So this one was another great find, courtesy of Viewster. It's been coming up on my suggested for quite some time now, and I didn't want to watch it because it's all vampire related... But was it as bad as the twilight saga?
Of course it wasn't as bad as the bloody Twilight saga, nothing can be as bad as that, Jesus bloody Christ.
I've never actually heard of this series really, I did see it a few times on Facebook but I never actually bothered to go and watch it. Which was a shame really, because I actually enjoyed this quite a bit; I'm not one for vampire animes after watching Vampire Knight and a few other cheesey ones that I never went back too.
This series is based on the end of the world, the apocalypse and the ruling of vampires over the human race. On the surface, where the humans roam freely without knowledge of what's about to happen or about what is underneath their feet. A virus spreads across the world, killing all of those over the age of 13 years old, everyone under the age of 13 lived but had to somehow survive by themselves. When the adults where dead, the vampires left their underground cities and began to roam the human world; they took the children down underground and kept them there for years on end. They donate blood every now and then, and in return they get houses where they live with other children and they get a small amount of food so they can keep on producing blood for them to drink; the humans are basically like feeding stations for the vampires underground.
Our story follows the escape of one of the humans, yes one... Just one, I know, the first three episodes are heart breaking and make you lose all hope in everything you think will happen to these people. He escapes up to the surface, where a small amount of humans still roam and have started a small civilization full of people who survived the apocalypse those few years ago. They have their own army, The Imperial Demon Army, they train human children at a large school like facility and some of them eventually join the army and join in with the fight against any Vampires that come into the territory. There are small areas of humans that love a little further away from the main school facility, but everyone is over looked by the army, and everyone is protected by the army. These people rescue our main character, and train him up to become part of the Moon Demon Company; one of the strongest units in the Army and one of the few that are put on the front line to fight against the Vampires (also random creatures called the Horsemen of John). There are other people who are higher up than the Moon Demon Company, but they stay quiet until further on in the show.
The humans that live in the school facility face a small amount of training on the side, we don't really see it that much but it must be there since quite a few students are enrolling to be in the Imperial Demon Army. Those who even get the opportunity to be in the army then have to choose a weapon; the way this works is weird... when you touch a Demon Weapon, the Demon enters your mind and you have to somehow beat it to then own the weapon. So with our main character, it shows him his dead friends that are taunting him and making him feel bad about leaving them behind... Kind of spoiled It for you there, but it happens in like the first episode so you'll see that straight away, no biggy. The demons then live in the weapons, and when you call out their name they activate or something like that; reminded me of Bleach a little bit with the calling thing. But to even use the weapon, you'll have to overcome whatever terrible memories they mess with, and once you fail at that, the demon takes over your body.
We don't see too much of the demons, we mainly see the people who are actually using the weapons; I would of enjoyed it more if you got to know a bit more about the demons or if you at least get to see them a little bit more than you do. If memory serves me correctly, you only get to see them quite briefly, which is a shame because their designs are quite interesting; They seem somewhat plain, but their designs seem to have a slight quirky edge, so they kind of look like humans, but with a little something extra. The designs of the weapons are also really good, not as unique as you would expect them to be, but some of them are quite impressive and they all suite the character who is handling them too; which seemed like a nice touch, the perfect weapon that matches up with the characters personality and traits.
Yūichirō Hyakuya; He's our main/lead character for the entire series and we follow him throughout the apocalypse, the vampire ruling and then him joining the Imperial Demon Army. He and his "family" from the orphanage are captured and are put underground in a small house where the "donate" blood to the vampires that rule over them. Unfortunately, he's the only one who escapes the underground city, and the Imperial demon Army take him in and train him slowly. He's extremely impatient though and struggles to take school and training seriously, he just thinks that running in head first will do the trick. He really doesn't get along with anyone, he's about as stubborn as my dad! Which is one of the main reasons that he's taking so long to join the Imperial demon Army, he can't work with anyone because of his attitude towards working in a team; once he makes a few friends then he'll be able to join. It seems like he can overpower demons quite easily after having a run in with quite a powerful one that was underneath the school; a student went down and touched the weapon, and the demon took over his body, leaving Yūichirō to run in and "save" him. Yūichirō becomes incredibly strong towards the second season of the show, turning into "The Seraph of the End," and turning into a demon little by little every day. Due to his demon taking over his body, he has to be tied down for three hours every day to ensure that he doesn't harm himself or anyone else around him.
Since we know his back story straight from the beginning of the show, they don't leave much to the imagination for us. It was a good touch to know everything about him before the story kicked off, and there were still some surprises about him the further we got in the series, but it didn't leave much for us to keep on guessing and think about. I also wish that we got to see some more of the demons that live inside of the weapons; we do get to see some of them briefly, but the designs are quite unique... In my opinion anyway. I think they're unique as some of them aren't madly over the top with giant claws and wings coming out of them, they look more like humans with a little added extra that shows that they're demon.
Shinoa Hīragi; She was sent by her boss to keep an eye on Yūichirō, her main reason for becoming his shadow was to ensure that he actually made a friend or two, otherwise he can't join the Moon Demon Company. She does seem like some sort of mysterious character, and at first I thought that she was some sort of traitor because of her appearance and attitude... But actually; she's part of the family who run the Imperial Demon Army, so she does come across as quite mysterious to me, her family think that she's a disgrace and she rarely talks about them to her team mates. She's an extremely strong fighter, which is why she's in charge of the unit and slowly trains them up so they can fight against the vampires. She knows everything there is to know about the demonic weapons and how to fight against the vampires; but when it came to her fighting against the vampires, she went down quite quickly, so I think it might be down to her knowledge and techniques in fighting.
Mikaela Hyakuya; Now, does his last name look familiar too Yūichirō Hyakuya?... But that would mean that Yūichirō Hyakuya and Mikaela Hyakuya must be related in some way... Or they belonged to the same orphanage... Oh my god? why would I put someone who's dead here, hmmmmm, I wonder?...
DUN DUN DUNNN!!
I do think that the series seemed to happen a bit too quickly, there are two seasons and you begin to really find out what's going on about half way through the second season. It was an enjoyable show with a few good twists that made quite a big impact on your opinions of the characters.
I did really enjoy this series, even though it was about vampires; I've watched a lot of vampire stuff, some of it not even being animes about vampires, but anything vampire related just seems cliché now like it's all been done before and that whatever happens it's going to be predictable. But this one seemed quite different, not like all of the other vampire animes where there's a vampire in love with a human, and they're in lover, awwww.... Or humans attacking vampires with garlic and stakes.
Even though the story does come across as quite rushed, they still make sure that everything has been pieced together correctly and that it does make sense; it's not like they leave you hanging for ages on every little detail... There aren't any fillers aswell! Well if there was, then I must have enjoyed them since I didn't notice them at all, but I'm sure there weren't... I don't know if there was actually.
It seemed pretty straight forward, and every episode tied in with the plot, so the show wasn't wasting your time on useless episodes where they all take a day off and go to the beach, that kind of thing.
This one seemed really unique with the demonic weapons, the underground civilization, the virus that kills most humans, the seraph of the end transformation, the fight scenes and the ending; wasn't quite expecting that. I wouldn't watch it again though, probably because I know all of the twists that happen later on in the show. I would definitely recommend it for people who don't like cheesey loved up animes cause they're just gross.
Like, lovey dovey vampire animes make me feel slightly sick... just slightly
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