Vampire in the Garden tells the story of 2 girls: the regular Momo Warm working in an industrial military city whose passion riles up from saving a young vampire whom has a music box of a tune that sounds its resonance, and that young vampire Fine whom other than being the queen of the vampires, desires a life led with humans to be loved, one that's once relived from her past memories, only to see it birth a war between mankind and vampires to the stage it was today. Both girls want out of their oppressive lifestyle and desire to find a paradise of their own where human and vampire can peacefully coexist, otherwise seen as betrayers of their own kind to find an "Eden" that doesn't exist. It's of no surprise to cast Megumi Han and Yuu Kobayashi as both Momo and Fine as the centerpiece of this series, and for all intensive purposes, their performances lend great aid to reflecting the series as a whole: the two outliers whom just want peace out of seclusion, fighting through every situation and not giving up on each other when the going gets tough, even at death's row.
Unsurprisingly, this is what I would expect of Wit Studio's production, this being produced by Wit Studio and Production I.G. co-founder-cum-producer Tetsuya Nakatake, director Ryoutarou Makihara (whom hasn't directed anything since Shisha no Teikoku, a movie released in 2015) with assistant Hiroyuki Tanaka (who used to help direct Attack on Titan when it was produced at Wit Studio), music director Yoshihiro Ike (of Takt Op. Destiny and Dororo fame) and Tetsuya Nishio in both character design and being the chief animation director. Speaking of the character design, there is one person whom looks almost like Jiraiya from Naruto, and that's because Tetsuya Nishio is the original character designer of the TV series, so you know that this man is a god amongst men. This series being mostly centered in around arctic and industrial areas, gives me a mix of Attack on Titan and Vinland Saga vibes, to which if you've ever watched those series, you'll know what I mean.
It's genuine that I say that after the somewhat failure of the movie Bubble, Vampire in the Garden is what I truly hope that ONA stories like this capped within 2 hours plus can become: an engaging story that does not feel too short nor too long, characters that we can be engaged with to tell their stories of circumstances and the much-needed resolution, a nice production and some good music. Everything must be balanced together, and this is what I got to truly experience a well-rounded original story that leaves me wanting for more.
This is some impressive stuff.
