English Dub Review: The Case Study of Vanitas “In the City of Flowers”

Overview (Spoilers Below):

After all the chaos that went on last week, Vanitas and Noe wake to find themselves stuck in a holding cell without their belongings. Soon they’re released and go to visit the count in order to retrieve their personal possessions. While at the count’s mansion, Vanitas and the vampires get into an argument about the true power of the Book of Vanitas and the count gives them a challenge: find the one attacking people around Paris and cure them using the book.

The two of them set out. Noe takes time to appreciate Paris much to Vanitas’s chagrin, but soon they run into trouble in the form of a young boy and his bodyguard, who turns out to be the famed Crimson Gauntlet. They want the book, claiming it can not only cure, but also corrupt vampires’ true names. Vanitas and Noe hide in a nearby factory building and Vanitas confirms that what they say about the book is correct.

Our Take:

The second episode of The Case Study of Vanitas follows in the footsteps of the premiere episode with fun characters, flashy animation, and a dose of explosive action between magical beings. Vanitas and Noe are learning to accept each other and now they’ve got a mission to unite them. But will it be enough to make them friends and will they actually be able to accomplish their goal?

To be fair, the count is being a very unreasonable man, because really, tracking down a serial attacker in a city as big as Paris in just 24 hours? Pure folly! Of course, if anyone can do it, it’s probably Vanitas and Noe. The two of them are beginning to form a neat little dynamic where Vanitas is the overreaching drama queen and Noe is following him not because he likes him, but out of some sense of a greater duty. They definitely have some chemistry together, and though most of the episode is pretty serious in tone, I had to chuckle when Noe straight up threw Vanitas at their attackers.

At this point, Vanitas and Noe seem to be on the same page about their mission and its goal, but I’m already sensing that somewhere down the line this bond that’s just starting to be cemented is going to be tested. Vanitas didn’t exactly hide the true nature of the book from Noe, but the fact that he can use it to corrupt vampires like Noe isn’t exactly a welcome revelation. Noe readily believes Vanitas’s proclamation that he would never use it in that way, however.

The most exciting part of the episode comes at the end when the Crimson Gauntlet attacks them in order to retrieve the book for her master. It’s not a long battle sequence or too overly flashy, but it’s well crafted and the Crimson Gauntlet is admittedly quite an intriguing antagonist. I’m still not entirely sure what’s going on with her motives and her master’s, but hopefully that’ll be cleared up next week when Vanitas and Noe try out a last second plan to conquer the witch and escape safely with the book.