Tonari no Kyuuketsuki-san

Vampire Loli Check
Yuri Check
Slice of life Check
Comedy Check
Tonari no kyuuketski-san/ Ms.Vampire who lives in my neighborhood is a delightful slice of life series with yuri and a bit of supernatural element as one the mc being a Vampire Loli, yes indeed.
Story revolves around a Normal everyday girl called Akari who ls fond of cute things like especially dolls and dresses etc.One day she hears stories about a haunted mansion in her neighborhood and eventually meets up with our Vampire Loli Sophie. Well Sophie looks like any other cute looking loli with cute and beautiful features and precisely a bit like a doll, which immediately ... makes her take a liking to her and grows affectionate, and has desires of wanting to cuddle with her and dress up in cute dresses etc.

Sophie on the other hand surprised a human isn't afraid after knowing of her true identity and being in a solitary life is quite not sure how to respond but still doesnt mind being with her and she accepts her friendship and as the story progresses Akari invites herself to live with sophie which was quite surprising as even her parents granted her permission. And Voila Begins the daily Life of a Vampire loli with her new friend who is obsessed over to the point she even drools thinking about all the cute stuff she can make sophie do.

The Daily life story of this anime also pans around how an ancient being sophie is able to adapt to the modern world for example buying Blood online for her daily use, being a small time otaku, surfing on the internet, reading manga's , sleeping with body pillows which is really amazing , funny and enjoyable to watch.

Other characters such as Akari's friend Hinata and Sophie's friend Ellie are really interesting too both having a extra soft side for their respective friends and their parts in the story are really nicely involved and depicted.
Music is really Enjoyable as well as the animation is really well done by Studio Gokumi, AXsiZ.

Overall if you like a nice dose of slice of life, cute yuri, shoujo Ai series with a bit of supernatural element which you can sit back,relax watch and enjoy.
This is really is a Good watch as i personally like these kind of relaxing show which you can watch with a smile.

Regardless of how I approach shows about vampires these days, I often try to keep my expectations low. It’s not uncommon that so many vampire tropes relates with horror fiction, romance relationships, and survival dramas. Most of them feels like watching some cartoon with defiled couples in a telenovela. However, watching Tonari no Kyuuketsuki-san (Ms. Vampire Who Lives in my Neighborhood) gave me a different impression.

Based on a 4-koma, this anime is easy to recommend but not may not be so easy to appreciate. It’s essentially a slice of life series that focuses more on making fun of the otaku and vampire culture rather than ... a complex story. I’d say the plot is forgivable at best with each episode tying the overall themes together. But really, don’t try to look for any sort of real story development. The storytelling is more about the misadventures of the character cast than anything else.

With that out of the way, several things to also take note is humor and character connections the cast establishes with each other. From the first few episodes, it became obvious that schoolgirl Akari Amano takes a liking to a 360-year old vampire named Sophie Twilight. While this strikes as an oddball formula to set up for the series, it works with the fact that the creators wanted to establish an important relationship from the start. Not only does Akari and Sophie develop a close bond, they also begin to share similar interests. The most evident involves with otaku culture. But what evokes hilarity is a lack of common sense from Sophie considering her nature. She still has the mind of a child despite being over 300 years old. The creators made Sophie into an antithesis of a vampire. She’s not violent and has no desire for human blood. While she shares common traits of a generic vampire (like being weak to sunlight), Sophie also enjoys interests of an otaku. These include going to comic conventions and collecting otaku goods. It’s something you’d never expect a vampire would behave but the bottom line is that Sophie is nothing like the vampires you’d see in traditional horror flicks.

Oh and she’s not the only vampire. Later in the series, we meet Ellie, a vampire girl who has known Sophie for a long time. One thing noticeable about Ellie is her characteristics that relates more closely to how vampires would behave. The show also pokes fun of Ellie’s personality by making her behave like a brat on many occasions. Still, she’s not malevolent and often acts more like a child similiar to Sophie. Thanks to her new friends, Ellie does learn more about the human society. Beyond that, we also get to meet Akari’s best friend Hinata as she also gets involved with our lovely vampires.

There’s probably not many reasons to watch this show altogether but if you’re looking for a humorous slice of life anime, this is one to aim for. As I mentioned before, character chemistry is important that shows how close characters grow together. Akari and Sophie is the most prominent pair as the two become what seems to be more just friends. While this show isn’t truly a yuri, there are definitely moments that suggests a bit more than subtle romance. Akari’s attraction towards Sophie is obvious that even gets played for laughs when she gets nosebleeds. There are also many moments when Akari makes excuses to see her. For the more distinctive humor, the show plays around a lot with otaku context in particular with Sophie’s hobbies. She’s pretty much an indoor girl who spends her time watching anime, reading comic books, and buying otaku merchandise. As she is a vampire, the show also injects humor about her nature such as drinking blood (non-human), being weak to garlic, or sunlight. But as the title suggests, Sophie is pretty much a neighborhood vampire who really is harmless.

As the art style also suggests, this anime is decorated with fluffiness and charm. The main female character are made as cute as possible with Sophie being the primary example. At someone her age, she looks like a doll that even other characters comments on. Similarly, Ellie retains a youthful appearance that will be deceptive to the naked eye. However, do take notice that the show has some fan service. While it’s nothing explicit, it exists and some scenes can raise some eyebrows considering the appearances of these girls. As someone who has read portions of the manga, the anime does manage to capture the overall look of the show.

This series is probably one that people won’t be talking about for a long time. That’s okay though as I don’t see there’s much really to talk about beyond the character connections and comedy gags. The story really isn’t very impressive from the start and there’s little overall character development. Watching this anime is mostly aimed for those who want to experience a slice of life comedy and a dose of vampiric otaku culture.

The anime industry is drowning in vampire series and cute lesbian girl love anime, but one thing has been missing for a long time: Cute lesbian girl love anime about vampires. Until now. Best of both genres, no doubt.

Outside the first encounter where our characters meet, there isn't much actual content to the story. What we have at hand is a slice of life series about humans and vampires (all girls, of course) who start hanging out in this huge vampire mansion and do cute and pure girly love stuff to each others. This is done in a light comedic and ridiculously friendly manner. That's ... pretty much the entirety of the storyboard.

The single best part about this series is Akari Amano who is an "ordinary" girl who is really into cute things, and upon discovering Sophie Twilight, our vampire girl, she wants to cuddle with her, dress her up in cute clothes, keep her as a pet, and whenever she keeps talking about these things, she gets super excited and drools all over the place. As a person who really appreciates the comfy and :3 things in life, I totally get what she is going through, and the way her character is presented here radiates happiness, which is really the whole point of this series.

Other characters are great, too. Sophie Twilight says "humu" (which is the best word in the Japanese language) already like 17 times in the first episode. This is pretty much all I ever want from cute anime series. She also really likes cute anime girls -- which is of course natural thing to do, considering that they are a) girls and b) cute. My favorite scene was the one where her coffin was opened and there was a dakimakura with anime girl printed on it. Amazing stuff, beyond incredible.

The music is ridiculously chill and calming. If we judge anime based to how well they achieve the things they want, there really isn't much I can complain with this case. Soothing and warm series, purely about the happy stuff, real stress reliever, perfectness for all those who are into this type of shit. I personally am and can't watch this show without smiling. Conclusion: hella cute = 9 letters = 9/10.

Tonari no Kyuuketsuki-san is a nice slice of life CGDCT. It is not wildly humorous, it is not filled with fan service all over the place, and it does not have any big overarching story around it. It a nice simple slice of life with four girls as our main cast. The story is that Akari meets a vampire while wandering around the woods. She gets to know the vampire, Sophie, and decides to live with her.

We have 4 main characters and 2 lesser characters. The main characters are Akari, Sophie, Hinata, and Ellie. Akari is fond of dolls and keeps a lot with her. ... Upon meeting Sophie, she instantly falls in love with her doll-like appearance. This leads to her sometimes doting on Sophie, sometimes to Sophie's annoyance. Sophie is a 360-year-old vampire. She is generally calm and she is an otaku. She has lost almost all common sense about living as a human instead of a vampire. Hinata is Akari's best friend. She is overly fond of Akari. She wants to dote on Akari but holds back. But aside from that, she is just a normal girl. Ellie is another vampire and is Sophie's acquaintance. Due to being asleep for over 100 years, she does not have the common sense of the present society, but instead still has common sense from that of 100 years ago. The other two lesser characters hardly appear on the anime, so it is not worth mentioning them.

A lot of the comedy uses the misconception of the characters, and of being a vampire. Like about they only drink blood, goes to sleep at the day, and turns into ash when exposed to sunlight. The comedy in this anime is light. Most are just thrown not for big laughs, but a few chuckles here and there. What's great is that it doesn't feel like it is trying too hard to make a joke. This anime keeps a good flow of atmosphere and the jokes do not interrupt that flow of events. This is one of the strong points of this anime.

The relaxing atmosphere it gives is soothing and the music compliments this flow perfectly. Along with the flow that is not broken by forced jokes, this makes it a delightful slice of life to watch. Just to let you know, there are some slight yuri bait and minimal fan service. This is a great light-hearted slice of life to watch. It is simple and fulfils its role to be relaxing and induces you with joy. There are not much to talk about in this anime, just a good slice of life done right.

I've watched a lot of CGDCT. I've also enjoyed a lot of CGDCT. While the best shows are able to not only be cute and provide wonderful characters who are a complete joy to watch but also provide something more to it, something that resonates and feels noteworthy, the mediocre shows usually manage to do some gags and have some fun but not excel with their characters or the things built with them. Vampire is in a weird middle ground. It's characters are good but not great, and the fun they have is decent but also not exceedingly cute and fun. And the show manages ... to both be insightful while also being fairly gimmicky and bland at other others.

The interest point of Ms. Vampire is the different lifespans of humans and Vampires. This is a big point of the show and something that it explores in an interesting way. Rather than have heavy drama based off of it, it is true to its slice of life roots and shows the issues with it, and the issues the vampire's have due to it, without belaboring the point or turning it into melodrama. And while I would have liked the show to focus more on this point, it ultimately did well.

However outside of that the characters aren't really notable. They are cute, and I do enjoy the very strong yuri tones throughout the show, but they don't have much depth to them, and they don't come across as anything notable nor do they make me love them with the sheer power of their character. They're fairly standard moeblobs. And while that plus the vampire angle is fine enough to make them decent characters it is a far cry from a great characters, which with some developing they could have been.

The show also likes to rest on its gimmicks to much. While at some point it does tone them down the times where it focuses on it can get very tiring. There were a couple of scenes where they went out of their way to make the gimmick come up and have a joke around it. Many times the gimmick implementation suffers from poor writing and it feels like the show is trying to shove it in.

Overall it results in a standard CGDCT with something extra. The art is nice, the sound is nice, and while they aren't notable they are perfectly fine for the story the show is telling. It isn't the most notable of CGDCT, and there are lots of things it could have done to be better, but ultimately it serves it's role in the genre well and adds that little bit more that makes it unique. And personally that's good enough for me to enjoy.

Feels good. FEELS GOOD.

That's how I'd describe this show. It's light, it doesn't take anything seriously, and it's funny. Yeah it's a comedy, but it doesn't depend on incredibly cleverly written jokes or absurdities to be funny. It's a Kawaii-Com.

Reasons to like this show:
-It's cute (the art)
-The girls are likable
-Vampires!
-Subtle, not-overtly-sexified yuri undertones
-Surprising character development and some humor you wouldn't expect
...
This is one of those shows that's easy to knock for its simplicity and lack of anything revolutionary, but I'm glad it's doing fine on MAL and that studios are still taking the time to make these simple and likable SoLs that I, a grown-ass man, can sit back and enjoy after a long day at work. I look forward to this every week.

Spoiler free review:
Do you like lolis? Do you like vampires? Do you like moe?
If you answered yes to one or more of the questions, then this anime is for you.
Tonari no Kyuuketsuki-san was another anime that I decided to go ahead and watch blindly without researching anything about it. At first I got hell alot of "Blend S" vibes, and the opening reminded me of "Kobayashi-san Chi no Maid Dragon". But other than having cute and moe anime grills, Kyuuketsuki has nothing to do with either of those animes.
The plot of the story is actually quite hilarious. The entire art style the anime ... uses (especially for the anime grills) is super Kawaii (◕‿◕✿). I also enjoy the soundtrack and I love the anime OP (because of the Maid Dragon nostalgia). All the characters have a special personality that makes them unique and differentiates them from each other.
Overall I rate the anime a solid 7/10. If you enjoy cute animes and want to have a fun time, smiles and laughs, then go ahead and give this anime a shot! <3

after just watching the 12th episode I can say that I enjoyed EVERY bit of this show.

the story is cool and different and totally new to me. I've watched a good number of vampire anime and this one is: moe, entirely cute, shojo ai (all girl cast), slice of life with HighSchool girls (and two 300+ year old vampire girls who look like they're in Junior High), and VERY FUNNY! with some SERIOUS yuri ROMCOM, and slapstick comedy moments. there's serious moments (treated with comedy). there's goofy otaku 'inside jokes' since one of the vampire girls is a SERIOUS collector of manga, figures, light ... novels, anime on disk (as well as just watching broadcast TV shows). plus she's QUITE the savvy online shopper and is fairly-kinda-sorta well adjusted to living in 'the modern era' with technology computers etc. but she's pretty much a kuudere. you've got your dere-dere, ditzy, fashion loving, beautiful vampire girl, who's been asleep for over 100 years now and knows NOTHING about living in modern society. one of the human girls is pretty much normal, except for her pervy fascination with dolls and cute doll-like girls ie both vampires. then there's the pretty, buxom, tomboy, secretly in love with the other human girl, loud, outspoken, and athletic human girl.

the art is very simplistic and not 'photorealistic' at all. it is VERY... well the best way I can describe it is the American term 'cartoony'. if you don't like chibi moments (characters suddenly become super deformed and hyper-cute in appearance) you'll have to grit your teeth and bear with it... because it happens multiple times in every episode. but each character is well designed and has her own 'look' so you won't have to guess very hard (except for the girls that don't get much screen time) who's who by seeing them.

the sound is stupendous. the music is great, the actresses were awesome, the sound effects were great! not a problem at all there!

character, holy cow this show runs the gamut. both ends of the 'moe spectrum' and almost all the points in-between. even though there's no real... overall story arc (it IS from a 4koma manga/4 panels)... each of the 4 main characters does develop and change a little through the 12 episodes. so you won't be blasted with 'nothing but cute' the whole show. if you've got a problem with 'pervy yuri but pure moments' this show REALLY will not be for you.

enjoyment, yep, each episode is funny, heart warming, charming, and entertaining. if you're looking for a light show, watch this one. it'll make you happy and smile and laugh hard many times. :D

I really enjoyed this anime. I found it when looking for similar anime to YuruYuri. After having completed Tonari no Kyuuketsuki-san I would say that I actually like this more. It is not as funny by a long way but the relationship between Sophie and Akari really resonated with me and seemed somewhat more realistic. It feels more like a romance.

As the shoujo-ai genre goes, I think of this as one of the best I have seen. Not too serious, not sad or full of drama. It is light hearted, funny but has some real warmth.

This a slice-of-life comedy with little plot other than the ... development of a relationship between Akari, a school-girl with a love of dolls and Sophie, a vampire who despite being several hundred years old still retains the appearance a girl of Akari's age.

The music in this anime is very good with some very catchy OP and ED songs.

Artwork is effective. There is Interesting use of color with lots of reds in Sofie's house. Character designs are memorable.

Considering that there was at least one volume of the manga released after this anime aired, I am hopeful that their might be another season or perhaps an OVA for this anime.

If you know and like Yuru Yuri, this series might be rare treat for you – a genuine shoujo-ai comedy with a lot of lighthearted "romance" and amusing gags. It follows a high school freshman, Amano, who gets infatuated with Sophie, a centuries-old loli vampire living in her neighbourhood. Sophie, being a recluse and a bit quirky (but also a very polite and genuinely kind person), is initially put off by Amano's pushy attitude, but gradually starts appreciating the new companionship in her previously lonely life and possibly even returning some of the Amano's feelings. Soon, two other characters show up – Amano's classmate who ... clearly has a crush on her and a vampire girl from Sophie's past, who pretty much considers herself Sophie's partner (although her feelings seem highly unrequited). All this creates a comedic love rectangle, playing out mostly in Sophie's mansion, while all she would normally hope for is a bit of peace and quiet.

After finishing Yuru Yuri over a year ago, I was honestly starving for this kind of show and I was absolutely loving the first episode (even though the opening is a bit too saccharine and pushes the yuri a tiny bit too hard into everyone's faces – just compare it to the fun and quirky Yuru Yuri openings). The humour was pretty much spot on and excellently paced, with the weirdo human vs reasonable vampire dynamic working perfectly. However, I around the third episode the show was already starting to run out of steam. While still entertaining, the writing was just not as good as I hoped for and the pacing got visibly slower. Also, more importantly, the show stopped introducing anything new, realying on similar gags and doing very little when it goes to character development and exploring the setting. By the end of the season, things got stale to the point of being straight-up boring, and I'm generally very tolerant to slower, SoL oriented series.

Still, this show is a worthwhile watch for yuri fans and anyone who enjoys the absurd, gag comedy anime such as Tekyuu. It never became as good as I was hoping for, but it's a fun little distraction and with how few genuine yuri anime we're getting, one that is "only" decent is still worth appreciating.

Recommendation: This series is pure slice of life fluff, but very good at what it does. Give it a watch if you like cute girls doing cute things.

Ms. Vampire is very much in the vein of shows like Yuru Yuri and Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid. It's cute girls having fun, with some comedy and some teasing of romance that won't ever go anywhere, but mostly you're here for the cuteness. There is no overarching story to speak of whatsoever, it resets back to the status quo at the beginning of each episode in true sitcom style.

It is most definitely cute though, almost ... overly so even if you like these sorts of shows. The artwork and character designs emphasize cuteness and the various setups and jokes are built around the same. This is both the biggest strength and the biggest weakness of the series. While it's very nice to watch, it's also too saccharine at times and the character designs and personalities are too childish for being high school students and centuries-old vampires, respectively. This also makes the occasional mild ecchi humor the series employs feel uncomfortable sometimes, since they look and act more like elementary school students than what they actually are. It generally manages to stay within the realm of good taste, but some parts with Ellie especially can get a bit creepy.

What makes the heavy dose of cuteness work without becoming cloying is the titular Ms. Vampire, Sophie Twilight. This series would be a mess without her at the center, but she's a great character and manages to hold everything together. She's funny and cute and has a distinctive personality of her own, but she's at her best playing the straight man against Akari and Ellie's unrestrained goofiness. She brings out the best in them and keeps them from getting annoying or overly wacky. She has most of the best jokes in the series just from playing off others. The series also does a good job of showing without telling why she likes to have all these idiots around even though they constantly annoy her and cause problems. Sophie is unquestionably the MVP of the series and makes it worth watching all on her own.

This show is short yet very sweet. If you are looking for an easy watch after a long, stressful day in the cruel world and you like vampires, give this one a shot.

Story:
The story is nothing groundbreaking (human girl finds a villa in a dark forrest and befriends the resisent, who happens to be a vampire).
From there, the cute stories begin and their friendship starts to blossom.

The human girls obsession with the vampire reminded me of Utena (gushing over magical girls) so this was a big plus imn my book.

Furthermore, the Vampire is an Otaku and collects ♥️ magical girl ♥️ merch, so I ... like her.

Despite of the vampire theme, there is no violence in this. Blood is obtained via online shoping 😉

The Artstyle

I like the art. Its cute, very cute even and does a good job to keep the viewer interested.

Negatives:

So far, only the fact that the vampire can walk outside in brought daylight without getting toasted bothers me a bit. They bring up the fact that sunlight can infact end a vampire, yet we get a beach episode where a normal umbrella is enough to keep her save. Umbrellas don't work that way!

Overall it is a very good show to switch of and relax to. I enjoy it more than I thought and rate it way hiher tan the new Vamire Dormitory show. If you want Vampires, watch this instead.

Overall: 6/10 - I thought it was super cute. It’s definitely not something I’m raving about that everyone has to watch, but I wouldn’t steer anyone against it.

Art: 6/10 - I like the design and art, but it’s not really anything special. I think the art is fine, it’s cute, but it’s really just that.

Characters: 7/10 - I do adore these characters, I thought they were super appealing when I first started the show, and I don’t think they’re bad at all. The excitement didn’t stay strong the entire time, but I never dreaded seeing anyone at all.

Storytelling: 6/10 - It’s slice of life and ... CGDCT, there’s not really a story to tell. It’s mostly funny situations these girls get into, and I like how they interact and how these problems are displayed and occur. It doesn’t feel ham-fisted, but I think sometimes it was a little repetitive.

The Art:
I genuinely didn’t know they were high school aged until they really started pushing the emphasis on that fact (stating it outright a few times) the last few episodes. I definitely prefer that to the alternative that I thought there was (middle school), but it was a super surprise. They... Do not look like high schoolers to me! I had no idea, genuinely.

Otherwise, I really like the background and set design. The colors are nice and I enjoy the outfits and clothes of the girls. I really think the style is fine, it just doesn’t stand out to me. It’s cute! But that’s about it.

The Characters:
I find Akari, our main character, a little boring honestly. She’s fine, but she’s not my favorite. The show begins with her, and she is absolutely obsessed with dolls. She hears a rumor that there’s a living doll in the neighborhood, she goes to find it. This “doll” is in fact Sophie Twilight; a vampire! Akari is obsessed and forces herself upon her and into her life to be her friend and live with her. There’s really no addressing how this is handled with her family and so forth, it’s just a set up for the rest of the show. I don’t think this is a bad thing. Definitely I like the role swap, where Akari freaks the vampires out with how enthused she is with her ‘creepy’ dolls and her begging for them to suck her blood. She always wants to play dress up and play with Sophie’s hair and be as close as she can be.

Sophie is fun, she’s somewhat aware of the modern world and is kind of a weeb, she really likes anime and manga. That’s most of what she spends her time on too. She learns to care for Akari and is actually very concerned with her health and wellness. She doesn’t fully understand human things but tries her best. I enjoy her, but she’s not much without the rest of the cast. That’s not a horrible thing, they’re meant to work together after all.

Hinata is Akari’s friend from school. I forgot how she comes into play, but Akari is always inviting her over to hang out and do things with her. Hinata is “boy-ish”, tall, and is more developed than the rest of the cast. She can be childish and likes to dress simply. She gets into a conflict with my favorite character, Ellie, because she’s able to be seen as more adult but doesn’t really want to be. Hinata has a crush on Akari and fantasizes about her in a similar fashion to the way Akari fantasizes about (and acts with) Sophie. She’s sometimes jealous of Sophie but this never becomes a point of tension, it’s only joked upon.

Ellie is another vampire, and is an old friend of Sophie’s. She’s my favorite of the whole cast. She’s upset that she was turned into a vampire so young instead of when she was older, but still perceives herself as an adult. She flirts with the other girls and buys a sexy Halloween costume, she’s pretty into herself. She also very much prioritizes her beauty and fashion, using blood on her skin for it’s benefits and it’s known that she uses the blood she purchases for bathing. When the group goes out, Ellie often says that the girls look yummy and tasty, and she wants to bite and hunt them. She was also asleep for 100 years and was living in America, so now that she’s in Japan, she’s pretty unfamiliar with tech and the culture. It’s fun to watch her learn things, I really love this character, even if she’s kind of a lot at times.

There are two other characters that come up a few times, but I don’t remember their names. I just know one is in an occult club and has a crush on the other one. They.. I think are dating? I don’t really know; they are at least perceived as dating, but I could say that about pretty much everyone here.

The Storytelling:
Like I said, it’s a slice of life. There’s not really a ‘story’ here, but I do like the way the show plays out. You get a good sense of the vampire’s weakness in the sun, to the point it kind of gets repetitive? There’s a lot of struggle that focuses on wanting to do XYZ, but Sophie and Ellie can’t be out in the day for too long! They try anyway, and the sun really takes it out of them. The scenes aren’t agonizing though, and it’s sweet to see the girls take care of each other.

Otherwise, it’s mostly about the girls getting used to each other, Akari learning to live with Sophie and vice versa. The vampires learn about humans, the humans learn about vampires. They all get kind of silly and tease each other here and there, it is definitely girls love, they flirt with each other and play and fawn. It isn’t a will they won’t they, which I really enjoy. It is just ... They’re all hanging out and act like this and maybe not outright love each other, I would not call it a romance show, but they do definitely get pretty close.

I think the pacing is good, it never feels out of place, and the jokes usually land well. There’s a scene here or there that surprised me or threw me off, one happening between Hinata and Ellie, and the other with Akari and Ellie, Ellie being the instigator of both.

The last episode is... I do not like it. You just go and see and meet all the characters again, but it's so boring and feels so slow... but I do think the last scene is pretty cute, I won’t say much else, but it sort of redeems the episode I guess.

I did like the show, it wasn’t bad. I probably won’t come back to it in the future, but I don’t regret watching it. I wouldn’t put it high on any list, but I definitely wouldn’t tell anyone to strike it from the record. It’s a fun, lighthearted watch. I would refer to it on maybe a rainy or a sick day, where maybe it’s a little hard to pay attention or you’re sleepy, but you still want something to pass the time.

Robert's Too Late Reviews rolling in one more time! This time we're only a year late, I guess I'm starting to fail the 'too late' part of the name, I'll work harder I promise! Today's little ditty about a vampire girl and her human best friend is a charming little series that, as long as you don't mind a layer of sugar-sweetness to your anime, should be an enjoyable ride. If you're familiar, think Kiniro Mosaic but with the supernatural, and you'll be pretty spot on. If middle school/barely high school aged girls romping around doing cutesy things doesn't send you into vomiting fits, you ... might get a smile and chuckle or two out of this series. Let's dispel some vampire myths!

Story: 6
The reason why the story section is scored lower is because, well, there's really not one. This is slice-of-undeath (har har) all the way through. The cast, comprised mainly of two human girls, and two vampire girls, all at around 13 or 14 years old (by appearance at least with the vampires who are several hundred years old) and they just do the usual things, there's a festival show, a beach show, a slumber party show, a fireworks show, the works. The twist is that they don't attend school, and anytime the vampires venture out in the daylight they have to have this big production worth of protections to keep themselves from turning to ash (ASH, not sparkles, take note you dumbass Cullens!) and so they usually are quite miserable, even when they are trying to put on their best faces.

Very quickly the primary human lead moves in with the primary vamp lead, and we see nor hear a peep from her parents. In fact, other than a few passing remarks at older neighbors of vampire girl, there's no adults to be seen anywhere really. And of course, the main girl who moves in with vampire chick has a huge crush on her, with lots of implied yuri-ish emotions going around. The vampire for the most part is not interested, though she softens a little as the series goes on. To spice things up, they introduce another human character, main girl's best friend who also has a girl crush on main girl, and a second vampire who is quick to remind the main vampire that they are no longer human and different, as though she has some kind of romantic interest as well. This angle isn't really explored too much beyond mining it for comedy purposes.

The jokes are somewhat amusing, but nothing to write home about. They do introduce some ideas that I've always wondered about, however. If you're a 350 year old vampire, would you not have a killer collection of stuff? I'm a 40 year old man, and I have an entire room full of collectibles from things that interest me, a huge number of Star Wars stuff, and at last count 51 anime figures. I couldn't imagine living through tons of hugely important historical events (such as the moon landing, major wars, political events, and social happenings and not keep mementos of them. And that's not even counting the collectibles from each era that would have caught my eye. Just in my own life, if I had the sensibilities I would have kept all my '80's toys in good condition and hung onto them. Sophie, our lead vampire, does have this same problem, a HUGE amount of trinkets and souvenirs which becomes a plot point. I thought it was nice that they looked a *little* outside conventions for ideas.

The basic gist is human main is in love with vampire main, human friend is in love with human main, vampire main is neutral but leaning towards human main, and vampire friend wants to just seemingly ditch them all and troll for cute girls to suck their blood. There is no serious conflict, no real drama, just cute girls being cute. Each episode deals with fairly self contained themes. One deals with Christmas and New Years, one deals with a trip to Akihabara, and none of them really require too much knowledge from the previous shows to understand. It was easy watching without too much thinking, which at times is a blessing. I've probably said more about the story that basically doesn't exist beyond sequential calendar events than the story said itself!

Art: 9
I loved the way the girls looked. I don't know if I can pin it down to one thing, but they are all just adorable. I like how the vampires dress in darker colors (they even have a discussion on this) even if the vampire friend prefers dark purple (which appears a bit more festive than main vamp's black). The human girls dress in brighter clothing and keeping them separated in the beginning was quite easy as their wardrobe reflects the characters position in the story. The eyes look good, and the looks of distress (often by the vampires when they venture into the sunlight) completely convey the distress the girl is feeling. I'm not creeped out by dolls (I have a little sister lol) but they did try to give the dolls a menacing look in many of the shots, and for non-doll people, I imagine it worked. Everything was well enough done that I wasn't constantly having my immersion broken by poor artwork.

Sound: 8
First, I love both the opener and the closer. I was surprised myself, but they really are nice, fun works that's easy to tap my toe along to. The sound effects are done well, but there are few of them needed as this isn't anything but a SoL show based on personality and relationships. The only real knock is the most obvious one: this is full of teeny (and teeny appearing) girls, and for the most part, they sound exactly like it. The main vampire character has a deeper, and more introspective sound to her, but the main human is squeaky as a wheel. She's constantly squealing her way into and out of conversations, and anytime she sees something good, or something good happens, here comes the screech. The other human girl isn't much better, though she's deeper voiced. It's not a deal breaker for me, but it is bad enough to take note of. They are supposed to be young girls, and they sound like it, no doubt. Thank God for level-voiced vampire Sophie.

Character: 8
The characters are interesting in that they are such an unusual mix. First you have a human that discovers a vampire, and instead of freaking out, within a matter of minutes, she abandons her family (with nary a mention of them again) and moves in with the vampire. The vampire does not want to turn the girl or even taste her blood, much to the now-crushing girl's chagrin. This human is determined to befriend (and possibly more, it is lightly hinted) this vampire and teach her that being alone is not so good. They are fast friends, even though the vampire girl is always so reluctant to go along with human girl's outlandish plans and ideas. The human girl works well as the hype man in the situation, with vampire playing out the straight man.

Before long we get the second layer, another human that is secretly in love with the main human girl, and will do anything for her attention (lightly as I said, this isn't a full blown yuri anime) and quickly cements her position as 'part of the gang'. Finally the vampire friend arrives, and after having to be convinced not to suck everyone's blood, she settles into the group and their misadventures. The vampire friend seems to joke that there was more to her and the main vampire's relationship, but it's presented in such a way to make the viewer think she's just blowing smoke. This vampire is completely out of touch with technology, having been out of commission for at least a hundred years.

It's left to the primary vampire to not only teach the friend how to use modern gadgets such as the internet and tv, but also teach her that vampires no longer hunt in the open, killing victims here and there. Now they can order blood online from an Amazon knock off company and have it delivered to their doorstep. A more civilized age, I guess. Of course, this vampire friend is impulsive, is clueless on modern times, and is just all about having fun, which is a constant headache to the refined and well adjusted main vampire.

With the human-human-vampire light love triangle and the carefree spirit of the vampire friends, hijinks are expected and do happen. The show is not overly heavy, we never see any kind of sexual or romantic resolution because cmon, they're just kids...well some of them are hundreds of years old, but kids still. The show is not as rapid fire as I might seem to be making it. It's just a nearly generic slice of life with a supernatural twist that keeps it a bit above average.

Enjoyment: 7
It was a fun little show, and I don't regret watching it at all. Could it have had more substance? Sure. Could it have been funnier? Possibly. But what they brought to the table worked, and worked better than many titles out there. This is the kinda show you watch to relax and take it easy. No big thinking, nothing more than reading the subtitles and laughing at the jokes.

Best Girl: Sophie Twilight. The main vampire girl, because she's the one that's been alive and awake for hundreds of years. She's up on all the trends, watches anime, reads manga, and is pretty laid back. She often plays straight to the lead human's antics and is always calm, cool, and collected. And she wears lots of black. Black is slimming you know! She's just awesome for how annoyed she sounds most of the time, even though she's known to crack a smile on occasion or two.

So I give this one a 7, not too bad, but not a masterpiece either. If you're familiar with titles, like say, Kiniro Mosaic as I mentioned in the beginning, you'll be right at home here. There's no real story to pull at the heartstrings, just gatherings of events these girls skip through thrown out as episodes. Final word, if you have a fear of dolls, DON'T WATCH. There are dolls everywhere, as the main human is obsessed with them. She even wants to treat the vampire Sophie like a doll, which I think is a huge part of her attraction to the vampire. So thumbs up, if you're just needing a break from the heavier stuff, or just want an easy watching show to put in front of your eyes. Come visit the vampire in this neighborhood!

I’ll be honest, I’m really biased when it comes to these types of anime. Cute monster girls doing cute things? Say no more. I’ll marathon the hell out of it. Ms. Vampire Who Lives in My Neighborhood (Or as I’ll call it, Vampire Neighbor) is no exception. This is no Demi-chan wa Kataritai. It won’t hit as deep as it and it won’t show as much character development, but it still has similar levels of cuteness and enjoyment. I use Demi-chan as a comparison because I really do see it as the quintessential monster girl anime. Vampire Neighbor delivers a really fun experience without any ... true low points or lapses in enjoyable moments. From beginning to end, you’ll be smiling and getting that sense of peace and tranquility that many Slice of Life anime give. It’s not exactly something that will constantly be on your mind or something that’ll be engraved into your memory, but that’s completely fine for most anime in this genre. There’s nothing to dislike about the anime, but nothing to truly gush over. All of the characters were really fun to see interact with one another and they all were designed well. I do wish there were a bit more focus on the supporting cast though. Some characters could’ve been utilized more instead of appearing in an upwards of three or so episodes. The humor revolves heavily on vampire hijinks and a surprising amount of otaku humor. It isn’t exactly something that will have you dying of laughter, but it’ll get a solid laugh from you every now and then. Vampire Neighbor is also very Yuri-centric in the usual slice of life fashion. Nothing ever gets to the point where you think it could become something greater than simple Yuri-bait, but if you find that sort of thing enjoyable, there’s plenty of it here. The anime has a lot of really good facial expressions on top of solid artwork too. The soundtrack was catchy and both the Opening and Ending themes were ones I almost never skipped. Simple monster girl slice of life anime aren’t that common, so I can highly recommend this for those who haven’t seen much monster girl anime or slice of life. (And Demi-chan, I’m actually trying my hardest not to turn this review into a rant on how amazing that anime was.) I do think Vampire Neighbor could serve as a good introduction into either genre/sub-genre.

Amano Akari is a high school girl with some strange tastes and hobbies. She loves things occult and gothic, and is especially fond of collecting dolls that other people find extremely eerie. That’s not to say Akari is “a goth,” or “emo”—she is cheerful, excitable, energetic, and expressive. What other people find scary, she finds cute. So, imagine how this oddball reacts when she meets a real vampire—the attractive Sophie Twilight. It’s not long before Akari has moved in with her beloved vampire friend! (Slice-of-Life, Vampire, Comedy, hints of Shoujo Ai.)

Story: 5/10

It being a slice-of-life without any real romance or serious drama, the anime ... does not have a central plot. This was a letdown for me because, while watching, I constantly imagined how much better the show would be with even just a little more direction. The main story could have explored the hinted shoujo ai relationships between the girls, with the conclusion being the establishment of the couples. Alternatively, the creators could have taken seriously the jokes about Akari becoming a vampire, focusing on her acclimation to them, and ending with her transformation into one. I still greatly enjoyed Tonari Kyuketsuki; it’s an endearing, silly, and ironic show about how a supernatural creature tries to live a normal, quiet life. Still, with so much story opportunity squandered, I must give it a 5/10.

Art: 5/10
The character designs are cute, and the main setting of Sophie's house is nice to look at. However, there was nothing particularly creative in this show's art-style or animation. It's about average, not much different from any other anime featuring cutesy, chibi art-styles. I give it 5/10, which isn't to say it's bad, but only to say it's normal and unremarkable.

Sound: 6/10
For sound, it’s pretty much the same deal as with the visuals. It's not poor quality, but it just lacks anything to make it stick out. There was nothing special in the sound effects, music scores, opening song, or ending song. The voice-acting was fair, but even if each main cast member is extremely talented, this is not the kind of dramatic series where they can show their true talent. I will note that I was impressed with Akari’s seiyuu, Sasahara Yuu. I’d never heard her in anything before, and it seems like she’s just starting her anime voice-acting career. Miss Sasahara did well in portraying a girl who has very unusual tastes but is completely harmless, and also adorable in a weird kind of way. I give the sound for Tonari Kyuketsuki a 6/10 “Fine.”

Characters: 7/10

The show did not focus all that much on character development, so while the characters are all cute and funny, they lack some depth that could have made them even better. Sophie is the best of the cast in terms of originality and time spent expounding on her personality. What would a 300-year-old vampire be like if she lived in modern society and didn't have to hurt humans to keep fed? What would her personality be like? Where does she get blood? How would she react to having a young human girl trying to become close to her? Watch and you'll find the surprising and humorous answers to these questions.

The other main protagonist, Akari, is primarily a comedic character. She's got quirks, hobbies, reactions, and expressions that are always genuinely funny. Her character could have been improved if the show spent some time explaining exactly how and why she became interested in things occult and gothic. In the second half of the final episode, Akari's character shines in a new way. Removing the abundant humor temporarily, the last scene communicates how much Akari cares for Sophie-- not just as a doll to be pampered, but as a special someone to share a home with, to spend time with, and to depend on.

In the interest of keeping the review short, I won't analyze the other main characters, Ellie and Hinata. They were also good characters. Each has a handful of peculiarities that keeps them amusing and unconventional.

Personal Enjoyment: 8/10

I found Tonari Kyuketsuki delightful for a number of reasons. A lot of vampire anime either glorify, romanticize, and idolize vampires, or gore-ify vampires in a bloody setting where they’re all savage beasts by nature. Tonari Kyuketsuki does follows neither path, instead depicting the vampire myth as comedy. There is variety in type of vampire, too. There’s the patient, well-adjusted, and harmless Sophie, in addition to the mischievous and potentially dangerous vampire Ellie. In this way, there are no extremes of either glorification or gore-ification.

I loved that the show used some dark humor in addition to the situational, ironic, and reactive-types of comedy. (For example, take Ellie's hobby of enjoying a literal bloodbath. Or look at the vampires' reactions to movies that show blood and anime that shows “delicious” virgins.) Another reason I enjoyed Tonari Kyuketsuki was that there was very little fan-service. I am easily irritated by the sexualizing of "loli" characters.

While I don't like fan-service-based shoujo ai like Citrus, I am a big fan of shoujo ai that tells a good story with characters that feel genuine. I fantasize about girl-girl couples often as I watch anime. So I liked that there was some suggestion of girl-girl couples in Tonari Kyuketsuki. Besides the opening song, which features the girls kissing each other's cheeks or holding hands, there is also enough subtle content in the show to justify making yuri ships. (Main options-- Sophie x Akari, Hinata x Akari, Hinata x Ellie, and Sophie x Ellie.)

Things like the occasional dark humor, the lack of fan-service, the hints of shoujo ai, and the unique, comedic swing on traditional vampires all made Tonari Kyuketsuki entertaining for me. If you enjoy those aspects, give it a whirl. The characters are cute, funny, and fairly interesting. Just keep in mind there's nothing exceptional in art or sound, and there’s no real plot. If you can handle that, you'll love the show.

Final Note: It's difficult to be critical of anime like this, where my personal and emotional enjoyment ranked so high. Still, I try to be a rational reviewer as I compare it to many, many other anime. That's why, even though my enjoyment level was high, I must put the overall rating at 6/10 Fine. That’s as an anime critic. As a casual watcher who hadn’t seen a lot of anime, I would have given it 8/10 Very Good.

This was a fun series to watch, enough so that I'm hoping it gets a second season.

This anime takes common vampire tropes and mashes them into slice of life comedy in it's own unique way. Paired with characters that each have their own quirks and you have an enjoyable experience for all 12 episodes.

The art and animation are all very good. The bright colors match the tone and there never feels like there's a jarring moment that doesn't fit.
The VA's are fine, but the music just didn't work for me sometimes. Otherwise, very good.

There's not too much more to say, I don't think it brings ... anything new to the slice of life genre at all. In fact, I was waiting to see how they were going to come up with a creative way to get around the obligatory beach episode, only to have an obligatory beach segment in an episode.

I think the characters are good enough to keep me coming back, but I'd like to see some development. Overall you're not missing much if you skip this one, but I enjoyed it enough to keep my eye on it in the future.

Tonari no Kyuuketsuki-san is a 2018 anime from Gokumi and Axsiz based off of a manga by Amatou. I have seen some Gokumi anime before. The dreadful Crime Edge was one of theirs. So were the enjoyable A-Channel & Yuuki Yuuna wa Yuusha de Aru. So, hopefully this will be more like those two and less like Crime Edge.

Story:

Our narrative opens simply enough. Some girls are discussing some rumours of a "Doll Mansion" where a living doll rises and wanders around at night. Amano Akari decides to investigate since she loves dolls so dearly only to discover the truth. The doll is actually ... Sophie Twilight, an immortal vampire. Akari becomes friends with Sophie and decides to move into her house, with her parents' permission, of course.

The whole series is based off of taking these ageless, blood drinking creatures of the night and putting a softer, comedic spin on them. There are elements of vampirism, like only being able to enter somewhere they're invited, that get explained in comedic ways. It actually works really well since a lot of the explanations for "traditional vampire behaviour" make a lot of sense but they're also abnormal enough for a vampire story that they're unexpected. The jokes have very strong build ups with punchlines that just flow very nicely.

The series also features a lot of jokes based around the ages of the vampire girls and the ways they're kind of out of place. It's a series that knows how to put a spin on the slice of life genre and takes full advantage of its concept. It also avoids a lot of the potentially creepy aspects of having a shoujo ai involving vampires and high school girls by focusing on the human girls having crushes and the vampire girls finding them endearing rather than going into a more straightforward romance. The worst it gets is the secondary vampire girl, Elly, being a bit flirtatious.

Characters:

The cast in this has a lot of strong comedic quirks, they're endearing and they have strong dynamics. Not super complex but they don't really need to be. It's a slice of life comedy. They need to be funny and enjoyable, not necessarily deep.
The only issue I have with the characters is that there are a lot of side characters, like the parents or Hinata's brother, who don't really contribute much. They're pretty much used in one scene and that's it.

Art:

The artwork looks pretty good. It's a very cutesy aesthetic which meshes strongly with the writing. It's also one of those anime where the comedic moments are frequently punctuated with a change in art style which works pretty well but you might find a little over-used. It also has some strong visual gags and it manages to avoid getting super fan-servicey.

Sound:

The performances in this are solid. Tomita Miyu, Sasahara Yuu, Lynn, Waki Azumi and the rest of the cast all do well. They have strong comedic delivery and they express the dynamics very well. Fujisawa Yoshiaki's soundtrack is perfect for the series.

Ho-yay:

This is one of those series where all the main girls seem to have some form of romantic tension with each other. Akari flirts with both Sophie and Elly. Elly flirts with basically every single woman she encounters but seems to harbour special feelings for Sophie. Hinata has a crush on Akari but also seems susceptible to Elly's advances. Sophie doesn't seem super interested in pursuing any romance but she also comes across as someone who could easily be romanced by one of the other girls if they demonstrate enough patience and don't try to force it. The side characters, Yuu and Sakuya, seem to be girlfriends or one careless hand brush away from becoming girlfriends.

Areas of Improvement:

1. This is another series where I feel it would be improved by the girls not being in High school. If they were in University, the vampires being so much older wouldn't be an issue and there could be more heavily romantic elements. It would also make more sense with writing points like Akari moving in with Sophie.

2. We could use more scenes with the families. There's plenty of comedic potential there that's just not taken advantage of.

3. The art style could be more consistent with the visual shifts being used more sparingly. That would give them a greater impact.

Final Thoughts:

I thoroughly enjoyed this series. The comedy is excellent. The characters are a lot of fun. The cutesy artwork and writing work well. While I did have some relatively minor complaints, I still pretty much loved Tonari no Kyuuketsuki-san from the first episode until the last. If you're a fan of slice of life comedies and you'd be interested in seeing one with supernatural elements, I would highly recommend it. For myself, I'm giving it a 9/10.

I'm gonna ask you one question: Do you like cute shit? Then watch this show.
Most of the show revolves around this really cute little vampire girl who's basically an otaku and meets this one girl in middle school or something in her neighborhood because she wanders off into a forest and accidentally ends up at her mansion. So then the middleschooler wants to be best friends with the vampire and that's basically the whole show. To be honest, the art and animation can seem a little meh at times if you have amazingly high standards but it's still probably better than the anime adaptation ... of Tokyo Ghoul :re which is funny when you think about it. Mostly everything is just like cute and soothing. Watch it if you want something to not think hard about. The plot is kinda dumb if you use too much logic so don't use any logic. Middleschooler's parents don't really care that their daughter has yuri fantasies of the vampire girl and that she just keeps wandering off into the woods to meet her pale ass, neither should you, got it?
Story has some meh developments and conflicts where the vampire is scared of losing the middleschooler and the middleschooler wants to be kind of more useful, but all in all, not much happens. Still pretty enjoyable, even though 0 things happen story-wise. The middleschooler basically wants to get pretty yuri up in here with the vampire, but the vampire's just interested in her hobbies and likes having the middleschooler as a friend to chill out with. Although, I would be lying if there weren't times when their seemed to both be romantic tension between the two. I guess the show is just fine? Yeah, despite doing nothing, it's still doing better than half of the stuff that comes out every season for me. Maybe that's just cause I like mellow, low-key stuff. I dunno, watch at your own discretion.

if you really want to appreciate this series then come into it for cute anime girls, the story they do have in the show is decent but it doesn't develop that much throughout the show, if you like shows that take a cast of interesting characters and put them in interesting situations or even just cute anime girls doing cute things then I'd highly recommend this series as i watch a lot of these types of slice on life shows and its by far my favorite out of all the ones I've seen.

in conclusion if you come in expecting a big grand story you'll be ... disappointed, but if you like shows with a descent story, cute anime girls', and some nice wholesome moments mixed in with some funny moments then watch this show