Vlad Love

Vlad Love is one of the most bizarre comedies to be released in the 2020s, one that seemingly people are overthinking or being harsh to, because such a simple yet sophisticated absurdist comedy is something well done, even if it's not everyone's cup of tea. These kind of comedies were commonplace before the 2000s, when the worries for plot continuity were little and people just wanted to have a laugh without thinking much. Vlad Love does attempt this, by showing the hilarious situations of living with a vampire, yet with elements that characterize Oshii's dry humor like those seen in Gosenzo-sama Banbanzai! such as self-referential ... humor, 4th wall breakings and a lot of unrelated dialogue with non-sequiturs. Vlad Love is also a parody of anime and particularly, copyright laws, yes, there are a lot of references to copyright in Japan which is a country particularly strict with these laws, especially when it comes to parodies, I loved when they said K*nami like it was a class of insult to the company, something I found brilliant, in fact, most of the jokes are pretty intelligently made, although not all did click with me.

Outside the jokes and the fact it's just a light comedy, I'd like to note the artstyle and experimental animation approach: The backgrounds and characters look so nice, and they had a creative way of showing the characters in squares while the action was happening in other angle; while that for some it might look weird, I love how it looks and how it gives this anime a strong identity deviating from generic styles. The voice acting is fine for the most part, but Romi Park's performance as Chihiro was phenomenal - Please listen to her as a lustful nurse, she sounds great -. The soundtrack is good and the openings are phenomenal, especially Where You Are whose animation and music had such a beautiful visual which I cannot get enough from. The characterization... it's a comedy, don't expect much depth from any, don't overthink it, they're good enough for the genre and topics of the anime.

So in conclusion, if you are of the ones that likes dialogue-driven comedies with dry and intelligent humor, Vlad Love is an excellent option, and if you liked the humor of Gosenzo-sama Banbanzai! you'd also love how Oshii executed the humor here. I really don't get why the dislike for this anime, it might not be the best in the universe but it's a harmless addition to comedy anime at worst. I found this good, especially since the stuff found under the 6.00 mark in this website is considered untouchable while at times it might have a nice surprise like this one.

*no spoilers ahead*

This will probably call for a slightly different format, as its quite a different show... So here we go.

What IS blood love? ... Comedy mostly, but beyond that, i'd say i have NO clue, which is a problem since there's a LOT there. Now, what's the good? Art quality and animations (minus ep 9 and 10). Music. Overall production quality seems pretty high, surprisingly high even... So then, why the relatively low score? For the first half of the show i'd say i don't know, because this kind of random, stupid, explosive comedy is right up my alley. But the second half makes ... it kind of worse and more clear...

Its somewhat niche, on TOP of this kind of humor not being for everyone. For example, you'll be quite indifferent and uninterested in quite a few sections unless you're a hardcore cinema nut, i for one definitely was, despite somewhat loving cinema and learning in cinema school a few years, still, didn't get quite a lot of the references and the point even include most of them to begin with.

Then there's the 'zetsubou barrier', which is what i call some jokes, references and concepts being completely ungraspable and unexplainable to someone outside Japan and to those that don't write it, speak it, and don't know the local culture, politics, pop culture and recent events, etc. Which is most of the world's audience really. Named obviously after the same anime that's so jam packed of this stuff that some subs have whole screens of text and explanation, which is still not near enough to get a lot of it!

So yeah, there's that. So already you have 2 niches and a Japan residency barrier pretty much whiteout which you're not gonna enjoy like a third of the show. Next is the fact there's next to no story, character development... Which doesn't has to be a bad thing in comedy... If said comedy doesn't take itself seriously and doesn't try tell a story. The problem with Vlad love is that despite not taking itself TOO seriously, it still does a little, and it DOES try to tell a story here and there.

Finally, there's the humor which despite usually being good is a little too rare, it also often doesn't take things FAR ENOUGH, which is the whole point of the random explosive comedy as far as i see it... Some of it is also hit and miss but it usually depends on the episode type which later on start taking a completely different approach each said given episode. Oh and since i'm on that, there's also the individual problem with episode 9 and 10 which are just pretty much two episodes that are mostly made of still pictures, and very few of them as well, trying to tell some crappy little story, which makes it more like a visual novel than an anime really, and rather boring too.

So overall, what's the verdict? I'd say 6.2-6.3/10... And despite that, i DO somewhat recommend it, mostly the first half, ESPECIALLY if you like "random explosive comedy" (as i call it), similar to the likes of paniponi dash, asobi asobase and zetsubou sensei, even more so if you're into cinema and know Japanese.

What to say about this. It felt like a genuine waste of time.
It felt like there wasn't any passion put into this anime.
Like, for example, the last episode didn't have any connection at all to the rest of the episodes, making it separate and making the other episodes seem pointless.

Characters - it's just a bunch of one-dimensional characters making the same joke over and over again. They tried to create depth in the last episode but it's too late tbh.

Animation - Coming from Production IG, I expected too much from it. It is passionlessly made by the studio. It tried to create a unique ... style of animation, but nah, it just looks lazy.

Enjoyment - I got bored halfway through. It had potential but it didn't take itself seriously. It's a shame cause I had great hope for this.

Music is decent. It's the only saving grace of this anime. The opening is good, but everything else is decent.

Overall, my disappointment is immeasurable and my day is ruined.
(3.4/10)