Vanitas no Karte

Scorned by others of his kind for being born under a blue moon, the vampire Vanitas grew afraid and desolate. According to legend, he created a cursed grimoire known as the "Book of Vanitas," and it is said he would one day use it to bring retribution upon all vampires of the crimson moon.

In 19th century Paris, Noé Archiviste is searching for the fabled Book of Vanitas. Whilst traveling aboard an airship, he is saved from a vampire attack by an eccentric doctor who calls himself Vanitas and carries the very tome he seeks. Ironically, the self-proclaimed vampire specialist is a mere human who inherited both his name and the book from his master, the same Vanitas of legend. As the odd case of the Charlatan's Parade crops up, the doctor's ability to restore sanity to vampires by recovering their true name will prove most beneficial.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Vanitas Main

Hanae, Natsuki Japanese

Archiviste, Noé Main

Ishikawa, Kaito Japanese

Jeanne Supporting

Minase, Inori Japanese

de Sade, Dominique Supporting

Kayano, Ai Japanese

d'Apchier, Chloé Supporting

Kugimiya, Rie Japanese

Fortis, Roland Supporting

Kawanishi, Kengo Japanese

Murr Supporting

Komaki, Miyu Japanese

de Sade, Louis Supporting

Shimabukuro, Miyuri Japanese

Granatum, Astolfo Supporting

Murase, Ayumu Japanese

Vampire of the Blue Moon Supporting

Park, Romi Japanese

Odagiri, Narumi Producer

Komatsu, Shouta Producer

Iwahashi, Mika Assistant Producer

Itamura, Tomoyuki Director, Storyboard

Reviews

Sep 17, 2021

Stark700

Recommended

What's fascinating about bringing a manga into anime form is the expression of its ideas onto the television screen. Jun Mochizuki is best known for her work, Pandoras Hearts and she's able to communicate her wealth of ideas to her fans. In respect, she's able to formulate together a fictional setting with colorful characters and ultimately create this piece of work known as Vanitas no Carte.

Vanitas no Carte (or its English title 'The Case Study of Vanitas') takes place in France that adheres to a steampunk fantasy. Studio Bones helms the show with director Tomoyuki Itamura at the steering wheel. You'd think a guy who ... has been involved with the Monogatari franchise to bring its witty dialogues this show. However, Vanitas no Carte sells its beyond talking and characer interactions. Watching the show equates to an elegant setting of fantasy, drama, and a whole lot of pretty boys.

Based on the manga, we meet Vanitas, a young man with vampire blood in his veins after a certain incident. In possession of the sacred The Book of Vanitas, he claims to be able to cure vampires. Fate would have it as he crosses paths with Noe, a vampire who seeks the book for himself. And together, we follow their quest in Paris, France, a setting of mystery and secrets. From most people's point of view, it's easy to label the show as a supernatural drama. After all, we are introduced to vampires, one of the most overused monsters even in the anime medium. However, this show managed to captivate me through its sheer storytelling from the first episode. We got a seemingly elegant airship that turns into a nightmare with the presence of vampires. Blood is spilled and we realize the stakes of the story. On the other hand, Vanitas is confident enough to call himself a doctor for the vampire curse. Can you believe it? Maybe not from the first episode but as we learn more about Vanitas, the more we can understand what the author wants to show us.

Vanitas himself is a confident character with a colorful amount of charisma. His personality is displayed as playful, sarcastic, and can be quite mischievious. He's a character who is hard to read based on emotions. Sometimes, you have to wonder if anything he says can be taken seriously. However, Vanitas' role shows he knows more than we think and has an important connection to his book. The relationship between him and Noe is perhaps one of the most entertaining element in the show for their conflicting personalities. Let's face it, the two fight like siblings and seems like they always have something to fight about. Although their relationship evolves throughout the show, it's still at times hard to see them eye to eye. But that's also what's entertaining about the show. Injecting toxicity into a relationship brings entertainment and it's the type of toxicity that doesn't rub off itself.

Meanwhile, other characters emerges from the show with elegance of various degrees. Jeanne, aka The Hellfire Witch, attracts the attention of Vanitas who decided to confess to her upon their meeting. The aristocrat Domi shares an unique relationship with Noe and upon their on-screen appearance, she wants him a taste of her blood. Unfortunately, beyond Vanitas, Noe, Jeanne, and Domi, most of the other cast are overshadowed by their sheer presence. It's not that other characters are ignored by the author but that these four has much more aura and mystique. We also get a glimpse of Vanitas' past and Noe and Domi's peculiar relationship. On the other hand, Jeanne is cast into the show as perhaps as the most feminine character you can find. When you get an anime filled with pretty boys, there's also room for pretty girls, right? Of course, this anime isn't shy to give out kiss scenes and moments that make the fangirl in you scream.

Despite the various degrees of light comedy, Vanitas no Carte is to be taken as a serious show. Beyond the humor lies an anime of dark secrets. We find out more and more about the origins of vampires, the purpose of the Book of Vanitas, and even secrets we may not want to know. However, do also realize that this is just the first season and it's meant more as a setup and introduction of the overall anime's themes and ideas. When the adaptation was announced, it was already set up to run more than one cour. In order to adequately tell its story, it had to be expanded this way given the amount of chapters and volumes from the manga. So yes, be patient. This first season isn't here to drop you into everything the world it has to offer.

Anyone familiar with Mochizuki's past work will draw similarities in her character designs. Yes, this anime has very pretty characters. That's perhaps an understatement when we see the aristocrat society. The male cast has their bishounen look while the ladies draws you into with their elegance. Let's face it, most of the cast look attractive and it's just how the author wants you to feel when watching their every scene. We also behold our eyes on the beautiful setting that is France. It's a place of mystique and the first episode shouldn't take long for you to take it in. Take a deep breath because Vanitas no Carte is no shortstop in the visual quality department. Similarly, the voice actors does a phenomenal job at protraying their respective characters. From the playful voice tone of Vanitas to the lady-like mannerisms of Domi, you can truly believe the characters are who they are.

I don't believe it takes an award winning writer to create a series such as Vanitas no Carte. Yet, Jun Mochizuki is able to convince me to follow her legacy. This show has proven itself that she can make a fictional world in a steampunk setting and create a beautiful cast. Whether you agree with her ideas is another thing. But let's face it, Vanitas no Carte is how a supernatural drama should be.

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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Sep 17, 2021

LordSozin

Mixed Feelings

Vampires. A fascinating group of creatures generally depicted as merciless monsters across many works of literature of its existence. Their conventional roles in a story are either misunderstood and victimized, or they’re straight-up one-dimensional adversaries--a hurdle for the hero to get through. And The Case Study of Vanitas is no exception--the series follows the conventional flow of writing.

Set in 19th century Paris, the story follows a vampire and a human doctor that goes around the city to cure the recent phenomenon that corrupts vampires. A phenomenon is known as the “Curse Bearer.” Once the phenomenon corrupts its target, the victim loses all sense of ... normalcy and goes berserk, killing anyone in its sight. This is where the conflict comes in. In the world of Vanitas, vampires and humans have long ended their disputes. There is a harmonious establishment between humans and vampires. However, that’s not to say that there isn’t any stigma between the two races. As demonstrated on the vampire side, vampires, in general, still despise humans to an extent. As for the reasons, they are unknown. But I suspect it has to do with the history between the two and what humans did to the vampires.

Seeing the emergence of corrupt vampires in the human realm, the ministry for the vampires was searching for ways to mitigate the situation before it turned to complete chaos and disorder. Thus, long story short: Noe and Vanitas went against the ministry’s cruel method of dealing with corrupt vampires and insisted on their own solutions for the matter, which was to use a special book to purify the corruptions. Through this journey of curing vampires that Noe and Vanitas were tasked with, the reveal of themselves and the people around these two makes a large chunk of the series. The narrative thus far hasn’t conceived anything new. It follows the formula of a duo protagonist in their quest of eliminating chaos and dissipating fomentations.

The heavy reliance in The Case Study of Vanitas is the character dynamics. Yet, the interaction between Noe and Vanitas, or the protagonists with the supporting casts such as Janne and Dominique, are uninteresting, to say the least. It is shown that there could be more to the characters, that each of them can change one another--the four of them. But that’s barely the focus. We were only being given hints between each episode before it disappears and goes back to lackluster comedy. The poor placement of tone shifts is mainly derived from the cheap comedy, where there’s also dependence on chibi art. Some of the writing and presentation lands, but the comedy is a hindrance for most of the time. The jokes in this show are whatever. We can essentially ignore the humor since it doesn’t add anything valuable to the series. The sole reason for its existence is to provide a tone shift, which, in all honestly, can be done better. But in The Case Study of Vanitas, the transitional scenes are just jarring, which for the majority of the time, ruins the immersion of a particular scene.

Besides the poorly placed comedy and inadequate casts, I am gravitated by its art and visuals. The beautiful depiction of the realistic colors of a city, characters, and overall atmosphere facilitate narrative in an immersion sense. When watching The Case Study of Vanitas, the show was always able to let viewers be placed in situations. Usually, both the writing of its story, characters, themes, and visuals are needed to immerse the viewers, but Vanitas only really succeeded in visuals for me.

The Case Study of Vanitas is a solid yet straightforward story. Conventional writing does have its charms and faults since it doesn’t flourish into anything outstanding. Its major appeals, I would say, are the character dynamics and visuals. If this series was to be compared with others of its similar playing field, I believe The Case Study of Vanitas would stand shoulders above them.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Sep 17, 2021

SingleH

Not Recommended

Of all the things you can criticize this show for, you certainly can’t fault it for false advertising. You expect vampire yaoi-bait full of pretty boys blushing, pretty boys hand-holding, pretty boys naked, pretty boys with weirdly intimate physical relationships, pretty boys kissing submissive girls, pretty boys LICKING submissive girls, and whatever else it takes to fuel the fires of fujoshi fanfiction, and that’s exactly what you get. Aside from all the heavy breathing, sensual moaning, and sexy blood-sucking, this show is about Vanitas and Noé, two men on a mission to save all vampires. From what? I dunno. How? I dunno. Why? Actually, we ... do kinda learn Noé’s motivation, but other than that, their mission is kept intentionally vague so the story can meander around, not really doing much for all twelve episodes. The show insistently interrupts every serious scene with unfunny comedy or goofy facial expressions, suggesting the show isn’t really meant to be taken all that seriously, but it also has an info-dump or a flashback every episode, suggesting we should actually be taking notes. The presentation is just poorly planned, and the tone is all over the place. One minute Noé is having Vietnam flashbacks about this grotesque face-eating monster, and ten seconds later we’re joking around with clingy oujo-sama waifu again. The action scenes are also pretty lackluster. It’s just a bunch of assholes standing around spouting meaningless attack names, doing some flashy nonsense, and incapacitating the enemy without the show ever attempting to introduce a cohesive magic system or well-defined power scale. I’m gonna be totally honest, there were many times throughout this show where I didn’t really know what someone was talking about. The characters would go somewhere or start some conversation, and only then would I realize I had zoned out and didn’t understand the context behind what was happening. I’m not saying the details weren’t there. I’m just saying the show was too boring to communicate them to me. This is ironic because, in other instances, the show repeats itself way too much. It’s constantly reminding you of its cookie-cutter vampiric lore and completely failing to appreciate its own banality. Yuki Kajiura will be playing this tremendous piece of gothic music while Vanitas is giving this epic speech, the characters are acting like the world is falling down around them, and all I can think is, “I'm sorry, but didn’t he already say that, like, two episodes ago?”

This show made me realize Tomoyuki Itamura only ever seemed like a competent director because he was working under the tutelage of Akiyuki Shinbou and constantly in a state of imitating the Studio Shaft aesthetic which better, more unique directors like Tatsuya Oishi had helped to define, and I’m not happy. I thought it was just a coincidence when the same thing happened with Shin Ōnuma slowly over the course of the last decade and Yuki Yase literally the second he left, but I guess this is the fate of those who leave Shaft: washed-up at a worse studio and with zero style of their own, pumping out nothing but forgettable and painfully boring seasonal shlock. Visually, I can’t really say this show looks better than just alright. The average production quality of modern anime is just so low, it makes this look like something phenomenally impressive when it really isn’t. For Bones, though, I thought it looked quite good. I watched the first episode and thought, “well, there’s no way they’re going to keep up this level of costume detail,” and I was right. However, instead of doing what they usually do and making a wildly inconsistent mess with a few over-animated action scenes to trick people into thinking the rest of the show looks presentable when it really doesn’t, they actually balanced everything out and crafted a much more solid work of animation. Another pleasant surprise from Bones was the outstanding art direction. Usually, the backgrounds are the weakest part of any Bones show, but the art direction in this show is great, especially in the gorgeous opening animation, and it really brings the setting of Paris to life. The last time an anime set in France looked this good was Le Chevalier D’Eon, and that’s cheating because the studio was Production IG and the art director was Hiroshi Ōno. But sadly, these pretty visuals are limited by the lifeless directing. In the first episode, there was this scene of Vanitas and Noé fighting which was storyboarded so that a metal grate would momentarily obscure the shot, and I legitimately felt physically ill for recognizing it. I mean, out of all the Akiyuki Shinbou trademarks Itamura could’ve ripped-off to communicate the fact he has no directorial identity of his own, why choose one of the most famous visual tricks from Shinou’s post-90s legacy at Shaft? I don’t know, it just seemed pathetic to me. Frankly, the whole show is steeped in mediocrity, and while I can’t fault it for anything serious, I doubt I’ll remember it fondly, assuming the smut isn’t all I remember.

Thank you for reading.

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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