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Now in Japan
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Thursday, 01 February 2007 00:00 |
 Back to the backlog, and an appearance by the world's other-most-cute vampire (I can never decide between Karin and Hazuki)... With Kenta suspicious after his mother's change in behaviour, Karin's having to be extra-careful around him - as if keeping her blood under control wasn't awkward enough. But Anju has been beeking an eye on Kenta, and has plans of her own for him...
3 - Happiness is So Embarrassing
Now that her family know that Karin's attracted to the blood of unhappy people, they have something else to add to the list of reasons why they think their daughter's downright weird. By vampire standards, anyway. The one type of person who's never in short supply turns up, and Karin's the one vampire who doesn't want to pig out. Kenta, meanwhile, can't get over how cheerful his mother's been lately, but he's convinced Karin had something to do with it - even though his mother doesn't seem to remember what happened in the park. Karin's still having problems dealing with Kenta's presence, though - although now that she knows she's responding to his unhappiness, all she has to do is find a way of making him happy. If only she knew what happiness really was...
4 - Being Found Out is So Embarrassing
Having decided that keeping Kenta well-fed will keep a check on her nosebleeds, Karin's brought another bento box for him - all she has to do now is think of a way to give it to him without people assuming it's a romantic gesture. And Maki's not helping. While she tries to work up her excuses, Kenta's down in the school library researching vampires, and the more he reads, the more convinced he is that Karin's one of the fanged ones...
5 - My Whole Family is So Embarrassing
Ren appears on the scene, very angry that Karin and Anju have let the family secret slip and ready to carry out some serious memory work on Kenta. Once again, Anju intervenes and asks him to let it slide, promising to explain things later, so Kenta is allowed to go home with him his memories intact - for now. Back home, Anju explains to the rest of the family why she thinks Kenta is a special case: he's shown himself to be trustworthy, he's prepared to keep Karin's secret, and Karin's attracted to his blood - that makes him ideal partner for her, in several senses of the word. Before her parents agree to anything, though, they want to meet this special person...
The way to a man's heart is through his stomach, the say, and I suppose Kenta's living proof of that. Seeing Karin out in sunlight, wearing a cross, and enjoying garlic does work against the idea that she's a vampire, so he's one confused person for a while - she's almost the complete opposite of a vampire in a lot of ways - but once she catches her in the act of giving a little transfusion, there's little scope for error. It's all done in a nicely comic style that keeps you grinning along for most of the story, and while for most of these episodes the story is firmly focussed on Karin and Kenta, there are enough appearances by Maki and Karin's family to stop things from getting into a rut.
Speaking of her family - you have to love them. Anju and her psychotic puppet are a class act in themselves, while her parents are just completely whacked out. Ren's the most normal of the bunch, probably, although with this family that's not saying much.
There are still a few blanked-out characters in the opening credits that have yet to make their debut - cape-boy seems particularly prominent, so I'd expect him to be making his appearance soon. Adding characters as a series progresses does usually keep things fresh - hard to tell how well it'll work before the character appears, but I'm looking forward to finding out. So far, though, there's little to complain about with this series - entertaining, funny, and well worth watching. |
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