There is a time, in the middle of your anime life, when you (supposedly) know and fear the genres you once swore you’d never watch again but still you think to yourself the same thing: “I’m more mature right now, maybe I could give the XXXXX anime a chance, even if it’s categorized in one of the genres I hate. . .Harem Anime”. I pondered this some weeks ago and here I am. Still alive. With some ups but huge downs I review the series that caught me and my fascination for pink and long-haired girls. I swear…someday I’ll resist successfully. 

This 13-episode show made by Studio GONZO is based on the manga by the same name created by Ikeda Akihisa. The genres this show gathers are:

Comedy, Romance, Harem, School Life, Fantasy and some fighting (but not much. . .don’t get your hopes up).

STORY

Tsukune is the male leader of the story. He’s the common Japanese anime dumbass who failed his High School exam (Love Hina?), but suddenly finds a letter saying he’s accepted to some unknown school outside of town. Little did he know. . .for this school was a Monster School (everyone disguised as humans, though). . .and they totally hate humans! Tsukune is in a big pinch since, if his cover is blown, public execution is the punishment!

Luckily, Tsukune stumbles across a monster girl who happens to be a Vampire, the most powerful of monsters. . .but he manages to befriend her, so now Tsukune has something very similar to diplomatic invulnerability. . .or in geek terms, Godmode, since this girl named Moka-san, will come to rescue the infiltrated human from all the trouble he gets in. The story revolves around the school days of this couple, along with other monster girls who fall in love with Tsukune (Love Hina again. . .but that’s the plot of every Harem anime out there. . .).

Kappuchu~’s are awesome.

GRAPHICS

Character design is normal. You seldom see any bad quality in scenes, no matter how fast they appear. Some fight scenes are very choppy, like if they took 3 frames for every actual frame on screen, but overall, it’s ok. . .

Except for THIS PICTURE (My God, it’s so bad):

Argh! The faces!!! (Is it me or the blue-haired girl’s face in this scene resembles Marina form Mischief Makers?)

By any means the studio will try to place the camera on the most uncommon places just to get a pantyshot of any girl with a skirt so if you like this kind of fanservice, this show is highly recommended!

SOUND & MUSIC

Mizuki Nana sings the OP song “Cosmic Love “. It’s pretty cliché, but well, you would also be expecting this, given that she also sang the OP and ED for Lyrical Nanoha. Damn, even the text. . .Japanese and then some English phrases (Am I the only one that hates this? I  can’t imagine songs in English and then some babble in some other language, most of the time not even making a congruent sentence [Vandread's "Fight for your Justice" is an exception: I find the song awesome but then again, mainly for the music, not the lyrics.])

BGM is really something. It was a very strange feeling, how I was watching some crap show about moe vampires, but with an OST that repeatedly made me think I had another show on at the same time. It just didn’t make sense to me! I can get to this conclusion:

There can be music which is just too awesome for something.

The only time they put lipstick (lip shadow?) and 3 different colors into Moka-san’s eyes. . .tsk tsk tsk.

OVERALL

I don’t know. . .I used to think anything made by GONZO would end up awesome but, first it was Speed Grapher, and then Rosario + Vampire. . .I’m seeing a pattern here but I still have hope for the guys to make it better in their next project.

R + V is a pretty awkward anime to review: It has one of the most dull of plots, a normal quality in animation (fight scenes can get kinda sketchy sometimes), the most predictable characters (cat-girl, loli girl, big boobs, quiet type, even Gothic girl), and poor character development, taking you to the “When is this going to end?” question. Nevertheless, the BGM for some scenes fits in an awesome manner; I was literally surprised when I heard some really unpredictable change of music on some fight scenes and some weird harmonic passages in this low-tier anime (and no, it’s not the kind of music Ali-project does either. . .).

This show is so bad it’s awesome. Most of the jokes, “funny” situations and characters are way too forced to expand the appeal of the show (an adult catgirl teacher that acts like a 10 year old? Give ME a break!). The fanservice panty-shots and boob shots are most of the time too forced thanks to the awesome ninja skills of the cameraman, but that is part of the Rosario + Vampire Experience. you’ll geta couple of laughs here and there, but don’t expect any Seto no Hanayome or Excel Saga.

The only reasons that made this show bearable for me were:

1 – The voice actor for Chipp Zanuff (from the Guilty Gear games) doing the voice of a bat that appears every now and then to inject funny into the show (which is very, very needed).

2 – Panty shots and fanservice in general. And that’s why I made a little something for you DDN fans!

Click to see it animated!

3 – Kappuchuu~!

Oh and before I finish: If you want to watch the anime do it in this order, it will save you time:   Episode 1, 2, 9, 10, 11, 12, and 13. All the others are not worth it.

Delicious Flat Chest or well-endowed schoolgirl. . .decisions, decisions. . .

STORY:  5.5

GRAPHICS:  8.5

SOUND & MUSIC:  8.5

OVERALL: 7.5

They say the manga is a thousand times better. . . Better read it, and if you can, get the OST.