Opening Songs
OP 1 - X.U (SawanoHiroyuki[nZk]: Gemie)
Ending Songs
ED 1 - scaPEGoat (SawanoHiroyuki[nZk]: Yosh)
Genre: Action, Drama, Supernatural
Episodes: 12
Here we are with one of the contenders for the most popular animes in the year. Sporting an amazing visual style, fancy character designs, a unique story and great character development, "Seraph Of The End: Vampire Reign" is a solid first offering that the franchise has to show for it. And this isn't even counting season 2, which is airing at the moment. Considering the quality of many similar anime in terms of quality alone, "Seraph Of The End: Vampire Reign" is a little bit of a godsend to those seeking their daily dose of Action/High School shows that can ignite the spark for their inner shounen soul. I say shounen, but "Seraph Of The End" is slightly more hardcore than your average "Ao No Exorcist" or "Tokyo Ravens". Just for the premise of a vampire invasion alone, I'd recommend "Seraph Of The End: Vampire Reign" for the amusing and interesting setting that it brings.
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| Shinoa is a lot more of an amusing character, and she's cute too. |
"Seraph Of The End: Vampire Reign"'s opening and ending themes are done by SawanoHiroyuki[nZk] (which is still a weird name), the same group behind the "Aldnoah Zero" themes. For "Seraph Of The End", the opening theme, which is "X.U", is pretty good, as it fits with the whole tragic backstory that the main character has. However, it lacks a punch to it which makes almost every action anime opening theme work, which is somewhat of a shame. The ending theme, "scaPEGoat" is actually quite rock heavy and probably works at least as well as the opening theme, or maybe even better.
Rating: 8.0/10
I do love me some demon slaying high school students! Instead of demons, I guess its vampires here, but you get what I mean. "Seraph Of The End" builds up a great opening episodes and eventually delves into the wonders of its ruined world. The ideas and premise behind "Seraph Of The End"'s setting just drives me to admire it more so than I should, despite it being a LITTLE bit too..."gay"-ish for my tastes. It quickly grew onto me, the simplistic story that opens up to being something more complicated that it seems, the likable characters that just continue to grow, as well as the whole idea of a vampiric domination. Oh, and the action, its pretty damn solid too. The animation quality is top notch for the most part, and the visual style is honestly impressive. There's little to NOT like here, other than the fact that on a 12 episode schedules, some of the parts do seem a little bit rushed. The show keeps a consistent pace through and shows content that is relevant, though the flash backs can get rather draggy (this show is quite flash back heavy sometimes). Otherwise, its a great experience that keeps you peeled to the screen.
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| Ah, nothing like spilling the blood of children early in the morning! |
Yuichiro is an orphan that has led a tough life, just like any other one of his kind. He was accepted into the Hyakuya orphanage at a young age, and during his time there, he met and befriended all the other orphaned kids who shared his fate. He was close to all of them to the point of being family, and was especially close to another boy of his age, Mikael. Yu, Mika and the other kids were inseparable, they lived closely knit lives until the calamity hit. Those above the age of 14 were killed off, and the kids who stayed alive were taken in by the calamity's cause, the vampires. For more than a year Yu, Mika and the other kids lived under their rule, as they constantly offered blood to their vampire overlords in exchange for food or supplements. They had enough of it, and Mika cooked up an escape plan. They tried to go through with it, they were this close to escaping, but they were stopped by a vampire noble, Freed, and they were all killed while attempting to escape. All, except Yu, who managed to make it out of the Vampire's holdings despite watching his family members die one by one. Being the sole survivor of his family, he was left alone once again, he was then picked up the by federation, a faction made to combat the vampires threatening Japan. He swore to avenge his family and to kill off the vampires, fast forward 4 years later, he is now a member of the military, with skills sufficient enough to fight against the average blood sucker.
"Seraph Of The End" works for most people. Its rather good story telling and compelling characters make the entire viewing experience a pleasurable one. A second season is airing right now, and I can't wait for it to end so that I watch it as well. The fate of the Hyakuya brothers is just too compelling interesting to give up.
