Vampire in the Garden Review: Unfortunately Short.

I still remember searching for upcoming anime a few months ago and being interested by the description for Vampire in the Garden.
Developed by Wit Studio, released on Netflix and directed by Ryōtarō Makihara, the story is set in a winter wasteland where vampires and humans have been at war for an unknown period of time.
Some of the remaining remnants of humanity have fled to a city, protected by a tower that generates UV Light to ward off the vampires.
Living inside this city is a young girl named Momo (Megumi Han), the daughter of one of the city’s generals.
She is tired of the fighting and wants to learn music, something which was outlawed because of its connection to the vampires.
Then, during an attack on the city, Momo has a chance encounter with the Vampire Queen Fine (Yu Kobayashi), someone who is also tired of the fighting and treasures music.
Together, the two decide to try and find a supposed paradise where humans and vampires live in harmony and make music together.

Momo and Fine’s chance encounter begins their journey.

This premise intrigued me when I first read it and I decided to give the anime a shot, thinking that it would probably have a similar episode count to Vivy: Fluorite Eye’s Song, another anime that Wit Studio produced which I loved.
So, I was quite surprised when I saw that there were only five episodes released by Netflix.
At first, I thought it must be some kind of error and that Netflix would release the other episodes once they realized the mistake.
But, no, Vampire in the Garden really is only five episodes long and this is its biggest fault.
Now, I still really enjoyed my time with this anime but I feel like it had the potential for so much more, if only it had been given more episodes.

I wish Wit Studio had given *Vampire in the Garden* the ten to thirteen episode treatment.

There are just too many characters and ideas here for the vision of this anime to be fully realized in such a short amount of time.
That said, I do think that Vampire in the Garden did the best it could have done with only five episodes, which is a testament to the writing quality.
For one thing, I liked all of the characters in this anime.
Momo and Fine’s growing bond is interesting throughout, I quite enjoyed the resolution to Momo’s relationship with her mother (Rika Fukami), and the vague way that the anime filled in the backstory of Kubo (Hiroki Toshi), giving us just enough information to put the pieces together, felt like the writers were respecting the audience.
Another feature of the anime I have to give props to is the world building.
Momo and Fine visit various different kinds of communities, all of which have different ways that humans and vampires interact with each other, which are interesting to compare.

The exploration of the different dynamics between humans and vampires in various dystopian cities was excellent world building.

The animation and music are also quite good, something to be expected of an anime made by Wit Studio.
I will also admit that, despite me being critical of there only being five episodes, this short run time does mean you can finish Vampire in the Garden rather quickly, as if it were a movie rather than a show, so that is an advantage it has.
As for other criticisms, there are a few moments in the anime that broke my suspension of disbelief temporarily by being too convenient or having a character survive something that should have been impossible to.

It’s strange moments like this one that temporarily broke my immersion.

Also, I did find the story to be a bit predictable at times, especially with one character’s ending, although it being predictable did not make it bad.
These are just minor criticisms.
The only major one I have is, again, the episode count.
The anime had the potential to be fantastic but the short runtime limits it.
I’m actually hoping we get a manga adaptation at some point because that could extend the story, thus expanding upon the characters, world and themes, allowing Vampire in the Garden to reach its potential.
As it stands, though, I would still recommend the show.
It’s a short watch and delivers some pretty interesting character work and world building.

Penguin Highway Review: Well, This is a Weird One.

Imagine your walking in a suburban area to school, not a care in the world, except for having to go to school of course, when, suddenly, you think you see something in a field.
It’s black and white and looks like some kind of bird, but not one you have seen in the area.
So, you walk a little closer until you see, much to your surprise that it is a penguin.
Surely, it must be a toy, right?
But, no, it’s moving around and chirping happily along.
Before you can gather your wits, there is movement from the bush and out comes another penguin, then two, then three, then five, then ten, then twenty.
Your town has a penguin invasion and no one has the slightly idea what is going on.
This is the situation Aoyama (no, not the character from My Hero Academia) finds himself in, in the profoundly weird anime film Penguin Highway, directed by Hiroyasu Ishida, and based on the book by Tomihiko Morimi.

Not only that, but Ayoama (Kana Kita) learns that the penguins also have a connection with the dentist lady (Yu Aoi) who he has a crush on.
Could things get any weirder?
Well, yes, they certainly can because it seems like Penguin Highway is constantly trying to up the weirdness every minute the film passes.
The benefit of this weirdness is that it does keep the viewer intrigued for the majority of the film, as they want to know exactly what is causing these penguins to show up, and how they are connected to the dentist lady.
Another thing that keeps the film going is the humor, which is top notch.
Aoyama may basically be a genius, but he seems to have not the slightest idea about the concept of puberty, leading to many hilarious discussions, both with the dentist lady and his friend Hamamoto (Megumi Han) who has a crush on him, not that Aoyama notices.
These humorous interactions between the characters make most of them interesting.

characters of penguin highway — The characters are interesting throughout, especially the dentist lady who the mystery centers around.

Even the bully character Suzuki (Miki Fuki) has an arc, although a fairly predictable one.
Sadly, despite the humor, the intrigue takes center stage, which is not exactly a good thing because the film leaves a lot of questions that it does not exactly answer effectively.
It gives some answers but if you’re looking for a completely satisfying explanation then you probably won’t get it.
Still, this does not kill the story because the humor and characters do keep it going, along with the animation, which is great throughout.
Overall, Penguin Highway is a fun film to watch.
It may not have a completely satisfying explanation for what is happening but it is worth watching for its general weirdness.

Little Witch Academia Review: Endearing and Hilarious.

Joining Anime Club at my University this year, I expected to see a lot of interesting anime.
Barakamon was one of these anime and, as you could see from my review, I enjoyed it a lot.
But my favourite series we watched in Anime Club, by far, is Little Witch Academia, made by Studio Trigger.
Directed by Yoh Yoshinari, the anime follows Atsuko “Akko” Kagari (Megumi Han) who, hoping to follow in the footsteps of her idol, the witch Shiny Chariot, goes to the witch school she went to, Luna Nova.
There is just one problem: Akko is a terrible witch, being completely incapable of flying on a broom.

Akko fails.png — Akko’s constant failures work great as slapstick humor and makes you route for her even more.

However, after finding Chariot’s Shiny Rod, Akko resolves to find the idol who inspired her, embarking on a series of increasingly hilarious adventures with her friends Lotte (Fumiko Orikasa) and Sucy (Michiyo Murase).
Little Witch Academia succeeds in being extremely funny, leaving most of the club roaring with laughter.
This was mainly because of the absolute klutz that is Akko.
Despite her incompetence, I found Akko to be one of the most relatable underdog protagonists I have seen in a while.
Every time she gets knocked down she gets back up, more determined than ever.
Along with this, Akko shines through the friendships she builds with the other characters.
It was great to see other people slowly warm up to her, resulting in positive impacts in the lives of characters like Diana (Yoko Hikasa) and Andrew (Ryosuke Kanemoto).

Akko and Diana.png — Watching Akko and Diana’s rivalry (although Diana refuses to call it that) evolve into a strong friendship was natural and well done.

Another aspect of the anime that keeps the humor fresh is the constant references to other material, with hilarious homages to Star Wars, Pawn Stars and even freaking Twilight.
Then there is the way that Little Witch Academia brings it themes across to the audience.
Looking deeper into the writer’s thought process, it is apparent they were trying to create an anime with messages about whether you should follow in the footsteps of your idol, and being your own person.
These themes are brilliantly presented in fantastic episodes such as “Night Fall”, “Intellect and Sensibility”, and the final two episodes, “The Road to Arcturus” and “Changing at the Edge of the World.”
The anime’s animation and music are also quite well done, with the first op, “Shiny Ray” by YURiKA, being a song you will be glad to get stuck in your head.

Shiny Ray.jpg — I swear, you will find yourself humming the opening song constantly, after hearing it.

If I had to pick out any flaws it would be that there is a twist in there that is blatantly obvious.
Other than this though, I whole heatedly enjoyed Little Witch Academia.
It has a relatable, underdog protagonist, moving themes, and will have you holding your sides with laughter.