Visual Prison

When I looked at Visual Prison, I was skeptical of it at first because I thought it'd be one of those idol type anime where the character fits into a generic trope but as I watched it, it actually took me by surprise and I ended up enjoying it and looking forward to every Friday. The reason why I decided to give it a chance is because of Masuda Toshiki (Dimitri Romanee's VA). As someone who is familiar with the Visual Kei genre and a fan of Masuda-san, this anime sold me right away. The seiyuu lineup is amazing.

Starting off with talking about the ... story which I rate a 6/10, imagine Eurovision but the vampires are singing for the Scarlet Moon. I feel the story didn't really answer a lot of questions that fans have. With 12 episodes, I think it is possible to answer some of them but they never covered it properly; why does the Scarlet Moon want songs? What is Eclipse's motivation to protect their 'lambs'? I feel like a lot of the character backstories and their motivations are still shrouded in mystery. I feel like we still don't know Beth, Saga, Hyde, Dimitri, and Guil properly. I'm crossing my fingers that the anime will have a second season because I want to know more and more about the characters! Also, there's barely any blood sucking moments in the anime. What's the point having everyone as vampires if we don't see any feeding moments?

Art, I give it an 7/10. I mean, the characters are not drawn ugly. They're pretty attractive on and off the stage. Visual Kei is supposed to have the band dressing up and putting make up on. I feel Eclipse (current and past Eclipse) is the only band living up to the appearance of how Visual Kei is supposed to be. They feel more Visual Kei of what it used to be. Lost Eden looks like modern day Visual Kei bands. As much as I like OZ, OZ is still too idolish. OZ looks more like an idol band than Visual Kei band. But enough about the character art, yes, there are CGIs used in the anime but they're only used 3 times but honestly, the CGI in here works better than the CGI in Berserk and the The World's Finest Assassin Gets Reincarnated in Another World as an Aristocrat. The CGI for when Eclipse sing their songs are amazing in my opinion. That is CGI done right there.

Sound, 10/10. The 10 comes from the songs. Yes, my favorite band is Eclipse but even if you have a band that you like, you still find yourself enjoying the other band's songs. If you like JRock or Visual Kei, you will enjoy this anime for the songs because the seiyuus really do bring life to band songs and their solo songs. I wouldn't say the seiyuu lineup is amazing if it wasn't. If you lean more to Kpop or Jpop, don't expect the music to cater to your taste because if you don't enjoy Jrock, what are you doing watching this anime? You might as well watch Starmyu, Idolish7, or Utapri. This anime is for those who enjoys Jrock after all so expect strong bass, drums and electric guitar sounds. If you ask me whose vocal carried this anime, I think it's a tie between Makoto Furukawa (Guiltia) and Aoi Shouta (Hyde). Masuda Toshiki (Dimitri) gets a bonus mention for using a deeper tone when he speaks. So hot.

Character, 7/10. Ange on his own doesn't really carry the anime in the first few episodes. The other characters in this anime have more life and soul than him. When the band get together, you feel a family vibe from each of them. Heck, you immediately find who is the mom and dad of the group XD
OZ is a warm group and their character interactions reflect that. Lost Eden is like a warm family in their own way too which really surprised me considering they want to destroy the Scarlet Moon. Eclipse is pretty much a married couple with one another. For me, the most fun character is Dimitri Romanee. It will be spoilers if I reveal why so you're going to have to watch it yourself.

Enjoyment: Enjoyment-wise, I'd give it a 9. If an anime can make me look forward to each song/episode for the sake of enjoyment and not just because I want to finish it for the sake of finishing it, I wouldn't give it such a high score. I'm now in a pickle because what will I have to look forward to now that Visual Prison is over? I hope they will give out an OVA or something.

Fangirl level: 11/10. I ship Dimitri and Hyde.

Overall: I give this anime an overall 8/10. The main guy (Ange) is weak as a character in the beginning episodes but he slowly picks up the pace and ends up growing on you. The rest of the characters are loveable and they're all precious in their own ways. It lost two points because there's not enough Eclipse. While they're trying to focus giving everyone their own solo songs, there's not enough screen time for Eclipse. I wish for a season 2, fingers crossed!

Visual Prison is my most awaited seasonal title of Fall 2021. It’s all about musical Visual Kei bands battles with ikemens vampires (Visual Kei is a muscial rock-punk-gothic genre really easy to the eyes). Not gonna lie to you, there is a lot of fanservice, but I really was over-enjoying over this Visually and Soundly great title, and here let me explain why :

• Story : 7/10 •
We mainly follow the debuts of « OZ » bands, where our main character, Ange cross path with other Vkei groups Lost Eden and Eclipse during one of their shows in Harajuku. He will then stumble across his favorite singer, ... Guiltia, here and so began the debuts of Ange’s wonderful voice which will be able to gather talents around him.
The main goal of these bands are to win the favor of the Scarlet moon and participating in the Visual Prison’s event to gather scarlet tears. If you reunite at least 10 tears, you will be able to make a miracle.
Dramas event happening, OZ’s band sure need these tears for them.

• Art : 9/10 •
Ikumi Katagiri takes charge of the original character designs, and even if you’re not enjoying the story, you can at least see how beautiful the fashion and characters are. 
There is unfortunately some CGI used during performance and battles, but aside Visual Prison is visually pleasing.

• Characters : 8/10 •
The character development is in the center of the story, we get to see the main band but also other bands backstories, and why they’re all fighting for these scarlet tears.
Their relationships and interaction are also evolving through episodes.

• Sound : 10/10 •
As a Visual kei listener, I really loved all the band’s songs, Elements Garden composed the music for this anime and with a really good Voice Actors selection, we can fully enjoy the music and voices through the opening, stage performance, practices and ending.

• Enjoyment : 9/10 •

I was waiting for Friday to come quite excitedly, I was thrown back in my old teenage day, fangirling on Vkei bands and looks.
This series is not a BL, there is no explicit gay interactions, but ambiguous and bromance vibe was part of the charm and enjoyment of the series in my side.

• In brief : 9/10 •
Overall, I know the score will most likely never be high, the male fanservices moment might frighten most of you (if you’re not a fujoshi, that’s it) but at least you can give a try to this visually and soundly pleasing title.
The story with the Scarlet Moon doesn’t make a lot of sense, but if you enjoy Visual Kei songs and beautiful characters, it’s not gonna be that bad.

I'm going to be honest, I didn't think I would enjoy this anime as much as I am. I thought it would be cringe and boring and I would drop it soon after starting it, but I was pleasantly surprised for the most part. If you find yourself wanting to give it a try, it's definitely an acquired taste, but if you go into it without any judgement, you might find it to be entertaining.

The best thing you can do to see if this anime is for you is to look up "Visual Kei" on youtube and watch a music video of the genre, ... because this anime is based off of this kind of music. Also, it has Black Butler gothic vibes so if you really don't like that, you probably won't like this either.

Onto the nitty-gritty:

The Story: I have no fucking clue what's going on lmao. It's not the kind of thing that is easily passable either, because there are just some obvious things that really should be addressed; like why the fuck is Yuki a "dhampir" and why did he not know this before Eclipse falls from the sky in the first ep like two angels falling from heaven? It's all a bit bizarre, really, but hey, that's fine as long as you can make up for it with other things. I will say that character backstories make up for the lack of main "story" in a way, but it's still quite decent and annoying at times that so many of my questions don't get answered, or fly right over my head with how noisy and psychedelic the show can get. Overall, I don't mind it too much and find it somewhat humorous at times with the lack of proper explanations.

The Art: This would be one of the show's best traits if it weren't for the 3D models for the performances. Might just be a preference, but I really can't stand 3D stuff especially when it's thrown around in the middle of an otherwise perfectly drawn-out anime. This is a particularly aesthetic anime but in a very gothic-way, for the most part. There are some very nice backgrounds, also, and the animation is generally smooth. Also, Eve's fight animation in episode 4 was really good. You can't have an anime called "Visual Prison" without it being at least good, visually. It does what it is expected to do in that aspect.

Sound: So, I do like Visual Kei as a music genre in general, but I expected it to be kinda cringe in anime, and I was wrong, for most of them except the Lost Eden and Eclipse songs (I did not like), but the others are really strong musically. I find them humorous sometimes watching the 3D models, and touching other times, depending on the song. For example, Eve's song was really nice, and less angsty than the others. In general, the songs sound like they could be anime OPs. I also want to give them more credit because I can tell the amount of work put into every song was a lot, so I can appreciate the effort. Overall, I would add their songs to my playlist.

Character: This is probably the main reason why people will not want to watch this anime, and frankly, I don't know what to tell you. It's probably what you're thinking, with the homoeroticism, because they're all male vampires and vampires are horny, I guess? Anyway, I thought the main characters would be less interesting than I find them to be now. They each have a backstory that explains their motivations and how they got to where they are (in general, except I still don't know what the fuck the European vampires are doing in Japan, for one). If you like having stuff told to you and not leave you guessing, it might be frustrating. I want to say there are some references to Final Fantasy VII's Vincent Valentine, whose game had a Visual Kei music video by Gackt (visual kei singer), because of Lost Eden's (a musical group in the anime) logo is the same/similar as Vincent's Dirge of Cerberus logo; one of their songs mentions a one-winged angel (Sephiroth) and also Guiltia reminds me of Cloud Strife in his normal design. As a FF fan, I appreciate this. I also appreciate how most characters are able to show a vast range of emotions, although sometimes it can be overdramatic, like a lot of things in this anime, and Visual Kei itself. It makes sense, so I'm not complaining. There are well-written characters (Eve), poorly-written characters (Saga) and characters that are just up for public scrutiny at this point (It has only been 5 episodes so far, I'm not gonna go deeper into it).

Enjoyment: I'm not that into gothic stuff, but probably because I'm non-judgmental and can find humor in things, I think this anime is enjoyable in a way, even if it's making fun of the way some of the characters dress, or some of the weird things they say.

Overall, pretty good, I enjoy it for what it is.

best music from any anime ive ever heard hands down 10/10
stupidest story ever made 10/10
characters have probably one if not the best outfits in recent anime years 10/10
music is 10/10
emo vampires 10/10
weeds out the normie viewers 10/10

this show is one of the most dramatic shows ive ever seen this will be my biggest guilty pleasure. this show will be seen as a classic 110%.
Also probably one of the very few anime where CGI is actually fine to use as it adds so much more depth to the outfits they wear.

... yep anime of the year 10/10

10/10

Honestly I can't explain it, but this was not as bad as I expected :)
I looked at it and instantly though Diabolik Lovers and Dance with Devils but this is way better then those in my book. This ain't a weird supernatural wonderland written by a masochist (most likely), it actually didn't have romance!!! I honestly wish more shows took the direction this took with a big identity reveal that wraps up a mystery of the main character and impacted ___ amount of other characters due to relation with this answer.

All I am saying is it could've went down hill real fast but didn't :)

"I watch from above and laugh like "Gyahahaha!"" - Sugita Tomokazu, Gintoki's VA, on how to enjoy Diabolik Lovers.

Comedy.

This is pure comedy gold.

You won't be able to understand it unless you go in in a particular mood to laugh at everything.

Like, somewhere mid-episode 1, the girls around our MC suddenly begun to get vaporized into floating lights, and this dude - our MC - is just standing there blushing at the "cool" cosplayers that showed up and sang a song. Like, what? X'D Run already! Then, he swoons and faints into another guy's hands later. Ahahaha

This show clearly doesn't mean to take itself seriously, ... and that's fine. Visual Kei's meant to be light-hearted fun, and it conveys well.

The story's not good, art's mediocre, characters are flimsy as heck, but damn if I don't enjoy every song or strange development that has me bending over, slapping my table, laughing in tears.

I'm writing this review after ep 6, where our main group pulls a mic out of their hands like that thunder god in Genshin Impact does from her boobs, then that mic turns into a sword. And they sing just like that, into the hilt of their mic-sword while swinging the sharp end of their sword around like it's not going to dice their knees or their friends' heads if it hits.

It's hilarious X'D

Sincerely,
I am in tears.

This is truly a hidden gem of an anime! It was too short sadly which caused the pacing to feel too fast for character development and the story suffered from that. I would have liked a longer season so the show's story could have been more polished since parts of it make no sense. When judging this anime I decided not to look at it as a traditional anime since it's more of a Visual Kei musical. The songs are just 10/10 for me and I find myself playing them over and over again because they are sung so well!

WARNING! (Read below for triggers)

Suicide ... is mentioned and depicted so do not watch if this may harm your mental state
There is a lot of Boys Love fan service so if you don't want that this anime will not be for you. There is no romance, only hints at it for fans of BL.
Blood (This is to be expected since we are dealing with Vampires)

I bumbled into this anime while searching for a vampire anime. What I found instead was simply... fun

Don't expect a great (or even coherent) story. I still don't understand much of the logic! Plot holes are simply filled with great music, and ambiguous characters are covered in plot armour. Some scenes are spoiled a bit by the occasional use of 3D, which I felt didn't blend well. There is much that one can criticize about this anime... and yet... it's still fun.

Visually this anime is eye candy with sexy vampire musicians and homo-erotic subtext. The voice acting and singing is stellar, and characters look great ... both on and off stage. It's truly all about the music and ultimately thats all an anime like this needs to be enjoyable. Its great for those times you'd prefer to switch off your brain and let your foot tap to the beat of the music. Even if you are clueless about J-Rock (like wtf is Visual Kei?), it still holds high appeal. The main aim of this anime is to entertain... and damn, it does it well.

Overall I enjoyed it for what it offered. 7/10