During a winter long ago, near-immortal vampires began plaguing the world. As their population grew at an astounding rate, they promptly threw humanity off its place at the top of the food chain. Desperate to avoid extinction, the surviving humans concentrated in their last safe haven—a small city surrounded by an enormous wall. There, they have waged war against the vampires for many years.
In the midst of a particularly brutal attack by the vampires, a human soldier named Momo encounters Fiine, the queen of their enemies. After seeing her try to save Momo's best friend from a rampaging vampire, Momo follows Fiine back to her house. It is there Momo connects with Fiine over their love for music and desire to escape the fighting.
Pursuing that goal of escape, the two decide to journey toward a supposed paradise where humans and vampires coexist—despite being uncertain of its existence. However, Momo and Fiine are being targeted by both races, who they must first evade if they hope to reach their destination in one piece.
[Written by MAL Rewrite]
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Comentários
KANLen09
Humans and vampires, stories of folklores that bend and twist the mind in an never-ending sea of timeless fictional pieces of war. And Wit Studio's next venture into the Netflix anime catalogue with Vampire in the Garden, much to say that it was less hyped than the "Bubble" movie that came out last month (which honestly was very mid), I have to say that I felt awfully cathartic and incapacitated with feelings and emotions that are truly deserving of the NC16 rating that this has. And as much as the whole series felt depressing, it was very depressingly good to say the least. Vampire in theGarden tells the story of 2 girls: the regular Momo Warm working in an industrial military city whose passion riles up from saving a young vampire whom has a music box of a tune that sounds its resonance, and that young vampire Fine whom other than being the queen of the vampires, desires a life led with humans to be loved, one that's once relived from her past memories, only to see it birth a war between mankind and vampires to the stage it was today. Both girls want out of their oppressive lifestyle and desire to find a paradise of their own where human and vampire can peacefully coexist, otherwise seen as betrayers of their own kind to find an "Eden" that doesn't exist. It's of no surprise to cast Megumi Han and Yuu Kobayashi as both Momo and Fine as the centerpiece of this series, and for all intensive purposes, their performances lend great aid to reflecting the series as a whole: the two outliers whom just want peace out of seclusion, fighting through every situation and not giving up on each other when the going gets tough, even at death's row.
Unsurprisingly, this is what I would expect of Wit Studio's production, this being produced by Wit Studio and Production I.G. co-founder-cum-producer Tetsuya Nakatake, director Ryoutarou Makihara (whom hasn't directed anything since Shisha no Teikoku, a movie released in 2015) with assistant Hiroyuki Tanaka (who used to help direct Attack on Titan when it was produced at Wit Studio), music director Yoshihiro Ike (of Takt Op. Destiny and Dororo fame) and Tetsuya Nishio in both character design and being the chief animation director. Speaking of the character design, there is one person whom looks almost like Jiraiya from Naruto, and that's because Tetsuya Nishio is the original character designer of the TV series, so you know that this man is a god amongst men. This series being mostly centered in around arctic and industrial areas, gives me a mix of Attack on Titan and Vinland Saga vibes, to which if you've ever watched those series, you'll know what I mean.
It's genuine that I say that after the somewhat failure of the movie Bubble, Vampire in the Garden is what I truly hope that ONA stories like this capped within 2 hours plus can become: an engaging story that does not feel too short nor too long, characters that we can be engaged with to tell their stories of circumstances and the much-needed resolution, a nice production and some good music. Everything must be balanced together, and this is what I got to truly experience a well-rounded original story that leaves me wanting for more.
This is some impressive stuff.
MakkusuUnfilwin
I’m an absolute sucker for vampire stories. Always have been, always will be. Shows like Vampire Knight and Hellsing were some of the earliest anime I can remember watching. There’s something just so captivating about a pasty, white, basement-dwelling, nocturnal, blood-sucker with good looks and even sharper teeth. Even when Tom Cruise starts walking the night, it still looks and sounds pretty cool. So, to me, it doesn’t matter if your vampire plot is tropey, boring or juvenile, I’ll still enjoy it if the main character has some aversion to garlic, crosses, sunlight, or some unholy combination of the three. Hell, I even started readingCall of the Night, which sucks, but satiates my desire for coffin-sleeping, bat-morphing, reflection-precluding, immortal, skinny white chicks. But what does any of that have to do with Vampire in the Garden? Well, there’s a garden, but there are vampires in it, so it already ticks the biggest vampire show check box without me even having to watch it.
In all honesty, I completely forgot this show was coming out. I remember when it got announced, but in about 3 minutes, it had left my memory entirely for the foreseeable forever. Maybe Mal’s bell notifications actually do come in handy sometimes because, as you probably can guess, that’s what reminded me of its existence. Anyways, I was pretty excited for this show based on the involvement of one man—and if you’ve read the redundant parts of the previous review, you’ll know where this is going—that man being the centrepiece of the three gods: Mr Tetsuya Nishio. A man whose expert designs have—if you’re not some Boruto sycophant—recently re-invigorated themselves in the public conscience with Kamiyama’s Visions vignette and, if you were REALLY paying attention, Oshii’s Vlad Love. As you can probably tell by the way I’ve somehow segued into just praising Nishio without actually discussing the topic of this review, the man’s work means a lot to me, so his involvement with this project instantly piqued my interest. After all, character designers are inherently the most important part of an anime’s production, right? I mean, have you seen anything with Range Murata or Yoshitoshi Abe’s names slapped on the staff list? It might be presumptuous for me to say this, but aren’t the character designs the mode by which the script writer’s ideas are given life? Are the character designs not a visual representation of the lines upon lines of dialogue that allow the audience to graphically distinguish and connect with the cast, as superficial as that connection may be? The aesthetics and ‘look’ of a character is what immediately gives the audience an impression of what a show could be about. You can infer a lot from a good character design, and in my humble, humble opinion, Tetsuya Nishio is in the business of good character designs. For fucks sake, he took Kishimoto’s already brilliant design for Naruto and translated it into being one of the most instantly recognisable designs in animation history.
Well, ok, Vampire in the Garden time now. At the very least, I can tell you that, just like Tom Cruise, it looks and sounds pretty cool. WIT did a fantastic job on this thing. Masakazu Miyake brought all the thunder (that's probably not the right word to describe background art) back from Mushoku Tensei, applying that same level of quality to an otherwise vastly different, and certainly more specific, setting. There’s a bunch of different ways to say something looks great, but I’m gonna settle for the one: it looks great. What more is there to say? However, from whatever score I've given this, you can probably tell I've got some itsy bitsy complaints here and there, like, for instance, why does the CG animate so bad? How do people sit through something like, I don’t know, The Sky Crawlers, for ease of comparison, and claim that CG ruined the film? Compared to TSC, this has gotta be some kind of joke. It looks like there was zero thought of realism or physics put into the way the CG vehicles move. Like, it’s forgivable, but it certainly takes me out of the action. It just seems so silly, especially because the texturing otherwise looks really cool.
Plot-wise, it’s your standard vampire affair, nothing vastly out of the ordinary. Though, maybe something out of the ordinary would have helped it, because the plot was by far the weakest aspect of the film. I just found myself struggling to care about anything—all the emotion felt like it was carried on the back of Megumi Han’s brilliant performance as Momo, and if you've seen Momo's back, you'd know it's pretty small. The plot progression was just so filmic and predictable. It wasn’t till that handsome stud Kubo got some well-needed development that I found myself actively engaged, but by then, it was far too late, and the film had basically entered its final few scenes. Overall, Vampire in the Garden feels, looks and sounds like something I would have loved if I was eight or so years younger, with all its graphic violence, easy to follow story and frantic katana x vampire sakuga fights. My qualms pertaining to this film feel like a repeat of the last Netflix anime I watched: Orbital Children, and you can bet the cause is almost identical. For some fucking reason, Netflix chops its films up into stupid episodes instead of leaving them as a bigger, stupid movie, which is how it should be: stupid. Look, I’m just going to pretend it was Netflix’s fault because I wanted to like this movie a hell of a lot more than I did, but I just don’t have it in me to lie to you people ;) Similarly to how I bemoaned in my Orbital Children review, this really should have been an 11-13 episode series. It would have given suitable breathing room for the cast to develop relationships and flesh out motivations at a well-reasoned pace. Seeing that same potential squandered, in the same way, is just disheartening.
Well, is that it? I think that’s all I wanted to say. To summarise, Vampire in the Garden was blessed with some of the best production values and talents of the 2020s but failed to keep the ball rolling after tripping and falling into the same direction-inhibiting pit-falls that its predecessors have yet to climb out of. I hesitate to say I’m disappointed since Orbital Children garnered the same sorta-middling response from me, so at some level, I was expecting something almost good but not quite engaging enough to deserve that accolade.
BilboSwaginz
Overall it was a pretty bland watch with good art and music and at times good animation but the story and characters were terrible. The only halfway decent character was the uncle and he didn't get any development until the end. They studio tried to put too many slow moving scenes along with too much material which ends up with a lot of stuff being crammed into a short runtime. The characters become unrelatable from this pacing as you don't really understand their actions. To put it in perspective it makes no sense that Momo the main character would leave with Fine and in notime at all have an us versus the world mentality when vampires had been her enemy her entire life. Granted she does not view them with hatred but she does have a bias against them as seen in her first interaction with Fine.
I had some hopes for this anime at the start but even though it was only 5 episodes (and I always finish short anime since it's not that big a waste of my time) I was seriously about to drop it, but alas I stuck with it cause why not just finish it. You also get some strong yuri vibes if your into that, personally I don't care for it but if the story is good I'll watch it. So take it as you may and watch it if you want but it doesn't get my stamp of approval.
APolygons2
For only 5 episodes, This was Way more impactful than it had the right to be. I'll make it easy for you, the show is worth watching. The Best thing you can do to see if it's for you or not is watching the first episode, which is one of the best first episodes I have seen in a long time. It does get a little weaker around episode 3 and specially 4, but it picks itself back up for the final episode so I wasn't too bothered by it. Bottom of the line is, if you want to go in completely blind, do it. it's worth your time,but if you're still unsure, keep reading:
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the story is about a world were vampires and humans are at war while both sides are kind of both at fault and victims at the same time. Vampires think humans are the assholes who started it all, and vice versa.
we follow two leads, a human, daughter of a big shot in the military, who ran away from home, and a vampire royalty who is dealing with her past. And most of the show is the journey of this unlikely duet living, surviving and running away together while being chased down by both humans and vampires.
they're relationship is the main selling point of the show. you just can't help rooting for both of them.
in fact all the characters are likable. no actually scrap that most of them are, and even the ones that have little to know screen time have enough depth to not be 1 dimensional. I even go as far as saying for a show that is only 5 episodes long the character writing is kind of impressive.
but that isn't even close to being the most impressive thing about the show. The star here is easily the execution. I'm talking about the directing, pacing and music. they work flawlessly in a final product that I can only describe as cinematic. so much so that I thought the first episode was the most cinematic and masterfully directed episode of Anime I have seen since the made in abyss movie.
which says a lot considering how made in abyss is visually stunning, and what I'm talking about is a god damn movie.
And it's not just the visuals and direction, the music and it's placement is simply perfect. If I didn't know any better I would have guessed the music was done by the man himself Kevin Penkin. the style is very similar to his work, and that's a good thing, great even.
All these elements mixed together had the result of dozens of goosebumps and me crying 2 different times during this 5 episodes. It's not too hard to make me cry, but again for 5 episodes, that's still impressive.
Here's the thing, it's a simple story that is far from being the most original, and there isn't really anything ground breaking in that said story.
I'm not going to pretend like it's a must watch masterpiece.
it isn't...
But it doesn't have to be.
there are shows that aren't really flawed in any way, but they won't reach for the skies either. those shows almost always end up being some of the most enjoyable and wildly loved stories out there.
I wouldn't say the show is good enough for you to go out of your way to watch it if it doesn't seem to be your cup of tea, but if you have any amount of interest, watch it.
My final score is a 7.75/10
thanks for reading, and I hope you found this review to be helpful, at least to some degree. :D
King_Dedede
While there are some decent upsides to this miniseries, it's ultimately brought down by core issues. First, the positive. The art in the show is very beautiful! While it's all winter-themed, I never got tired of looking at the snowy mountains and landscapes, nor the bright lights of civilization contrasting with the cold, stormy night. The music is also a treat to listen to! Both the soulful, melancholy tunes and the jovial European-inspired ones are quite enchanting to the ears! The world itself is quite unique and interesting as well. It had a lot of potential that was, unfortunately, not quite met. The story and writing itselfis sadly the weak point of this work. There were engaging concepts that could've been explored, but never came to be. The pacing is also a mess. Everything happens so fast, to the point where things like character development feel sudden and unconvincing. Motivations and actions are either sloppily explained, or not given any reason whatsoever.
There is some enjoyment to be had here, mostly in the visual and auditory senses. But if you're hoping to be wowed by a charming, well-written tale, I'd suggest looking elsewhere.
R_2_R
5 episodes, 2.5 hrs, Easy binge There isn't anything particularly bad about this Anime, unless you wanna ponder on how much it chooses not to tell. It only tells what it wants to tell in it's short runtime, which really could've have been more impactful as a movie but is still a pretty decent watch. The story takes place in a world where humanity is at the brink of existence... (Bit of a tangent here, but I find it funny how often this line is getting repeated like, HUMANITY IS AT BRINK OF EXISTENCE, like I forgot how much weight that line carries and how much Igot used to it xD...)
Anyway, vampires started to take over the world in both mass and land, while humanity corned itself with nothing but a tower of light as their hope (& guns). Humanity uses some kind of holy light and guns to fight the vampires, while the silver haired vampires just kills humans by sucking their blood, who also have the ability to fly *and* can also transform into some beast when injected with some kind of drug.. Yeah, humanity's clearly loosing. Humanity also abandoned music and all other semblance of culture. to avoid vampire keen senses, while vampires adopted all of humanities abandoned culture into their own. While the silver haired vampires dance in the moon-lit nights, humanity... does nothing but survive.
While all that might sound pretty generic and 'done-to-death' premise, the real interesting part is not about the setting but about the journey of two women from each side.
The main focus of the story is about two characters, **'Momo' & 'Fine'** (it spells more like 'Fin-a'). Momo is a human solider who hates her lifeless military job and wants to find more about art (mostly music). She has a lively personality under her dead lifestyle. The only thing she loves more than anything, is he friend 'Merina', but you know how innocent friendships in war settings end...
'Fine' is a vampire and possibly a queen or similarly high ranked individual in the vampire society, who looks livelier than anyone in the room, but is actually dying inside, partly because she refuse to drink blood anymore and partly because of her regrets (which I'll get into it later).
Both of these women hate their own society for taking away their freedom and at the end of episode 1, when Fine asks Momo to run away with her... (you guessed it). But this run away quickly becomes a journey to find a paradise, a paradise where vampires & humans, sing and dance together. Throughout the runtime, you'll see the laughs, the joys, the fears, the tears, the dreams & the hope these two women carry with each other in their journey, as small as it had been.
The anime decided to leave their past, in the past, means it doesn't bring up either Fine's tragic flashback or any other side characters backstories and just hints at what could've happened through flashes of memories that doesn't long more than a few seconds. You'll only know what happens right now and you have to get the full story of what's happening & what happened by those small hints. This isn't as complicated/confusing as it might sounds. The creators decided to speed-run, what could've been a 1/2 episodes worth of flashback into 1/2 seconds of mere flashes onto their past and you can more or less interpret what happened with those small hints.
This is on the same level of entertainment as Bubble, except the action is average when compared to Bubble while the drama is better than Bubble, though only just passable. The dub was not bad and pretty alright. And the soundtrack, especially the lead VAs opera (is what it's called, I think) at episode 2 is beautiful.
And here this ends. Watch this if you're bored.
animefreak3531
i'd say i'm a very emotional person, and watching such a tragic yet beautiful take on the classic forbidden love troupe done so amazingly... i found myself sobbing at the end honestly. this series would be a 10/10 but i did find the animation and cgi to be a little choppy at time which would make more serious/ sad/ action packed scenes come off and a little goofy at times lol. for a 5 episode mini series, i would 100% recommend it to anyone looking for a beautiful story, well written characters, a wonderful soundtrack, and a deeply tragic love story. flippin epic 8)
LustrousParadox
This isn't such a waste of time. I give this a 4/10 Its [i]Fine[/i] You wouldn't get it... This is a positive 4/10. It's absolutely not original, but the execution is not terrible. Still pretty enjoyable. To sum this anime in a few words; it's exactly what you'd expect from a vampire show where the two main characters are a vampire and a human. This anime really does not have much to give but it doesn't mean it's bad... I personally didn't care for it at all and i'm going to proceed to forget everything that I saw because of how inconsequential all of that was. It had nothought put into it whatsoever. It was your typical Romeo and Juliet plotline.
Very typical
Not disgusting, you can still find yourself enjoying it but if you're looking for somthing special, this isn't it.
Not bad, If you're just bored and don't want to gamble on a show that could be horrendous, well watch this. It's mediocre, but you won't have to gamble!
Semro
spoiler__________________________ I will not make a real review for this shit. The "lesbian" dies, as in tradition... Yes, they can die but you need to have a few alive you know. Most end in tragedy, it's not a coincidence. At first you might think it's going to go deep in the vampire/human relationship, but nope not at all. No deep diving in the presented character too, but look a cool guy with a sword not taking anything seriously, but being way too strong and vampire (who took over the world?) way too weak. 5 episodes for it to end (you can spot the end from the first episode) likeit started (in tragedy) and a time skips for 5 sec and now happy ending and look she has a child now, awesome. Just so freaking bad. I want my time back.
Dorcas_Aurelia
This show is bad. While there are some interesting ideas and potential for an interesting story, it's most severely harmed by its limited run time and inability to flesh out the world and characters. If they're lucky, characters get 1 trait and the vaguest hint of motivation, but several are confounding. Despite this, the emotional climax of the story still managed to move me, just not enough to negate all concerns about earlier questionable plot choices. The character designs are fairly unremarkable, aside from transformed vampires, which are appropriately horrifying; and the animation is generally good enough, with the exception of conspicuously noticeable CG for handand finger movement in a piano sequence, and episode 4 utilizes of number of slow pans over still frames for characters dancing and frolicking. The English dub (at least the first episode) is very stiff and unnatural across the board. I watched the remaining 4 episodes in Japanese and it was a significant improvement.
The opening moments of the story explain how humanity has been driven to the brink by vampires, and humans are struggling to reclaim the world, while a few early scenes with the vampires imply the morality isn't so clear cut, but the show never really explores how the world reached its current dystopian state. The show is also kind of flexible with how dangerous daylight/UV is to vampires. It's a major plot point in the first episode that the city is protected by a wall of (spot)light(s), but Fine gets blasted with UV light multiple times and seems only minimally effected by it (this may be because Fine is the queen of the vampires, but there are only about four lines referencing this in the entire show, most of them in the first episode).
The protagonists Momo and Fine flee their warring oppressive human and vampires communities to find a utopia where both species can live in peace, and before they find it, they find a regular city where it's split in half by a river where the two sides have some kind of peace worked out, which kind of undercuts the earlier premise.
Another issue with the plot is that Mome and Fine arrive at the fabled peaceful mixed vampire/human village at the end of episode 3/start of episode 4, so you know that with 2 episodes to go, something will go wrong. If you made three guesses as to what that something is, you'd probably get at least 2 of them right, because the show isn't exactly groundbreaking.
As for Momo and Fine's relationship, which is clearly intended to be the core of the story, it's disappointingly underdeveloped. It hints at a romantic connection between the two of them, but because of Fine's past trauma from how her previous relationship ended leads to her repeatedly distancing herself from Momo emotionally, and relying on traveling montages to establish their bond, it's hard to explain why they should be together.
Ultimately, the show is brought down by incomplete and underutilized concepts and characterization. There are some interesting ideas, but rarely are they brought to the level of a complete thought.
Quinnellene
A very character focused story that manages to present an incredible impactful tale of two people trying to find their way forward in a world that seeks to drag them down a single path. Both main characters are brilliant and through their time together we see them both grow as people as they begin to understand why life is worth living and grapple with their own trauma. Blends this moments of emotional with moments of catharsis incredibly well, truly contrasting the bleak world around the two characters with their caring and beautiful relationship in a very short time. Secondary characters and world building is limited, butdue to the shorter and tighter focus this does not take away from the core story. Other characters have reasonable enough motives and are able to create tension that doesn't feel too manufactured. World is able to maintain a consistently bleak tone without venturing into parody and through effective use of art. Parallels to Soviet/tsarist Russia are weak and often mix their metaphors however.
Overall its a beautiful story that focuses on two individuals and the massive effect they have on each other within a short time. Less two-dimensional elements don't take away from the main relationship. Key weakness would be the limited runtime, as its not quiet enough to fully explore said main relationship.
Kiunax3
Vampire in the Garden is an absolute gem of an anime that has captured my heart with its enchanting tale of love, courage, and unity. From the very first episode, I was hooked by the captivating story of Fine, the sweet vampire girl, and Momo, the brave human girl, who defy the odds to protect and love each other in a world on the brink of war. What sets this anime apart is the genuine and heartfelt connection between Fine and Momo. Their love is beautifully portrayed and is the driving force behind their quest to find a haven where vampires and humans can coexist inharmony. It's a message of hope and unity that resonates deeply.
The animation and art style are nothing short of breathtaking. The character designs are expressive, and the landscapes are richly detailed, adding to the overall immersive experience. The action sequences are pulse-pounding, and the emotional moments are tear-inducing.
Vampire in the Garden is a tale that reminds us that love knows no boundaries, and it left me with a warm, fuzzy feeling in my heart. I highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys a blend of romance, action, and a powerful message of acceptance. It's a must-watch that will leave you longing for more of Fine and Momo's extraordinary journey.
Firechick12012
One time, a few years ago, I mentioned to some people in a fandom that I wasn't a particularly big fan of a show because I felt that it came across as too treacly and saccharine, with the main character embodying a lot of those qualities. But apparently a lot of people didn't like this and proceeded to accuse me of only liking tragic edgy shlock and claiming that I hate it when kids shows have an optimistic tone. If anyone's seen some reviews I've done for the various seasons of Pretty Cure, I can attest that that's not true. I just prefer the showsI watch, books I read, and games I play to actually have substance to them, and not just lean too far into both extremes, such as being too sugary and saccharine or being too morose, dark, and bleak. Unfortunately, Vampire in the Garden, a new Netflix anime made by Wit Studio, is the latter. If anyone is looking for a good example of a show that's absolutely drowning in pointless edginess and misery porn, Vampire in the Garden pretty much embodies all of those qualities, and not for the better.
Basically, the story focuses on a world where vampires and humans are locked in endless conflict, and because vampires have heightened senses of hearing, humans have forbidden music of all kinds. Momo is a young girl living in one of the few human strongholds left, and while she's had experience with killing vampires due to her mother's job as a military general, she grows weary of all the fighting. When she gets into a fight with her mother over a music box, she runs away and encounters the supposed queen of vampires, Fine, and the two escape together. Although their initial encounter is rough, the two slowly become friends and bond over a shared love of music. But their newfound friendship is considered taboo by both humans and vampires. Momo and Fine hear an urban legend about a paradise called Eden, where humans and vampires supposedly live in peace, so they decide to try and find it, hoping to escape the conflict that they're embroiled in. But their journey is not a happy one.
Yeah, the whole premise feels like a cookie cutter YA novel trying to capitalize on the vampire trend, similar to what the Twilight books wound up doing years ago, only here there's no romance. But the premise like this can be done well, and others have managed to pull it off well. But Vampire in the Garden is not one of them, and there's so much wrong with it that it's not even funny. For one, the series is fairly short, only going for about 5 half-hour episodes, so the pacing is very fast, having very little in the way of breaks and quiet moments. Now, I know a lot of series that have less episodes and even shorter episode run times, but have managed to make optimal use of them in order to do what they wanted, with some examples being Yoru no Kuni, the various PokeToon shorts, and even Pokemon Twilight Wings. But here's the thing: All three of those short series I mentioned have one thing in common, which is the reason that people like them show much, that reason being that the three shorts managed to make you, the audience, care about the characters and their plight, mainly because the shows themselves cared about them enough to show how they grow and achieve their goals in the end, even when the roads to getting there weren't exactly pleasant. Which leads me to the main reason why Vampire in the Garden fails as an anime: It's so obsessed with being as bloody, violent, edgy, and downright miserable and morose as possible that it's completely impossible to care about the characters and the situations they're in.
Honestly, watching Vampire in the Garden felt like I was stuck in a bloody mud pit and couldn't get out. Everything about it feels like whoever produced this wanted to make it the most miserable, morose, unnecessarily angsty anime possible. For one, none of the characters save for the main two are even remotely likeable, and even the two leads are bland as hell, barely changing much throughout the show, and any changes they do go through are so predictable you can see them coming from a mile away. The show makes absolutely no effort to develop its characters or give them any depth beyond their most basic archetypes or short flashes of their backstories that just are just there for more forced drama. Most of the characters end up dying anyway, and the show thinks it's good at making you care about them, but its method of doing so involves shoehorning in a LOT of melodrama, a lot of it in the form of characters constantly screaming, crying, angsting, and being angry with no end in sight. Any moments of levity and quiet are really short and often followed up by, you guessed it, more fighting and blood and angst, leaving practically no time to catch your breath. Also, can I just say how much I hate Momo's mother Nobara as a character? Most of her screentime consists of being a hardened military leader and yelling at or slapping Momo around. The show is trying to make the case that she wants to save Momo from the vampires, but with the way the show presents her, it never felt to me like she truly cared about Momo and was only trying to save her for her own benefit. And even if Momo did act willful and ungrateful during their argument, does that really justify Nobara slapping her and treating her like shit over really petty things? Any time Momo and Nobara are seen together, Nobara is either angry at her or pulling a gun on her, and any attempts she made to apologize to her all felt shallow and fake as a result of her inconsistent characterization.
Which leads me to Vampire in the Garden's biggest flaw: Momo and Fine's journey winds up being rendered completely meaningless and pointless as nothing in the show ever changes from when it first started. From beginning to end, Vampire in the Garden shows nothing but the vampires and humans at war with one another, and any solutions to the problem are rendered either too good to be true or wind up never having existed in the first place. Combine that with all the blood, gore, violence, and characters being absolutely nasty to one another, this makes the series feel completely meaningless, as the characters we're supposed to care about never manage to achieve their goals, with their whole journey being in vain, nothing ever gets better for them, and any happiness they find winds up being an illusion. The war between the vampires and humans never gets resolved, and most of the cast dies at the end, making Vampire in the Garden nothing more than a painful slog of nothing but seemingly endless misery and tragedy porn. Actually, Vampire in the Garden is literally just relentless, neverending misery porn, nothing more. Honestly, the only good things Vampire in the Garden has going for it are its detailed backgrounds, animation reminiscent of early 2000s stuff, and the soundtrack which consists of mostly classical music and opera singing, and even those can't save the show from just being a relentless angst fest with no light at the end of the tunnel. The whole series feels like it's constantly beating you with a hammer while screaming "FEEL SAAAAAAAD!!" and it just doesn't work because it has nothing else to offer.
Look, I like my fair share of tragedies and bittersweet endings every now and then. But making a show be literally nothing but non-stop angst, drama, and misery, without any meaningful reason for the audience to care about your characters and story, and have it end with basically nothing changing in the end, really doesn't work. At all. I just watched a French movie recently called Long Way North, and while that movie had plenty of tragic moments, it at least had the characters accomplish what they wanted to do in the end, so everything they went through wasn't in vain. The movie In This Corner of the World took 70% of its screentime to establish its story and characters and make the audience care about them first, knowing to save the tragedy and sad moments for later, making it hit harder than it would have had the movie used it earlier. One of my favorite movies of all time is the 1997 Dog of Flanders anime, and it starts off happy-go-lucky and sweet but slowly becomes more tragic as it goes on, and it also has a sad ending, but it actually had a point to its tragedy, to establish how classism hurts both the privileged and the working class people. Hell, what many consider to be one of the best video games ever, Mother 3, is universally praised as being one of the saddest games ever, and didn't need to rely on having absolutely nothing but constant sorrow and drama for 30 hours straight. My point being, if you're going to make your story a tragedy in some capacity, don't make the tragedy all there is to story, and have more to offer than just that. Vampire in the Garden has literally nothing to offer except endless angst that's ultimately pointless in the end. I once wrote a fan fic years ago that many people claimed was pointlessly dark and edgy, and some of their complaints about it are valid, but if there's one thing I can say about it, it's that I at least TRIED to have there to be more to it than just angst and drama. I made sure to at least develop the characters and throw in moments of needed levity, even if I didn't always succeed, and stuff like this and Magical Girl Site are way worse and edgier than my old fic could ever be.
Vampire in the Garden is on Netflix right now, and maybe it can be something you can use to introduce a teenager to and have them transition to watching anime that's more mature than stuff like Pokemon and Naruto. Otherwise, Vampire in the Garden doesn't have anything to offer unless you're masochistic enough to endure seemingly endless angst, gore, and melodrama.
Edit, 5/22/2022: I found out I was admittedly wrong about one thing. Apparently there was a stinger scene at the very end of episode 5, after the credits, that I didn't see on my first watch. Because I didn't see this stinger, I thought that Momo's journey wound up being completely in vain, making the series feel completely pointless, but it turns out the stinger has a much happier outcome for Momo than I thought. Because of this, I've decided to be a little bit generous and bump up the rating slightly. That being said, my overall feelings for Vampire in the Garden remain the same, and had the series been longer, bothered to put in some more moments of levity, and flesh out all its other characters, it might have been something good or even great.
ConfusedWalrus
I've watched many anime over the years but vampire in the garden would be the first that actually made me come over to write a review. Though short, I felt that the pacing was pretty good and not unnecessarily drawn out like other shows, the ending was impactful with just the right amount of sad/happy vibes. The animation was alright, nothing special. Characters felt realistic and it was easy relating to them. What really stood out was the OST, absolute masterpiece. Would have preferred a couple more filler episodes but overall a solid 8/10, gave me maquia vibes all over again.
Ziote
It's a shame that this anime isn't longer or paced better. There are a lot of things that I find enjoyable about this anime; the music, the heavily implied sapphic romance between the two characters (only to find out Momo is 14 years old), vampires, the search for a better place among a world in ruins. I love many of these tropes and wanted so badly to rate this as an 8 by the last episode, but I was still left feeling like this anime could have done so much more than what it gave. This anime reminds me a lot of Wolf's Rain inthe way that the main characters are being chased through a world that's been pushed to its limits, while searching for a rumored land that may or may not even exist. Vampire in the Garden dubbed this peaceful place "Eden," where vampires and humans can live together. What I find interesting is that in the beginning Momo and Fine are searching for a geographical location that they can physically go to. However, by the end of the show, Eden is implied to be wherever Momo and Fine are together. The idea that together they are their own Eden (and something seperate from the war) is a strong message to end on that also makes sense considering both Momo and Fine are only their true selves around each other. While the narrative implies a romance, or at least deep connection, between Fine and Momo, it's worth mentioning that Momo is 14 years old vs Fine whose age is unknown (but most likely much older).
The problem is that there is a disconnect between the characters and the audience. This show does not take the time or have the time to let the characters connect with each other (in turn, let the audience connect with them too). I think this is a problem in lack of run-time. Coming in at 5 episodes -- less than half a 12-episode season of anime -- this anime can't afford to spend much time on memorable, slow scenes with the characters that would otherwise make the ending really impactful.
Aside from the plot and pacing problems, the music is absolutely fantastic! I really like the musicbox song and the piano/singing duet. And I think music being part of the vampire culture is a nice touch to the world building. Even if it was never really explained why Vampires claimed music as their own.
All in all, could have been a good show. But the short amount of episodes hinders this anime's chances of being anything more than decent.
Legend-IX-9RA
(Read If You Finished or Don't Mind *Minor* Spoilers) -- (Also, this was written while I listened to music, so it might be all over the place.) I tend to write reviews for stories that I absolutely love, or passionately despise. This story, however, is different than any other review. This anime had nothing but wasted potential. The characters were interesting, the story and plot was captivating enough to keep me drawn to it, and the art was fantastic. This story was good, I enjoyed Momo and Fine characters, although they both had their fair-share of annoying or what (?) moments. My favorite character inthis story, was between Fubo (uncle) and Elisha. Before anyone says anything, I couldn't remember a single characters name outside of Momo and Fine's... that's rare for me.
The problem with this story isn't the characters, it isn't soundtrack or animation, or plot. The biggest problem was the pacing. They offered interesting backstories, Fubo wedding, Fine past, and how Nobara became the way that she is. But this story didn't answer any of them, not one. It was irritating, they continued to give EXTREMLY vague insight on their past, and not focusing on these characters backstories wouldn't be an issue... if they weren't so fixated on showing us it. But out of everything, what irritated me that most was how they treated these characters. ---- SPOILER INCOMING ---
***SPOILER INCOMING --- Allegro was an amazing design and character.. and if I hadn't looked him up, I could not have told you what his name was, nor the purpose of his character. He was there as Fine's right hand man, he was the one next to her, giving her advice, and staying loyal to her. (SPOILER) --- He peaked in the VERY first episode where he attempted a raid... where his character was shown for like 3 minutes completely. Allegro was designed so amazingly, everything about him was intriguing to me. But outside of episode 1, he only appeared (briefly) as an angered character with no justification as to why he's so angry. We saw a GLIMPSE to why Fine was so obsessed, but outside of that... nothing. I loved the relationship between Allegro and Fine, it was loyalty at it's finest. But man was he severely underused. I just wish we got more answers, yes it left us thriving for more, but not in the form of a new series, but in the form of a reboot.
ArthdalLover
If you love themes of friendship, war, loss, and the pursuit of peace you might like this anime. It is realistic in the elements of war. The friendship between the main characters is strong because they have to protect each other and themselves from their kind. For example, the human girl protects Fine from humans while humans themselves are a threat to her. this is because they both "betrayed their kind" and chose an unconventional life for themselves. Their bond is genuine and goes through the constant struggle of survival, acceptance, and pure happiness. Their worlds are in chaos, and they only find paradise in eachother.
Violet-Eien
I did my skincare and yet I couldn't help but cry. This is sad yet beautiful. Depressing, even. Fine x Momo. Yes, this is such a very unique concept about vampire and humans. The artstyle is both dull and beautiful which make it suitable for the story. I'm a person who believes that everything has a reason so every story that I know, read and watch is perfect in an imperfect way. The feelings it brought me were intensely realistic, I wept and sobbed and evn punched the bed several times because I could relate the most by the ending. That was unexpected. I'm still sadactually. I love this.
mmargotz
This story was ok. As someone who absolutely loves vampire ANYTHING, when I logged onto Netflix and saw it I could hardly contain my excitement. The first episode was pretty good, things were still fairly original and there were a lot of little placements of things that left the possibility of more things happening. the first episode put a lot of detail into the world like a first episode should, it left me with questions and the series opportunities to build on them, but the questions weren't ever built on! And if they did happen to be, it was a recycled and predictable explanation. Thisseries uses becomes so bland if you are familiar with any anime or media tropes. the pacing of the story was alight, but the wow factor that could have so easily been reached if there was any sort of individuality. The art and sound redeemed things a bit, it was visually done really well and any sort of cgi didn't bring down the quality toooo much. every character was meh besides maybe finee, and the uncle. This show tries and tricks you into thinking the main characters have a lot of depth through their relationships with the side characters, but we learn nothing meanful about their relationships to them or why they should matter to make this work. The mom, the friend in the beginning, the brother to finee, these would help the characters out so much if we were given a actual reason to how they really effect the characters. Also, 5 episodes. so dumb, go big or go home. If we were given a series that was longer or this were simply a movie it would have been so much more memorable. this series is fine, finee? lol. watch it or don't, it likely won't stick.
