Babanbabanban Vampire

Baban Baban Ban' Vampire — 'Tis so sweet to drink some virgin, young adult blood, but with a wait time so long...that it's best to experience some comedy firsthand. Vampires. Love them or hate them, they're here to stay...and willingly sink their fangs into unsuspecting people thinking that they can be subtly thought of as normal human beings. But when these immortal nightly beings trample on everyday life to want to choose their specific targets and, even more, treat them like aged Wagyu beef and sink into a fine-dining experience, it becomes all the more ludicrous to think of such a plot where vampires can waitbefore their blood consumption is fresh, wholesale, and satisfying. This is what you get with mangaka Hiromasa Okujima's Baban Baban Ban Vampire, a show where bloodsucking is an exercise in patience (since patience is a virtue) and will only reap the vampire a big reward when this "rule" is respected. Oh...did I forget to mention that this is a BL a.k.a Boys' Love show? Vampires, like the irritating cockroaches, can actually go toe-to-toe with how long the species has been around since its inception, but of course, the clear difference is that vampires need blood to survive, or otherwise they'll wither and die if not enough is pumped into them. And in Baban Baban Ban Vampire's story, that setting takes vampires going across the different Japanese eras, from the Bakumatsu era to the modern day, standing at a few hundred years old still looking for fresh blood to pounce on. And this is certainly the rhetoric for the 450-year-old vampire of Mori Ranmaru, whose goal is to seek the "ultimate taste of the blood of an 18-year-old virgin." However, after wandering around in a previous era, Ranmaru found himself being a helpless person to once again wander around and look for a place to live. As luck would have it, the Tatsuno family chose to take him under their shelter, but of course, nothing is for free, and he has to help out and work in the family's Aoi Bathhouse alongside their only son, 15-year-old Rihito. Of course, with Ranmaru's policy of waiting to devour him until he turns 18, he decides to play along with the family's antics, even if he has to reveal his true vampiric self (that ironically Rihito's family doesn't take seriously). As if that's not enough, both Ranmaru and Rihito are joined by more characters, which just makes the love polygon even worse (for what should be a straightforward relationship). What are the odds of creating such comedic banter that just only adds to the hilarious confusion much more? For one, you have the love interest of Aoi Shinozuka, whom Rihito falls in love with at first sight through the "running with bread in mouth" trope and is seen as a threat; then her brother Ken a.k.a Franken comes over as a protective older brother who supports his sister's relationship with Rihito (that is soon accompanied by vampire killer Umetaro Sakamoto, whom he has a hardcore yaoi for Ranmaru); not to mention that the group of gals under the leadership of Kaoru Yamada initially had the hots for Rihito but soon found out that she has a desire for Ranmaru instead. It's a love cycle that can be confusing to get your head around, but trust me, as more characters come up, the insanity of the supernatural comedy takes hold to chuckle some laughs. You're not going to depend on production values to bring you through the show, as studio Gaina's animation is really just average and will fill you more with static PowerPoint-like slides, and opt for more quality if the scenario calls for it. But then again, this is what director-cum-scriptwriter Itsuro Kawasaki has to fend for; for much of his rather unremarkable career, the last notables have been key directorial and/or scriptwriting roles for Summer 2022's Kumichou Musume to Sewagakari a.k.a The Yakuza's Guide to Babysitting and last Winter's Oroka na Tenshi wa Akuma to Odoru a.k.a The Foolish Angel Dances with the Devil. Music is also fine, but fairly forgettable by all accounts. That said, Blue Encount's OP song feels a lot like it belongs in some other show and not this one, though it's decent and nothing noteworthy. On the other hand, Botchi Boromaru's ED is great (except the scrolling backgrounds), which is fine...I guess? I think that the misconception of Baban Baban Ban Vampire being a BL show does kind of limit the target audience to just the yaoi fanatics. But still, while the show COULD do without the BL tag, it's still ultimately a show in said genre, and it's quite evident all over the place, despite being disregarded as so. It's a comedy show that has hits and misses, and is not great by any means, but is it at least worth your time? I'd say that depends on how you see the show as it is: a half-yaoi and mostly comedic anime.