the stereotype of what people think vampires should be—aka brilliant, poised, and suave as all hell. The problem is, she's inept at the main thing vampires are known for: sucking blood.

What makes this silly plot work is how well it has been thought through. Not drinking blood means she is always hungry—trying to fill the void with any sweets she can shove down (as at least they taste good). Beyond that, without blood, she doesn't have access to her powers, like flight. And once she starts feeding on Otori, the normal guy of the story (who's so normal they don't even bother to animate his face unless strictly needed), we learn that being bad at sucking blood means everything from drinking too much to having to constantly reposition and make more punctures.

Moreover, as Otori gets to know the real Ishikawa, he starts to see the cracks in her facade that no one else notices. Sure, she solves a difficult equation on the board like it's nothing, but doesn't notice the chalk dust covering her sleeve. Then he catches her eating snacks behind her books while pretending to study—absolutely not something a noble vampire would do. It's entertaining and endearing stuff.

All that said, I have so many questions. How has she never sucked blood before? Or does she mean she's never sucked blood from a live person (as opposed to a blood bag or animal)? Are her parents also vampires? Why are they allowing their daughter to starve herself on the daily? But, at the moment, these aren't plot holes. Rather, they show I'm caring enough about this show to want to learn more about the characters and their lives. And frankly, that's a very good sign.

Episode 2 Rating:

Based on the first episode, I was certain that this series was going to be about Luna slowly overcoming her need to act as the “calm and collected, noble vampire” stereotype when in school. Each episode, we'd either get a new character in on the secret or have the characters “in the know” scrambling to preserve the secret with comedy ensuing.

In fact, that's what we basically get for the first half of the episode. Sakuma stumbles upon Luna and Otori in the library when the vampire's not acting in character. While the two try to put the genie back in the bottle, they fail miserably. However, Sakuma, like Otori before her, enjoys both Luna's facade and what's behind it. It's exactly what's expected. Then comes the second half of the episode, where everything goes right off the rails.

Bolstered by Sakuma and Otori's reaction, Luna drops her facade completely—even going so far as to admit her greatest insecurity (that she sucks at sucking) in front of the class at large. Everyone reacts positively to this as it makes Luna far more approachable than before. But while this effectively speedruns the first arc of the story, it uses the resulting chaos to great effect.

Otori is a nobody in class. No one likes him, but no one hates him. He is simply there. Yet, that he had a nebulous, pre-existing relationship with Luna before her coming out makes him the object of attention as much as her—and in a much more negative way. This hits him right in the fight-or-flight reaction—and he chooses flight. This baffles Luna. She did not drop her facade to make new friends or replace Otori—she just wanted not to live a lie if she didn't have to.

In the end, she and Otori have a surprisingly adult conversation about being suddenly thrust into the center of attention and how hard it can be for someone not used to it. And, best of all, there's no simple resolution. Otori doesn't magically get over his hangups. Instead, the best Luna can do is assure Otori that he has a special place in her life and wants him to stay in it—even if he needs to escape the social pressure from time to time.

I have a theory about Li'l Miss Vampire Can't Suck Right: the reason Ishikawa has a hard time biting effectively to break the skin and draw blood is that her fangs are covered in flesh. Go ahead, try biting into an apple with your lips over your teeth. It doesn't work very well, and it hurts! It's like how, before we had surgery and other ways to assist them, babies born with cleft palates often starved to death.

I'm being silly, but that's all I could think of the entire episode. Well, that and how Otori's mouth seems to appear and disappear at will. Li'l Miss Vampire Can't Suck Right is all about gap moe: the incongruity between how she's perceived and carries herself, and how she actually is. Everyone thinks Ishikawa is so cool, but she's actually kind of pathetic! Everyone wishes she would suck them off, but when she's at home, she practices on her stuffed animals! If you're not enthralled by the difference between her facade and her true self, there's nothing to draw you in.

And even if you are, this is another one-joke anime that wears out its welcome by the first episode's midpoint. We really have to stop adapting shows like this as long-form episodes. When a single gag drives a manga, you can read your fill, put it down, and come back to it when you want more milquetoast humor. But when it's adapted into an anime, you're trapped. You have to sit through 22 minutes of pablum, or at least you do if you're reviewing it. Every time my husband got up to do some minor task during the episode, I watched him turn away from the TV screen without pausing with envy in my heart.

It's competently produced, at least, even if the writing was mind-numbingly dull. Director Sayaka Yamai and series composer Yuniko Ayana have both worked on highly acclaimed series that I love, so I can only assume they were bound to crummy manga source material. The animation looked pretty, but some of the stylistic choices were mind-boggling. Nauseating flesh-fang aside, why do Otori's features appear and disappear at random? Why is Ishikawa's sweater falling off one shoulder?

This episode was called “Li'l Miss Vampire is Very Bad,” and you know what? They nailed it right there. This anime…. …. …. Sucks!

I know that moe as a generic designation has fallen out of favor, but more than anything Lil' Miss Vampire Can't Suck Right reminded me of the anime of the moe boom of the mid-00's. You know, the series that were more about gawking at helpless babywomen more than presenting anything resembling a story or characters that resemble people. It was a dark time for the anime industry, folks; rather than ending, moe culture has become more or less the background radiation for the majority of series that come out. Lil' Miss Vampire Can't Suck Right just has more of it in its DNA than most other series.

I… don't like moe. I mean, I do like some series that engage with moe culture, but they have a sense of purpose and intent other than, “She's so cute and helpless and I want to protect her!” I've never cared for cuteness for its own sake, which this show is steeped in. Every time Luna melted into a super-deformed toddler or spoke in lisping baby-talk, I wished I could just turn off my TV and never think of this show again. It's just… deeply condescending.

I suppose it does deserve some credit for gesturing at being about something. Luna has become so preoccupied with maintaining the image of what she thinks a vampire should be that she's never been connected with her classmates. That changes when her classmate Sakuma walks in on her suckling Otori's arm and, from there, manages to put together the pieces that maybe Luna isn't as cool as she's been putting on. Her ready acceptance of both sides of Luna's personality encourages her to drop the act just a bit. This does improve things – Sakuma has a touch more personality than Otori, whose faceless exterior matches perfectly with his bland interior. But when Otori starts moping around because he thinks Luna shouldn't hang out with a loser like him, it feels completely out of left field.

Plus, an overdone theme like this needs something more punchy to keep it interesting. This season alone we already have the equally bland My Awkward Senpai and the toothier With You, Our Love Will Make it Through. Stories where the moral is that you should embrace your true self are a dime a dozen and just as hackneyed as the phrase “a dime a dozen.” If I want a story about the mismatch between expectations and reality, I have plenty of more memorable choices, and so do you.

Remember when monster girls were all the craze? That's all I was thinking when I was watching this premiere because it feels like a show that should've come out a couple of years ago. The idea of monster girls living in a traditional Japanese high school setting isn't really anything new. Unfortunately, there's only so much you can do with that setup while sticking in a relatively lighthearted genre. The first episode of Li'l Miss Vampire doesn't really reinvent the wheel or anything, but I did think it was cute enough..

I like that the show doesn't try to overexplain its setting, we're just living in an era where supernatural beings and deities live amongst people although some choice words did make it sound like there is more going on to keep the peace than what we saw in the episode. I hope I get more of that as time goes on and the cast expands. Outside of that, it's just two awkward teenagers learning to get along and share a secret amongst each other. If you do it well, that's arguably all you really need, even though I do question the longevity of that premise. It looks like there is a more extended cast, but based on what we've seen so far, they do feel boring, and, weirdly, it looks like almost all of them are just going to be normal humans. I hope I'm wrong, but if you're going to introduce a world populated by monster girls, have some genuine fun with that premise, don't play it safe.

I feel like the show premiere is also a bit stylistically inconsistent. I love the design of our main heroine, and it's probably one of my favorite high school girl vampire designs I've seen in a while. I know that her design is supposed to clash with her male costar, whose design is so simple to the point where he doesn't even have a mouth, but he legit looks like he's drawn in a completely different art style. Most of the time, it takes me out of it more than it's making me laugh. The voice acting, I think, does a better job of carrying that distinction between the two. Our male lead is basically a mom looking after his child, which got me pretty good. Also, I do like the joke about how our titular vampire goes into a bit of a chibi mode whenever she gets excited. The show addresses it but doesn't clarify whether it's a visual metaphor or something she is actually doing, which I think is hilarious. I don't see this being the breakout of the season, but I think there's enough here that could keep me relatively satisfied for now.

Episode 2 Rating:

Is it just me, or did the main issue in the first episode resolve rather quickly here? The main premise of Li'l Miss Vampire Can't Suck Right seemed to be about perception versus reality. Luna is actually an anxious little goober, but she's trying very hard to give off the appearance of a very capable and mysterious vampire. This episode is all about her having her façade found out and everybody loving her for being a little bit more silly. In a lot of ways, it feels like people would love her no matter what she does, but it's hard to say if that's because of who she is or because she's a vampire. Will the show do anything with that? Or is it just going to focus on more school mishaps?

There isn't anything wrong with that. I feel like this episode had a better heart to it than the first one did. I did like the final third of the episode, tying into Tatsuta's insecurities, but I think it would've been better if we had established that he was a lot more socially awkward and isolated earlier. Luna points out that he seemed just fine communicating with people, but he hand-waves it as him just getting swept up in everything. However, that's not how those scenes come off. It's definitely a little forced and comes off more like the show needed to fill in the rest of the episode's runtime with a conflict that it could resolve.

It feels like the main conflict of the premise was pretty much resolved. Now my question is, what is the rest going to be about? Is it just silly, wacky fun from this point? Is it just about Luna learning how to be a better vampire? Is there even a point in her being a “better” vampire if the whole point of that was to get people to like her? It does make me wonder if these questions are a good or bad thing because I have to wait until next week to answer them.