The Case Study of Vanitas is, along with Shinigami Bocchan to Kuro Maid, a case study in budget and how important it is to anime. Both are adaptations of ongoing manga that will only give a taster of the source material’s storyline. But in the hands of a premier studio like Bones and almost entirely hand-drawn, Vanitas is able to capture the flavor of the material in a way the CGI and dirt-cheap Shinigami Bocchan cannot. Both are fantasies with a gothic aesthetic set in Europe at roughly the time period, but in execution they could hardly be more different. I’m enjoying Bones’ work here, but as a fan of the Shinigami Bocchan manga it’s just another agonizing reminder of what could have been.
Slowly but surely, Vanitas no Carte is drawing me into its storyline. I wouldn’t say I’m enraptured, but my resistance is slowly being worn down. This is certainly a more traditional modern vampire story than Mars Red (including the focus on eroticism) but it does have its own twists. Apparently vampires here came into existence (along with Astermite, the magic mineral that powers the airships) as a result of a failed experiment by an alchemist named Paracelsus – based on a real person, quite an important figure in both medicine and mysticism (and born in a village called Egg, amusingly).
This is an origin story for vamps I haven’t heard before, and implies a few somewhat unusual rules of the road. Vampires in this mythology seemingly are born and mature like humans, as we see both Noe and Dominique as children, and presumably this means Luca will grow up as well. There’s no evidence of fear of crosses, sunlight or garlic that I can see. And they can feed on humans without turning or killing (assuming they stop in time) them. That part has implications for human-vampire romance, a subject this episode is rather fixated on. It also seems vampires can feed on the blood of other vampires (as Noe greedily does with Dominique).
These two feeding scenes are the centerpiece of the episode thematically. With Noe and Dominique it’s clearly a romantic moment – he may be less aware of that than she but it’s hard not to read the room. Later, when Vanitas offers himself up to Jeanne (she’s cursed, by the way), the vibe is far more dangerous but no less sensual. Vanitas again comes off as fearless to the point of foolishness – to give himself to any vampire is dangerous enough, but one he knows is cursed? He’s banking on her desire to protect her boy reining in her predatory instincts, but that’s one hell of a risky bet.
Vanitas’ fearlessness is the takeaway from his earlier visit to Dominique’s dominatrix playroom too. His superpower is bullshit and brass balls, clearly – nothing much fazes him and he has remarkable faith in his ability to read the room himself. He walks away from this encounter the winner despite theoretically being at her mercy, and promptly doubles down by leaping onto a chandelier and announcing himself to a ballroom full of vamps. This draws out Dom’s sister Veronica (Hikasa Youko), who seems to represent the militantly anti-human element in vampire politics.
Charlatan crashes the ball, in the process revealing that several of the guests are cursed, and prompting the aforementioned exchange of fluids between Vanitas and Jeanne. Just who Charlatan is and why he’s cursing vampires is a mystery, but not the series’ only one. While characters like Noe, Lucius, Dom and Jeanne seem pretty straightforward in terms of motivation, we still don’t really know why Vanitas is doing what he’s doing. Dominique is right to be obsessed by this, even if she gets neither the better of him or any answers. How Vanitas no Carte addresses this is, I suspect, going to be quite important in how much staying power this story has.
Nalani
July 24, 2021 at 12:59 pmVanitas is split-cour, actually!
Guardian Enzo
July 24, 2021 at 1:22 pmI knew that and forgot, lol. Thanks for the reminder.
leongsh
July 24, 2021 at 1:53 pmI’ll repost what I wrote in a certain anime forum and add a bit more from there.
Other than the above, there are a number of takeaways from this episode.
– Veronica talked about the stench of a human. I wonder whether it is olfactory disgust or a metaphor of how humans are viewed by the elite vampires. And one of the reasons why there is Altus Paris, i.e. to have a safe space for vampires that is totally separate from the human world.
– As I have stated before, Vanitas is no fool. He may play a fool but he definitely isn’t one. He is a high-functioning sociopath that is smart, cunning, and also a thrill seeker. He senses the right buttons to push. He is very quick thinking. Why I felt the Sherlock Holmes vibe from him but taken to a bit more theatrical in approach.
– The decision he made to announce himself to all at the ball is big picture-wise, a bombastic move that makes a lot of sense. The legend of Vanitas and the Book is by that time a folklore and not given much heed. However, he has now refreshed it. Making him a big target of the Red Moon vampires, and also giving due notice to Charlatan. By announcing that he is a human and the anointed successor of Vanitas, and also that he will be saving them instead of cursing their names is a delicious twisted revenge. A human which these vampires despise enough that will save them when they turn into cursed beings. They will be cursed with the knowledge that they are saved by a human and with the Book of Vanitas to boot. Wicked.
– While the first bite by Jeanne definitely hurt him as you can see Vanitas gripping the cloak in a sign of pain, the second bite had him adjust to it and seem to derive pleasure from the thrill of it. Based on the what we saw between Noe bloodsucking on Dominique, and now this, it is as though Jeanne has consummated a bond with Vanitas in the offering of his blood to feast on.
This show is a very fun watch so far. Roll on more episodes!
Aera
July 24, 2021 at 8:09 pmSomething interesting that I found in this episode is the fact that Vanitas is doing what he’s doing for his own sake, not because he wants to help vampires or any other kind of goodwill.
In the speech right after he escaped from Domi, he said that he would continue to cure vampires’ curses regardless of whether or not they wanted it as a vengeance of the original Vanitas. This seemed to indicate that even though human Vanitas possessed the power and the tome from original Vanitas, human Vanitas hated the original Vanitas.
And he also liked the idea of vampires being ashamed for having their curse illness recovered by a legendary cursed grimoire that they loathed so much.
Really makes me wonder what kind of backstory that he hid beneath his eccentric personality, and what shaped him to be this kind of person.
So, again, Vanitas continued to be such an unpredictable, interesting character. I slowly but surely am used to Hanae’s performance as him.
Llc
September 7, 2021 at 10:29 pmBoth anime have Hanae Natsuki as the VA for the MC !! He’s so cute in Both- But yes I stopped watching Shinigami Bocchan couldn’t stand the adaptation