Vampire in the Garden

There was no possibility I could dislike vampire lesbian love story. And I did like it.

Vampires and Humans fight with one another. And a vampire and a human fall in love with each other. Both fractions wanna separate them "for their own good". There is absolutely no way the story of the story ending with happily ever after.

Both protagonists are cool and trully commited to the relationship they have. They are willing to do whatever it takes to be together.

(It has this USSR aestetic but thanksfully they didn't go deep into it bec the Russian in this anime is horrible).

The series has a sweet story and takes a different approach to the vampire-human subject. Although the anime has a sweet story, it also has a dark side. It's nice to watch the character development of Fine and Momo and it's fun to watch the friendship between them. Learning about the backgrounds of the characters as the episodes progress makes the story even more complementary. It's nice that the anime uses music and dance as a unifier. In addition to all of them, the drawing techniques are also beautiful and sweet. If you want to watch a short and sweet anime, I recommend you to watch Vampire in the Garden.

This story is excellent. It's not a *new* story by any means. Two people from warring cultures/classes/species/etc running away from the destiny that has been laid out for them. But it's told very competently and got me genuinely invested.

Animation and design wise it's beyond beautiful. Everything is so fluid. The characters have large areas of minimal detail on their bodies so when the detail DOES show up it pops out in perfect contrast. I want to point some special attention to the blood and water as well. It's gorgeous.

The show plays more like a two and a half hour movie than an actual SHOW. It's only five episodes long and I think it could have benefitted from one or two more. The pacing felt a little bit quick in places and I would have loved to see more time spent getting to know Fine and Momo before the inevitable plot hits the fan. I would also say the show is a bit too heavy handed in its metaphors and foreshadowing in one or two places. These flaws only knock one star off because, even when it was very obvious something bad was going to happen I was still interested in exactly how it played out. So it didn't necessarily take me out of the story.

Every other criticism I have is kind of a nitpick though the biggest nit I have to pick is I really wanted more worldbuilding. And I suppose wanting more is better than having everything overexplained and being disappointed by it. If you like vampires or stories about people on the run, or just REALLY pretty animation, give this a watch. You wont be disappointed.

Vampire in the Garden (2022) is a series that my daughter and I recently watched together on Netflix. The storyline follows an ongoing battle between humans and vampires for resources and land. As the vampires appear ready to emerge and take over a relationship is born between a human girl and a princess within the vampires that may change the course of history...

This series is from Hiroyuki Tanaka (Attack on Titan) and contains the voices of Kellen Goff (My Hero Academia), Xanthe Huynh (Saints Row), Larissa Gallagher (Harley Quinn) and Yû Kobayashi (Attack on Titan).

The animation and depiction of the universe this takes place in is excellent. The backdrops and. Cinematography to scale are great. The action scenes are also good, there's great kills, gore and blood splatter. Unfortunately, the storyline is straightforward and a bit cliche. The ending is sad and well done but predictable.

Overall, this is a worthwhile watch and well done but won't standout in the genre. I would score this a 6.5/10 and recommend seeing it once.

+ Gorgeous animation and design.

+ Fascinating world which will make you want to learn about it more.

+ Interesting characters who will make you want to know them better.

+ Classical vampires.

+ Zero fan service. Very few anime tropes. It almost feels like a Studio Ghibli movie.

• At only five episodes, it is just way too short. It is more like a movie broken up into 5 episodes. All other problems are due to this.

• Lots of unanswered questions about the lore.

• We barely scratch the surface of said fascinating world.

• Not nearly enough time given to characters to understand them.

• The conclusion of the story feels abrupt and pointless.