Servamp

This review is made with those who have read some of the other reviews, but are still undecided, in mind.

I decided to watch this anime since I remember reading the first couple of chapters of the manga a few years ago. While I have no idea how the manga progressed, considering this anime was only 12 episodes while the manga is still publishing, it's obviously not going to follow the manga to a tee; that being said, that doesn't mean it can't be great on its own. Unfortunately, while I find myself wanting to read the manga, it's because I want to know just how ... badly the anime screwed things up.

Story: 5
The story premise is decent enough, but the progression in the anime was awful. There was one episode towards the end where a good chunk was the backstory of a character that did practically nothing for the plot; what was covered could have easily been summarized into two minutes of brief flashbacks (as opposed to the long ones) so the viewer could understand a few of the dynamics between this character and a few of the others. On the other hand, some of the most anticipated battles get...well, no screen time. And the ending of the series was pretty much the default ending for a few of the episodes, since apparently, the writers couldn't be bothered to create a special final line for the last episode.

Art: 6
The art was interesting at times, but ultimately, nothing special.

Sound: 5
The opening is heavy metal, so I'll admit I was biased towards it, not being a fan of that genre. I tried to listen the whole way through the first time but just couldn't bring myself to. The closing is pretty random for the series and a total contrast to the opening. While there is music throughout much of the series (courtesy of one of the characters), the music played often feels misplaced, making it even annoying. The sound of one of the characters (hint, the one who says "happy birthday") I felt was well done.

Character: 4
The main character Mahiru was made annoying; by that, I don't mean his character type (which is also annoying), but I mean he was literally made to be especially annoying even for his type. How many times do we have to be reminded about how he likes things "simple" (his definition of simple isn't the average)? Turns out quite often. Kuro, the other main character, is actually the only character I cared for in the whole anime by the end; kitty Kuro and his silly moments are actually some of the few highlights of the show for me.
Besides those two, we have the tsundere friend; the two extra friends who have almost no screen time outside of the first episode; the snobby rich kid; the "hot" guy who appears to be a lolicon (which none of the characters even comment on...); and featuring the villain who is psycho but with some "sad" backstory...actually, make that villains. That's not even all of them, but you get the idea. Granted, stereotypical character types can still be done well to where the characters don't feel recycled, but in this anime they aren't.

Enjoyment: 5
The best way to watch this is probably to binge-watch and finish it in a day or two; it retains some entertainment value at least since you keep anticipating those revelations and epic battle scenes, while not giving yourself enough time to get frustrated that they still haven't showed up, just to let all the disappointment and frustration sink in after you finished. I personally binge-watched, finished the series in two days, and looking back I don't want to think about how I would be feeling if I had watched this weekly as it was airing.

Overall: 5
To be honest, I'm probably being generous, but there's a lot worse out there in my opinion. I can't compare this to the source of material (the manga), as much as I wish I could. I can only assume that they crammed as much as they could, based on what was published, to try to create a full series while making an alternative ending; an ending which, quite frankly, sucked. If you have free time, and have nothing better to watch, go ahead and watch Servamp. Otherwise, go ahead and watch the next series on your to-watch list.

well first review, here goes, some minor spoilers and it probably wont make sense until you watch it

Servamp is an anime about a plain protagonist who enjoys simple things who accidentally takes in a shut-in emo catboy vampire. He has to learn to use his newfound powers as he is now an eve of the servamp of sloth and must defeat the villain guy.

story:
The story is... poor to say the least. The villain was honestly pretty boring and i couldn't undertand his motivations throughout the entire show. The show kept throwing characters at us instead of trying to make us take the plot more seriously. ... The stakes felt non existant and the resolution felt extremely rushed. I'm not fully sure if something is meant to come after this but is there is it still has a lot of thing it needs to answer. Who is the guy who created servamps and why did he do it? Whats with all the weird powers of an eve and servamp? Why can the mc change his weapon all of a sudden? how do the servamps know they die if their object gets destroyed when none of them have spoken to their creator? Where are the other servamps? Why is C3 a thing and what's the deal with them? Why does emo catboy have a lion form? What was the villain even trying to accomplish i still don't know??

art:
the art was pretty decent. The designs were good. The emo catboy Kuro was the whole reason why i decided to watch the show in the first place. I saw him, blacked out, and by the time i realised i had finished the whole anime (man i wish he had more screentime). The mc had the most boring design, i guess it makes sense since his whole thing is liking simple stuff but he couldv'e at least had a bit more of a unique design if we have to stare at him for the majority of the show. The world itself felt pretty empty, the backgrounds were nothing special and did the bare minimum of establishing a setting. The animation felt very stiff. The fighting lacked any kind of impact or force and felt ~muddy~. There wasn't any glaring issues with the art that took all of my attention though so i can't complain too much. Kuro's design is amazing though i still can't get over it


sound:
very good, nothing to complain about in this department. wasn't particularly memorable but was servicable. The opening theme was pretty fun


characters:
i mentioned earlier how this anime just kept shoving characters in with barely any development. The 2 exceptions to this would be the blonde hedgehog guy and his eve, angel piano boy. They had a super fun dynamic and had a lot of character growth. i got pretty invested in those 2. kuro, while his design was my favourite, was pretty boring. i'm not fully sure i understood his regrets but it was nice seeing him actually face his problems at the end. the grell rip off was annoying, the villain was stupid, green hair guy should've had a romance subplot with the mc, the coffin guy and pride were boring, and there were loads of others that were pretty disappointing. Luckily the mc was actually kind of smart and i could appreciate his independant mindset and all that, though he wasn't very memorable. I'm assuming the manga handled all of these characters a lot better but i haven't read it yet so i can't confirm.


final thoughts:
i mean, it could've been worse. would i recommend it? not really no, if you are gonna watch it don't set your expectations too high. There's some funny moments and some character interactions were an absolute treat but nothing special. it managed to keep my attention for the most part

at 5/10, not offensively bad, not terribly good either, i don't regret the watch though

Was a show I put on in the morning while I was getting ready, so I didn't put my full attention into watching it, but I was able to get the main premise of the show and the characters, etc. Like, was not bad in the slightest, but it was nothing something that I first put on and was like, "omg, I'm going to like this show" which is somewhat disappointing because I had this in my 'plan to watch' section for about three years, and I was waiting for the perfect time to begin it. It is a very typical vampire anime, with very ... basic storylines and development. if you want a show where you do not need to think while watching it, or to have an anime you can put on in the background while doing other things like getting ready, sweeping or doing dishes, I would recomment it, but its nothing life changing.

First of all I'm a big fan of the manga from this anime, so that's why I thought it would become really good but it really failed..

From Ep. 1-3 it's exactly like in the manga, after that they deleted scenes, changed scenes which where really good and make them worse. It's the first anime I have seen where they have used important scenes to make them as short as possible to let them run concurrently just like in the episode with C3.
For me it looks like they just want to bring everything in 12 episodes as fast as they can do.
The anime based on ... one big annoying problem called "Friendship". It may would become a little bit better if they had used 1 or 2 'friendship moments/sentence' what ever fewer.
The characters are interesting but not really that good. We have 7+1 vampires and there Eve's and a few freaks from C3 and a strange Doctor, that's it.

[I'm sorry if my english is not that good]

As someone who never read the manga, this at first was an alright vampire anime with pretty good art and character development. Half way through it took a lot of effort just to sit through a whole episode without falling asleep or getting up and doing something else... watched most of the series in 5-10 minute pieces. Started off at about a 7.5/10 but slowly got to about a 4.5-5/10. I was very disappointed that after all the action/anticipation the ending is not completed with a "season finale battle" so to speak. Don't worry, that's not a spoiler to anything but this being a bland ... anime. Thanks for reading!

SPOILERS: THIS REVIEW CONTAIN SPOILERS

Story: The story center around Mahiru. As a kid that he grew up after his mother is dead his uncle decide to adopt him as his own and learn the phrase "simple is best". Which is a great phrase... That I should learn.
Hence he adopt a cat and name him Kuro. One day after coming back from school he found a man in his home watching TV and eating some cup noodle.
He warn Mahiru to not to say his name but since this is a shounen anime which I have no idea why this is a shoujo anime. ... He has to open his mouth and BAM those two are bound together for at 24 hrs unless Kuro have Mahiru blood. Once his friend got stab by a servamp or a servant vampire. He has been bond together as vampire and eve as he try to stop the Tsubaki also the 8th servamp.

Art and animation: The animation is like the show is not bad but is not great as well. Oh don't get me wrong there are some great art in the series that look fantastic like Kuro mental state of problem and Hydes past but other than that nothing special. I usually don't called out studio but I'm gonna do it this time. Brain's base I expected better from you. This is the same studio who made Baccano, Natsume yuujinchou, Durarara and one of my favorite sport anime from 2016 cheer boys. I just felt it could be better a little bit as specially the ED. Like, ok... I get it kekkai sensen ED was pretty popular... can we move on from that ED?? Then we have the OP.... I'm not gonna talk about it here.

Characters: No offense but Mahiru is bland. He is a typical shounen protagonist like Nagai kei from Ajin. A simple guy that wants to live in a simple life but he couldn't. I don't see him as a MC hell I don't see any of the characters in the series needed besides from Hydes, Mikumi and Licht. None of them get any character development that they should have gotten. Misano is a little angry little shouta. While, Testu is a character that should be in Hatsukoi monster instead of this series and the rest were there to be there characters. The only point that Mahiru to be there is for the faint of his friend, Sakuya. We learn that Sakuya is a sub-class of Tsubaki. Sub-class are the human almost dying then turn into a servamp. Sub-classes are not allowed to disobey the master order. Therefore, Sakuya must follow his master order Tsubaki and disobey if he wants to live. Tsubaki is a psychotic villain that likes to make bad puns like Fango without the puns from 91 days but his character is different. Unlike Fango which is a psychotic person throughout the series. Tsubaki is a person that actually have some caring side to him showing that he does care for his sub-classes. Most psychotic characters will go psychotic to everyone even his own minions. unfortunately, this series doesn't like to keep a lot of good thing. Like the OP(still not talking about that yet). Now for the other servamp they are barely develop. I mean Doubt-Doubt has nothing special going on beside having a boxes as his head. Lily is nothing but a stripper, making kids to sub-classes and finding the reason why Mikumi and his brother can't like each other. Also we never get to see the Gluttony and Warth besides flashback and there is the buildup between the battle of the 7 servamp and Tsubaki. Kuro is the best character next to Tsubaki. Cute in cat form and the distance between the other servamp and seeing him not being one of the best servamp so Mahiru can actually proceed and snap him out of his order of mental despair. now we the best character Hydes. Introduces in the middle of the series I thought that he is gonna be the worst character of the entire series. However episode 10 happen and change my perspective of his character (not gonna spoil anything).

Now for the OP... I HATE THE OPENING. Is so hard listen and hard to get into it. Sure the visual were ok. But the song... You got OLDCODEX. I REPEAT OLDCODEX AND YOU WASTED THEIR TALENT. Usually I won't be this mad... But I enjoy some oldcodex AND YOU WASTED IT. They sang a lot of my favorite op and ed.

<<Now please skip this part of the review as I am gonna talk about finale of the show and why it felt flat. So if you want to watch servamp skip to recommendation>>

Now for the climax that we are waiting for... A hug... Are you kidding A HUG?! We have waited for an epic battle... the climax was real and it was real and you gave us a hug at the end. So why is Tsubaki mad and angry??? Nobody loves him. You are kidding me... Tsubaki a psychotic person that make a raining storm of sword out of the sky, has an army of sub-classes and mess with people mind for love?! That is stupid and NO you can't do such a thing. That sort ending can happen if they warn us a few episode back. take Shouwa we already know how is it gonna end as they show us in the first epsiode. This is the biggest problem of servamp. What the hell do you want to do?? Similar to Re:zero, servamp does not know what to be. Does it want to be a serious action anime or does it want to be a comedy action anime?? Hence it felt the series is doing too much overall. In the end is quite fun to watch but I see many other series does it better.

Recommendation: So... do I recommend it... No... Not really... like I say is not great but is also not bad. However I do recommend it as an anime to get some time off your back if you have nothing to watch... Go watch servamp.

Other recommendation: Noragami where the human and spirits fight together but instead of spirit is vampire. Then we have Owari no seraph both uses vampires and human relationship a little bit better than servamp.

So servamp get an overall score of 5.5 out of 10. Like I say not bad but not good either.

So would I say that servamp to be the worst anime of 2016?? OH HELL NO... I have sat through big order, bloodivores, Taboo tattoo and hundred.

I am writing this review as a big fan of the manga. Please do consider reading it, as it is MUCH BETTER than the anime. The anime does the series a LARGE disservice, pushing away potential readers. If it was mere promotional material for the manga then sure I guess it put it out there, but it's still one of the worst adaptations I've seen to date.

I wish I'd done this sooner so more people would've read the manga. Alas, we can't always have nice things.

Story - 6/10
I know the story from the manga, so I rated this higher. If I'd only watched the anime ... I'd probably give it a 4. Whoever the director was, I don't know what you eat for breakfast, but I don't think it's good given the quality you've given for this series. The studio could've made it better had this anime gotten a different staff, probably. The delivery in the anime was so...I don't even know where to start. So many nuances and neccessary build-ups lost. So much compressing plot points. If this were a 24-ish episode adaptation, I'm willing to bet it'd become a shounen powerhouse (not that it's labelled a shounen, but whatever, it's shounen enough). I will edit this review later to actually argue but right now I'm just so mad so I'm sorry.

Anyway, there are many alterations and cuts done from the original source material. Maybe so it'd all fit in the 13 episode cour. Nonetheless it was a futile attempt...again I will edit this when I've calmed down so this text is basically filler.

Art - 3/10

I'm sorry character designers but. BUT. I am not an artist, I respect your work. But to downgrade Tanaka STRIKE's art like this was not pleasant at all. I had to rewire everything and lower my standards to appreciate it. The manga's art was stellar, some of the best character designs in my opinion, for both males and females (though there are way more males here).

If I were to rate animation, it'd be 5. Such a waste on a studio with acclaimed titles, really. The fight scenes were ok. I just. I just WISH it had the fluidity of the manga.

Sound - 4/10

This rating will likely change. As a fan of the artists who sang the openings and endings, I think they were okay. But the soundtrack overall was lacking.

Character - 6

The characters from the manga were brilliantly written. Here, I don't know what happened to some of them but....ah. Whatever lol. Will edit this to explain more.

Enjoyment - 6

As a huge seiyuu fan, hearing these characters was literally the only thing keeping me from watching (they did a great job okay). And seeing them animated I guess.

Overall - 5

Just. READ THE MANGA PLEASE. YOU WON'T REGRET IT.

In a nutshell this story is about a teenager named Mahiru who finds a stray cat who he finds out to be a vampire. The vampire, Kuro, is a servamp (servant vampire) and they end up making a contract after getting attacked by another vampire. The story follows Mahiru, Kuro, and more people they meet along the way trying to stop the main antagonist Tsubaki from killing and such.

Characters - 9/10

The characters have nice designs. The servamps are basically the seven deadly sins (one of the characters being "the 8th" one) so it's easy to remember them. They don't get into all of their ... backstories, only Kuro (Sloth) and Hyde (Greed). My favorite character would have to be Licht. I found his personality the most interesting and he was entertaining while on screen. Something I have to note are the interactions between the characters. They have lovely bonds and connections that are just nice to see. We're also able to see character development for a few of the characters.

Story - 7/10

I wish they had gone more in depth with the story. It felt like there needed to be more explained about Tsubaki's character as well as the other sins who weren't in it too much. Kuro and Hyde being able to find resolvement for what happened in their pasts was one of my favorite things about the story.

Art - 8/10

I enjoyed the art style and the animation. Not much to say about this topic lol

Overall - 8/10

It was pretty decent and I enjoyed watching it. It's a show I would recommend, it's nice to see for fun.

Plot: 8
Compared to Vampire Knight, at least I got a good action vampire plot from this anime. Having a vampire as a servant is quite cool and it's the first anime I've watched with such theme. Well, in terms of originality, I must deduct points for that because it's kinda of quite your typical master-slave relationship.

Characters: 6
I'll just be discussing some characters here.

Mahiru: A typical must save all peace loving main character. Not fond of him but at he doesn't annoy me as much as the girl in Code Breaker. Shows some character development at the very end of the episodes (somewhere between ... 10-12ep). However, I felt distant with the character. I don't know much about him. Where's his father, where's his uncle gone too? etc.

Kuro: I kind of like his lazy ass character. At least his not the typical cool, cold protagonist. However, so many questions left unanswered about him. I wish they developed his character a bit more. And also, his true powers, I wish they show more of his true, awesome powers as the first creation of the servamps! All I got to see is his sloppy side. Minus points for that.

Tsubaki: A moderate villain with lots of potential. Like Mahiru and Kuro, there's nothing much to this character. There's no character development at all. Like, I still don't know why is he in so much despair or why is he even created in the first place. Where does he come from? Whose' his Eve? He must have on since the others need one too.

OP: 7
Nice opening. Usually not my cup of tea but this one grabs my attention.

Over all: 6.

I would love to rate this story as high as 8.5 because with the kind of plot and foundations of awesome characters with cool powers, this story can go far. It could be even up par to SNK and the rest cool most favourited anime. But because of the plot holes, the rushed ending, the undeveloped character, I could only give a 6. Nevertheless, I still enjoy watching it, it still got me hook yet the last few episodes are kind of dragging (for me).

I'm actually taking the time to write this review because in consideration to the others, this particular show isn't "Bad". I actually gave it a 9.

Why? Well like stated below, the characters are real. Not only based off of their portrayed "labels", but in reality, tell me one time any of us have not crumbled under the "friendship".

also lets remember the ages in these anime. If you are older than 17+...of course you may not feel like it can resonate with you!! the largest watching party is normally in high school or early college!

It gets better, if you already made it to episode 4, ... i can promise by 5, 6, 7 it slowly becomes a lot like "seraph of the end" and stuff. I get the feeling that this wasn't created by the most professional or experienced artists, so with that in mind...they REALLY did a good job.

(Non-Spoiler Review)

Upon starting this anime, I had high expectations (for some random reason). I'd heard it around enough times that I assumed it would be really good. But boy was I disappointed. Torn between a 6 or a 7, the overall rating I had to give it was a 6.

Most animes peak either in the middle or are great straight off the bat, only to progressively get worse, or (more rare) are good all the way throughout. Rarely ever have I seen an anime slowly get better within 2-3 episodes and then drop back to bad within a couple minutes.

Within about 2 episodes ... of watching Servamp I had determined that it was a waste of my time. But I pushed through, cause like I said, most animes will pick up from episode 3 onwards at least.

The plot seemed a bit.. childish. The premise was interesting but the way it was executed was childish. The MC was whiny and annoying and his character development wasn't even worth sticking around for. It lowkey seemed all over the place. If anything, Servamp got worst as I went along. Most of the characters follow the usual tropes, in other words, they weren't original at all. The MC was definitely the worst character, he had literally no redeeming qualities. Three of the characters had their own catchphrase that could turn this anime into a drinking game ("Not interesting at all", "what a pain" and "thinking simply"). I could list so many other flaws, but the anime does actually have some good points.

Firstly, despite how annoying the MC was, I liked his backstory. I liked the reason why he always stepped up to be that "someone". It made sense, lowkey hit me in the feels and I was excited to see where it would take him (it didn't take him anywhere but we're focusing on the good). Secondly, though most of the characters were stereotypical, some were quite enjoyable. They were all pretty eccentric and quirky in their own way, but overall likable. Some of the side characters feel a little underdeveloped, and although that would usually be fine, this anime gives them some unnecessary screen time for being underdeveloped side characters. It made me feel like they were important but then never went further to develop them.

And here's why I struggled between a 6 and a 7. Hyde, Licht and Tsubaki are the best characters in the show by far. Ofc, personal opinion, but Hyde and Licht carried the show for me. Everything turned around for me when a whole episode was dedicated to Hyde's back story, and it made me appreciate the pair a lot more. I loved the character and relationship development, the backstory was really good, I wish they had shown more of Licht's.

Then Tsubaki was amusing from the very first episode (which I think he was in, if not, second episode). They had dropped subtle hints of his character from the beginning, which Sakuya played the perfect role in (sidenote: Sakuya was also a very good character and miles better than the MC, understandably doesn't get that much air time as he is a side character for most of it). His backstory was also spot on and I wish they had shown more of it, it felt like it was rushed through as it was only shown towards the end.

And aside from the final couple of minutes feeling like a mess that was quickly put together, the episodes prior to that were the peak of this show for me. Maybe it was just because it was the climax, but the quality just seemed to get better. I was definitely more invested within 3 episodes, had liked the characters more and didn't want it to end. The MC also didn't have that as much screen time towards the end as he did throughout everything, so maybe that's why lol.

Overall, it wasn't as bad as I thought it was when I was watching in the beginning. I really thought I would've rated this a 4, if not for the sudden shift in priority with the characters. I wouldn't say it makes this worth watching though, hence the 6. I'd recommend this if you've exhausted every mid anime possible (by personal opinion and preference), but otherwise, you're better of finding something else.

Sidenote: Kuro is funny and has a somewhat relatable personality. However, he is glued to the MC and so that naturally decreases the quality of his air time from an 8 to a 4.

I was expecting that this anime would suck, but it didn’t. It was able to make me finish the whole season, at least. The story isn’t that solid, even the pacing was all over the place. I won’t say that this anime is the best or bad, it’s at least watchable.

The art and animation was on par with other animes released last year. The action scenes were done poorly. The characters other than the main ones were boring and too 2D. It’s they were just place there. The main characters, Kuro and Mahiru had great character development, especially the latter. I also liked the development ... of Hyde and Licht, to a point I find them more entertaining than the main duo. I do hope they’ll improve the story in the 2nd season.

If your a fan of bromance and handsome guys, then this anime is just for you.

this show definitely had potential to be interesting if it had a second season or a longer first season, because the concept of "servant vampires" that also themselves have servant vampires is interesting, especially combined with the seven deadly sins theme, but the pacing in this show was an absolute fucking trainwreck. it was almost impossible to keep track of any character's name because as soon as one shows up, so do one or two others immediately after (if not at the same time). the characters are all visually very danganronpa-esque, which maybe could have worked if there was more than one (maybe two or ... three if you count mahiru's irrelevant friend and the glasses guy from the organization) simple design to balance things out, or if more than a handful of the characters had actual significant backstories and personalities. it's really almost heartbreaking how bland this was, especially with such a stacked cast (kenjirou and junichi!!! who each had less than three speaking lines/appearances), so i guess i'm glad that all i have left of this series is the movie :/