Vanitas no Karte

Scorned by others of his kind for being born under a blue moon, the vampire Vanitas grew afraid and desolate. According to legend, he created a cursed grimoire known as the "Book of Vanitas," and it is said he would one day use it to bring retribution upon all vampires of the crimson moon.

In 19th century Paris, Noé Archiviste is searching for the fabled Book of Vanitas. Whilst traveling aboard an airship, he is saved from a vampire attack by an eccentric doctor who calls himself Vanitas and carries the very tome he seeks. Ironically, the self-proclaimed vampire specialist is a mere human who inherited both his name and the book from his master, the same Vanitas of legend. As the odd case of the Charlatan's Parade crops up, the doctor's ability to restore sanity to vampires by recovering their true name will prove most beneficial.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Vanitas Main

Hanae, Natsuki Japanese

Archiviste, Noé Main

Ishikawa, Kaito Japanese

Jeanne Supporting

Minase, Inori Japanese

de Sade, Dominique Supporting

Kayano, Ai Japanese

d'Apchier, Chloé Supporting

Kugimiya, Rie Japanese

Fortis, Roland Supporting

Kawanishi, Kengo Japanese

Murr Supporting

Komaki, Miyu Japanese

de Sade, Louis Supporting

Shimabukuro, Miyuri Japanese

Granatum, Astolfo Supporting

Murase, Ayumu Japanese

Vampire of the Blue Moon Supporting

Park, Romi Japanese

Odagiri, Narumi Producer

Komatsu, Shouta Producer

Iwahashi, Mika Assistant Producer

Itamura, Tomoyuki Director, Storyboard

Reviews

Oct 7, 2024

UsanBergling

Recommended

Quick review here;
You will love or hate Vanitas no Karte depending on one thing: do you like the main character AKA Vanitas. This "horroristic", serius and dangerous world with vampires isn't something new, but the simple fact that here we have a lighthead protagonist who don't take things very seriusly at first, but he has an important mission and a complex, deep background. It's somewhat similar to Vash from Trigun. Both have a very strong charisma which will make you remember them forever or you will complitely hate them. Any other character is a strong mid. Not bad, but nothing special to talk about, except ... the Vampire of the Blue Moon. We know very little about him and I just simply want more. To talk about something else, the main story is trying to be very serius, but our main character makes the anime not to be an other edgy and/or depressed drama.
Cons: as I said, you either love or hate this anime, depending on what you think about the main character.
Overall rating: this show has some very unique ideas for world building, and animation and the action scenes are very well made as well and if you didn't stopped watching it after the first two episodes because of Vanitas, this one should be a great anime for you!

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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Jul 19, 2024

Curlybrace101

Mixed Feelings

The Case Study of Vanitas is trashier than people act like it is.

This show was made to appeal to two demographics: 1) teenagers who are just now deciding to explore darker ideas and aesthetics just for the sake of it and 2) people who think vampires are sexy as hell. Fortunately, there is a lot of overlap between the two.

The Case Study of Vanitas is about French vampires in the 1800s, and that fact alone should make the general feel of the show (and target audience) clear. It is edgy, tragic, and so, so sexy. Several of the blood drinking scenes straight up look like ... sex scenes, and it’s said vampires emit a substance similar to an aphrodisiac when they bite; it’s not subtle.

The story follows a docile, empathetic vampire named Noé, and his titular companion—the arrogant gadfly of a human that is Vanitas. As it follows their escapades helping curse-bearing vampires and investigating the cause behind becoming curse-bearers, we also see their relationship develop as they learn about and grow to understand each other. If it was not obvious based on this description, the author clearly wanted to write a yaoi. Seriously, the romantic tension between the two of them is so thick you could cut it with a knife, and it almost leaves me wondering why she didn’t just make a yaoi in the first place.

And, naturally, both of our young, attractive male leads have trauma and pain in their backstories. And not just them! Essentially every single character has a backstory filled with bloodshed, because this show doesn’t just deliver gratification through homoerotic undertones and sexed-up vampires, but also through tragedy and misery. Human beings have always had a fascination with seeing pain dialed up to eleven in stories, because that’s where it stays safely contained, not actually hurting anyone but still giving the audience those feelings of catharsis.

The author claims to be exploring deeper themes in this story, but I simply don’t buy it. It’s clearly a story meant for sexy, tragic, bloody fun.

And that’s…not actually a bad thing.

Media does not have to be deep and intellectual, and there is nothing wrong with making a story purely for audience gratification. Fiction is, first and foremost, a form of entertainment, so the beauty of it is that we can use it to be entertained in any way that strikes our fancy, and there is no “wrong” way to do it. It’s not real; go wild.

Despite the fact I am a pretentious literature student who loves “elitist” type anime—the kind that your high school English teacher would make you write an essay on—I am also a human being, which means I also enjoy trashy, wild, fun, and it would be daft of me to act like I am better than shows such as this and their fans. After all, I *do* love a sexy vampire.

Granted, I wouldn’t give something in this vein a 9 or a 10, but I would still give it a 7 or an 8, which I think is a respectable score. So no, it’s not exactly the trashiness that gives me mixed feelings. Rather, it’s more legitimate criticisms of the writing.

In particular, romance and women. In *particular* particular, one Jeanne No-Last-Name-Given.

Jeanne is, all things considered, a pretty good character. She has solid backstory, motivations, and character development. I would say I enjoyed her quite a lot. However, if you go to look at her character profile on this site, you’ll probably notice she’s holding a doll of Vanitas.

Oh boy…

So, Jeanne is the love interest for the eponymous character, and this ship did *not* give a good first impression whatsoever. Vanitas declares himself captivated by her and kisses her on the mouth *without permission* a whole fifteen minutes after meeting her. Off to a great start, right? Furthermore, you may recall I described Vanitas as a gadfly. For those unaware, a gadfly—in reference to a person—is someone who loves to tease people and push their buttons for the express purpose and riling them up and provoking a reaction.

So not only did he kiss her on the mouth unprompted immediately after meeting her, but he constantly pokes at and teases her just to make her frustrated and embarrassed.

Now, I don’t speak for all women (especially considering the mangaka is a woman), but as a woman, I have known many men like that and I have never found their behavior endearing. Rather, I find it uncomfortable and annoying. These two being a legitimate couple feels like being told that boy at school is only mean to me because he has a crush on me.

Case in point, this relationship dynamic is one I find to be deeply unpleasant and honestly a little bit sexist. It’s something that would seriously drag a show down for me.

However…

Somehow, this show managed to turn it around and actually somewhat sell me on Vanitas and Jeanne as a couple.

Now, I’m still not completely sold; their rough start is very hard to come back from, in my opinion. However, as the show goes on, it digs into Vanitas as a character more and gives a reason for his behavior that is both realistic and sympathetic. It also gives the two of them some genuine emotional moments beyond blood drinking so horny it could pass as a sex scene, which was greatly appreciated.

So, while I can’t say I love it, I *can* say they turned the relationship around enough that I can enjoy it somewhat.

*However* however…

I struggle to understand what the point of making them a legitimate couple is when the author so clearly just wanted to write yaoi. No matter what, the relationship between the two male leads will always be deeper, more focused-on, and, as such, more compelling than any relationship either of them could have with a woman. Not only was including any female love interests completely unnecessary, it also rings completely hollow because the real romance will always be overshadowed by the homosexual pseudo-romance.

The second female lead, Dominique, is in a similar boat to Jeanne. She is a well-developed character who I like a lot, but is still bound by her relationship to a man. She’s Noé’s childhood friend who is in deep unrequited love with him. That’s completely fine actually. No complaints there. What actually irks me about her writing is how her love for Noé almost *defines* her. In the last arc of the show (in the second part), she is put in danger to motivate Noé, and her internal conflict at the time is all about Noé as well. It’s a shame she doesn’t seem to stand on her own as well as she could, because as I stated before, she is otherwise a well-done character.

Honestly, considering Jeanne and Dominique have a bit of yuri subtext, the author really should have used all of that screen time dedicated to their relationships with men to give those two a deeper relationship instead.

Female characters aside, though, there is one other aspect that irks me. If blood drinking is a metaphor for sex, then drinking blood by force is a metaphor for rape. I am not jumping to conclusions here; Noé says explicitly that drinking blood without consent is illegal.

However, if that’s the case, that means Noé gets metaphorically sexually assaulted like, every three episodes. Seriously, this guy cannot catch a break from the forceful blood drinking. If you’re going to establish something as a metaphor for rape, you really need to examine that in greater detail and use it sparingly so it will have a greater impact on the audience. Throwing around metaphorical rape and then not exploring it as a concept not only feels somewhat grody, but it’s also just an absolute waste of an allegory.

Granted, allegories don’t have to (and usually shouldn’t) be one-to-one, but picture this: A character wakes up to find another character forcefully invading their bodily autonomy. This character tells this aggressor that what they’re doing is a crime, yet the aggressor continues. The victimized character then says that this aggressor has made them too weak to fight back, and that they’re scared and don’t know what to do.

It’s no secret what that’s meant to allude to. The parallels are explicit. And it happens to Noé in the second part of the show! And honestly, I would have been very interested in its inclusion if they had actually explored the concept, but the character who does this to him is never really condemned for it; it is brushed off entirely and she is meant to be sympathetic to the audience with the way she has been victimized by other characters.

And before anyone puts words in my mouth, I am not saying aggressors can’t also be victims. What I *am* saying is the narrative doesn’t seem to think of her as an aggressor and instantly moves on from her forceful blood drinking as though it were nothing.

Although, it almost doesn’t surprise me that this show just throws metaphorical sexual assault around for no reason. Another character is mentioned to have been pimped out by their mother as a prepubescent child and this, too, is never addressed again.

Just…why include it if you’re not going to do anything with it? Because it’s kinda trashy and humans feel gratification from portrayals of trauma and suffering? Probably.

The Case Study of Vanitas is sexy, bloody, historical gothic fun. And it’s also much trashier than people act like it is.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Aug 1, 2023

Trapper20

Not Recommended

Funny

This anime is nothing more than vampire FAN FICTION and just like most stereotypical fan fiction, it is VERY BAD. I do NOT recommend watching this. 3/10


----------------- PROS -----------------
• The premise of this story is somewhat unique. Sure, there are several other vampire anime, but it's not a very common genre compared to superheroes, romance, or slice of life.

• The action scenes are also pretty decent. It's usually fun and pretty creative, and they come regularly in almost every episode.

• The world is somewhat interesting. Steampunk Paris with Vampires and an Alternate History Storyline. The writing uses a lot of fancy words ... which is... fine.

• A lot SEEMS to happen very quickly and the show jumps from beat to beat with fast pacing.

----------------- CONS -----------------
• I say "seems" because NOTHING actually happens across this anime. The characters will say that things are happening and there might be some action occurring on screen, but nothing relevant or significant to the plot is taking place.

• The world is not compelling enough to keep us interested while the characters literally do NOTHING but talk (even during action scenes). And our main character KEEPS INTRODUCING HIMSELF OVER AND OVER.

• And of course he does! Because this series CONSTANTLY introduces brand new characters each episode (sometimes multiple) who have absolutely nothing to contribute to the story or make the conflict more interesting. Our protagonists just dilly-dally from location to location, meeting new people, "saving the day" and then go home and get their blood sucked or whatever.

• Characters have no clear motivation. The story has no clear destination. There is nothing at stake. "I want to save all the vampires." Okay, cool, but why should I care about that quest?

• I hate the villain's voice, it's so goddamn annoying.

----------------- What I Wish This Anime Was -----------------
• One aspect that I personally wanted more from was the romance, surprisingly enough. I know my opening line criticizes Vanitas no Karte for being "fan fiction" but honestly, if the creator(s) want to go down that route, then they should go ALL IN rather than trying to do everything (drama, action, mystery, romance, etc.)

• The interactions between Vantias and Jeanne were actually compelling, albeit barely fleshed out. Not to mention, Noé's unspoken jealousy and homoerotic longing for Vantias from the sidelines. Between the four or five recurring characters, there was plenty of room for a full-blown soap opera to take place, while still having some of the action and mystery included.


Overall, this anime is simply not worth watching. I will check out season 2 because of its rating on MAL, but I'm not looking forward to it.

Reviewer’s Rating: 3

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	Poll: Vanitas no Karte Episode 7 Discussion ( 1 2 3 ) Stark700 - Aug 13, 2021	130 replies	by chiwila »» Nov 10, 6:57 PM
	Poll: Vanitas no Karte Episode 12 Discussion ( 1 2 3 ) Stark700 - Sep 17, 2021	139 replies	by Niveen_Sleem »» Oct 29, 8:49 AM
	Poll: Vanitas no Karte Episode 4 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 ) Stark700 - Jul 23, 2021	159 replies	by Niveen_Sleem »» Oct 27, 12:58 PM
	Poll: Vanitas no Carte Episode 1 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 5 ... Last Page ) Stark700 - Jul 2, 2021	354 replies	by Niveen_Sleem »» Oct 26, 11:50 AM
	Poll: Vanitas no Karte Episode 5 Discussion ( 1 2 3 ) nyaa15 - Jul 30, 2021	118 replies	by Zekkenshin »» Sep 29, 6:08 AM