English Dub Review: Dark Moon: The Blood Altar “Dark Moon – The Moon Altar”

Overview (Spoilers Below):

The boys despair as Dardan attempts to seize everything, but their true power is awakened!

Our Take:

You remember those moments when the villain is about to rule everything with absolute power, but then the heroes gain an unexpected boost to even the odds?  The finale of Dark Moon: The Blood Altar is exactly one of those moments, with the vampiric boys reawakening their own powers to defeat Dardan for good.  Of course, there’s also a shining moment for Sooha, who makes the ultimate sacrifice in protecting Heli from Dardan.  Although, despite her saying that this would be her final life, Sooha actually survives thanks to Princess Selen, depleting the emotional stakes it’s setting up.  As for Dardan, he wasn’t so fortunate.

While Sooha’s revival was a bit underwhelming regarding its stakes, “The Moon Altar” serves as a respectable finale to this watchable, Twilight-like anime.  The transition from high school romance to fantasy action was quite surprising at first, but the anime’s second half used this shift effectively to sustain my interest in its characters and world-building.  Now, the other question we should know is whether we’ll see an anime adaptation of its sequel, “Dark Moon: Two Moons”.  Regarding my experience with The Blood Altar, I wouldn’t mind seeing these characters again if they decide to move forward with the sequel series.  Granted, it’s anything but a top-tier anime worth watching, but for those who couldn’t get enough of vampire-related anime, I would say this one is worth sinking their teeth into.