OP Sequence

OP: 「DIES IN NO TIME」by Fukuyama Jun

「 退治人ハンター来たりて空を跳ぶ 前編」 (Hantaa Kitarite Sora o Tobu Zenpen)
“Hunter Comes and Jumps in the Sky Prequel”

Kyuuketsuki Sugu Shinu’s first episode is easily one of the funniest premieres I’ve seen in a while. By leaning into the slapstick comedy and the adversarial chemistry between Ronaldo and Draluc, the first episode never loses its momentum as it moves from one wacky situation to another.

The frantic energy of the animation fits perfectly with the chaotic nature of the anime’s sense of humor. Because it leans on the absurdity of the mundanity that Ronaldo and Draluc encounter as a vampire hunter and vampire respectively, much of the humor comes from how desperate Ronaldo is to stay at work while Draluc attempts to live a normal existence as a vampire hyped up by his hometown’s tourism industry.

Even if Draluc turning to ash gets old sometimes, Fukuyama Jun plays him with both gleeful enthusiasm and abject misery. Because he behaves as an average person who happens to be a notorious vampire, he keeps on trying to diffuse his initial run-in with Ronaldo even when he’s being accused of kidnapping kids for his own sick kicks. He’s an easy target for abuse as an immortal vampire who is very rusty at the whole “blood-sucking vampire” act, but it’s also amusing to see the small minor victories he ends up achieving like taking credit for diffusing a hostage situation or settling into Ronaldo’s office against his will.

Ronaldo is also a hilarious character with all of the trouble he has to contend with to live up to the reputation he’s made for himself. To achieve this, he’s not above begging his clients not to leave negative reviews online, trying to peddle his questionable autobiography, and conveniently neglecting his duties the moment a target happens to be a fan of his books.

What makes their bickering even funnier is that the world that surrounds them isn’t any less zany than they are. Draluc is depicted as a tortured soul primarily because he lives in a town that turned him into a scary folk tale for tourists to eat up, leading the young boy from earlier in the episode to break into his home to play his video games. The hostage situation that acts as the episode’s last major conflict ends when the target Bubuo finds out becoming a vampire wouldn’t make his co-worker attracted to him. Especially not when there’s a rich guy asking for her hand in marriage.

The first episode of Kyuuketsuki Sugu Shinu ended up being laugh-out-loud hilarious as an irreverent, farcical comedy perfect for the Halloween season. It matches the fun swing of the opening sequence with its absurd yet crafty sense of humor and wickedly amusing chemistry between Ronaldo and Draluc. By openly embracing the oddities and madness that the duo experiences, this anime should prove to be a wonderful comedy to follow.

ED Sequence

ED: 「Strangers」by TRD

4 Comments

  1. Brief note for those wondering wtf armadillo is doing there – it’s a homage to the classic Dracula movie from 1931 (the English-language one, not to be confused with the Spanish one), which starred Bela Lugosi as Dracula as well as armadillo as himself. For reasons unknown until this day. Some say they couldn’t show the rats in the movie so used whatever animal looked creepy for audience back then. Anyway, the ED sequence is follow up on that, showing John travel from the homeland to the Old World and then through Portugal, Spain, Venetia etc. all the way to the Transylvania. Which “explains” how American animal got there.
    And it’s hilarious.

    puppygod

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