Karin

Who would have thought a romantic comedy could make me feel like I wasted so much time. This anime simply is not very good and drags on way too long. If it developed its poor story in the span of 13 episodes it might have received a higher score.

Lets start with a quick overview of the story. Karin is about a vampire named Karin. She of course has a secret. She isn't the usual kind of vampire, she creates blood, can go out in daylight, likes garlic, can touch crosses and sleeps at night. She accidentally shows ... her secret to a boy named Kenta who pledges to protect this secret and so our typical RomCom scenario begins. Not a bad start to the show.

The problem is that for the first 13 episodes nothing much happens that would bring these two characters together. Both Kenta and Karin both have family issues and both in the span of those episodes try to confront them. These issues sound really intense but, the way they are handled makes it feel like the writes didn't really care. You wont know hardly anything about anyone except for Karin's grandmother who actually received several episodes dedicated to her.

The last 11 episodes is where the story introduces some of the most aggravating situations, meaningless indecision, and meddling characters that one can imagine. Any time the story progress's a few steps with Karin and Kenta, side characters and conflicts come in to take multiple steps backwards. The last two episodes were plain stupid, forced drama which ended in nothing.

There isn't much to say about the characters. The Maaka family looked interesting but there is no depth to them outside of the grandmother. Kenta's mother had a few issues that they teased but never elaborated on. Kenta himself is only interesting because of his eyes, being poor, and his estranged father. which all sounds very interesting but nothing is developed. The father issues are solved with about 2 minutes of dialogue and the rest are not really even problems it seems.

The show really only has good points in the sound and art department. The art is well done, dated but really beautiful IMO. Karin is adorable and this is accentuated by her voice actress and the sound affects that coincide with he personality. This is the best part of the show and I love the moments when Karin is embarrassed and flaps her arms around.

Overall I would have like this show if it was shorter. It took me a few days longer than it should have to finish this because I was so bored and the ending frustrated me so much it landed itself below the 5 marker. I dont recommend this, watch any other RomCom and have a better time.

It is a trick as old as time, to flip conventions on their heads and have the reverse of a common idea play out. We´ve seen it time and time again, sometimes deep and tragically other times bubbly and funny. This element, that we call "irony" and in other cases "parody" is what the premise to "Karin" promises us.

Like any good romance, the show takes a great focus onto it´s two main characters Usui Kenta and Karin Maaka. Setting aside the random detail of Usui´s stare, the story doesn´t really play into anything too unconventional. It´s plot and a lot of character interactions are ... practically transcribed form the great book of clichés and the show seems to have little self awareness about it, as it takes such story elements far more seriously than an audience which is aware of them ever could. The usage of tropes doesn´t really make something bad, though, as it can be used as a platform to save time and focus on other things, but the way the plot takes itself so seriously in spit of the lack of attachment the characters have to it , makes it feel expendable and mostly just a way of parading the characters.

By no means, however, are the characters bad. In fact, I would argue they are the best aspect of the show, which is excellent considering this is a romance, a genre which relies on how much and in which way we want characters to interact. Every character, in both isolation and in their relationship with the other characters feels unique and develops organically, which in turns allow you to not only root for them and their progression as characters (even the psychopathic doll) but also look back and suddenly feels nostalgic about those previous moments that you understand better and better over time. As far as characters go, the show is definitely cohesive and through, contrasting with the plot in that the tropes it does use are meaningful, whereas in the plot the tropes fill like just filler.

With felt less cohesive was the mix of drama and humor in this show, which I think wasn´t handled too well. There was an intended progression into darker set ups as the show went along, and well, that much was accomplished, but the insistently repeated jokes that weren´t all that good to begin with (some jokes even being distinctly bad such as a certain Winner Sinclair) and the over the top reactions of pretty much every character to just about everything made the earlier goof feel exhausting and the usage of a plot saturated with cliché turns was enough to dismiss a lot of the drama for me. The first part did allow some contrast with Maaka´s sister, allowing her presence on screen to almost always feel like a breath of fresh air and while the drama wasn´t too effective as drama, it did make me think more deeply about the themes of the show: our nature as people. What makes you be you.

This surprisingly deep and even more surprisingly well-explored thematic grants the show a whole layer of new potential. Whether you allow yourself to go with the tide and can enjoy the humor and drama as they go along without concerning yourself with the disparity or you choose to swim deeper into the river and find the golden themes at the bottom, the show has something for you to taste and to help you immerse in what the characters are going through. Even the ending allows the relief for those that follow through with the drama and also resolves the issue in a way that is rather consistent with it´s worldbuilding that far instead of pulling a deus-ex-machina. The only complaint about this I would have is that the answers the show appears to present to it´s conflicts are vague and dreamy at best which could be rather disappointing.

Overall, Karin is a very "middle" show, good enough to be watched and enjoyed by almost everyone, excelling in the middle but being a little rough on the beginning due to us not caring enough about the characters yet and in the end , due to the repetitive content (unless you have a particular taste for certain themes or the humor of the show). It´s not something I´d go out of my way to recommend to anyone, but it is not a waste of time either , providing and enjoyable twist on the vampire romance trope.

I didn't get that interested in the anime.I couldn't get to far into the story when I found out it was different from the manga. I think the manga was so much better. In the manga the romance was sooo good, the comedy was really funny(I guess the show didn't do bad in it's comedy either,it was probably on par with the manga's comedy), and plot.Things like dramatic moments were done so well in the manga. Overall the story in the manga felt like a good romcom and by the end I was completely satisfied,so if you didn't like the anime due to the it ... not having enough couple type of romance, definitely DEFINITELY read the manga :)