I decided to watch the whole of Ms. Vampire Who Lives In My Neighborhood in the space of a single day. Perhaps not an ideal way of doing a review post but it’s too late. Was it worth it though? Did I enjoy the show as much as I hoped? Did it live up to any expectations? Hard to say, as I didn’t really have any expectations coming into this show. I had heard about it when it aired in the Fall 2018 season, but since I was busy with other shows, I didn’t really give it much of a look. True enough, I do enjoy slice-of-life comedies, but I have grown to be a little more picky as the years go by.
It seems watching Ms. Vampire Who Lives In My Neighborhood ended up leaving me more of that pickiness and that now I have…more expectations in a slice-of-life show. Maybe watching it all in a single day might have had something to do with that…
Even with the addition of vampires, this isn’t that much of an original story. Adapted from the manga, the show puts two girls in the center. One is Akari Amano, a pretty ditsy schoolgirl who is…your average ditsy schoolgirl who has an unhealthy obsession with dolls, while the other is Sophie Twilight, a 360-year-old vampire who does not age. After meeting, Akari comes in with all sorts of expectations of what vampires are: the kind you see in Dracula or Buffy the Vampire Slayer or other vampire stories (I’m purposely not mentioning the Twilight series because…well…it’s Twilight…). Turns out that Sophie is extremely timid, is a huge otaku and can’t bear to drink human blood, so she keeps the blood that she needs (and orders online) refrigerated. Akari becomes attached to her immediately, and ends up getting absorbed in the lifestyle that Sophie lives in.
If I may say, Ms. Vampire Who Lives In My Neighborhood does not start particularly well. Sure enough, we are given an introduction on the two main characters, but from the start, neither of them are characters that we can become especially attached to, like one would in some other slice-of-life shows and the plot has nothing to do with it. Akari comes across as a rather selfish girl who just wants to hang around (and eventually move into) Sophie’s house because of her weird interest in dolls, while Sophie is a bit monotonous and unexciting…like she doesn’t even want to be in this show, let alone allow Akari to stay in her house.
So, after watching episode 1, I was hoping that episode 2 and beyond would see both Akari and Sophie be better characters, but…not really. New people are introduced, and even though I eventually found myself liking vampire character #2, Ellie, more than all of them, the show still felt rather dull to watch, like I was waiting desperately for some great thing to change (plot twist, or funny joke, or something like that), but nothing came. Just the same jokes again and again:
- “Oh wow, you’re a vampire!”
- “Yes, I’m a vampire…”
- “Oh no, you go out hunting for human blood at night!”
- “No I don’t. I order it online, keep it refrigerated, and drink it out of fine china…”
- “Oh wow, that’s amazing…and you look so much like a doll while drinking it! Can I marry you?!”
- “Uhh…thanks? And no, you can’t marry me…”
Okay, so maybe I am just getting rather jaded; I’ve watched so many slice-of-life shows in the 20+ years I’ve followed anime…too many to count. Ms. Vampire Who Lives In My Neighborhood won’t be the show to make me flip to exclusively watching…I don’t know…mecha, or yuri, or isekai shows but saying that, it is the kind of show that has made me question what drives me to watch slice-of-life shows that have the same jokes over and over again in every episode. Is waiting for something in the show to change a futile effort?
Eh, alright, maybe I’m just overthinking this; I mean, the show’s not as bad as I’m making it out to be. These characters (both vampire and human) may be a little dull and sometimes a little annoying, but they are still rather cute. To me, it actually feels like when Ellie came in, the show became just a little more bearable to watch. The casual yuri we see here is totally harmless. Perhaps you could call Ms. Vampire Who Lives In My Neighborhood that show to watch whilst you’re watching something far more…epic and grandiose.
Neither Studio Gokumi or AXsiZ are that well known. Formed originally from former Gonzo staff, both of these studios have often worked together to put out a few titles that have been hugely successful (the Kin-iro Mosaic and Yuki Yuna is a Hero franchises being their biggest successes). I have watched some of their other shows in the past (A Channel, Ms. Koizumi Loves Ramen Noodles, Tsuredure Children), including last year’s Endro~!, which I ended up really enjoying (check out my review of it here). Aside from the aforementioned shows, I haven’t really heard that much from either Gozumi or AXsiZ. Perhaps they prefer to keep it that way but it is often the case that if one has not really heard of shows that a studio does, they don’t really make that much of an impact. A sad thing to say, but that is usually true.
So as for Ms. Vampire Who Lives In My Neighborhood? It certainly doesn’t have what it takes to be as successful as Kin-iro Mosaic or Yuki Yuna is a Hero, but I believe that it’s also a show that won’t disappear into obscurity. It has flaws, yes, but when I finally got to the end, I eventually came to the point that it is still kind of funny and mildly enjoyable to watch nonetheless.
Perhaps I should be more picky more future slice-of-life shows after all…