Rosario + Vampire

Information of Anime

Aono Tsukune failed on his entrance exams to get into the private schools of his choice.  However, his father manages to get into a high school called Yokai Academy.  However, the school is for monsters & Aono didn't know about it until his first day.  He meets a girl named Moka Akashiya who tells him that she's a vampire.  He hides her true form with a rosary.  When removed, she becomes fearful. 

Storyline (CONTAINS SPOILERS)

Below is a summary of the storyline I've seen.  If you haven't seen the series yet & don't want to be spoiled, skip this section.  If you want to know the story & want to see how I viewed it, read on.

Along the way, Aono makes more friends who were once enemies to him.  This happens in both in the monster & human world.  He enjoys his school life more & more until the final arc.

In the final arc, the newspaper club end up fighting with the Public Safety Commission.  The commission is rumoured to be abusing their powers though punishment & bribes.  Aono gets determined to bring this to light with Moka, Kurumu Kurono, Yukari Sendo, & Mizore Shirayuki joining in.  However, the committee makes the first move as they suspect that Aono is a human.  Through threats, Aono admits that he is a human which shocks Kurumu & Mizore who were caught in the process.  What surprises them more is that Moka kept it as a secret.  Moka is throw in a special jail cell & Aono is given a public execution on the school grounds.

Thanks to Ruby, a witch that Aono & friends met in the human world, she helps & rescues the troubled friends to save Aono as they take on the commission.  However, Aono would be engulfed in flames by the commission president which makes true vampire form Moka give her blood to him to save him.  After reviving him, Moka defeats the commission president.  With his defeat, the students in the school think that Aono defeated him & start to view him as their saviour as they start reveal their problems with the commission.

The show ends with everything going back to normal & people still going after Aono.

My Personal Review

Rosario + Vampire was something I picked up after reading a bit of it on the net about what the show is.  Seeing that it was comedy, I gave it a go.

Animation

The character designs are very beautiful on the female characters.  For some reason when Moka transforms to her true form, she reminds me of Maya Natsume from Tenjho Tenge.  Amazingly enough, the eyes on the main girls are a bit different.  They have eyelashes of different lengths.  The school uniforms are pretty nice as well.  Moka's rosary is very nice & give it a nice goth sense.  Another thing is that there are times where the black outlines are very thick& bold.  They really stands out.

The colours are pretty bold & bright here on the characters.  It's very rich & gives the show a fresh look.  However, the bright colours would hurt the background at times.

The backgrounds are okay.  Pretty detailed in & outside the school.  The outside really has that dark feeling to it.  However, there are times where the backgrounds are duller than the characters.  The characters look so bright at times that makes the characters look odd as if they were cut & pasted from somewhere else.

In terms of the animation movement, it's on both the real & silly side. The movements do look choppy & weird at times for the walking & running animations.  The swinging of the arms doesn't look natural. The body movements are staggering as if the character is about to fall or slipped on something.  Plus, you can easily see where the recycling point is for the animation.

Sound

The sound effects are pretty nice.  It's got a mixture of real & silly as well.  They are quite clear & played on cue.  Some of the sounds though seem to be weird.  The pulling of the rosary sounds like it was pulled very hard & as if it was made from really heavy metal.

The seiyuus here are pretty good.  They play their roles well & give them life.  Aono's voice isn't something that I like much.  I know who the seiyuu is for that character & I do like his works.  But his high pitched ones are so-so to me.

The music is on the pop & rock side.  None of the songs seems to stick in my head though.

Story

Basically Aono trying to survive in his new school as he hides his human identity from other students.  Although he wanted out at the start,  he manages to make some friends.  There are some characters that are very fond of him; particularly Moka since he's her first true friend & person to suck blood out of.  The routine is repeated a lot as he makes more friends.  Strangely enough, it doesn't get old or bad.  This is thanks to the show being short. Because of this, there isn't really a storyline even though the final arc looked like it has one.

As for fanservice, there's a lot.  Mainly white panties.  Although I don't mind them, but it's almost to the point where you see it in every scenario.

The ending of the show is a bit of a mystery.  It's unclear what Aono is now after being put through the fire.  Did he change or remain to his original form?  Nevertheless, the ending leaves a lot of room for another season if it's going to happen.  Even before the ending, there was another mystery as well.  Where was Ruby after she was found from her defeat through Moka & the others?  Why did she appear at the end?  There's a lot of holes in the show that are both minor & a bit major.

Overall Conclusion

Rosario + Vampire is a very nice comedy show.  I enjoy the jokes it has & like Moka a lot.  But I felt the storyline is a little weak when it got to the ending.

Rosario + Vampire gets a seven out of ten.  The show is funny & the misfortunes & survival of Aono is interesting to watch.  However, the amount of panties can be more than enough for some & the choppy animation on some of the normal movements can be an eye catcher in a bad way.  Plus, the ending leaves some wondering thoughts on some of the characters.  Although it completes the show a bit, it's open for another season that is set for Fall 2008.

Last updated on April 10, 2008