Beneath the Catacombs of Paris lies a confrontation with
the past for Vanitas. As he and Noe face
off against the Anti Vampire hunters of the Church, Le Chasseurs, they come to
the doorstep of the man who tortured a young Vanitas and possibly even
worse. But this deranged Doctor Moreau
isnt the only problem Vanitas and Noe have to contend with. The agents of Charlatan continue to stalk their
every move and soon Noe finds himself locked into a proposition he might be
unable to refuse…one that could destroy his growing partnership with Vanitas
forever.
Ah, I love it when it seems like a show is actively
trying to address concerns I have with it when I point them out.
Of course, that’s not to say I haven’t been
enjoying The Case Study of Vanitas.
I
just feel like its been holding back on a few things, and I’m not just talking
about the developing mystery behind Charlatan and the Curse Bearers.
This mid series set of episodes proves to be
the most entertaining batch yet by introducing new pieces to the puzzle of
Vanitas and setting up some big conflicts to come in the second half of the
series.
It’s not perfect but I’ll take
improvements where I can find them.
Let’s jump into things shall we.
We kicked things off by wrapping up the three part story
that introduced the Chasseurs.
Sadly,
they aren’t much better than last weeks introduction.
Mostly this goes for Roland, who is so full
of himself it’s annoying as heck.
He’s
got a face you just want to punch and I like how his superior, Olivier, summed
up his character, “He has more faith in himself as Gods servant than God
himself.”
That kind of personification
would definitely make a guy like Roland feel invincible…God I hope he gets his
wrecked at some point (bonus points if it’s from Olivier or Vanitas).
Succeeding far better was Noe, who finally
started living up to his true potential than just standing around with that
wide eyed gaze…I mean he still does but during this conflict he did a lot
more.
We got to see Noe acting a lot
like the wild card tourist we see in the shows OP, being more of a ball of
energy than Vanitas.
One of his two
biggest stand out moments saw Noe getting fed up with Moreau’s bragging about
experimenting on Vampires and then flipping him onto a table.
But the best Noe moment yet?
When Vanitas pushes him too far and Noe
decides to use him as a hostage against Roland, who has a way too creepy
obsession with Vanitas.
Seeing the
tables turn so suddenly gave me the biggest laugh of the show so far.
Ah yes, Moreau.
At
last we dig a little bit into Vanitas’ history, something our theatrical friend
wants to remain secret to the point where he warns Noe he’ll kill him if he
drinks his blood and looks into his memories. I like how the more Moreau went
into detail about his experiments on Vampires, the more you were waiting for
someone to lay the smack down on him (that aforementioned Noe moment I spoke
of).
We’re still not sure what exactly
he did to Vanitas but it’s still something that stings the Doctor…oh and
Vanitas has a brother who was taken with him by the OG Vanitas…or it was
another Vampire of the Blue Moon (good point is there more to the Blue Moon
Clan than OG Vanitas?).
I’m so used to
seeing Noe being the one incapacitated by something random and Vanitas taking
charge that seeing the roles reversed was a refreshing change.
This time, Noe pulled Vanitas into danger to
save a Curse Bearer inside a crazily designed shadow monster.
It was nice to shake up the established
status quo a bit in this mini arc and since Moreau escaped and is confirmed to
be working with agents of Charlatan, we’ll definitely be seeing him in the
shows back half.
But Moreau’s not the bigger threat I think we need to be
worried about.
Ruthven showed his
ominous true colors by leading Noe into a trap and cursing him with a pact:
he’s to carry out an order from Ruthven at an appointed time, no matter what it
is.
Considering that Noe’s narraration
spoke of him killing Vanitas…yeah I think we now know why that might come to
pass.
Personally I hope that’s not the
case cause I don’t want Vanitas to die.
But Ruthven being the manipulator behind it makes sense, so does him
working with Charlatan. The dude just screams evil from his character design
alone, it’s hardly surprising.
Sadly
given how he speaks with his Charlatan contact, Ruthven isnt the big bad
himself (my money is still on Noe’s teacher for that).
How this secret curse affects Noe in the
future will be something to watch out for.
One last thing I’ll cover before wrapping this up is
Jeanne.
I like her, I do but I feel like
her character has kind of been suffering since her first appearance.
When we were first introduced, she was a cold
bad ass bodyguard with a kick ass glove who was no one to be trifled with.
But since then, she’s hardly done any
fighting.
Instead she’s been relegated
to Vanitas’ love sick would be girlfriend that Vanitas loves to woo and
tease.
Don’t get me wrong, seeing an
embarrassed Jeane is cute and I like her and Vanitas as a couple.
But Jeanne being relegated to mostly comic
relief feels like an insult to a lady poised as one of the shows two biggest
femme fatales.
Oh and Domi spying on
Vanitas and Jeanne’s date?
Come on,
she’s been out of the picture for so long and this is how you use her?
Spying on a rom com with one of the lamest
characters in the show (Vanitas’ Damphir contact Dante).
Please let us have more Jeanne being a
seductive lady boss in the back half too (there’s a lot I want to happen in the
second half with these characters it seems).
Complaints about bad characters and others being
painfully underutilized aside, The Case Study of Vanitas closed out its first
half rather strong and I am all set to continue the journey with Vanitas and
Noe.
And it looks like their next big
adventure will see them taking on a giant red wolf in the French
Countryside.
Hopefully that promises a
bigger fight than we’ve seen so far (I love the banter between our leads but we
could use more than a couple minutes of action in an episode).
See you Next Monday as we begin the second
half of The Case Study of Vanitas right here at the Gundam Anime Corner.
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