It seems just about what you’d right that Vanitas no Carte would be exceptionally interesting right before it ends. That’s often the way with adaptations of ongoing manga, unfortunately. And in this case the adaptation is taking us right up to the edge of the cliff – there’ll be almost no material left over when it finishes, so even if the production committee wanted another season it’d be years before it was possible. Yet the next time this happens with another series I’ll no doubt be along for the ride – anime fans have a lot of scar tissue.
Basically, we’ve been waiting two years to get to Vanitas’ (the human’s) backstory. And I have to say, it doesn’t disappoint. There’a a lot that isn’t quite explained here (though we do have two episodes to go). But we know more than we did before. Perhaps most interesting to me, we know that Vanitas (and Misha, for that matter) were injected with the Vampire of the Blue Moon’s blood. This would explain why Vanitas seemed to have some powers beyond the reasonable score of a normal human – and I’m glad we did get an explanation for that.
Moreau… I’ll give Mochizuki credit, she’s made him one of the most genuinely despicable creatures we’ve seen in anime this past year. His nature is self-evident, there’s no need to deconstruct it – he’s a guy who experiments on children and feels not a whit of consternation or guilt over it. Shades of grey are great, but sometimes it’s fine to have a character who’s just plain evil – such characters exist in real-life, so there’s no reason why they shouldn’t in fiction.
Whatever he is now, because of his age when all this shit was done to him I think Misha does get a bit of slack. As for Vanitas, his self-loathing looks severely misplaced. He remained behind in Moreau’s clutches rather than escape and see another child take his place. He volunteered to be subject to Moreau’s worst experiments in order to try (unsuccessfully) and spare Mikhail. Vanitas is exactly what Vanitas (the vampire) said he is – a very kind person – though it seemed as if he very much hated to be t0ld that.
What we don’t know yet, of course, is why Vanitas killed the VotBM. For all we can see here, they (I’m not confident trying to guess a gender based on the design, Paku Romi’s brilliant performance, and Misha calling them “Father”) seem very kind too. They wrecked Moreau’s lab and took the kids with them after Mikhail begged. They treated Vanitas’ physical and emotional injuries (who is the human the VotBM is “acquainted with”?). They even told the boys honestly that the atrocities inflicted on them would probably cost them their lives soon, as their bodies broke down under the strain of the VotBM’s blood. They took the boys on a journey to find a way to save them, but the answer was seemingly that the only way was to make them a member of their clan (and we still don’t know what that entails).
One can certainly speculate based on Vanitas’ refusal to accept that “cure”. Perhaps he killed the VotBM rather than have it forced on him – though both that and the forcing seem out of character based on what we’ve seen. More likely there’s a secret we simply don’t know yet – perhaps connected to Moreau having Vampnitas’ blood in the first place (something it seems would be hard to do without their consent). Will we find that out (courtesy of Noe, presumably) in the final two episodes? Probably – and it would also be interesting to see how Misha responds to that information.
Riv
March 20, 2022 at 2:04 amThat’s disappointing that we’ll basically be caught up to the manga–overall, I’ve enjoyed this series a lot. I’ll hope for a few more good Noe and Vanitas moments here at the end.
Rasu
March 20, 2022 at 2:40 amI think the VotBM wanted to die at some point and Made Vanitas “kill him”, though maybe Vanitas was aware of their intentions and pretended otherwhise (and so did know VotBM he knew, Yet he accepted Vanita’s anger and sadness at the moment), maybe he “forced” them to be members of their clan, starting with Misha, then Vanitas saw “father” drinking lil’ brother’s blood and It detonated his traumatic reaction towards vampires (and that he has “always unable yo protect anyone”), and so he had to attack VotBM, ended bitten by him just in the final moments when he realized too late their real intentions to save them, that’s why he “hates the VotBM” and was finishing his duty with the book (also as a futile way to get rid of the connection with the book, but knowing Vanitas, he knows he’s gonna day anyway, so he tries to help the most he can to make ammends and perfomig his “revenge”) he thought Misha died, but now. he knows there are two members of the clan and how dangerous that is for the world’s formula. They’re indeed members, he has already proclaimed to be one while showing his mark (which apparently shows how near to Death he Is, so being a clan member just slowed It down a bit), so does Mikhail, who has one too, but maybe he’s part of Moreau’s team along with their vamps faction (who bethroned the queen , who at the same time need Vanitas’s control and knowledge so that’s why they sent Noé to him since the beggining, in order to get control over the world’s fórmula (just like they wanted with Chloe).
Or maybe It started with Misha using the book, losing control over It, VotBM had to act and Vanitas though they killed him, so he showed he knows how to use it, and was “saved” by VotBM, acquiring their name in a way to “have died” that day too.
Maybe at the end of the story, we’ll get to know his real name when he gets all his blood sucked by Noé, who will understand Vanitas secretive stubborness to help not to destroy, and then Noé ends up alone in a world where the fórmula has bern repaired, so vampires and names won’t exist anymore, just humans or something; which would suck in a way, then I remember Pandora Hearts’s Gill and… why Vanitas and not Noé, Jun? Why?! (Sorry, is a cute naive boy, but sometimes he just pisses me off).
Anyway, Misha is crazy, if he doesn’t end up dying, then there’s a possibility he ends up under Roland’s care (while Astolfo ends up with Noé or by Luca’s side, any of them will prevent him yo kill his self nor close his heart, just the way they couldn’t do It with Vanitas, Louis and Big bro). Vanitas is too kind, he won’t kill a thing (even if he can be as dangerous as them), thus he’ll end up being the one being killed. It’d just as you mentioned before with Ousama Ranking, good people being good while forgiving douches, and douches having the free pass due to them been forgiven by good people (that’s where you enter Noé, damn It).
The other thing that remains been unknown is: who is the cat? Ruthven? Noe’s teacher ( so the “lil’ cat” referred to him and not Noe, huh?) Or both?
Also, Misha didn’t hear why Vanitas hates his self so Noe doesn’t know todo (he’s an airhead who can’t figure things out until is too late anyway).
Scampi
March 20, 2022 at 11:28 pmThe anime skipped a part after Vanitas sought help from Vampire of Blue Moon’s mark to save Chloe in time. While he was lying in the asterisque flower field Vanitas noted that the mark has spread quite a bit, and a manga-only dialogue revealed that the more Vanitas uses the power of Blue Moon, the more he’ll be rewritten into another thing entirely. So I guess even though they’re saved from the effects of Moreau’s experiment, Vanitas’ condition will still deteriorate if he push himself to use the Book’s powers, and considering that he probably sacrificed a bit of his humanity to save Chloe, yeah he’s a pretty kind one.
As for Blue Moon’s death, I’m guessing they died self-satisfied, because when Vanitas saw it Chloe’s face, he hated it, and I can’t think of another person who could have traumatized Vanitas with such expression except for Blue Moon.