English Dub Season Review: The Case Study of Vanitas Season One

Overview (Spoilers Below):

Long ago, a vampire named Vanitas was born under a blue moon and was thus called a curse-bearer. Legend tells that he wrote a grimoire called the Book of Vanitas and that its powers can be used on those vampires who are of the crimson moon. Fast-forward to the present day and a human named Vanitas has possession of the book. He partners up with a vampire called Noe, and the two of them work together to advance Vanitas’s agenda. From evading the church’s vampire hunting agents to falling in love, the two of them are up to something wild each week as they make their way through 19th century France.

Our Take:

Set in 19th century Paris, The Case Study of Vanitas tells the story of an eccentric man child called Vanitas and the vampires and humans he meets throughout his travels. It’s a trippy road trip through Paris, England, and otherworldly vampiric realms—and it’s also very sexy (if you’re into vampires of course). Whether it’s good or not is another story, and it’s a little hard to answer because it’s going to depend very much on your ability to overlook how annoying Vanitas is.

The basic plot is that Vanitas is a human who’s goal is to find the so-called curse bearing vampires who have been afflicted by the misfortune. He does this via a magical tome called the Book of Vanitas, which was written by a long-gone vampire also named Vanitas who was born under a blue moon. He meets up with a vampire named Noe, and the two of them form a kind of frenemy bond. From then on, it’s the two of them going on new adventures each week. The quality varies depending on the episode. The show does action fairly well, and some of the more fight-oriented scenes are fun to watch. The romantic arcs are much less well done, although I might be biased since I’m not a huge fan of vampiric romance, which at least according to this show, involves a lot of blood.

The anime is based on a manga by Jun Mochizuki. It’s been said that one the trademarks of the original manga was the tension-filled drip of information and backstory, but I don’t feel like the anime really did this justice. Instead of a slow build, the series seems to mostly ignore questions of logic and backstory—until it doesn’t, and then it force feeds you flashbacks for entire episodes. This makes it hard to keep the pace interesting, and I often found that I would lose what little excitement I was feeling because the show would suddenly take a detour, like when it abandons Vanitas and Noe at the party with Charlatan in favor a melodramatic tale from Noe’s past.

The production quality of the show is fine, but nothing special. Bones is the studio that worked on it, and they’ve made a lot of very well respected series in the past. Vanitas probably won’t go down in history as one of them. It doesn’t look bad, but it none of its visuals really appealed to me very much and I couldn’t really get a feel for the art direction of the show. Some of the character designs are fun, especially Ronaldo and Dr. Moreau, but those were the highlights for me. The English dub is serviceable, but some of the dialogue can sound stilted and off—although that might just be part of the show itself, since The Case Study of Vanitas is certainly one to lean into weirdness.

All in all, Vanitas isn’t really the kind of show that appeals to me. It takes its ingredients (vampires, 19th century Paris, romance) and kind of throws them around in hopes that something will be born out of the chaos. Chaotic shows are well and good, but usually there has to be at least one character to sort of anchor the plot, and none of the characters here really did that for me. Noe is presumably the one who we should be rooting for alongside Vanitas, but his blind loyalty and odd naivety toward Vanitas didn’t really endear him to me as our main character. About half of the character in the show suck blood, and I would have to say the show itself also sucks.