I don’t know. Maybe the manga does so much more, maybe the manga is more striking. I’m just spectulating because I haven’t seen the manga.
For a show that got a lot of attention beforehand, I feel underwhelmed. But there are couple of good elements:
1. Mina.
Wise, intelligent, crafty, fun, child-like and yet old and experienced, she’s the perfect princess-queenie-girlfriend with a dark streak. Being a supreme being, she does a lot of things other vampires don’t seem to do. She organizes a territory, runs a school, some important multinational companies, and of course, blood…
Actually, she hasn’t sucked anyone’s blood. That’s refreshing.
2. Intrigue.
Her actions are still puzzling. In this episode, we see one of the reasons she established the “bund”. But there’s more to that, and there’s more to come.
I’d love to say great action but I must have missed them. Not that there weren’t any but I can’t seem to remember. Everything is way too dark to be seem.
As for everything else, it’s un-Shaft (you’re damned wrong) in everyway. No more minimalist background, no more camera and theater props right smack in the viewer’s face, no more blackboards with references written all over.
There’s just fog when Mina gets out of the bath. I can hear angry loli-cons screaming foul. I guess it’s blu-ray time for them folks.
The moe point here is a little girl talking like an old lady. But hey, something is working out and I have been watching 4 episodes. Maybe I’ll discover myself becoming impressed at the end. Who knows?
The only thing that stick out like a sore thumb is how hyperrealism works so badly in anime, and this one is trying its hardest to make it work.
