Well
then – Rosario+Vampire, by all accounts a throwaway piece of moé
frivolity, managed to be a it of a smash hit and justify a second season, ‘Capu2’
– a bit of a pun, the Japanese pronunciation of ‘two’ sounding like ‘chuu’, the
onomatopoeia for a kiss.
As
I said in my Macademi Wasshoi! review, this second season of a
fanservice-based series somewhat crippled itself with censorship on the TV
broadcast, here the stupid bat mascot censoring the panty shots – and sad to
say, this follow-up series took the usual tendency for a moé show to become
much more perverted for its follow-up (looking at you, Dog Days Dash) and
went to the absolute extreme. There are panty shots every few seconds. The
episode preview is girls’ backsides shaking away until finally their panties
are revealed, different every episode. The girls’ skirts are so short they
reveal panties when they are simply standing, which actually becomes a plot
point. And of course, the girls have decided that they will grope each others’
boobs at every opportunity.
But
if any show couldn’t really get worse because of added crass fanservice, it’s Rosario+Vampire.
It was about pervy fanservice from the beginning, and pushing it way past High School Girls level doesn’t detract much from an already stupid harem
comedy. And what strengths the series has, it still has – a girl for every
taste, some of Gonzo’s nicer and more consistent artwork, and a compulsively
watchable quality derived from the light, simple tone and likeable stereotypes.
The
set-up is much the same – Tsukune-kun the human attends a school for monsters,
and has a disproportionate number of the female students lusting after him.
Added to the mix is Moka’s little sister, a tsundere who only wants to see
Moka’s dark side – and fleshes out the bat mascot into an actual character. She
acts forceful and bratty enough that when she gets humiliated it’s both cute
and satisfying (though spanking was a bit far). We also see the main girls’
parents, who are like exaggerated versions of them, and we get an answer to the
first series’ mystery of whether the two Mokas are aspects of the same person
or ought to be considered two distinct individuals – in fact, that becomes the
centre of the dramatic part of the series…as in, the parts that aren’t about
the Loli magically becoming an adult with big boobies, or the gang going to a
bathhouse – which in the DVDs meant unappealing nipples everywhere. Even the
loli looked absurd with small, stiff anime boobs.
Given
that it was stupid, meant to be stupid, and happy being stupid, I didn’t mind Capu2
at all. It was dumb, unambitious fun, and while I’d never buy any merchandise
based on it, it was a fun light distraction. The one problem I had was how they
dealt with the typical irritating part of any harem series – the fact that the
male protagonist sees the girls fighting over him, professing their love,
indirectly imploring him to choose, make a decision, get them past their
indecision – but he just says nothing. Laughs awkwardly and changes the
subject, or gets interrupted. And the last episode has the true Moka making
clear she fully understands what is going on – she beats Tsukune up for just
wanting to string all the girls along and have them all, which is after all the
fantasy. It’s not a fantasy I like – I’m all for the romance of one love.
Tsukune clearly likes Moka the best – and he should make that clear, no matter
what the audience likes. That said, that didn’t exactly work out so well for Midorino Hibi or Da Capo, so maybe I’m in the minority. And when each very
different girl has rabid fans, it’s gonna be tricky to please everyone.
There
probably won’t be any more Rosario+Vampire, and that suits me fine. But
if there is, I’d watch it. It’s one of those shows – pleasant enough to watch
without having to think at all…but not good enough that I’m sad it’s over.
No comments:
Post a Comment