Vampire in the Garden

Vampire in the Garden (2022) is a series that my daughter and I recently watched together on Netflix. The storyline follows an ongoing battle between humans and vampires for resources and land. As the vampires appear ready to emerge and take over a relationship is born between a human girl and a princess within the vampires that may change the course of history...

This series is from Hiroyuki Tanaka (Attack on Titan) and contains the voices of Kellen Goff (My Hero Academia), Xanthe Huynh (Saints Row), Larissa Gallagher (Harley Quinn) and Yû Kobayashi (Attack on Titan).

The animation and depiction of the universe this takes place in is excellent. The backdrops and. Cinematography to scale are great. The action scenes are also good, there's great kills, gore and blood splatter. Unfortunately, the storyline is straightforward and a bit cliche. The ending is sad and well done but predictable.

Overall, this is a worthwhile watch and well done but won't standout in the genre. I would score this a 6.5/10 and recommend seeing it once.

For only 5 episodes,

This was way more impactful than it had the right to be.

I'll make it easy for you, the show is worth watching. The best thing you can do to see if it's for you or not is watching the first episode, which is one of the best first episodes I have seen in a long time.

It does get a little weaker around episode 3 and specially 4, but it picks itself back up for the final episode so I wasn't too bothered by it.

Bottom of the line is, if you want to go in completely blind, do it. It's worth you're time.

If you're still unsure, keep reading:

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the story is about a world were vampires and humans are at war while both sides are kind of both at fault and victims at the same time. Vampires think humans are the assholes who started it all, and vice versa.

We follow two leads, a human, daughter of a pretty of a big shot in the military, who ran away from home, and a vampire royalty who is dealing with her past. And most of the show is the journey of this unlikely duet living, surviving and running away together while being chased down by both humans and vampires.

They're relationship is the main selling point of the show. You just can't help rooting for both of them.

In fact all the characters are likable. No actually scrap that most of them are, and even the ones that have little to know screen time have enough depth to not be 1 dimensional. I even go as far as saying for a show that is only 5 episodes long the character writing is kind of impressive.

But that isn't even close to being the most impressive thing about the show. The star here is easily the execution. I talking about the directing, pacing and music. They work flawlessly in a final product that I can only describe as cinematic. So much so that I thought the first episode was the most cinematic and masterfully directed episode of Anime I have seen since the made in abyss movie.

Which says a lot considering how made in abyss is visually stunning, and what I'm talking about is a god damn movie.

And it's not just the visuals and direction, the music and it's placement is simply perfect. If i didn't know any better I would have guessed the music was done by the man himself Kevin Penkin. The style is very similar to his work, and that's a good thing, great even.

All these elements mixed together had the result of dozens of goosebumps and me crying 2 different times during this 5 episodes. It's not too hard to make me cry, but again for 5 episodes, that's still impressive.

Here's the thing, it's a simple story that is far from being the most original, and there isn't really anything ground breaking in that said story.

I'm not going to pretend like it's a must watch masterpiece.

It isn't...

But it doesn't have to be.

There are shows that aren't really flawed in any way, but they won't reach for the skies either. Those shows almost always end up being some of the most enjoyable and wildly loved stories out there.

I wouldn't say the show is good enough for you to go out of your way to watch it if it doesn't seem to be your cup of tea, but if you have any amount of interest, watch it.

Thanks for reading.

This story is excellent. It's not a *new* story by any means. Two people from warring cultures/classes/species/etc running away from the destiny that has been laid out for them. But it's told very competently and got me genuinely invested.

Animation and design wise it's beyond beautiful. Everything is so fluid. The characters have large areas of minimal detail on their bodies so when the detail DOES show up it pops out in perfect contrast. I want to point some special attention to the blood and water as well. It's gorgeous.

The show plays more like a two and a half hour movie than an actual SHOW. It's only five episodes long and I think it could have benefitted from one or two more. The pacing felt a little bit quick in places and I would have loved to see more time spent getting to know Fine and Momo before the inevitable plot hits the fan. I would also say the show is a bit too heavy handed in its metaphors and foreshadowing in one or two places. These flaws only knock one star off because, even when it was very obvious something bad was going to happen I was still interested in exactly how it played out. So it didn't necessarily take me out of the story.

Every other criticism I have is kind of a nitpick though the biggest nit I have to pick is I really wanted more worldbuilding. And I suppose wanting more is better than having everything overexplained and being disappointed by it. If you like vampires or stories about people on the run, or just REALLY pretty animation, give this a watch. You wont be disappointed.

+ Gorgeous animation and design.

+ Fascinating world which will make you want to learn about it more.

+ Interesting characters who will make you want to know them better.

+ Classical vampires.

+ Zero fan service. Very few anime tropes. It almost feels like a Studio Ghibli movie.

• At only five episodes, it is just way too short. It is more like a movie broken up into 5 episodes. All other problems are due to this.

• Lots of unanswered questions about the lore.

• We barely scratch the surface of said fascinating world.

• Not nearly enough time given to characters to understand them.

• The conclusion of the story feels abrupt and pointless.

This Netflix Original is more like a 2 hour movie than a series. I binged it and it's amazing. Vampire in the Garden has the same Romeo and Juliet type plot (a bit similar to Bubble which came out 2 weeks ago on Netflix), but this time it's done RIGHT. Instead of a romance, it has a beautiful friendship between it's main characters. Yes, it's unoriginal and predictable, but it's executed brilliantly and provides a sad yet satisfying experience.

The 2 main characters were great and their endurance and friendship throughout the series earned my respect. It is definitely sad with a grim, divided world full of war, but it's never dull or boring. Like many great animes, it does a great job at showing some dramatic and painful imagery. I loved the action and the animation. I found the backstories of all characters intriguing (in fact I'd like to see a prequel). And while it's predictable, it still manages to produce some tear-jerking scenes.

Overall this was really really really great and one of the best shows I've seen in a while. It's unoriginal, yes but it has it's own characters, visual style, and I enjoyed the experience.