English Dub Review: The Case Study of Vanitas “Tears like Rain”

Overview (Spoilers Below):

Having been kidnapped and brainwashed by Mikhail, Domi is on the verge of jumping off the ferris wheel. The only way Noe can stop it is by drinking Vanitas’s blood to see into his memories and find out the information that Mikhail wants to know about the Vampire of the Blue Moon. Unfortunately, Vanitas has vowed to never let anyone drink his blood, not even Noe—and he’ll kill to keep his mind to himself if he has to.

Our Take:

The Case Study of Vanitas has always been a kind of tag team. Vanitas and Noe are our two leads, sharing the spotlight as they work together to help vampire kind. That’s why today’s new dubbed episode, Tears Like Rain feels so out of place: it forces them into combat in a way that doesn’t feel entirely realistic.

Of course, none of this is their fault, per sey. It’s all because Mikhail decided to show up and reinsert himself into his older brother’s life. And why did he do that? Because he thinks he can find a way to bring a man he calls their father (Doctor Moreau or the Vampire of the Blue Moon, maybe?) back to life. Vanitas is outraged by this thought, as he rightfully should be, and is prepared to defend his memories with all his might. The only problem is that Mikhail has leverage when it comes to Noe.

If Noe doesn’t attack Vanitas, then Mikhail will tell Domi to die which will re-traumatize Noe. It’s all a little roundabout and feels shoehorned in as a way to make the finale a fight between Vanitas and Noe. Noe even mentions himself throughout the fight that this is silly, and they should stop. I hate things like that, where the writers think just having a character say this will excuse it. It doesn’t.

All this might be okay if the fight was interesting, but it’s really not. The Case Study of Vanitas has done some pretty looking battle scenes in the past, but this fight really doesn’t have much in the way of eye candy. It consists of a lot of slow-motion leaps and mid-air monologues where Noe tells us what’s happening or reminds us that Vanitas isn’t a people person. I think there’s something interesting to be seen in pitting Vanitas and Noe against each other after all this time of kind of rubbing each other the wrong way, but I wish the execution would’ve been better.

Despite Vanitas and Noe getting much of the screen time this week, there are some others here as well. Mikhail, of course, who only gets worse this episode, laughing maniacally and blushing like a babe on the beach in every single scene to the point where it’s super distracting. In a show full of overly dramatic characters, he feels the most fake to me. Jeanne swoops in also, just in time to save the day, although Noe tells her to go away in the required ‘it’s too dangerous for you’ way of things.

All in all, Tears like Rain has the gem of a good idea—pitting the two leads against each other—but it struggles in the execution. Noe’s end of the fight realization is laughably dumb: Vanitas thinks freedom is being alone, so that’s why he shuns others! Like yeah, I could’ve told Noe that like ten episodes ago. The ending is a bit of a cliffhanger, hinting that Vanitas may have stabbed Noe fatally—although I highly doubt that’ll be the case, since this show doesn’t have the guts to pull such an ambitious move.