krofire

Studio Gokumi/ AxsiZ’s 2018 vampire comedy is based on such a simple idea it really just writes itself. On a delightful twist to the whole “Twilight” style teen-vampire angst-thing this show has a human girl moving in with a vampire girl. Teen-vamp Sophie Twilight became a vampire in her mid-teens and has not aged in 360 years. She now lives alone. The rumoured whereabouts of strange flying girls brought her location to the attention of Akari Amano who wanders around in the woods at night hoping to see something. The two meet and despite Sophie’s obvious reluctance Akari shoe-horns herself into Sophie’s life eventually moving in with her. The two are joined on their adventures by another vampire girls (Ellie) plus a number of Akari’s school mates including best friend Hinata. The human girls are curious about the vampires rather than fearful because the vampires (amusingly) order their blood supplies off Amazon (“Amason”) and will not attack humans. Bonds of friendship begin to form but, other than plucking occasional moments of humour from a bunch of well-worn vampire cliches, the story has little originality. It is culled from the works of manga artist Amatou who is better known for drawing adult material. The show is heavy on the shoujo-ai/GL side of things and exists in a world where men and boys don’t really exist. Akari’s love for Sophie is not exactly reciprocated but the vampire is fond of the human girl although she is not used to living with somebody. The closest, well-known, show that this could be compared to is “Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid”. However, unlike Kyoto Animation’s finest, “Ms. Vampire” has few stand-out moments and falls pretty flat. It is hum-drum with nothing of much significance in terms of story development or back-story. If anything, this is a little claustrophobic as it is solely focussed on the girls and the tiny little fantasy world they live in. There is no break-out drama or coming-of-age development to frame the story within. It ends up being wholly forgettable.