English Dub Review: Code:Realize “Vampire Requiem”

Jumping the shark by throwing a shota Dracula into the mix.

Overview (Spoilers)

The team has a plan to take down Twilight’s leader, Finis. He’s going to go inspect a base, and his security will be lax while he’s on the train. Helsing wants Cardia to come along on the mission, in the event they need a bargaining chip. Though the rest of team balks, Cardia agrees. Immediately, they begin training her for action, as her only skill is acid touch. Each guy lends a bit to her training, though Helsing doesn’t really care. As a test of her abilities, she is to participate in a mission to capture an elusive thief (that isn’t Lupin). He has been stealing vampire artifacts all over the city under cover of moonlight and is wanted dead or alive for the sum of 10 million pounds. The gang desperately needs this money, since Saint Germaine isn’t going to fund everything of the operation. He’s helping, not financing. The fact that the thief is stealing vampire artifacts draws Helsing’s attention, and he agrees to join up. The next target is a pendant that belonged to a vampire noble, and it is going up for auction. The group head to the auction and the thief reveals himself and… he’s tiny. A little vampire munchkin with fangs barely big enough to drink the blood of a tomato. He’s apparently the son of the original owner, and he has sworn vengeance on all of the humanity for the Vampire Wars. Though it was officially a war, it was more of a genocide. Helsing stops all the hunters that are using lethal force and agrees to a duel against the baby bloodsucker. On the road, we get a flashback from Helsing. He had once worked for Count Delacroix, acting as a fencing tutor for his son, Dracula. He was a member of Twilight at the time, and Finis wanted to show the world the might of the British military. So, Twilight did a false flag operation, faking that vampires attacked humans, and used it to justify the Vampire Wars. Helsing, under the threat of Finis killing his family, became instrumental in the war. However, he allowed Dracula to escape after killing Delacroix. It doesn’t even matter since the war claimed the lives of Helsing’s wife and son. Helsing arrives at the dueling location, the spot where he killed Dracula’s father. Though the boy is faster and stronger, Helsing is more experienced and just a better fighter. He turns away every attack but lays no finishing blows himself. At the end, he offers himself up to Dracula. As long as the vampire waits until they’ve taken out Twilight, Helsing will willingly let the boy kill him. Cardia suggests they bring the micro-vampire home with them since nobody deserves to be alone. This small mercy she shows him touches Helsing’s heart, and he agrees to take her as his pupil in martial arts.

Our Take

They said it. As soon as the word came out of Helsing’s mouth, I scoffed. This is Otomate’s idea of Dracula? Did they ever read any of the great literature they are referencing in this story? This is less of a friendly pastiche and more of outright mockery. One of the great monstrous villains of 19th-century literature reduced to a mewling, little brat. Why? Because the writers had to round out their stable of ren-ai character archetypes and ran out of subject matter. Lupin is the “Prince”, Frankenstein is the “Glasses”, Helsing is the “Strong, Silent Type”, while Impey falls into the role of the “Devilish” just because of his recklessness. They had to have a “shota” archetype, so Dracula gets shafted… staked… whatever. Personally, I would have liked this whole thing a lot more if they had Dracula as an adult, taking the place of Helsing as the “Strong Silent”. Then, having Helsing show up as a shota could actually make sense. After all, Dracula is supposed to be several centuries old by the time of the book, which happens at the end of the 19th century. If this series happens in the early-to-mid 19th century, that would put a child Helsing at the right age to fight an adult Dracula in his own novel, while simultaneously being at the right time for the other characters’ respective novels. Why didn’t they do this? Probably because they didn’t want two adult vampires. Oh, you didn’t know? Saint Germaine is a vampire. I know, I know, big spoiler. But, he’s a good guy vampire in his book of origin, and an alchemist in his own right. In fact, Saint Germaine is effectively the good version of Dracula. Oh well. At least they are having him go by his (new) name of Delacroix II instead of his inspiration.

Now that I’ve railed against their treatment of the bloodsucker, I have a few other problems with this episode. The writing is arbitrary. Characters aren’t always straightforward in how they talk, instead opting to say things in an odd order for no given reason. There is one part where Cardia reads a newspaper headline and says all the same words, but completely swaps around words in a nonsensical way. And she does so while the camera can’t see her face. Jill Harris could have said anything she wanted in any timing since she didn’t have to sync up to Cardia’s mouth. Earlier, everyone is talking about training Cardia to fight, and Saint Germaine has a line in between everyone’s talking. The best they could come up with for him to say was “Well, this is pleasant.” Really? What’s so pleasant about the fact that everyone is teaching an innocent girl to kill people? Moreover, an innocent girl with the power to melt your flesh straight off your body while you watch by simply touching you without her glove. What is so pleasant about that? I felt like the writers on the ADR team were just phoning it in here. At the same time, the voice actors weren’t all that impressive either. It just feels like the same one notes the whole time. The animation had a few high points, particularly in Cardia’s training on the car and the battle between Helsing and Delacroix. Otherwise, it was okay.