Karin (Chibi Vampire) Based on an original manga written & illustrated by Yuna Kagesaki. Anime produced by J C Staff, directed by Shinichiro Kimura. First aired on WOWOW, November 2005 to May 2006. 24 episodes of 25 minutes each!Synopsis!
A family of vampires have set up home in a Tokyo suburb. They live quietly, hidden away from their neighbours by a sort of psychic barrier, surrounded by their familiars. Their eldest daughter, Karin, has a problem. She doesn’t suck blood!
She is a “Blood Maker” A sort of reverse vampire, who injects the surplus blood that her body produces into her “victims”. As her blood levels increase every month, Karin wanders the local park seeking suitable humans to bite. At other times, she is a normal 16 year old school girl, who is prone to fainting.
When Usui Kenta transfers into the school, her problems increase many fold. She gets an abnormally strong vampiric reaction to his presence, which in her case means her blood increases very quickly. Things get really complicated when Kenta comes to her aid during one of her fainting fits, and discovers her secret! Her brother determines that it is his aura of unhappiness that is affecting her, and so when avoiding him doesn’t work, she launches an assault to make him happy.
The two teenagers live out their strange lives, completely unaware that everybody else can see that they are falling in love. Then, another new transfer student declares his love for Karin. Only problem being, he is a student Vampire Hunter!
Characters!
Karin. (Voiced by Sayuri Yahagi)
Karin is a vampire with a difference. She can go out in sunlight. Enjoys eating good food, and has to work to earn money to pay the bills since she is virtually the only member of her family who needs heat and light. Her Mother, Father and Brother are all normal vampires. Her younger sister hasn’t yet “awakened” to her full vampire powers. Karin has non of these powers. She can’t leap over buildings, erase memories, or summon bats as “familiars”. She has to do well in school, as a home visit from the teacher is a no-no! Her friends can never come round for sleepovers, and her “time of the month” is more stressful than most!
Usui Kenta. (Voiced by Katsuyuki Konishi)
Kenta is an only child in a single parent family. His father deserted him and his mother when he was little, and his mother said that he had died. Kenta knows the truth, as he saw his dad working around the corner from where they used to live. His mother tries hard, but keeps getting fired from any job she takes up. As a result, they have very little money. Kenta works as a waiter after school, and whenever else the Manager needs him, one of perks being free meals. He rarely eats during the day, in order to save money. A fact that Karin and her friend are quick to observe!
Winner Sinclair (Voiced by Kouki Miyata)
The last in a long line of vampire hunters, Winner takes his responsibilities very seriously, going out after school to protect the neighbourhood. This frequently gets him into trouble. He has been sent to Japan by his Grandfather, who is seeking the Maaka Family. In reality, he is totally hopeless as a hunter. When he arrives in school, he falls completely in love with Karin, saying that she is the exact image of his dream girl. We later find out that Karin is indeed his dream girl, as he was the first person she ever bit! The memory wipe performed by her family left Winner with a dream sequence of the event (with no biting). Winner has some tough choices to make when his Grandfather arrives to eliminate Karin and all her family!
Maki (Voiced by Mikako Takahashi)
Karin’s best, and possibly only, friend. Attractive and intelligent, she supports Karin in all her efforts, without understanding why since she has absolutely no idea that Karin is a vampire. There is a priceless point when Karin invites her for a sleepover to finish the holiday study work, and Maki wonders why she has never been over before. The family are at full alert to prevent their secret being revealed, but since vampires don’t need to cook, and can see in the dark, things don’t go that well. Maki falls in love with Winner soon after his arrival, but all her efforts to draw his attention go for nothing as he only has eyes for Karin!
What did I think?
I was quickly drawn in to Karin’s world, and galloped through the series in a matter of a few weeks. The story line was inventive, and the characters developed well throughout the series. Just as the story line started to become a bit predictable, a little twist was thrown in that caused interest to pick up again.
The only jarring note was the character of Winner Sinclaire. Over dramatic, it became very apparent that he actually knew very little about vampires. His character seemed poorly developed, with no mention of his parents, or why he was living with his Grandfather. His voice really grated on me, and everything about him was just annoying. It came as no surprise to find out that he isn’t present in the original manga!
Other than that, the series was a joy to watch. A gentle romance with plenty of humour. Despite the plethora of compromising situations, there is very little ecchi content. Karin’s nosebleeds are positively explosive, and her family’s reaction to their problem child underline their difference. They just can’t understand that she doesn’t enjoy biting people, and that she does it only as a last resort when her blood increases beyond her ability to control it.
A great anime! 8/10
Recommended
To be honest I expected a lot from it and unfortunately the first 5 episodes didn’t really grab me. However, after episode 5 things got better and the plot became more definite. Speaking of the plot… So it’s about Karin, a freak among vampires. She’s probably what you would refer to as an anti-vampire. She doesn’t suck blood as often as other vampires do, since she actually makes blood, she bathes in daylight with no problem whatsoever – The bottom line is that she can do what other vampires can’t. Basically, the fact that Karin’s not a normal vampire, is what the plot revolves on. She wouldget into crazy situations such as preventing schoolmates and teachers from finding out about her true identity, having a vampire hunter as an admirer, keeping her grandma from sucking out her crush’s blood and whatnot. These situations would usually end up with her as the victor and everyone (including me) will be laughing at the end. Anyway, situations like this would go on until the last episode, which I actually like. It wasn’t expected, nor was it underwhelming, and I would say it ended on a high note.
As a comedy, I would say it’s so-so. Sure it was funny, but it could have been funnier. It’s probably because the comedic scenes are also chockfull of ecchi and fanservice, which I\'m not really into. As a romantic comedy, I’d give it an A. For some reason, the Karin-Kenta love match really works, they go so well together, and I’m sticking to that opinion regardless of how creepy Usui Kenta may look compared to Karin. Plus there’s always the love-hate relationship of Maki and Winner to back that up.
Characters are OK. I love everyone in Karin’s family. The Maaka/Marker family is probably the dictionary definition of dysfunctional, and you know how funny dysfunctional families can be. My favorite Marker would probably be Ren, since he’s such a bad boy. Usui Kenta is the stereotypical loser, and Maaka is the usual “growing pains” star of the show. Winner Sinclair is also funny, his dialogues are absolutely absurd, and it cracks me up whenever he speaks English. An outraged “no” from him already merits a laugh from me. Conversely, the villains are also quite interesting. Elda, who was a villain at first, was very convincing for her role. She really did annoy me, and what annoyed me more is the fact that she barely looks like Karin and yet everyone mistakes her for Karin. Doesn’t anyone notice how her hair is much longer than Karin’s and that it’s light pink? Plus that Victor Sinclair guy kinda pissed me off too. He was unforgiving and heartless, like a true villain would be.
I love the vibrant colors. I really prefer vibrant colors over subdued tones, but even with that said, I still like the water color backgrounds, plus the occasional water colored scenes such as the ones shown during the ending theme sequence. They were delicate, but it was done nicely and it suited to my slight fondness of water color backgrounds. Character design was OK, except maybe for Karin and Kenta. They looked bland and commonplace, especially for Karin. She’s just the usual big headed anime girl with big boobs. There was also the use of CG, which at times made me a bit iffy. They used the CG for the weirdest things, and the last I remember CG was used to depict falling leaves in one of the last episodes.
I wasn’t happy with the huge amounts of fan service and 2-lady bath scenes. There was even a few seconds worth of Naked Karin that was shown during the opening sequence. I guess that’s expected from Yuna Kagezaki, who’s actually known for her “H” works.
The voice acting was also so-so for me. It’s not entirely bad, but something’s off. Props to Karin’s seiyu, Sayuri Yahagi. From what I researched this is actually her debut role. And when I shamelessly say “props”, I meant A for effort. I can’t quite put my finger on it, but I got a feeling it can be done better than that. Same thing for Winner’s seiyu, Kouki Miyata. Winner’s a funny guy, but his voice compared to his looks? Doesn’t really go together, does it? I did like Kouki’s work on Kyo Kara Maoh! where he played Ken Murata. The one that impressed me the most is Katsuyuki Konishi. I just finished watching Loveless and when I found out he was also Soubi’s seiyu, I was awestruck since he didn’t sound a thing like Soubi. Maki’s seiyu, Mikako Takahashi, did an OK job. Even though she’s played 2 similar characters, Maki in Karin and Ayu in Honey and Clover, I still would have liked it if she gave more intensity to Maki’s character.
The BGM and sound effects was actually quite outstanding. I like the “tell tale heart” sound effect whenever Karin’s blood would increase. There was a wide variety of BGM for Karin that can go from cheerful and upbeat to thrilling and intense. I actually prefer the more intense BGM compared to the “it’s such a nice day” genre of BGM. The opening theme was OK, but I definitely liked the ending song better since it’s more cutesy and catchy.
I can’t say it’s one of my favorites, but it was a good watch. I might’ve enjoyed it more if I was a guy, since it had a lot of nude scenes and fan service, but I as I’ve said, I like it enough.
arartist-retired
January 13, 2011
Mixed Feelings
Adding one anime only character apparently can completely change (Ruin) the entire story, this is NOT an over exaggeration. STORY: This is the adaption of the manga Karin (AKA chibi vampire in the US, and by the way is my favorite romantic comedy manga) which is about a unique vampire girl who instead of drinking blood, shes injects her blood into her victims and the injecttee becomes hyper active for a while. But if she doesn't, her blood literally explodes out of her nose (Which this and the concept itself is what the series is known for). The anime only covers like 20 something chapters of thebeginning of the manga then goes about with completely different story than what the source material did.
Which in truth I usually have no problem with that, many anime went this way, Fullmetal Alchemist ended up great, the second Negima anime was okay.
And with like most adaptions Karin, the anime adds in a new character, Winner Sinclair
........................................................................................................
..........................................................................................................huh?
Oh I'm sorry I blacked out for a second there.
What was I talking about? Oh Winner.................
I'm sorry but, I really hated this character, his appearance, his voice (I'll get to that in a bit), his role!
His role in the anime is to be the bishonen rival to Kenta Usui, the main male role of the series, for the affection of Karin (The main female role and titular character), but to me (And to hopefully everyone else) he is irritatingly annoying to the point of instant hatred, all this character does is get in the way 24/7, nearly every episode after episode 6.
I'm not going to lie, the story is okay, but pretty generic, for the most part and Winner's job is an interesting plot twist which allows an interesting story development, especially the last 4 episodes, but Winner's personality, his presence just ruin's so much of that, he is the annoying kid who hangs around the circle and just never wants to leave.
But at the very least winner is the only major headache in the anime, well in the japanese dub.
ANIMATION: Okay, not great but good enough.
The character designs are true to the source material, but looks like a typical low budget shojo anime, and the opening animation makes the series look like a hentai or something, so it's unclear which audience this anime is made for.
Karin's nose bleeds are censored with... flowers... it's unique and a creative way to censor something, but only adds to my argument of who this series is intended for.
SOUND: Both theme music are okay, six for both opening and ending songs.
Okay I'm going to get this strait, do NOT watch the english dub, stick to the subtitles only (Which gets about a seven)!
The english is just terribly bland, typical no emotion script reading with voices that do fit the characters, but are performed so bad.
And of all of them, Winner has the most atrocious ear bleeding noise you will ever hear, this is no over exaggeration, no dub hating or trolling (I love english dubbed anime), I really really mean it.
OVERALL:
+ Different story that has an okay plot
- Winner Sinclair
- English dub
- Unclear of who this anime is intended for
Adaptions of manga are notorious for messing with the source material, but some end up just fine, while others are a disaster, and it's quite a feat for just one character to ruin an entire anime.
