Thankfully teach episode is still only half the length of most animes, coming in at around twelve and a half minutes each. This includes the intro, outro and 'sneak peek' at the next episode. That made it tolerable enough, I suppose.
Sadly, it's still just this side of being another 'force' hentai. (I'm not really going to use the 'R' word here but it's WAY too similar for my comfort.)
Keep in mind that I've watched Shiki, Shinsekai yori (A.K.A. From The New World), Danganronpa and Danganronpa 3 and absolutely loved them. I even liked Elfen Lied to an extent!
This show? This show is the one that made me squirm in discomfort.
Yui is still being mentally, verbally and physically abused by the six vampire brothers. In fact, she doesn't really seem to do much else other than to walk around with that vapid expression while being yanked about, bitten, drained and called things like 'B***h-chan', 'sow' and 'livestock'.
In fact, none of this seems to tie in at all with the ending of the first season. Then again, I might be confused with what really happened since I could have sworn
*SPOILER ALERT*
that Yui was turned into a vampire to save her life at the end of the first season.
*SPOILER ALERT OVER*
But here we are with our main character waking up to find three of the brothers all vying to drink from her the second she wakes up from a strange dream about an apple tree.
*looks around for a dark horse*
Oh, right. Wrong fruit tree. Anywho!
But at some point our main character gets kidnapped by ANOTHER group of vampire boys.
That's right. We get to go through this all again with some NEW characters!
And that's all it really is. Each episode we learn about each of these 'new characters' as they abuse and drain the main character.
Only this time we find that there's a purpose behind this. Supposedly Yui has the 'blood of eve' and the boys are trying to 'become adam'. That's right. Soak it in, people. They're trying to bring in Adam and Eve stuff.
Only in this case Yui is pretty much treated more as the apple of knowledge instead of Eve, considering how many times we hear that dreadful 'crunch' sound every time they bite her. And god forbid anyone just bites, drinks and leave. Oh no! They have to bite, drink, say something, bite again and drink. Sometimes multiple times. And each time there's that 'crunch' sound.
Whomever the sound crew was apparently thought biting into a human is like biting into an apple.... or someone just REALLY liked apples and used it as an excuse to eat apples all day long at work.
But yeah, there's some story here who the guys were before they became vampires, how drinking her blood will somehow turn one or all of them into Adam or something.... and that's it. We never really find out what the point of becoming Adam is, how it's really done, any of it. I think they were leaving it open in order to milk the series for a Season 3 because even the OVA doesn't answer any questions. In fact, all the ova is is everyone being possessive of Yui and chewing on her.
As usual, we come to know each of the new characters EXCEPT FREAKING YUI. Yui, who is supposed to be our MAIN CHARACTER is still pretty much a bland blank slate. All you learned from her in the first season was she was raised by a priest who adopted her and he sent her into this hellhole. That's it. We don't learn if there's more to her, we don't get to learn if she's somehow supernatural in some other sense beyond that she has crack for blood to vampires and she apparently has the 'blood of Eve'.
And Yui is STILL just as boring as before. I figured after the first season she'd at least have something more to her. Instead, our main character still just walks around going, "Oh, you want me to follow you into this room? Okay. What? Oh, no! Please stop! No! Noooo! *whimper, whine, whimper, whimper, whimper, whiiiiiiiine*"
There's absolutely NO character development with her. She's just there to be fodder for the story.... without actually telling us a story.
The rest of this review delves into spoiler territory, so be warned.
*SPOILER ALER*
OKay. So confession time. I will admit I like this season slightly better than the other. Yui seems to have a little more freedom and she's actually treated SOMEWHAT okay... for a very, very short bit of time.
Again, we never find out more about how drinking 'The blood of Eve' turns one of the vampires into Adam. But at the very end Yui IS given options by the head of the Vampire Boy Group 2, when Vampire Boy group 1 from season 1 is still yanking her around and giving her orders and treating her as a chew toy.... Although Vampire Boy Group 2 still does this, it's only slightly less than the first group.
Don't take this as me actually liking this second group of vampires...
Okay, pause it. I'm gonna have to get to abbreviations. So the vampires from the first season? They shall be henceforth be known in this review as VBG_1 (vampire boy group 1) and the ones introduced in season 2 here will now be known as VBG_2 (vampire boy group 2).
There. Much easier. On with the review!
Okay. So really, when it comes to saying 'VBG_2 is better than VBG_1' that's still like saying "I would much rather be stung by a scorpion instead of stung by a wasp". They're still mostly equal only one is slightly less awful.
Slightly.
At the very least, at the end of the series VBG_2 comes out and says, "Yeah, this may not be working because we have to give Yui the freedom and the ability to choose. We can't just force blood out of her and expect results." And so she's presented with the choice of the four brothers to... I don't know. I guess to choose who should become Adam? Yet again, they STILL DON'T FREAKING SAY.
It's as if they're trying to show us instead of telling us but they're forgetting to SHOW US SOMETHING!!!!!!!!! And I don't mean more vampire feeding porn!!!
*SPOILER DONE*
The frustrating thing? At the root of this I can feel a REALLY good, very interesting story. It's there, just waiting to be seen! But they spent so much time on treating Yui as a regenerating blood to fight over and stomp on that we literally get next to no story. In fact, only a handful of episodes have ANY story progression beyond both groups of the vampire brothers yanking Yui around and teasing the other with going, 'Na-na, I got your cookie now! *blows raspberry at*'.
Maybe that's why I sat down and watched this. After the ending of the first season. There was a good story buried at the root there, too, but it was passed over so the focus could be on the Yui's mistreatment and 'relationship' with the brothers. I figured that in this season, after what happened at the end of the first, she would be on at LEAST slightly more equal footing.
My main question is... why doesn't she just leave? Surely running away, even with just the clothes on your back, is preferable to that type of treatment?
In conclusion, if you have qualms with bland characters, next to no character development, verbal abuse, and the constant exploitation of 'sweet, innocent girls' and lots and lots of force, then this is the anime for you.
Good luck to anyone that decides to watch this.
