Review of The Vexations of a Shut-In Vampire Princess
Hikikomari kyuuketsuki no monmon is one of the most interesting anime in fall 2023. The vampire girl, named Terakomari Gandesblood or Komari seems like an ordinary girl who enjoys her life as a shut-in. She considered herself as the weakest vampire. But little did she knew, she got special “abilities” and not the weakest. Alongside with her awesome maid, Villhaze, she embarked on her journey to fool everyone to thinking that she is not the weakest, but in reality she is super powerful. Together they try to face their enemies who are threatened by Komari’s past and her popularity as a Crimson Lord. They alsomeets their new friends along the way. This anime serves some great gags, incredible animations, awesome supporting characters, top notch VA, and many more which will be explained in the paragraphs below.
Story (8/10)
The stories mainly is focusing on some comedies and sometimes to resolve the problems that faced by Komari as a MC or other people. It starts with some gags but in the next part it contains a lot of backstories that can make viewers enjoy the plot. It starts the MC as a funny and loveable person then start getting serious with MC’s past and other character issues. It developed the main character to become the better person with kind heart. But the downpoint of this plot is some storylines is a bit fast pacing which didn’t explain some aspects of the story clearly like the ways of dark core works or when someone using ritual article or not that can make the watchers a bit confuse. Another downpoint is that the ending feels ordinary and not special at all where some previous episodes better serves as the ending than the actual ending. Overall, the story had some great backstories with simple forwarding story with comical gags throughout the screening of this anime.
Art (10/10)
The style of art in this anime is really beautiful and corresponds with its genre which are comedy and fantasy. The representation of the places is drawn beautifully. The art for its gag is well executed with great facial expression and goofy styles. But most importantly the animation for the fighting scene is astonishing. They give incredible effects and focus on the detail such as adding swollen faces, blood splatters, and a little gore effect that makes the viewers hype up for the battle scenes. Well done!
Sound (8/10)
Let's talk about their seiyuu first. The seiyuus were incredible at voicing each every one of the character. For example, Komari voiced by Tomori Kusonoki had this cheerful and pure type of voice that depicts her personality. Even the supporting character has incredible voice like Milicent with a voice that depicts her as a cunning villain or Sakuna with her low and shy girl type of voice. I am amazed by the wide range of tone and pitch of each character. Unfortunately, the OP and ED song feels lacking and seems common like ordinary OP and ED. But on the bright side, the background music is variative and supports the scene really well. Some even better with playing vampire-like themes using organ instruments. Sound aspect is still great though.
Character (9/10)
The personality of each character really showed up in this anime. Main character with her silliness and yet capable of creating meaningful situation in the story. Each side characters also showed some distinctive nature like shy character, merciless character, etc. What a great display of personalities from each character.
Enjoyment (9/10)
If you want to watch chilled anime, then this anime will be a perfect choice. The story mostly is light, but yet sometimes it can get serious too. The comedy in this anime is on point not too much and not too little. The vampire theme really depicted really well in this anime, that totally showcase the vampire’s lifestyle. And dont forget the incredible animation and art, that makes this anime looks aesthetic with a lot of great additional effects. But unfortunately, the plot sometimes didn’t explain wholly and can be stale at some point. But overall, i really enjoy this masterpiece.
Hikikomari kyuuketsuki no monmon is one of the great underrated anime in fall 2023. It presented the comedy anime that still had great storyline. While still offering vampire type fantasy anime, the animation was astonishing and the voice acting was spot on. This anime highly recommended for you who wants to enjoy lightweight anime with great humour with decent plot. Even though this anime focusing on the gags and jokes, the quality of the other aspects still maintained really well. Appreciation for the whole production team, hopefully this anime can release its second season in the future.