Serving Up Some Vampire Madness: Servamp

Greetings, one and all!  October is here, and that means Halloween is near!  And that also means a month full of horror anime!  This week’s pick is actually one of the newest shows to hit the summer block this year.  And while it may not be what I think of when horror anime comes to mind in my opinion, it is chock full of vampires! So without further adieu, let’s get started on this week’s review of Servamp!

Mahiru Shirota lived a pretty simple life as a high school student.  That is, until he came across a black cat he decides to keep and name Kuro.  Only keeping him for a short time, Mahiru learns that Kuro is actually a vampire.  More specifically, he is one of the original vampires-called Servamps- known as Sleepy Ash.  Mahiru also learns that by giving him a name, he and Kuro have formed a temporary contract-to make it full, Kuro would have to drink Mahiru’s blood.  This later happens when one of Mahiru’s friends is attacked by a vampire and Mahiru decides to fight back.  After this encounter, Mahiru is introduced to Tsubaki, another vampire claiming to be the eighth brother of Sleepy Ash and the other six Servamps.  Tsubaki wants nothing more than to fight against them as an act of revenge.  Mahiru decides from that point on to combat Tsubaki and find the other Servamps.

Ok, so among the horror anime shows that I’ve seen-or at least ones about vampires, anyway-this one was different.  And I don’t mean that well.  But overall, I give Servamp a seven out of ten.  The animation was probably the highlight of the show.  With Studio Bones taking the helm at this series, they actually didn’t do too bad a job.  Given that it’s been known for some pretty wild shows as far as animation goes, Servamp was actually very tame.  The story wasn’t half bad either.  The first few episodes pretty much get you hooked.  But…well, I guess this leads to the negatives, doesn’t it?

So continuing with the plot, there’s a lot of theatrical elements that get thrown into it that make it really hard to follow what’s going on.  So for those of you who don’t understand what that means, here’s an explanation: suppose that Mahiru walks down the street thinking about the other Servamps and suddenly this image of a creepy looking Voo-Doo cat pops up repeating the question or giving a response, or the question repeats itself in writing on the screen.  This seems to happen a lot throughout the show and it is actually kind of distracting.  It was something that I felt was really random and again, a major distraction.  Still, Servamp has overall proven to be a pretty good show!

So if you like the vampire side of anime, definitely check out Servamp!  Plus, if you love cats, you should also look at Servamp cause Kuro makes the cutest cat!  The first season is available online at Funimation and has also been underway with the dub.  Now before I go, I do have one quick announcement.  Next Sunday, I will have an important event to go to, so there will be no post next week.  I will follow up the following Sunday.  And with that, I’m off!  If you have a request for a show or topic you’d like to hear, let me know!

-Hanime on Anime

Servamp Promo

P.S.: KITTY! :3