Vampire Bund 9

It’s been so long since an episode of Dance in the Vampire Bund appeared I had forgotten they had started another story arc, and before watching I wondered if maybe I should drop this series, but like Yumeiro, with which I had the same thoughts, this episode proved too good for me to let it go.

Cell phones are playing significant parts in anime these days. We had Durarara’s Dollars meetup, Sawako’s new means of communication, and now Vampire Bund 9 tosses out a terrorist threat using cell phones. Even while watching Durarara’s cell-phone meetup I kept thinking “Wait, the other side could do shit like that, too,” and here we get an example. We have suicide vampires who are set to explode when Hysterica pushes a button, and they’re all over the subways. While the Beowulf guys track them down Mina invites Hysterica to a meeting, which soon turns into a big fight.

But that’s simply the action level, and while it’s good, I found the questions raised more interesting. What’s it like to be a vampire? Should you become one? What are the trade-offs? We get two variants. In one, Akira chases down Mika, a former classmate who became a vampire in order to be strong but now regrets it. Now he’s got a weapon in his body and they’re using him to kill people. Akira tries to talk sense into him and fails. On the other side we have Nanami, turned vampire against her will, and a slave to Hysterica. She is saved with the help of the boy, Yuzuru, whom she can’t live without, and some trickery from Mina. And in the weirdest moment, Yuzuru has Nanami turn him into a vampire. Disgusting to watch (but about average for this show), but if you can get over that it’s an interesting comment. Yuzuru has practically been abandoned by his parents. There’s nothing in the human world for him. Throughout the episode he asks the adults thoughtful questions about vampire life. And if he remained human he would never see Nanami again. That he made this decision shouldn’t have been so surprising.

Namami's revenge. Farewell, queen of eyebrows.

It all holds together well. For a moment it seemed like Yuzuru had killed Nanami, so her sudden return was a delightful shock. Through it all she had been a victim; she didn’t deserve to die. And now again I wonder if I should drop this show while I’m ahead. Spring season is coming soon and I’m going to have to make some hard decisions.

A couple episode 8′s: Vampire Bund, Hidamari Sketch

Dance in the Vampire Bund 8 starts as a typical post-story arc episode, where things are tidied up, and fortunately, they decide not to make it complete filler. They jump right into the next arc.

And the little filler at the beginning works pretty well. Yuki considers quitting the student council, because it hurts her to see Mina and Akira together, but instead, Mina makes nice with her, even returning the ring she stole from Akira and admitting that he hadn’t really given it to her. I was quite surprised by this; apparently the good Mina was in control that day. And I don’t quite believe Mina’s turnaround, but we’ll see what happens. Anyway, now she has a friend who she can laugh at Akira with.

Then it’s new story arc time! Vampires are sneaking out of the Bund and looking for humans to bite. One of these is Nanami, the student council president, well, former. You can question Mina’s morals all you want, but these guys are just bloodthirsty animals, even if they don’t want to be. Nanami certainly doesn’t, and when she nearly feeds on the boy next door it fills her with shame and remorse.

This would be Telemare’s doing, and the local girl in charge is named Hysterica, which is the best villain name since 11Eyes’ Superbia. Everyone fights, aided by a group called the Beowolf Elite Eight (pretty good, but not matching Hysterica), and little is resolved, except Nanami hasn’t returned to the good guys, even though Mina has offered her aid. Of course, it’s only the beginning of the new arc. It looks promising. There’s the broader story of rebellious vampire factions, but also the human one concerning Namami and her little friend Yuzuru, who hasn’t given up on her.

Hysterica eyebrows.

(After an interruption I only have time for one more show tonight)

Hidamari Sketch last week was all about the love. This week, it’s all about the food, or so the title of part two would have you believe. Eggplant. But the eggplant is a lie.

Apparently they have a crab festival at the school, and all the cafeteria lunches have it. This sets the girls drooling about eating crabs. But Yuno misses lunch, Miyako refuses to eat without her, and by the time they get to the cafeteria it’s all gone.

But Hiro makes them rice with fake crab in it for them later, and all is well. In part two Yuno has a small crisis when the class has to compete with their designs for some random artists. She doesn’t do well, but is reassured by Hiro afterwards. Actually, it goes a bit deeper than that, asking the question “Should you compete in matters of art?” The same question I’ve been asking recently about Nodame Cantabile.

And we see in Yuno’s trepidation during the contest that competing in such things might be bad for a student’s morale. But Yuno has the same reaction when she realizes Yoshinoya is behind her, looking at her (even though Yoshinoya is actually admiring Yuno’s butt), which must happen all the time during art school—the teacher looking over your shoulder at your work, not the butt-watching, though I’m sure that happens too). There’s really no answer for Yuno, though Hiro tries to help by pointing out Sae’s frustrations being a manga artist and having to work with editors. This is a silly, pointless show, one of the reasons I watch it, but they do work in some depth from time to time.

Vampire Bund 7, Fairy Tail 18

Vampire Bund 7 wraps up the story arc pertaining to the school, but it acts for all practical purposes like a final episode. There’s not even a maid cartoon at the end. And much is accomplished.

Akira’s turn against Mina because of her actions, and her seeming indifference to the chaos in the school continues as he gathers up weapons for the schoolkids (who are getting bitten even as he does), that is, until he encounters Alphonse, a vampire loyal to Mina.

What’s more, he has Wolf, Akira’s dad, with them, and we get a lot of “Are you sure you know what you’re getting into?” talk, while what we really care about, the murders in the cathredral, is offscreen. Never mind, when we finally return there it’s what I expected, a lot of unconscious kids, only Yuki and the nun are left.

There’s a lot of talk about how vampires around are cutting loose and showing their powers, and it’s caused by a group called Telomere. But happily, this brings Mina around to the opposing side, and she, along with her servants, and eventually Akira, drive off the bad vampires. I don’t quite get it. Did she just learn that Telomere was involved in the school and that’s why she intervened? She wouldn’t have cared otherwise? I suppose it’s possible. I’m not buying it. Or did she simply not know until she encountered that kid walking in the rain in the first scene? Either way I’m still not convinced she’s on the side of good. Or rather, she uses people to reach her goals. Even if she sometimes regrets it, she still does it.

And the relationship between Akira and Mina gets a little bizarre, too. To work things out they have a big fight, Mina talks a lot about the past, and then the roof they’re standing on collapses and he saves her by sacrificing himself. Impaled by a cross! This comes off like a death scene, but to close it all out we see the good vampires celebrating their new bund, with Akira by Mina’s side. So, he didn’t die? All right, he’s immortal, we know, but a little explanation, please.

I pity poor Yuki, who witnessed all of this and probably understands it less than we do …

Fairy Tail sometimes has an annoying habit of having exciting climaxes in the first half, and overly-long denoument and new arc setup in the second, so that it feels like a letdown. That’s pretty much what happens here.

Destroy the moon? Sure, easy, says Erza. And they do it, or rather, they destroy the aura of evil that had hardened around the island. The curse is lifted, yay. At this point the episode is hardly ten minutes done. Then there’s the long denoument. The islanders were really demons all the time, they just thought they had transformed. I’ll admit this leads to a couple nice scenes. They bring up the question of whether the demons should maybe return to the rest of civilization and not hide their natures, because they’re nice demons, after all. “Angels,” as Natsu said, in a rare insightful moment. And the demon girls hit on Gray. Leftover bad guys show up and are forgiven, after Erza hits them. Then, the moment I’d been awaiting for several episodes:

They get off the friggin' island! Hoorah!

But after that the episode falls apart. We get the beginnings of the new arc (and we learn Ul’s daughter is alive), Natsu, Gray and Lucy still have to be punished, blah blah. Now, some of it works, when the jokes are good and the timing’s right, but it doesn’t hide the fact that Fairy Tail can be one of the most sloppily-written shows currently running.

Cross Game 45, Vampire Bund 6, Hidamari 6

Cross Game 45 has a record three games in it, but they’re background for the personal dramas and do little more than reflect them. Besides, they’re all wins on the way to the big games coming up.

The first half mainly concerns Aoba and what’s been bugging her for a while. Kou has surpassed her as a pitcher. Although she would never admit it, she’s beginning to think she’s become expendable, which is ludicrous, of course. The team needs her, and Kou still takes her advice to heart (perhaps too much. After taking her advice on his pitching motion he momentarily loses his control and allows eight walks). On the other hand, it means she is sacrificing some of her own happiness for them. Again, she would never admit it. Meanwhile, Kou is getting close to the 160kph mark, and Aoba once famously said she was only interested in boys who could reach that mark. Hmm …

This scene has to represent something, but I can't figure out what it is.

Akane is featured in the second half, though she doesn’t actually appear much except for one scene. She winds up in the hospital for tests and Akaishi immediately goes into a slump. Meanwhile, Kou doesn’t seem to care, saying that worrying isn’t going to help her. Kou’s like this, of course, though it starts to come off as cold-hearted. Akaishi, meanwhile, obviously worries too much.

So the relationships continue to fluctuate, even if the characters don’t realize it. Kou shows more sympathy and gratitude to Aoba than usual, and seems indifferent to Akane’s problems, though he probably isn’t. It’s Aoba and Akaishi who do, Aoba because she remembers Wakaba, and Akaishi because he’s in love with her. This late in the series, we still don’t know who’ll wind up with whom.

Dance in the Vampire Bund 6 gives us Akira’s growing dissatisfaction with Mina and her vampire hoarde. Kidnapping the Prime Minister’s grandson and turning him into a vampire is simply too much for him. Not that Mina cares.

And thinking about it, it was inevitable that it would come to this. He’s disapproved of a lot of her actions ever since he got his memory back, as do we all, come to think of it. What makes me wonder is what his attitude was like back before he lost his memory and he was her willing servant. What changed him? Yuki? Just living like a normal student? The fact that vampires are getting more numerous and aggressive within the school? At any rate, he teams up with some classmates intending to drive them out, something I never imagined would happen only a couple episodes ago when it was all “Can’t we all get along?”

Akira and Yuki TOLD you not to open that door ...

Leading to a plan to expose the vampires. But in a delicious turn of events they are undone by the vampires’ first victim—the class president. And there the episode ends. I would say that it’s a rather good episode, but I’m getting a little sick of the quick cuts and blackouts that seem to happen every five seconds. I don’t think they’re helping the mood of the story; they’re just distracting.

Hidamari Sketch 6 has a lot of cuts, too, rather too many (Do we really need so many set cards thrown in there?), but it’s a show to be digested in little nibbles, so it doesn’t bother me as much. And again, we get two little stories.

In the first, Yoshinoya seems troubled and keeps checking her cell phone. Naturally, the girls assume it’s love. Turns out its a drippy cell phone novel she’s reading. In the second the girls spot Nazuna with a number of different boys. Naturally they assume it’s love. Actually it’s because she comes off as so helpless she inspires people to help her out. This one works a little better; the conversations flow normally until someone adds a non-sequitur and the others react … and we get another set card. But I don’t mind too much. It’s when the show throws in a little eccentricity that it shines the most.

This episode was all about the love ...

Fives: Vampire Bund, Hidamari Sketch

Vampire Bund 5 keeps us wondering further if any side in this vampire/human politics is worth rooting for. And it further complicates the school situation by introducing some student vampires, well, we knew that already. The question is if Mina condones it or not, or if she even knows.

And why is Mina even at the school as a student anyway? It’s true that she, for whatever reason, is the director, but why is she attending classes, especially when, apart from cooking, she knows the answers anyway? All it’s doing is screwing up Akira’s life. None of the students can trust him now, except for Yuki, and even that’s in question now that she’s seen the ring she gave Akira dangling from Mina’s neck. And why does Akira still attend if he’s now a watchdog to the most powerful vampire in the world?

Look out behind you, Yuki!

And, though Mina could certainly not care less, this all puts Yuki, a complete innocent, in danger. I care about this because Yuki is perhaps the most sympathetic character in the story. Her only crime is that she’s in love with Akira. She provides him with a chance to release, to talk, and you get the impression that if he was allowed to Akira would tell her everything. Her persistence in wanting to help him is touching, but now she’s in constant danger of being an innocent bystander in this vampire war.

And we need someone constant like that in this story, because once again the rest of the humans and vampires act like dickheads. Mina claims to be following the rules of society, then goes and has the Prime Minister’s kid taken hostage. Meanwhile, vampires in the school attack Akira because of his connection to her. Apart from Yuki, and mostly Akira, there is no decency in this show.

Look who's talking.

Hidamari Sketch 5, about as far away from Vampire Bund as you can get, deals with the annual physical and Yuno losing her cellphone. In the former, naturally the girls try some frantic last-minute dieting.

Hiro overdoes it.

Other bits include concerns about height, breast size (refreshingly, none of the girls worry about that too much, but Yoshinoya does. “Sensei! You’re sexually harrassing students again!”) and eyesight. And before you know it, it’s time for the missing cellphone scene. This one is rather sweet, as when Yuno goes to the arts room to retrieve it she meets 3rd year Arisawa, who asks if she will model. It brings in a moment where Yuno wonders what she’ll do when she graduates. What I like is that Arisawa sees arts prep school as an exciting place where her talent will flourish. In other words, for her, as opposed to so many high school shows, life doesn’t end when you graduate. Yuno drinks in every word.

A good way to describe this show, actually.

It’s also amusing for Yuno (and me) to learn where they stay is known as the “building of imps.” And that’s it. The show again flashes by in a flicker of an eye. The only problem with it is its unique visual sense make it hard to capture screenshots that make any sense.

Four’s: Vampire Bund, Hanamaru

Vampire Bund 4 feels like a bit of a letdown, maybe because it lacked the silliness of last episode. In its place is a little bit of whimsy as Mina sneaks off to play jump-rope with some little kids. Now, I don’t expect a lot of frivolity in this series, but it was nice when they were able to work that in. This episode is all serious business, unfortunately, it only half works.

What works is the intrigue of the thing. Juneau, a descendant of a long line of vampire servers, comes to the island to take over Mina’s protection, kicking “dog” Akira to the curb, as it were. Naturally, a plot to blow up everything (using a bomb stolen from Mina’s side—what were they going to do with a bomb, anyway?) sneaks in under Juneau’s nose, and Akira has to save the day. It’s done fairly well; Akira’s abilities are vindicated, as Mina suspected they would be, and Juneau gets egg on his face. And we learn a little more about Vampires and their castes and politics.

What doesn’t work is the press conference. Mina basically repeats what she said to the bigwigs last episode. It doesn’t matter that this time she is making her intentions public, we, the audience, have heard it before, in some detail. So all we do is twiddle our thumbs until the anticipated bomb shows up.

One more good and bad. Mina, in spite of her loli appearance, is becoming an interesting character, full of contradictions. She offed that student last time (or ordered her offed), plays blackmail with a superpower’s economy, yet shows respect to the “fangless” caste and is happy that the bund will protect them, and she likes jump rope. The bad thing is that the show’s style, with its quick cuts, odd angles and sudden blackouts, doesn’t necessarily work with the show itself. Unlike other visual, er, “arty” shows like Ef or Bakemonogatari, the style feels forced in and hasn’t yet worked too well with the story’s flow. But that may change.

Hanamaru Kindergarten‘s Tsuchida is a cad, I say! A cad! After all the preparations Anzu and her friends made to set them up on the perfect date, he won’t even kiss her! How dare he play with that innocent lass’s affections!

Actually, the whole thing is pretty funny. The tots come up with another plan to win Tsuchida’s everlasting love. And, coming I suspect from Hiiragi’s knowledge of adults (plenty of books, no experience), it’s pretty elaborate. We get the fancy restaurant with its exotic drink (milk with an umbrella in it, and Tsuchida drinks it all–the cad!), a drive in a car, and a romantic tryst at the park, where the girls have some special effects ready.

Romantic atmosphere.

The mood is perfect, except recess ends before he kisses her, and he doesn’t even mind! The cad! The bounder! Actually, I admired Tsuchida’s tact and gentleness, not to mention his patience, through it all.

The second half has no such fireworks, though it’s happy and sweet. Yamamoto covers Tsuchida’s class for a day, and because he told his kids to help her out, Anzu becomes Yamamoto’s official helper. She does her best, predictably making messes here and there, which Yamamoto cheerfully cleans up. There’s little to say about it, except that Anzu comes to like her rival in love. Not as funny as part one, but likeable enough.

Sora no Woto 4, Vampire Bund 3, Hidamari Sketch 4

Sora no Woto 4 continues with the serial bonding, this time with Noel, the sleepy mechanic. The only problem is we don’t learn much about her except she’s gifted at what she does. But we can make a few guesses.

We peer into Noel's mind as she peers at us.

The squadron is a contradiction. On one level they’re a handful of young women who don’t seem to do much except play at dawn, eat, and try to fix a tank. On another they’re a military outfit who should be ready to do violence should the order come. I can’t imagine any of these girls doing such a thing (apart from Kureha), but the trappings of war are all around to remind them, down to Rio asking Kanata if she’s packed the guns and grenades for a routine trip for supplies. And there are the memories of the war that everyone in this world share.

Judging from her actions this episode Noel suffers the contradiction the most. Always seemingly calm, it seems as though she is actually hiding conflicting emotions about what she is doing. She’s trying to fix a tank, a weapon of war. On the other hand she loves machines, “They won’t turn on you,” she says (Interesting comment). Kanata suggests that it’s the people who make the wars, not the machines, which is true enough, but normally might not be enough justification, but remember, this tank also plays music. Yeah, don’t ask me why, maybe it’s an Apocalypse Now type of thing.

It does, however, lead to an idea for testing aberrant tank optical lenses. Kanata has perfect pitch and so can pick out the lenses with the wrong sound. And it works! That, and a lengthy scene where she and a glass blower talk about all sort of things, big and little, gives Kanata, who had been worrying about her musical skills, a jump start in confidence. At the beginning of the episode we had seen shots of her playing badly mixed with Noel’s testing of failed lenses; at the end, both problems have been solved, a little.

Vampire Bund 3 lightens the mood then brings it down again. After last week’s adventures Akira wakes up beside a sleeping Mina, and he’s only a little surprised. He seems to have accepted this whole thing awfully quickly, except when it comes time to dress.

We continue with a transfer student scene, made refreshing because Mina fully admits that she’s a vampire, and that Akira is her servant. More wacky student hijinks follow. Student council prez Namami and her gang are dead set against vampires in the school. Mina tries bribing her, then challenging her to capture Akira. Later she works on a power play to allow vampires into the country, or something. She uses extortion to do it. And Namami agrees that the class that captures Akira will get special privileges, thus showing that all the powers in this show work at more or less the same moral level.

... Which is no comfort to Akira.

Indeed, we cut from Mina laying down her intentions in a boardroom to the attempted capture of Akira, like Sora no Woto’s matching bad bugling and failed optical lens tests, you have to draw the conclusion that they’re supposed to be somehow the same. However, in this case the scales are tipped in Mina and Akira’s favor, and what happens to Namami at the end of the episode is unfair to her. I thought Mina rather liked her gumption.

And another nice scene or two with Yuki, where she and Akira can openly and honestly talk about things. Well, he can’t tell her everything, but he’s saying as much as he can. I’m hoping that nothing as nasty happens to her. And we have a mystery vampire girl as well. Don’t know what side she’s on, yet.

I think Hidamari Sketch is the show to turn to when I have lost the energy to write. Because nothing much happens. Things happen, but then they pass and something else happens. A great way to kill a half-hour.

Apart from Nori describing her first class with Yoshinoya …

… And a Natsu/Sae interlude, most of the episode is about visiting a home center to buy curtains. Each department gives the girls a chance to have fun with something.

Then they plant tomatoes, and eat. The end. Well, there’s a little more with Nazuma feeling she doesn’t fit in with the others. The girls reassure her. This is nothing new, but it’s the closest this cheerful, fluffy show gets to serious drama.

Two’s: Ladies vs. Butlers, Vampire Bund, Baka to Test

Ladies vs. Butlers 2 doesn’t improve much.

Happily, this is as far as the scene gets, for a change.

Akiharo begins school, meets butler-buddies, including Shingo(?), who is actually as perverted as everyone imagines Akiharo to be, and a little guy who’s job it is to add a few lines here and there. He shows his abilities as the World’s Worst Butler. There’s a scene where the clumsy maid falls and mounts Akiharo, which goes on way too long, then butler/maid training in a pool, because you never know when your master is going to fall off the cruiser, right? It’s here where things become completely senseless. They are told to jump into the pool in full clothing … and just swim around. Then this guy shows up.

He dives into the pool and we never see him again. This non-sequitur made me happy. Happier than speculating what Saikyo might be up to, or seeing Flameheart’s tsundere routine (the dere part is appearing sooner than expected). The only reason for me to watch this show is for it’s surreal moments, and I wish there were more of them and less cheap fanservice and occasional quiet human drama moments. No doubt I will drop this show soon, especially since my schedule will radically change next week and I may not have time to watch as much anymore, but right now I will hold out and hope the next episode has more strange people jumping into pools and vanishing.

With no gimmick to work with we get a chance to see what Dance in the Vampire Bund is really going to be like in ep2. It’s not bad. The story isn’t all that original, but it’s done with style. As for the story, Akira, a schoolboy with amnesia is going through his daily life while rumors swirl around the city about vampires appearing. There’s a nice scene where we meet Yuki, a girl who likes him (and will probably provide the show some victim fodder later on), and see their comfortable relationship in action. In other words, they act as mature kids who genuinely like and respect each other. This in itself is a relief to see this season. Then Mina appears.

Actually she appears twice, first, hiding goofily in the hedge, then outright presenting herself to the astonished Akira. Moments later the attacks begin. A helicopter, assassins, and another vampire. Akira, naturally, is confused, and so am I. He even asks the obvious question: if she’s so important, such a target, why is she out alone, tripping on her own dress? She mumbles something about losing a bet, which is no answer.

The other thing bugging me was why is she all of a sudden so vulnerable? Apart from the fight with the assassins she shows none of the kickass abilities she displayed last episode. If Akira hadn’t awakened to his werewolf/servant sensibilites she’d be caught or dead.

Apart from these quibbles I enjoyed this episode. Akira’s confusion over his strange urges to protect Mina was well done. Yuki, as the vulnerable innocent friend, isn’t boring. The art and animation are good to look at; I particularly liked the photorealistic shots of the school and city. There wasn’t a dull scene. If the story can overcome the cliches this might be quite a good show.

Baka to Test to Shokanju gets a little better this time around, I’m not sure why, but I think it had to do with Yoishi’s table. You see, he accidently superglues his hand to it during the first scene. But once that gag was done, it remained stuck, giving him a sight gag throughout most of the episode. I actually found this quite funny.

Yes, I thought it funny. Sue me.

Not everything worked. There was a bewildering scene where Himeji is talking about he love letter with Yoishi (still with his table), while a devil Yoishi character at the bottom of the screen gives sarcastic replies. It doesn’t help that the conversation made little sense to begin with, or that I was forced to read two sets of subtitles for over a minute. I watched the scene twice and got a small headache from it.

But the battle scenes were amusing, and I was actually a little pleased that Class-F lost, since, grade-wise, they should anyway, and that they’re worse off than before. And while the quick dialogue sometimes left me in the dust I appreciate a show that actually has some energy to it. Good enough to keep for now.

Letter Bee 13, Vampire Bund 1, Baka to Test 1

Letter Bee 13 is another stand-alone episode, alas. Lag is sent with a letter from a guy named Promesa, only he wants the letter back. The would-be recipient, a woman named Pistis, hasn’t heard from her beloved Promesa in five years and is being pressured by this guy who’s name I didn’t get (but he looks like Isaac from Bacanno, so I’ll call him that) to sell her land to him. “Isaac” steals the letter from Lag, Promesa catches up to everything, and the episode makes less and less sense the farther it goes.

First of all, “Isaac” steals the letter only to blackmail Pistis into signing away her land. No way would she do that, anyway; she’s already mad enough at Promesa for not writing for five years. Second, when Promesa shows up, after she tends his sore head she tells him to scram. The letter is no longer of any importance whatsoever. Yet “Isaac” still makes an issue of possessing it. All this means is the show has an excuse for Niche to slice up another person’s clothing (Nothing wrong with that. Niche is one of the reasons I’m still watching). And as for the letter no one wants anymore (except, oddly, for “Isaac), it suddenly becomes very important in turning Pistis back to Promesa and giving us an “aww” moment.

The 'aww' moment.

This episode was not only predictable, it made no sense while being predictable, if THAT makes any sense. With a flood of new shows coming I’m not sure I’m keeping all of the continuing ones. Letter Bee is on the danger list unless it gets back to the main story arc soon.

A clever opening to Dance in the Vampire Bund ep1. Almost all of the show is seen through broadcast TV, first, news clips concerning blood-drinking serial killer, followed by a sometimes amusing daytime TV show where celebrities argue whether vampires exist. All the celebs are stereotypes, and we’re supposed to mock them and their cynicism while we wait for the vampire to show up.

The manga artist celeb has his say.

Along the way characters are introduced, including “Bella-Tooth,” a rep for the vampires, some little blonde loli in the audience, until we finally get our vampire.

No, really, that's a vampire.

What makes the next bit effective is that it’s still “TV” we’re watching, the POV of cameras knocked over, technical difficulties signs, action made hazy by smoke and damaged lenses. Until the cameras get to the rooftop, where we see the vampire killed by other vampires and the loli’s declaration that the vampires are going to take some turf.

A clever way to start a series, but they can’t repeat it. What lies beneath the trickery looks to be a run-of-the-mill vampire show. But I appreciate a series that likes to throw stylistic curveballs at me, so I’ll keep watching for now.

Baka to Test to Shokanju teeters over my drop list after the first episode, but I sort of got a kick out of the battle scene. Let’s see, an innovative school where you are put into specific classes depending on your grades … er, what’s innovative about that? Never mind the Class-A gets all the fancy rooms and equipment and Class-F, where, of course, our heroes all wind up, gets a shoddy room where all the furniture is prone to breakage.

Yoshi's soliloquy.

There’s talk of class wars, and the school takes them seriously, and Class-F, led by Yuuji, challenges Class-E to battle. This is where the show goes from just stupid to sort of funny. The school is very high-tech and the battles are run through a video game simulation, where the characters stand there defiantly while the cute little avatars beat the shit out of each other.

Don’t ask me about the characters; there were too many of them and there’s little that makes them stand apart at the moment. The humor sometimes works. The battle was sort of exciting. Just enough that I’ll watch at least one more episode.