Hello everyone,
Here I am again to talk about another manga/anime series, the one who defined thw meaning of "fanservice" for the whole 2008. I'm talking about Rosario To Vampire, that got two anime adaptations in a relatively short term (less than a year).
Let's start with a synopsis :
Due to poor grades, Tsukune Aono, an average high school student, has been unable to get accepted into any private academy of his choice. By exceptional accident, the only school to accept him turns out to be anything but ordinary; the school is attended by youkai disguised as humans. Fearing for his life, he attempts to escape only to meet Moka Akashiya, a beautiful girl who just happens to be a vampire. Despite this, Tsukune decides to stay at the academy, hiding his human nature from students and teachers. Tsukune also discovers that when the rosary around Moka's neck is removed, her true nature emerges.
Yes, from a simple read into the synopsis it would look like a normal "supernatural" story filled with battles and such...and well while there are some battles here and there the focus isn't exactly that...
...because this is a pure fanservice series, that focus on promoting its own female characters and showing as much fanservice as possible. (even thought to be honest, the fanservice isn't very annoying as many other series of this kind)
The plot is mostly not-existing (there is something they could call plot, but it's so thin it is barely visible), but this is compensated by nicely defined characters design and cure into the personality of each of the girls.
When I started watching this series (when it was on air) I dropped it after two episodes due to the dumb plot and strange visual design...
It was only some months later that I picked this up again and to be honest, after watching a small number of episodes you end up loving most of the characters and wanting for more of their funny comic situations.
The characters are few, but most of them are cute and lovable. The only character I cannot stand is Moka Akashiya, I don't really know why, probably some genetic incompatibility.
The charactes do not show any kind of development or growth in both adaptations as you would expect from a pure fanservice series.
My favourite character, as you probably can guess by the composition of the wallpapers I posted, is the yuki-onna Mizore Shirayuki. I loved her stalker tendencies, cool personality and nice body (even thought the last one is common to all girls in this series).
The graphical quality of the series is top notch even if you'll need some episodes to adapt to the particular style this series use. The animation is consistent in all episodes and there are no particular problem in this sector.
I loved the first opening of the second season of the anime, with all the girls in idol attire singing along the music. (I'll probably make another post on it later on)
The sound quality of the series was also top notch in every sense possible. We have almost all the most famous and good seiyuu out there like Nana Mizuki in Moka's role, Rie Kugimiya in Mizore's role, Saeko Chiba in Rubi's role and many others.
My favourite voice has been, obviously, Rie Kugimiya's role as Mizore Shirayuki. In this particular series she is not using her trademark tsundere/childish voice and she looks quite refreshing and tempting at the same time.
Concluding this series delivers exactly what it was meant to, that is fanservice and cute/beautiful characters. It has also on the top a wonderful voice acting and a unique graphical style.
The only problem I can see is the quite lame ending they pulled off (and as the manga is still running, I doubt that's the official ending).
I'm planning to buy most of the volumes of this series in the next shipment so expect more post on it later on!
See you soon,
feal87