While I stayed with family over the Christmas Period I ended up watching this show’s dub. I started watching it because the current anime season (which back then was the coming season) was going to have a second season. So, let’s sit and watch something absolutely bat (profanity) insane.

First things first. This series is NUTS, insane and weird. If you can’t stand absolutely bizarreness, it’s not for you.

To open the show we have Vampire hunter Ronaldo setting out into the castle of the immortal vampire Draluc to save a child. And things go instantly off when upon simply opening the door Draluc dies and is reduced to sand/ash. Turns out he’s nowhere near as powerful as people claimed, it’s just he can regenerate from death easily… but almost everything can shoot him, he didn’t correct anyone since it was helping the tourist industry, and the kid just lost track of time as he had been sneaking in for weeks to play video games. One series of antics resulting in a blown-up castle, Draluc has moved in to Ronaldo’s place and brought his Armadillo John with him.

And so we get our crazy cast of insanity and weirdness. Be it the members of the Hunter’s Guild all with their own bizarre themes (openly brought up in show) or perhaps one of the many nutty vampires with also bizarre themes (openly brought up in season 2). I think it’s safe to say that the vast majority of characters in the show are insane in some way. If you find the antics in episode one to be too much… things go even more bizarre shortly after. Just look at the opening, which is styled with a dance between Ronaldo and Draluc (which I love) , which is a reference in the final episode of season one, a lovely call back.

The episodes are broken up into 2 or 3 sections each episode adapting a chapter of the manga, so technically it’s more like many short episodes than 12 full sized ones.

The cast of characters is decently sized. You have the core 3 of Ronaldo, Draluc and John (yes the armadillo counts, everyone loves him and he’s the focus of the ending theme). Then you have the people from the Hunter’s Guild, some having more prominent roles than others. Hinaichi (who is probably the most prominent character after the main 3) of the vampire control division as well as various other members of it. And finally a decent amount of vampires with recurring roles.

I find a fun little touch is that the preview of the next episode styles it as a straight horror, making it almost a misleading trailer and quite amusing how the actual events differ from what was presented.

The first season has a full dub which was how I watched it over the Christmas New Year’s period so for those that aren’t fond of the additional reading and want to have a more relaxed viewing there is that option. With season 2 currently airing it’s a good time to catch up on this and have yourself some laughs at just how insane the show is. No really episode 1 is tame by comparison to what comes not long after.

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