When I saw the poster of "The Hand of Vanitas", the gorgeous Gothic style, the exquisite British costumes, and the beautiful and complicated background of the people, this familiar feeling reminded me of "Pandora's Heart".
The manga is also written by Jun Mochizuki, and the color pages are also a unique and brilliant sense of color ink, which has more steampunk elements than "Pandora's Heart", and is a vampire theme work.
The TV animation of Vanitas' Notes was produced by the Bone Society, the music was taken care of by Yuki Kajiura, looking at the chain elements on the codex, the fight between Noah and Vanitas made me think of the black and white rabbit, and the battle BGM in the Pandora Hearts animation immediately sounded in my mind. Grandpa Qinghui! The OP and ED did not live up to expectations, and the soundtrack in the animation was just right. Because I went to see this movie with the filter of "Pandora's Heart", I couldn't get in at first, and then the more I watched, the more I became more and more engaged.
The story is set in 19th-century France, where humans and vampires coexist. Vampires are not allowed to suck human blood, but due to the loss of their "real names", out-of-control vampires appear one after another and become monsters eager to donate blood. Someone pointed all this to the legendary "Notes of Vanitas".
The blue moon is ominous to vampires, and the vampire Vanitas born in the blue moon is bullied by other vampires born in the red moon, so the "Book of Vanitas" is created that can destroy the vampires, and the book that has been feared by the vampires is used by the current owner to save the out-of-control vampires.
Vanitas, who first saw the poster, reminded me of Kilbat, but in the anime, the human who inherited the name of the Blue Moon Vampire and the "Book of Vanitas" made me completely get rid of this feeling when I first appeared. Fickle and frivolous, seamlessly switching between handsome and comical, laughing wildly without a word, the character personality is full enough, it is a little noisy.
Noah's white hair is recognizable enough, but indifferent to his assertive personality, and when the vampire who thinks Blue Moon is beautiful and not afraid begins to enter the memory, the character's charm bursts out at once (although every close-up of his white eyelashes reminds me of re's lust witch Edina).
Noah's teacher is attractive, and the voice of the stone brings out the teacher's restrained madness to the fullest, reminding me of the mysterious and dangerous presence of Jack Besarius.
This is also one of the characteristics of Wangyuechun's works, no character is a single good and evil good or bad, just some normal weirdos. There is also a "world theory" setting is also interesting (similar to the molecular structure of matter), alchemists originally wanted to rewrite the world structure in order to eliminate human disease, but this large-scale experiment that interfered with the world gave birth to things that did not belong to this world, including vampires (no wonder the human body is forbidden to be refined, and steel is not deceiving me).
At the beginning of the story, Noah says that he killed Vanitas with his own hands. For the beginning of this announcement of the ending, I think there are other possibilities. Noah may have killed another personality of Vanitas, like Echo in Pandora's Heart; it could have been that other souls had taken over Vanitas' body; or it could have destroyed Vanitas' existence. However, no matter what the ending, the audience is estimated to be unable to escape the knife.
The work "The Handbook of Vanitas" is worth looking forward to. The story and style of Mochizuki Jun are more mature, and Yuki Kajiura's music is as good as ever, and I hope that the TV animation will not end like "Pandora's Heart". #翻滚吧动漫君 #