A mixed bag-My review on Vanitas no Karte

I was at first contemplating if I should talk about this or not as I wasn't really intrigued with it as I thought I would be. I wasn't all about it during the three days roll I spent to watch it. Added it to my watchlist around early 2023, ended up watching about two to three episodes of it mid 2024,only to stop and continue it around August last year.

The whole concept about the anime was confusing in a way. It was like I was rewatching Teen wolf again but with mid acting and slow pacing. It was low-key infuriating the amount of times I spent stalling this cause I wanted to be done and done. Let us dive into the plot and what it entails.

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Vanitas no karte (The case study of Vanitas) is a paranormal genre anime that revolves around a self made Doctor,Vanitas. My apologies, he's not actually a doctor doctor but that's what he calls himself atleast. Something of a sort. Vanitas is surrounded by vampires and aims to cure them from their curse. In the story of Vanitas no Karte,there are vampires and they are of two different kinds; the Blue Vampires also know as the Lamia and the red vampires known as the crimson vampires. The Blue Vampires are said to be calmer and more similar to human behaviors whilst the red vampires are violent,with red eyes. In this story, I'd say there are two main characters (I hope this makes sense). There's Noe Archiviste whose life got mixed and tangled up with that or Vanitas.

The case study of Vanitas is set in the 19th century Paris and follows the story of a young vampires in search of the book of Vanitas. This young vampire is called Noé. Noé Archiviste. The book of Vanitas is a powerful book set to release or heal cursed vampires. Cursed vampires here are called Malnomen; they are vampires transformed as a result of a bite from another vampire or a really traumatic event in their lives. The Malnomen are forced to behave predatorily against their will due to the said 'curse'.

This quest of Noé leads him to meet Vanitas, the one in possession of the book of Vanitas. He uses it to cure cursed vampires. He does this as a revenge of a sort to someone in his past life.

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Honestly,I genuinely loved the main characters in this story. Vanitas and Noe. Vanitas had so much that went wrong in his past that shaped him to be what he is/ was. It was sad really, getting to witness his backstory. Being used as an experiment at one point,getting a glimpse of what life has to offer and being thrown in for the wolves to feast on again, and to top it all up,adding the loss of a loved one. Spoiler spoiler spoiler
Oh was that supposed to come at the beginning of this paragraph?;

Anyways, the case study of Vanitas is an anime that could have been more. The storyline was really good but I think the mangaka was tired? Or decided to not be creative enough,I don't know. But the concept and idea of it was entirely different from the usually vampire story of hunt and kill. I really liked the concept and was dissapointed a bit about what I saw. But anyways,I liked the characters and it was funny too. Vanitas' charisma is top tier! Noé too. Extremely beautiful characters!

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The anime only had two seasons with about twenty something episodes each. The anime explores themes of existence, identity and the human condition, raising questions about what it is to be alive and to find one's place in the world.

I hope you enjoyed my review. And thanks for reading.

*And yes, I definitely ship Vanitas and