The Vexations of a Shut-in Vampire Princess Blu-Ray Collection Review
Terakomari Gandesblood is a vampire, one of the daughters of the prestigious Gandesblood line, a family known for having powerful magic and commanding a ruffian army that wages war against the rival nations. However, Romari is a shut-in, who hates drinking blood and has no magical ability of her own. Too bad she’s been promoted to be Commander of the Mulnite Imperial Army, and must engage in regular battles with her rivals. If she doesn’t, she’ll be demoted, explode and die. So Villhaze, a new maid who’s infatuated with her, has been hired to get Terakomari out of the house and onto the battlefield. What could possibly go wrong?
The Vexations of a Shut-in Vampire Princess is based upon a light novel series of the same name (the first volume has been reviewed by the lovely Demelza on this site). The series, licensed by Yen Press, is still ongoing at eleven volumes, but the anime seems to cover the first three volumes. So if you like the anime, there’s plenty of material to read to continue the story after the anime ends.
The anime is twelve episodes of comedy action, with a yuri reverse-harem thrown into the mix as well, so the series has a lot going for it. This series is set in a magical world where not only is magic common, but there are also Dark Cores in the various Nations, that heal wounds and bring people back from the dead. Because when the Nations go to war, sending their armies to die, it’s always temporary. The wars are just means for the various Crimson Lords (the heads of the households in nations that battle) to gain notoriety and pride, as losing too many times gets them exploded and demoted. This is good groundwork for comedy, as dying here is akin to getting shot in paintball or airsoft – you’re out for the rest of the battle, but you’ll be back for the next one. It also makes the worldbuilding interesting, leading to the rise of a terrorist group, Inverse Moon, whose members believe that people should be allowed to die permanently, and want to destroy the Dark Cores, as well as wield weapons that can permanently kill others.
However, while the worldbuilding is fun on paper, in execution it leaves a lot to be desired as enemies across the series (inside and outside Inverse Moon) threaten to ‘kill’ each other constantly, with the same venom as they would in any other series, regardless if they come back. It’s only a temporary thing in context, which means that the threat doesn’t carry much weight, but also in some characters’ back stories, there are characters (like family members) who ARE dead, and even when Inverse Moon use the supposed weapons that are meant to actually kill, the people they stab seem to recover afterwards anyways. This makes the lore a bit confusing and also lacking any substance. The same goes for the magic powers overall; there’s no set system as to which levels exist and who/what can use them. Magic seems to be exclusive to royal and/or upper-class members of society, but it’s never really commented or touched upon. Plus there is something called ‘Core Implosion’ which is someone’s secret unique power, that is often only introduced for each character when the plot needs it.
The same goes for the characters. There’s a wide cast from the various members of Terakomari’s household, her army, the other Nation’s households and army members, the terrorist group, and so on. The overabundance of cast and an ever-moving plot unfortunately leaves a lot of the characters flat and underdeveloped. They’re often only memorable if they have an annoying tick to make them stand out (like the one army member who only speaks in rap) or because they’re one of the main ladies with an attempt at a character arc and stylish dress designs.
As mentioned, this is a yuri reverse-harem series, and whilst the harem takes a while to build, the yuri is clear from the off, but not always for good reasons. This series likes to make use of the ‘predatory lesbian’ trope, with the maid showing that she’s into the heroine via such means as randomly getting naked in Terakomari’s bed, or forcibly touching her. Terakomari calls the maid ‘pervy’, making it clear she finds Villhaze advances uncomfortable. That doesn’t stop Villhaze from doing it over and over again, and despite the attempts to give Villhaze a sympathetic backstory, it didn’t make me like the forced coupling any more. The other female characters are not as intense but often battle Villhaze for Terakomari’s attention, and each has their moments of unconsenting touching and/or drinking of blood, that leads to building a foundation for their attraction to her. By the end of the series, as someone who is a yuri fan, I didn’t get much out of any of the romantic tension. This is because even though the ladies have more screen time than the rest of the cast, they’re still mostly stereotypes and flat characters.
The animation is mostly enjoyable; the studio, Project No.9 clearly tried to save budget wherever they could to make the magic attacks and war battles look as visually impressive as possible. Most of the cost-cutting scenes are easy to miss, such as the talk-heavy scenes being stills, or having action occurring off-screen. There’s one really awkward moment towards the finale, when one of the ladies tries to sneak a kiss on Terakomari, and the movement is very stilted, but it’s fine overall.
The Blu-ray set comes with English and Japanese dub, with English subtitles for the Japanese dub, or separate options for the hard of hearing. The English dub has a lot of veteran actors from Brittney Karbowski to Greg Ayres giving it their all, making the best use of their scripts. The on-disc extras only contain disc credits and clean opening and closing.
Despite its attempts at humour, big battles and action, I found The Vexations of a Shut-in Vampire Princess to be mostly dull and uninspired, with uncomfortable and unsexy yuri dynamics. If the premise of a vegetarian vampire in a magical kingdom sparks your interest, it might be worth a look, but keep expectations low for this series.
Our review copy was supplied by MVM.
