Out of all of the many Fall season's offerings, I have to say that author Kotei Kobayashi's Hikikomari Kyuuketsuki no Monmon a.k.a The Vexations of a Shut-In Vampire Princess is one of those works that is the definition of a one-of-a-kind work that you don't really see experimented much in the AniManga space. This LN that started in January 2020 , which would go on to win the Excellence award in SoftBank Creative's GA Bunko label (which is where works like DanMachi, Goblin Slayer etc. come from) in its 11th iteration, you know that this work is no slouch at all, and with Project No. 9's anime, it has earned its fans for better and for worse.
Meet Terakomari "Komari" Gandesblood: The second born daughter of the prestigious and powerful Gandesblood family, she has to do the typical thing of familial successors to take up the mantle of her predecessor...except for one issue. She may be a vampire, but the big problem is her inability to consume blood or utilize magic, and decided to live as the title suggests: as a shut-in princess. What's worse is that in her kingdom of the Mulnite Empire, her father holds a formidable position as one of the kingdom's strongest fighters and generals, dubbed the Seven Crimson Lords, and she automatically becomes one of them after being passed the torch thereafter, which she refuses to accept as reality. Guess what? After 3 years of being a shut-in, she's suddenly being promoted by the kingdom's Empress as a commander of the Mulnite Imperial Army, specifically the 7th Unit, full of warriors from psychos to ruffians and criminals — that is a 250-soldier strong army! With this context in mind, begins Komari's scuffleness in trying to deal with the big figures in her kingdom and her newly appointed soldiers as well, with the help of her personal maid Villhaze, all in the hopes that she won't be seen as a rebel who will have people turn against her.
Right away, this show is pretty much a character-driven complex story as we see Komari's rise to "fame" even at the behest of such titles "unnecessarily" bestowed on her, whom the others see as a "fit of trickery" that she is the leader suited for them as a ruthless warlord who "promises" to conquer the world. But beneath that façade lies a past that Komari doesn't want to come to light, as much as other people would come to realize of her "heritage" with the Gandesblood name. Komari's one and only solace is her personal maid Villhaze, and if you still don't get the fantasy comedy genre with the Yuri overtones, the blue-haired thirsty maid is just that, wanting to get into her good graces while literally "kissing her feet" with all sorts of zaniness that makes Komari all the more disgusted with her, though she can really deliver when it comes ot the crunch. That's literally the best part about the show, and as it attempts to dive deep into the war-bootlicking with characters moulded from the typical evil organization to bring in characters such as Millicent Bluenight, Sakuna Memoir, and others (of which they played a part in Komari's upbringing), I can't help but feel sympathy for these characters...but also for the story elements, of which it really just can't decide what to be. Say, the everlasting trope of "the power of friendship"? It's there, and you can't really unsee it. But soon, when Komari's real powers are involved, that's what makes her who she really is, worthy of the Gandesblood name that's pretty much not just the daughter's incapability but of a power that could potentially decimate the world. That's how unassuming Komari is from the outside, being a child, turned into an adult once she really gets all ham and going. If you really have to pick the star of the show, it'll definitely be Komari and Villhaze.
I really adore VA Tomori Kusunoki for her wide range of diversity, at least for this year, with the notables being Maou Gakuin's Misha Necron, Winter's TsunLise of Liselotte Riefenstahl, Summer's Zom 100 of Shizuka Mikazuki, and this season's Buta no Liver of Jess Yethma (though not her finest work). But aside from Zom 100, her performance as Komari really (and I mean REALLY) stood out as one of her finest performances this year, being the front and centre MC for the show in a great way, making it very pronounced that Komari is here not just to sleep her ass off, but to cause trouble and bring karma for all who are in her way.
Nevertheless, I need to address the elephant in the room: the kinda 3rd-rate studio that is Project No. 9 being assigned to 3 simultaneous shows at the same time: this, Ojou to Banken-kun a.k.a A Girl & Her Guard Dog (which had the WORST production quality), and Buta no Liver wa Kanetsu Shiro a.k.a ButaReba -The Story of a Man Who Turned into a Pig- (which was 2nd worst). Not once was this done to an insane degree than studio Liden Films, with 4 shows running concurrently during Winter 2021, and subsequent seasons having 3 shows concurrently thereafter throughout 2021 and 2022. But to be fair, Liden Films is in a whole other ballpark than Project No. 9, and they CAN handle up to 3/4 shows at ease without melting in production hell. But for the latter studio, it's clear that not only is this agonizing to the staff teams, but in a similar situation that's close on par with the likes of MAPPA, they just can't handle this much, and suffering a delay in this day and age is just the norm to expect going forward. For this show, it's clear that the priority went to this show, and despite it looking kind of jarring, it's pretty decent and is as close to what you'll expect from the studio.
That said, fripSide's return without its forefront singer Yoshino Nanjo since her graduation in April 2022, certainly does feel like a new era of the iconic J-Pop group with new singers Mao Uesugi and Hisayo Abe taking the helm since Spring 2022's Mahoutsukai Reimeiki a.k.a The Dawn of the Witch's OP song, which was (and still is) meh. This time with "Red Liberation", I'd say that this is a rather decent and competent song that's within the likes of the famed group, though still not close to what Yoshino Nanjo could muster herself, but hey, baby steps to get back to where they are. But the ED song, oh man, MIMiNARI really pimped herself with Tomori Kusunoki (Komari's VA) to produce one hell of a banger, but soothing song...which literally means "I Can't Sleep". It's a great song for all you sleepyheads who suffer from insomnia and desperately need to get some sleep.
Apart from this show being somewhat entertaining, as it is boring (at times), the vampire princess that we now know and love (somewhat to a degree) can be a riot in the right circumstances, though just as lazy when she likes it.
Regardless, for a princess who is just as happy and lax but as cold and OP as she is, what's not to love about Komari? A sleeping princess is as easy to tempt and tease.
