Age Appropriate: Preteen/Teen
Emotional Response: Awww
Notable Features: vampires, high school, young love
Language: Japanese
Length: 1 season, 12 episodes
Overall Recommendation: Pretty Good
"I expect great things from him." - Iori
Ah, young love. Hasekura Kohei has been school hoping since he was younger. His father's job required a lot of moving around. Now that he's growing up a little, he's moved into Shuchika Academy in Shiomi City. He had previously lived there for 7 years ago, and has chose this as the place to come back to himself.
When he arrives he's greated by the VP of the student council, who seems to freak out as soon as they shake hands, and she runs off leaving Tsukasa (who happened to be walking by) in charge of Kohei.
Upon entering the dorm he's accidentally fallen on by Kanade, followed by her sister, Hina. They were childhood friends with Kohei when he was there last, so there are instant friends for him - happily forcing him into tea parties in his room.Erika is the VP, and avoids Kohei, somewhat. Her brother, Iori, is the President of the council and pulls pranks to get Kohei together with Erika - including switching the signs of the bath rooms, thus allowing Kohei to enter the bath while Erika is in there. (Oh No!) The first two episodes are really Kohei running around trying to apologized to Erika and managing to make things worse.
There rest of the supporting cast includes: Sei, the Treasurer, his little sister, Shiro, and Kuza Kiriha, a mysterious girl whom Kohei frequently attempts to include in activities. Also, Sister Amaike, who is in charge of the dorm and is notorious for meting out punishments with a frying pan. There is some sort of unspoken relationship with Iori there, but it's only ever hinted at. All together, under Iori's discerning eye, school events are the main stage for the story.
The shocking complication in the story is the presence of vampires! It turns out that Erika and Iori are vampires, and Sei and Shiro's family are servants to them. It's because of this that Kohei is on the student council, and part of the devious Iori's plan to throw Erika and Kohei together. The drama for the second half of the series is all about Erika's rebellion against her vampirism and her desire to be a normal girl - contrary to her mother's ideas.
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First, let me say, Shiro is ADORABLE. Her love for her rabbit, the swim tag game, and her little tea serving ways and just adorable. Sei, the incredibly over protective brother, is such a softie about her, despite his typical stuck up behavior. Iori frequently shows him self to be a prankster but as the show goes on you realize that it's all and act, and he's quite the manipulator. Kanade frequently says headsmacking things, and Hina is sweet and indulgent toward her. Tsukasa, though, seems to be pretty irrelevant past the first episode.I liked it, but it wasn't that compelling. The love story was sweet, and very high school. It's one of the few times that I've seen an anime where the characters in high school seem to really be characters in high school, rather than mature characters in a high school setting. The whole vampire thing fits is weirdly, though it could probably be any reason to rebel and that's just the method the writers have chosen.
The minor positives: the school cook is an Iron Chef! Yukimaru is an escape artist rabbit pet that opens the way for Kohei and Erika a few times, Kanada obsessively smacks people with discipline stickers, and the end of each episode has a pretty poem. I would definitely watch it for free, but I might be interested in renting it if I were in the mood for watching cute vampire anime (like I just was). It was Pretty Good.
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Up Next: Dance in the Vampire Bund (Halloween 5)
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