Being the only human in a school of monsters has a whole lot of literal sucking going on.
What They Say:
Tsukune looks to be a typical high school student, but his grades are bad to the bone. Rejected by school after school, he finally gets accepted by an academy that’s more than a little out of his neighborhood. Unfortunately, it’s a school for monsters and Tsukune is the lone human! While forced to hide his secret, along comes a cute – but hungry – vampire girl named Moka. Beneath her cute and clumsy exterior, she too is not exactly as she seems…
This limited edition includes a 32-page color artbook plus an artbox sized to hold both seasons one and two!
Contains episodes 1-13.
The Review:
Audio:
The audio presentation for this release is standard fare for FUNimation in that we get a solid bilingual presentation where the original Japanese language is in stereo encoded at 192kbps and the English gets a bump to 5.1 at 448kbps. Like most shows of this nature, the original mix handles the forward soundstage well but doesn’t exactly shine in a big way since it’s mostly center channel based with some fun dialogue and action effects at times. The English mix adds a bit more volumes to it overall and definitely more clarity and placement for the dialogue while adding more warmth to the music score itself, especially with the opening and closing sequences. The series has a good set of production values to it overall and the presentation here is free of problems such as dropouts or distortions during regular playback.
Video:
Originally airing in 2008, the transfer for this thirteen episode TV season is presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.78:1 and is enhanced for anamorphic playback. The show is spread across two discs in a standard seven/six format to allow for a decent amount of space and encoding with the audio tracks included. The Gonzo animated series has a pretty familiar Shonen Jump style look to it with lots of bright colors and a clean look that has a bit more darkness to it because of its setting. In the end it’s a high school series with supernatural elements. There’s a clean look to all of it and some decent animation to be sure and the transfer captures that well as there’s little in the way of serious flaws. With no cross coloration and only a few hints of line noise during some panning sequences, the most that’s there is some backgrounds showcase more noise than you might expect at times, but nothing that’s hugely distracting or problematic. Colors are generally clean and appealing and macroblocking isn’t an issue.
Packaging:
The limited edition of this release comes with a heavy chipboard box designed to hold both seasons of the series. The box is very nicely done with an appealing darker brown background for the border that holds a very cute shot of an outgoing and smiling Moka in her uniform in the classroom. The colors are light, bright and cheerful which plays well against the darker border that has cute little bats as its widgets in the corners. The logo is kept to a small section along the bottom which is welcome since it doesn’t dominate the layout. The back of the case flips the colors so its light on the outside and dark on the inside where it puts the four main girls together in full length shots as they hang out in their usual outfits. It’s a good mix of the cast, though of course as is often the case with harem shows, the male lead is nowhere to be found.
Inside the box we get the standard clear single sized keepcase that uses the same artwork as the front of the box with Moka that’s just as appealing here, though I would have preferred to change things up a bit. The back cover is laid out similarly with the dark background and a lighter interior that deals with the shows premise and several shots from it as well. The layout is fairly standard material with a list of the discs extras, episodes and the production information along with the technical grid. There is a good piece of artwork on the reverse side that’s really nice though that has Moka hanging on Tsukune while Yukari and Kurumu watch on, set against a black and purple background that fits well with the theme. The set also includes a filler box where the second season will go, an all black affair with some black and white artwork of Moka, but inside it is a great limited edition item that is an art book showcasing the main cast in different forms. It’s really great looking artwork on a character by character basis for the first half and then all sorts of promotional pieces that are wonderfully detailed and colored.
Menu:
The menu design for the series is very, very simple as it features just a static screen image with some decent character artwork that has a color split to along the bottom half where the navigation is. The background is a simple series of dots and widgets of sorts that gives it a bit of definition, but the primary draw is the character artwork, which is decent, but not enough to really sell the thing as a whole. It’s very basic and not all that inspiring unfortunately and doesn’t set the mood well. The submenu navigation is solid with quick load times and easy movement throughout the menus when needed for language setup and options as the discs did not read our players’ language presets.
Extras:
The only extras included in this release is the clean version of the closing sequence.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Based on the ongoing manga series of the same name by Akihisa Ikeda, Rosario+Vampire is a thirteen episode season, the first of two, that deals with supernatural shonen style harem romances with a good bit of action and plenty of fanservice. Coming from the Shonen Jump realm of properties, there’s a lot of expected items here but it also feels like it skews just a bit older because of the overt fanservice and sexuality. And to my surprise, it actually works pretty well and left me rather happy with how everything unfolds with the series, even with its predictable introductions and setup.
The show revolves primarily around the male lead character of Tsukune Aono, a young man who doesn’t have the best high school prospects. With some less than good results in middle school, getting into a good high school is going to take some time and possibly even another year. What surprises him though is when he suddenly and mysteriously ends up with a packet that has him being accepted into a place called the Yokai Academy. Unfortunately, he doesn’t realize what it really is, so when the special bus takes him out to the place beyond a tunnel and beyond contact with the human world, he finds himself in a very dangerous position. In fact, no humans are supposed to be able to go to the academy, making him the rare exception. One, that if caught, would be killed immediately in order to preserve the secret of the monsters who do their best to exist in the modern world without causing much of a problem.
While Tsukune figures out his predicament rather quickly and tries to figure a way out, he finds himself with a new bond that keeps him there when he meets Moka, a beautiful young freshmen like himself who has no friends and plenty of issues. It turns out she’s a vampire herself and has long bee persecuted in the real world for being different. This similarity between the two lets them become fast friends with plenty of potential for more, but it also gives Tsukune the reason to stay at the academy. And especially as he learns Moka’s secret in that if the chain she wears is unlocked, it brings out a darker and more powerful side of herself. It’s not clear if it’s a split personality or a whole other person in there, but the light and bouncy Moka becomes cold, calculating and definitely strong in the face of the dangers that are there. And even a bit masculine in my opinion when it comes to how he facial structure changes.
Naturally, as Tsukune and Moka make their way through the school term, they end up making a few friends and a few enemies. It comes with a core group of adversaries that are turned to friends over the first few episodes and then deals with the usual kinds of minor threats and silliness that helps to reinforce the bonds between all of them as they have fun and get closer. The other girls that surround Tsukune are cute, from Kurumu the succubus who uses her wiles to try and win him over to Yukari, the genius witch who is in high school a few years too early. Naturally, she’s the polar opposite of Kurumu in personality and breast size so that leads to some expected and fun banter between the two. Also introduced into the mix is Shirayuki, young woman with the ability to control the cold that ends up befriending Tusukune as well. They all have mild rivalries for Tsukune’s attentions, but there’s also the obvious fact that Moka has her claws into him deeper and he’s reciprocating it to a good degree.
Rosario+Vampire runs through fairly familiar situations once it gets the core cast going as Tsukune wins them over and then they all deal with the various threats. You have all sorts of other monsters in the academy who are envious of the women he’s with, though they don’t know that he’s a human. Tsukune’s reputation was a bit cemented early on in dealing with another monster which helps keep most at bay, but there are some that continue to get involved, including a teacher that tries to educate him in a few different way which is almost disturbing at times. Other times its simple such as the mermaids that suck people dry after seducing them into their swim club or just general thugs and ruffians. There’s some nice variety to what they have to face off against, but it can be said that the real fights are short when Moka gets unchained since they even do a little countdown afterward telling you how long the match was.
In Summary:
While the show is largely episodic and works towards the overall harem building goal with a clear cut winner in mind, it does go a bit bigger towards the end in dealing with Tsukune’s being human and the introduction of a powerful Security Committee that has its own agenda in the school that everyone fears. The last few episodes are spread across two stories that works pretty well, but it does fall into the category of kind of shoehorning in something bigger that didn’t really need to be there but didn’t feel wrong in going in that direction. The series has a good bit of fun to it if you go into it with the right attitude of just having fun with it and looking for something light and enjoyable. It’s got plenty of fanservice, some decent action and fun characters as it works a familiar concept to good effect. I wasn’t sure what to expect going into it but I cam away pretty happy with it and looking forward to the second season.
Features:
Japanese 2.0 Language, English 5.1 Language, English Subtitles, Clean Closing
Content Grade: B+
Audio Grade: B+
Video Grade: B+
Packaging Grade: B+
Menu Grade: B
Extras Grade: C+
Readers Rating: [ratings]
Released By: FUNimation
Release Date: December 20th, 2011
MSRP: $64.98
Running Time: 325 Minutes
Video Encoding: 480i/p MPEG-2
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1 Anamorphic Widescreen
Review Equipment:
Sony KDS-R70XBR2 70″ LCoS 1080P HDTV, Sony PlayStation3 Blu-ray player via HDMI set to 1080p, Onkyo TX-SR605 Receiver and Panasonic SB-TP20S Multi-Channel Speaker System With 100-Watt Subwoofer.