Stay with me on this one. In The Case Study of Vanitas, the Book of the Blue Moon is an ancient magic grimoire that allows the user to either corrupt or find a vampire’s true name and therefore hold impressive power over them. Because to vampires, names can bind and curse them. The original owner and we assume the author was the vampire of the Blue moon but the current Vanitas inherited it at some point. And now he is going to use it to give vampires who have been cursed, their names back.

So this is Vanitas’ Book of Friends, right? You see it, don’t you?

And this week, it was sexy!

One of the things that always tends to impress me in anime is when they create interesting effects with light and shadows. It just adds so much depth and atmosphere to the visuals. I love images with a good sense of light. And The Case Study of Vanitas does use light a lot. Dark alleys with illuminated corners, the vampires’ glowing eyes. And that scene at the begining of the episode. With the glowing blue flowers. I loved that scene. It was so pretty.

Another thing Vanitas does pretty well is movement. I’m still thinking about that fight scene in the first episode.. We got a few more action sequences this week. In fact, now that I think about it, there’s a huge amount of action in this show. But you know what my favourite bit of animation was this week? It was the motion of Domi’s dress when she turns around in the interrogation scene. Wait, let me show you:

That entire scene was pretty great. Quick shot irreverent editing, fluid yet exaggerated camera work. It was a great scene but this shot was the cherry on the sunday. And out of the blue overhead shot, we didn’t get another one for the entire episode, it’s framed by a close-up of vanitas and a full straight shot of Domi’s back. I should stop describing things you can see for yourself. I just really liked it.

Oh yeah, there was a story also…

The Case Study of Vanitas is pretty much pure camp. It’s lavish and excessive and just ridiculous. I think that makes for great viewing, particularly in anime where you show anything an illustrator can imagine. But it’s not so easy to convey in post form. I mean if I just tell you the story, you’re going to think it’s operatic nonsense. And you would be right. It is. That’s what makes it great.

So instead, I’m going to focus on the tiny nuggets of silliness that brought me joy. Like the fact that Noé was off his leash for a whole 6 seconds before he wandered off by himself and lost the rest of his group. They’ve used essentially this same joke twice in 4 episodes and I love it each time. I hope we get at least 2 more instances of Noé wandering off like a toddler and a montage in the later episodes.

Also, they brought Murr along to the masquerade it seems, and he had a little mask. I,m pretty sure it was just Noé’s mask that he got tired f wearing but still, I got to watch an anime with a vampire carrying a fat white cat wearing a masquerade mask. That’s how I want to end my week!

Oh and the bad guys seem to have little robots like the empire does. And Vanitas’ vengeance of humiliating the vampires by curing them depends entirely on him being a lowly jerk. Which is good news because he kind of is.

Also, that was some barely disguised sex metaphors and it was fun.

I’m actually digging the soap opera story as well. I want to see if Vanitas will be able to save so many vampires at once. I am looking forward to Noé kicking some Charlatant behind. t seems Charlatant is a collective, maybe a cult of some sort. I want to know more about that as well. Basically, I’m still having a ton of fun with this show and I’m looking forward to next week.

Previous episodes

• The Case Study of Vanitas ep.1 – Blue Moon Rising
• The Case Study of Vanitas ep.2 – There’s Always a Jeanne
• The Case Study of Vanitas ep.3 – What A Jerk