I feel like I’m starting to get into the groove with parenting my baby (now that I’ve said that, he’s going to start crawling and none of this will be accurate anymore, of course). This week, while I was holding him during his nap, I managed to actually watch some anime! And, of course, because it’s October, I wanted to watch something from my list that I could include on this list. Enter yet another poorly-advertised Netflix exclusive, titled Vampire in the Garden.
Vampire in the Garden takes place following a war between human and vampire kind. The humans have been vastly overpowered by the vampires, and now scrape out a tough existence on the fringes of society. Because music is such a part of vampire culture (and because vampires have such sensitive hearing), it’s become taboo among the humans to sing or make music.
Momo, a young soldier whose mother holds a high position in the military, hesitates to shoot a vampire child during a raid. The child gives Momo a music box, a treasure which she hides away due to its forbidden nature. Meanwhile, Fine, the queen of the vampires who suffers a grave illness due to her refusal to drink blood, sees Momo with the music box and takes an interest in her. The two soon cultivate a relationship and go on a journey to find a place where both their kinds can exist in harmony. Unfortunately both sides of the greater conflict have a vested interesting in ensuring that never happens.
Vampire in the Garden is an original series from WIT studio, which aside from animating the first three seasons of Attack on Titan has an interesting variety of both original series and adaptations under their belt. The story here isn’t anything groundbreaking – there are plenty of series, films, and books about the antagonistic relationships between humans and the humanoid others who see humans as livestock. In this case, the more interesting story is the relationship between Momo and Fine, which seems both metaphorically and straightforwardly about same-sex romance. Of course, it’s that aspect of the piece that causes issues, as there’s no scenario in this world where such a relationship can meet an endpoint that’s anything but tragic, and aren’t there enough tragic gay stories in the world?
That aside, I enjoyed this series quite a bit. I think one of the deepest compulsions that human beings have is to make music, whether that means banging animal leg bones on stone drums, or synthesizing sounds with electricity. So imagining a scenario where humans are essentially in self-exile, forbidding themselves from indulging in one of their most basic cultural pleasures adds an additional layer of tension and tragedy that distinguishes this series in an interesting way.
Vampire in the Garden is a brief 5 episodes, and is available on Netflix.