First Impression: Vampire Dormitory

Mito Yamamoto has had a really hard-knock life. Orphaned at a young age and then abandoned on the streets after middle school, he now finds himself a victim of his pretty looks, which makes him unemployable. Heck, at the start of the episode, our little bro is fired from the ramen shop he was working in. Why? Well, while he was attracting countless female patrons, the male patrons were getting jelly. Insecure much? Distraught and with nowhere else to go, Mito slips off a bridge, and just when all things seem lost, a young boy named Ruka Saotome swoops in for the save and, for good measure, drinks his blood. Because that’s what you do to complete strangers, apparently. Ruka, as you’ve probably deduced, is a vampire, and to attain the rank of Lord of the Vampires, he must find and suck the blood of his destined partner. While Mito is willing to be a thrall to Ruka (after all, he doesn’t have a lot going for him right now), Ruka is a little more hesitant given that Mito’s blood tastes vile to him. Why? Because Mito doesn’t know love or how to be useful to someone. Ruka makes a proposition—he will let Mito move into his dorms at an all-boys school and teach our red-headed bro about love by loving him, thereby improving the quality of his blood. There’s just one tiny problem—our bro…is actually a GIRL.

You know, I was watching this one while getting ready to run some errands, and one of the first things that came to my mind while pulling on my socks was “Wait, hold up–I’ve seen this show before!” This show, at least in the premiere episode, seems like it just wants to be Ouran High School Host Club so bad! The premise of a homely, poor girl who looks a lot like a boy, entering a world of luxury with other boys who run a club/business as part of their school is almost a carbon copy of Ouran. You may as well add “Kiss Kiss Fall in Love” as the OP. Heck, Mito even shatters a vase like Haruhi did in the first episode. I guess if you’re going to imitate something, imitate the best. When judged on its own merits, it’s somewhat interesting, but we’ve seen this show before. It’s going to be a reverse harem that will draw shenanigans from our female lead trying to disguise herself as a boy. While there is plenty of fun to be had with that premise, it just feels like it’s been a well-trodden trope that’s been done better by others. Been there, done that, and bought the T-shirt. It also feels very cliché–the hapless princess getting swept off her feet by a handsome prince in the moonlight. They LITERALLY have a shot of our male lead lit from behind by the full moon as he makes his declaration to turn Mito into his thrall. My eyes could not roll farther back into my head. From a production standpoint, the show looks good, though I’m very curious as to how in the world all that hair was able to get tucked neatly under Mito’s wig. I mean, at some point, wouldn’t it make more sense to just cut your hair? Why are you making things harder on yourself, Mito?!

So where does that leave us with Vampire Dormitory? Well, I’m still curious about this one. I wanna see if the next couple of episodes will break free of the Ouran mimicry and become a decent show in its own right. But for now, dear readers, I would say that, unless you are really into vampire anime or reverse harem anime, I wouldn’t blame you if you skipped this one.

Vampire Dormitory Host Club is available for streaming on Crunchyroll

Josh
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