Vampire Dormitory

Homeless and fresh out of employment, Mito Yamamoto faces familiar loneliness and despair. Luck is simply not on Mito's side; when he stumbles upon a cafe and cuts his hand, a strange server named Ruka Saotome licks the blood from his wound and even dramatically retches at its apparent disgusting taste. Offended and dispirited, Mito runs off to a bridge, hoping to put an end to his misery.

But when Mito accidentally slips, he is miraculously saved by Ruka, who reveals he is a vampire. Unable to drink blood from just any woman for mysterious reasons, Ruka proposes that Mito become his thrall—a vampire's human servant and primary source of food. In this deal, Ruka will shower Mito with love to sweeten his blood, and Mito will gain a warm place to call home.

However, there is an issue: Mito is a girl! Concealing her long, flowing hair and feminine body, Mito readily takes this chance and enrolls in the Hijirigaoka Boys' High School while working part-time at the cafe with Ruka. But the more Mito's bond with Ruka deepens, the more she struggles to hide her secret.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Saotome, Ruka Main

Toki, Shunichi Japanese

Yamamoto, Mito Main

Ichinose, Kana Japanese

Nikaidou, Ren Main

Umehara, Yuuichirou Japanese

Juri Supporting

Sakakihara, Yuuki Japanese

Komori Supporting

Hatano, Wataru Japanese

Kagurazaka, Takara Supporting

Shirai, Yuusuke Japanese

Marian Supporting

Morinaga, Chitose Japanese

Reiko Supporting

Ohara, Sayaka Japanese

Lotis Supporting

Toriumi, Kousuke Japanese

Makimura, Maina Supporting

Itou, Ayasa Japanese

Wakabayashi, Hirokazu Producer

Nagayama, Nobuyoshi Director, Storyboard

Tateishi, Yayoi Sound Director

Ueno, Kenya Episode Director

Reviews

Jun 23, 2024

ostoskori

Recommended

Funny

Vampire Dormitory has cured me of my depression in a way that my therapist could only dream of. It has pulled me from a dark place that I thought I could never escape.

Every week me and my best friend would tune in to watch this gift from God that has been blessed upon us.

Mito is the most complex and fleshed out character I have ever had the pleasure of being introduced to. The way she keeps on going and fighting for her love despite her trauma is so beautiful and inspired.

Speaking of her love interest, Ruka, our knight in shining armor, is such an ... amazing character that does NOT have a fuckass hairstyle that makes me feel better about my bob cut in 3rd grade. Every episode he blesses my screen and I get to watch as he treats Mito the way any sane would like for their S/O to treat them. I especially loved the episode where he said "It's Ruka time" and then Ruka'ed away.

Everyone and their mom should watch Vampire Dormitory. It's a true cinematic masterpiece (even though it isn't a movie, it deserves an Oscar) ((It's that good guys, trust)) that will change your perspective on life and leave you a changed person. 10/10


3/10 if I hadn't watched it with a friend

Reviewer’s Rating: 10

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Jun 23, 2024

aoisaku

Mixed Feelings

My higher rating is a bit biased as I've been a fan of Ema Toyamas' works since 2011, when I read Koko Ni Iru Yo.
She has written amazing works, but Vampire Dormitory is definitely not her best though. Relieved at least one of her works has gotten an anime though.

I did enjoy the character interactions and chemistry with one another (Mito & Ruka) vs (Mito & Ren). It felt very Twilight-esque for my mid-20s heart that thinks about my younger days when I raved for the love triangle trope.
Though the slight-BL bait kept deterring me from wanting to keep watching and reading ... at times. I get why it's there, but honestly felt like the story could've done well without it (and prevented a number of issues the main leads faced in the series)

Voice acting is amazing! I recognize mito's va as Fern from Frieren, Ruka as Akane from TBHK, and Ren from [insert the countless hot MCs Umehara Yuichiro plays]. Lotis VA also plays another vampire from the Diabolik Lovers (2013), and the Founder's VA is ALSO another vampire in the anime Dance with Devils (2015). They're like little cameos and both are animes I'd recommend if you want something similar to this show (and that isn't Vampire Knight.)

Animation is a bit wonky and inconsistent at times. Ema Toyama's art style is actually hard to replicate into animation now that I've actually seen a work of hers animated. While the main & supporting cast remains (for the most part) are drawn consistently in keeping the Toyama's art style, the background characters look completely different at times which feels a little jarring. I hope that improvements are made for the blu-ray release.

But overall, I can understand why people can have mixed feelings over this. This is a silly and cute little vampire shoujo romance with a variety of twists and crazy turns. When watching or reading, I would recommend not thinking about the situations too deeply to continue enjoying the work. Though as a Nakayoshi anniversary anime, really think her other popular work Watashi Ni XX Shinasai should've gotten animated instead of this work.

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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Jun 23, 2024

KANLen09

Not Recommended

Vampire Dormitory - Please don't make this work as the definitive version of a legendary anniversary...let this be a learning lesson for all.

Vampire stories are the bane and boon of any industry medium, both in the West and everywhere, and as a guy myself, I do love to take a gander at stories that can actually execute the vampire theme well, with recent examples ranging from the comedy series of Kyuuketsuki Sugu Shinu a.k.a The Vampire Dies in No Time, to growing modern classics like Yofukashi no Uta a.k.a Call of the Night and Vanitas no Karte a.k.a The Case Study of Vanitas. However, I ... really sympathise for the Shoujo audience, which has been really looking forward to some good Shoujo content for the past few years, to not only be baited by garbage/trash Isekai-esque standards of delivering nothing but the worst, but to feel like anime producers just don't want to gamble on actually good Shoujo works floating all around.

And in this season, Vampire Dormitory is that show, from a female author that I ACTUALLY respect for her past works: Ema Toyama, with 2009-2015's Watashi ni xx Shinasai! a.k.a Missions of Love, being her most prized work, winning Best Children's Manga at Kodansha's 36th annual Manga Awards, and a source work that I'm very closely knitted to being one of my favourite manga of all time. In fact, Ema Toyama got her start publishing stories for one of Japan's oldest Shoujo manga magazines: Kodansha's Nakayoshi, which features the classics of the likes of Sailor Moon and Cardcaptor Sakura, celebrating its 70th anniversary this year. But to see Ema Toyama go from said manga to Vampire Dormitory, being the best that Nakayoshi has to offer currently, the Shoujo AniManga scene is truly in deep shit and trouble being so out of touch.

I'm not going to sugarcoat things: in the words of fellow reviewer @gingerholic, Vampire Dormitory is truly the "best of both worlds," combining Twilight with Ouran High School Host Club, because having a career of being a mangaka for 20 years be damned to write lots of stories, and yet, have a severe case of writer's block enough to produce this bullshit of a Shoujo work. This is the story of Mito Yamamoto, a beautiful Ikemen whose life is not so blessed by Lady Luck, and after having someone drink her blood but only being told that it tastes bad, he already declares himself defeated by life. The kicker: the same guy who drank his blood, saved him from a near-suicide, and soon reveals that he's a vampire in disguise, trying to seek out his destined partner to become the Lord of the Vampires. As if this plot isn't twisted enough, Mito is actually a girl, being feminine in nature, but with looks akin to those of an Ikemen, which also puts the girls to delight. It's a game of hide-and-seek about hiding secrets, but this game is infested with too many no-shit-Sherlock moments, which is the definition of tropes stacked one onto another with no end in sight.

I already knew that this cast of characters isn't going to stack up to the likes of Ouran High School Host Club, but even with them being a much more BL version of it, just doesn't make things anymore tropey and instead, just fuels for more braindead interactions between a girl who chooses to crossdress just because, and guys who are hot Ikemen by themselves, yet are dense in the larger scale of the picture, especially towards Ruka Saotome and Ren Nikaido, a vampire and a dhampir, respectively, for showering love to Mito in their own ways that only the likes of Twilight can manifest. To that end, I would say that this is indeed Japan's version of Twilight, only more cringeworthy and a clear frustration at the behest of Ema Toyama's crude half-hearted ass of a plot and, presumably, her version of a fiery drama of relationships gone horribly wrong. Again, even along with the co-conspirators of Komori being the cafe owner of a sweets shop that house both vampires and normal humans of Juri and Takara Kagurazaka, I just find myself being so baffled at what a Shoujo of a near-BL-esque this can be, to the point of puke.

Studio Blanc's production is serviceable, I'll give it that, and the same can be said about the OST itself, which is also decent, if not mediocre at best. Also, FANTASTICS's "Sugar Blood Kiss" for the OP song is such a perfect fit for the series, it almost seems like this is the ONLY true standout of the entire show.

Seriously, I was hoping better for the Shoujo market when it comes to anime, but aside from producers having cold feet to just go with the current trend of the Shoujo genre, having works like these just tells you that Shoujo anime is born to die once works get greenlit, and there's just no getting out of this seemingly never-ending winding trope of "bad boys being good for relationships."

For the love of God, AVOID this show at ALL costs. You're not missing much...unless you're a Twilight fanatic and want some more of these cringeworthy BS stories like this.

Reviewer’s Rating: 2

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	Poll: Vampire Dormitory Episode 9 Discussion Stark700 - Jun 2	43 replies	by EinTheVariance »» Nov 19, 4:42 PM
	Poll: Vampire Dormitory Episode 8 Discussion Stark700 - May 26	22 replies	by EinTheVariance »» Nov 18, 6:18 PM
	Poll: Vampire Dormitory Episode 5 Discussion Stark700 - May 5	17 replies	by EinTheVariance »» Nov 18, 3:57 PM
	Poll: Vampire Dormitory Episode 2 Discussion Stark700 - Apr 14	24 replies	by EinTheVariance »» Nov 18, 1:56 PM
	Poll: Vampire Dormitory Episode 12 Discussion Stark700 - Jun 23	41 replies	by BoomBakudan »» Oct 28, 10:49 PM