Vampire Wars · review
It's a mystery noir. With 50 minutes (+5 minute ED song), plot is clearly rushed, but connects all the characters. Kuki & Lamia get some character depth, & join/betrayal all jump through quickly, acceptable considering the shortness, but really could've benefited from longer development of the complex mystery. It's far from your usual vampire films, and more a mystery on a multi-country & grand scale. I suggest English dub + English sub. Occasionally they are different, offset, or both. It gives nearly 2x the plot information, and quite funny seeing how much they diverge in meaning. After ~40min I laughed uncontrollably for the remainder. It brilliantlyswitches from dark noir to hilarity (not sure if intended). It's beautifully ended (with possible continuation), and allows the audience to question whether it truly was a good end or troll end.
Characters:
Kuki mc is refreshing to see compared to 201x tropes. He's quite handsome, strong but not OP, buff without acting gay, & determined. Sometimes too fast, but he literally drives the show forward. His English dub is good in moments, but often very flat. I may rewatch with JP voice later.
Lamia is not a damsel in distress, and crucial to the mystery. All females are adults & drawn attractively (not moe).
Mirucha is very interesting. Most about him is spoilerific.
Various gangs/gov/parties get confusing but they're mostly contextual.
Art/Sound:
Stylized dark, realistic, gritty as noir should be. Many great osts, 90's nostalgia with heavy energetic drums, slow blues, electric guitar, hippies style etc. There's enough combat/gunfight animation to keep interested besides the rushed confusing plot, and for 1990 it's surprisingly smooth without cutting corners. Even details like loading each bullet, agony after getting wounded etc is animated, with good fight choreography.
Overall:
Enjoyable short, rare noir anime. Lots of whut...!? moments over unique, nonsensical events. Over 10 minutes of funny. Great music. Realistic GAR man. Unusual vampire mystery. I picked this for a terrible rated Halloween B movie, but turned out an absolute underwatched gem.