It's a terrible, cruel world out there...especially now that their are vampires running it. A supposed "human made" virus stuck the Earth with a plague that instantly killed anyone over the age of thirteen. Seeing the opportunity, vampires rose from the depths to take over the world in a single swoop. However, they didn't kill the surviving children. Instead, they imprisoned them in plantations across the globe in order to harvest their blood. Inside these plantations, the vampires like to tell the human children that their blood is the price for their protection. Honestly, it is kind of true. Four Horsemen of John run rapid outside in the world, another brutal side effect of the deadly virus. An untrained person is no match for them, so what choice do they have than to stay in a place where they are given shelter and food, in exchange for blood. Mika and Yu are two orphans that are located in one of the primary plantations, where the Queen vampire of the region also resides. They, along with their makeshift family of also orphans, formed a family and live together in this plantation. However, Yu is growing impatient with the treatment that the vampires give them, and often gets himself in trouble, to which Mika must bail him out. On the flip side, Mika is patient, waiting for an opportunity. That opportunity comes one night when he manages to steal a pistol and a map. That night, Mika and Yu decide to take their family and make a run for it, desperately wanting to escape to some fantasy land far, far away. Little did they know, it was a trap. Mika and Yu could do nothing as the rest of their family was slaughtered by a single vampire lord. In a futile attempt, Mika tries to buy time for Yu by attacking the vampire. Of course, he is nearly instantly defeated, but distracts him long enough for Yu to "kill" him. Yu is then forced to abandon Mika, and the rest of his family, in order to escape. With his only family now dead, Yu vows to do whatever it takes to get revenge on the vampires. Four years later, he is now a part of the Japanese Imperial Demon Army. He desperately wants to join the vampire extermination unit, but his lack of trust in others and teamwork are keeping him from his goal. However, after saving a newfound friend from a vampire and fighting it head on, without the assistance of a cursed weapon, which is required in order to kill a vampire, he is finally accepted into the extermination unit. Now there, he must train and learn to trust his new squad members as they fight a tremendously lopsided war. On the flip side, we learn that young Mika was turned into a vampire by the Queen. However, he is not a full vampire until he drinks human blood, which he refuses to do. So now that we have the basis of the story out of the way, why don't we talk about the good and the bad of this show. So this show is a fantasy, action, and drama show. It does two out of the three of those very well. The show does a very good job of being dramatic, I mean, really dramatic. Sometimes it almost gets borderline annoying, but I know it's for the sake of plot development. Where this show desperately fails to meet my expectations is in the action department. The fight scenes, or lack there of, are simply awful. The show always does a tremendous job of talking up a fight, but then either rushes it or just flat out skips it. Now, this anime focuses more on Yu and Mika, but it's a fantasy anime, that carries a certain amount of expectation with it when it comes to action. I might of expected a little too much, but I feel like they severely messed up on pretty much every fight scene in this anime show. Going off of that, the show also has some problems with things such as animation speed and character placement. What I mean by animation speed is the wild variations in how fast the characters are. One moment, you are in an epic, fast-paced fight, then the next scene it just feels slow and...weird. Not to mention that the characters and their abilities seem quite inconsistent. Someone will be really powerful one moment, then weak as ever in the next. The primary thing that ruined my experience the most of the character placement in the scenes. Sometimes it's like they forgot where the character was. One moment they are on the other side of the room, then the next they are somewhere else. It kind of breaks the continuity of the whole thing. As a whole, I'd say it's okay. I mean, I did watch all of the two seasons, so if that tells you anything. I will say that 24 episodes later I'm still waiting for a descent fight scene though. It's like a friend of mine, who has also seen it, said, "You watch it for Yu and Mika, not the fight scenes." I get it, I get it. It still bothers me though. Maybe you can look past it more than I can. Give it a whirl, the first episode is pretty good, didn't see that coming. Written By: Kyle Hawk If you are looking for a new anime show to watch, stop by and put my random anime generator to good use!
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