Rosario + Vampire Capu2

Title:Rosario + Vampire Capu2
ロザリオとバンパイア Capu2
Overall:Watch
Keywords: , , , , , , , , , , ,
Notables: Animation - GONZO
CHIBA Saeko
FUKUEN Misato
KISHIO Daisuke
KOYAMA Kimiko
KUGIMIYA Rie
MIZUKI Nana
SAITO Chiwa
A new semester has arrived for Tsukune and the gang featuring a handful of girls, obsessed female first years, and it seems like among these first years emerges another vampire who holds a grudge against her sister Moka. What shall this grudge lead to in the future and shall Tsukune suceed in taming this new problem child into being his friend, no one knows what the future holds.

The new season is set to continue to follow the manga, introduce new characters from the manga, and characters created strictly for the anime. (Source: ANN)

Scheduled to aire in Oct '08.

13 TV Episodes (~24min).

Also see 1st season - Rosario + Vampire
Read the translated (2nd season) manga online at MangaFox.

1:50min Promo Trailer - YouTube Video
Episode Details 
1893
OverallArtAnimationCharacter Design MusicSeries StoryEpisode StoryReviewer
Watch 8 8 8 6 6 6 Dreamer [series:1810#2279]
I enjoyed the first series so I though I'd give this second one a try.

Art, Animation & Character Designs
Artwork isn't too bad. There's a good level of detail and vibrant colors. The animation was pretty smooth and with a high frame rate.... especially, the OP sequence. Character designs were really good as well.

Music
The OP was nothing special. Just another basic pop piece with female vocals. The soundtrack itself had various pieces that would normally reflect gothic-like or eerie music.... but in fun fun way. The ED was an alternative piece that actually had a decent tune to it.

Series and Episode Story
A pure pantsu fest here. I mean, I love taking occasional sneak peaks at panties (not really), but this one was way too much. The first series was mildly entertaining but this one was "really" mildly entertaining. There were a few moments of humor here and there but for the most part, the episodes were light hearted stories that just weren't that interesting. One thing that really annoyed me was the useless "censoring". Here's the thing, the censoring wasn't done on "ALL" panty shots but rather at annoying times here and there. I think the it was done purely for the "assumed" humor... with the stupid bat covering the panties. Then, the very next moment, you'll get a full blown panty shot anyhow. What gives?! The plot... oh wait, there was no plot. So then this must have been episodic right? Well, if you can call it that. In fact, the episodes themselves didn't have much either. Granted, I did get a few laughs here and there and there were a few slapstick silliness with mild amusement but that was it.

Overall, it barely held my interest.... and that was ONLY for the bit of humor I was hoping to get out of it. Watch this series ONLY if you really have nothing else to do, nothing else to watch or this is thrown at your face at gun point.

Last updated Saturday, December 12 2009. Created Saturday, December 12 2009.
Rent Stretch [series:1810#628]
(All episodes watched):

This is a show which turned out to be much better than I had expected, and in fact became a favorite of it's season. Knowing what I was getting into (since I had watched the modestly entertaining first season) allowed me to adjust my expectations and as a result, I rather enjoyed episode one. In fact, I was pleasantly surprised and felt more entertained than I had been by the opening episodes of either Toradora or Akane-iro, both of which I had expected would be much better. There was definitely at least one LOL joke (the scene where the two lovers are staring at each other through a pink haze and repeating each other's names). I concluded that comedy is definitely the strong point of this series, since the "action" was lame. The OP/ED sequence, where the girls of the harem perform a sort of disco/idol singer act, was fun, too. All-in-all, not bad! Whereas the first episode of the first season struck me as "weak", I would say that this season gets off to a much better start.

Likewise, episode two was a pleasant surprise. For a while, good jokes were actually outnumbering panty shots--who would have thought that was possible? In the end I think the ratio ended up at about 1:1, which is still a pretty good figure. I noticed several "4th wall" jokes in which the characters tacitly acknowledge their status in a harem anime. I thought the twist in which Kokoa adores her sister Moka in one of her personality modes and hates her in the other one was clever, and I was left looking forward to seeing what would be done with it. In short, this show was seeming a good deal funnier than it had been during the first season.

Damn, this show's pretty good! That's what I said to myself as I watched episode three. This one had me laughing even before the first panty was exposed (although it was only seconds behind). I think there's been a definite change of strategy within R+V since the last season, in that instead of stretching it's resources into attempts to be both a comedy and action show (and being at best modest at both), this season is concentrating on the humor and doing a much better job of it. This show is shamelessly perverted--it's revelling in it--but it's much funnier than first season, so I'm not offended. The panty flashing is more of a joke nowadays than a sleazy tactic to attract viewers which it used to seem. The show was even making fun of itself, as when the bat served as a sort of censor. I laughed so much during this episode (which involved "Family Day" at the academy) that I needed to wipe tears from my eyes. The thought occured to me that R+V Capu2 might well be the most reliably funny show I was watching during the Fall '08 season, which was unusually good overall.

Episode four confirmed these positive impressions. This show leaves me grinning and laughing right off the bat (sometimes literally). The station break seemed to come much too quickly, but the episode was in fact halfway over--a sure sign that it is holding my interest firmly. I liked the way a supporting character got the spotlight for an episode. The "bursting boobs" joke had me LOLing--it shows how absurd the huge breasts fetish is to begin with. I was surprised that this episode actually had a meaningful moral to it, i.e, the foolishness of betting one's self esteem on physical appearance alone. It was almost as if the series is doing a sort of pennance for all the cheap ecchi jokes of the first season. This is good fanservice, and this may well be the best Capu2 episode so far. I've seldom seen such a radical improvement in the second season of a series.

Episode five wasn't up to the standards of the others of this season; it seemed like the overall quality was better suited to the first season. Not terrible, by any means, but the central joke was overplayed too many times and it didn't seem to have much of anything special about it. Mizore deserved better for her signature episode. Although Kurumu felt that she ought to get the limelight in episode six, nobody did, it was all about a school trip to the human world--I've thought ever since the first series that the monster girls visiting our world might be a lot of fun, and here we go. Fights were played entirely for laughs, including a sort of Sukeban Deka parody. I was delighted when events remained within the human world in episode seven, namely Tsukune visiting his mother. As soon as this premise is introduced, anybody knows that he will have a bunch of strange girls in tow, which is correct, but what exactly happened as a result remained unpredictable and hilarious. This was everything that I'd been hoping for, yet the episode got surprisingly serious, even touching, as well, as Tsukune is reminded that one of these days he will have to choose one member of his harem as his final girlfriend. Who that will be is pretty obvious, but still it's not often that a harem master must politely reject most of his followers. I really think this show works much better in this comedy first, action second mode, rather than the first season which was the reverse. Anyway, episode seven was great, in more ways than one.

Episode eight was a change, a series of quick, simple jokes--like a four-frame newspaper comic converted to anime. Think of it as R+V in Lucky Star format. The show was clearly making fun of itself, repeatedly re-showing the ominous episode title sequence, each time with the name of another of these ridiculous little skits. The crew is clearly aware of the criticism which the show has gotten over all the panty exposure, since the theme of several of these was Ruby Sensei's attempt to enforce a rule which forbids short skirts. Ruby getting the limelight for a change was fun. Though I didn't LOL at any point, I had great fun nevertheless. Even so, there was a hint that things may get serious as the season comes to an end.

Episode ten, "Bishounen and Vampire" was hilarious. I really was taken completely by surprise by handsome boy Ijuiin's secret, which is always good in shows which are often predictable. His reaction when he realized that he was in trouble was priceless. There were two laugh-out-loud-'til-you-have-tears-in-your-eyes gags--I don't remember the entire original series ever making me do that.

I wonder if the lighthearted censorship of girls' crotches was done by the original makers or added later on by the TV stations. I'd like to think that the former is the case--it would increase my respect for the crew--but I can't be sure. Also, why do some fairly suggestive shots remain completely uncensored?

Episode eleven seemed to revert back to the first season format, i.e, action taking priority over comedy, which was a disappointment to me. It looked like the series would end with a predictably ferocious battle to restore the "barrier" that seperates the youkai academy from the human world, but that problem was actually solved relatively quickly and it became clear that the real crisis would involve the threat of Tsukune losing the sweet, pink-haired Moka and being left with only the gruff, frightening silver-haired one. This was a clever plot tactic which seems infinitely preferable to me; again, I'm pleasantly surprised at how much the second season has improved over the first.

The final episode seemed to wander away from from the importance of pink-haired Moka and instead concentrated on petty feuding. This was amusing but I had come to expect something more. In the second half Tsukune shows some admirable courage (and his unexpectedly muscular chest). The post credit hijinx were fun. As always, there is no firm committment from the guy to one of his harem members (since otaku would probably be outraged if that were to happen). The conclusion could have been a little better, but R+V Capu2 as a whole was great fun and I'll defintely be rewatching it someday. It's always nice when the first episode of a show for which you had low expectations turns out to be quite good, and better yet when it remains that way to the end.

My favorite line: "He'll never leave you if he's frozen" --Mizore's mother

P.S: My feeling that this series put more effort into comedy than the first season had done wasn't just a figment of my imagination. In a interview with Anime Insider magazine (Feb. 2009) director Takayuki Inagaki says: "Although the original manga by Akihisa Ikeda focuses heavily on action, we decided to make the anime version more romantic-comedy oriented. I thought it would be impossible to recreate the exact world of the comic in animation, in terms of time and budget constraints, so I decided to bring in some comedy elements instead". I think he made the right choice.

Last updated Friday, January 30 2009. Created Monday, October 06 2008.
Unevaluated Jan-Chan [series:1810#967]
Too Many Panty Shots!! Is this really an legitimate anime series or an animated ↗upskirt softporn series? ANN is reporting that two of the Japanese TV stations have taken to censoring this series. I think that I even saw a ↗camel toe in one of the shots.... YESH !!!!!

Pointless ... really pointless... And what ticks me off the most is that they are not even clever in how they do it. Just how many ... ankle-knee-panty-skirt-bust-face full-body pan-shots do they have to show?

Last updated Monday, October 06 2008. Created Sunday, October 05 2008.
Unevaluated Forbin [series:1810#1573]
First Look:

Well I lost count of the panty count at 100, but at least they learned that to not make the panties show when showing the 'face' of the girl. It was a good starting.

Last updated Sunday, October 05 2008. Created Sunday, October 05 2008.
Watch 10 10 9 9 7 6 Xenoknight [series:1810#2967]
After Rosario + Vampire, i'm pumped to see what else they can throw at me with this title.

final review soon...

Typical Rosario + Vampire-like intro. We meet the gang again and nothing has changed (and thats a good thing). I saw so many different colored panties, that I thought I saw a rainbow (LOL). The panty shots are more painfully obvious this time around and the scenes are usually from the "bottom-of-the-screen position", emphasizing mini-skirts, colorful underwear, and silky thighs. All the usual stuff we've come to know from this series so it's not like we didn't know it was coming.

The music/scenes is something that must have gotten everyone's attention I assume. It's terrible compared to last season! The ending in particular was just unforgivable but i'm starting to get used to it and its alright. As for the intro, I thought it was salvageable but more important then the music was the little dance thing they got the girls doing. After seeing how fluid the animation was and how realistic their dance steps were, I was like, "Take that Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu" (which had a realistic "dance off-like" end credits). I also said, "You go girls"! (Okay, someone deduct 1000 points off my man card and shoot me while your at it). LOL

Ep 3: Kurumu's mom uses her "breast missile" attack (laser beams). Riiiiiight (>_>) LOL. Funny episode none the less.

Ep 4: OK... Houston, we have a problem! The anime is not even trying anymore to surpass the prior season. This episode was nothing but fan-service and the usual crap. Yukari is jealous of the big-breasted harem cast and she gets her wish of a grown-up body with all the perks that come with it. The rinse and repeat cycle of the show makes another entry:

1) Some slight problem
2) Some funny giggles
3) A monster attacks
4) Transformation and resulting "butt kicking"
5) Capu Chuuuuu

Rinse and repeat I tell you. It made it even worse that the bat coverings are actively blocking even more of the fan-service this time around. One-third of the episode was covered with those stupid bat sensors. As for the usual Moka transformation, they didn't even bother showing the fight this time. It was so routine, that they just gave us some text on the top of the screen that would tell of what was happening as we, the viewers, already know the drill.
This anime better get it's act together soon...

Ep 5: Website Glitch... V_V

I had a detailed desciption of what is wrong so far with this anime but since there are other forces holding me back, I guess you'll have to watch for yourself and decide...

Ep 6 is the real beginning of the series. After five eps of no story, we get how the anime should've started off. This ep had the usual funny/action/panty shots galore themes that put the original title on the map. After the "crap-tacular" first five eps, this series has finally begun to climb out of the hole it put itself in and has "leveled up" to Rosario + Vampire-status. Too bad it would've been much further along by now if they didn't waste all that time.

Now that the series is being serious, we can see how this title became so popular in the first place. I only judge this anime so critically because I know how great it really is (especially last season) and if it was a bit less stupid and a bit more serious, it would be a masterpiece! Ep 7 is the perfect example of what i'm talking about. We have a simple episode of the main lead going home and the girls following him. The laughs were extreme in this ep as the mother gets to meet the girls and just how they all fight for the main lead's affection. I laughed with tears in my eyes as the cousin, Kyo, comes over and tries to judge them all to find the girl that is the right match for Tsukune and the misunderstandings get way out of hand. The fight between the girls gets serious and they take it outside (!) and fight for real! Kurumu, Mizore, and Yukari lose themselves and fight with the intent to kill (the animation was crisp and clean, worthy of a perfect score) but the "newly determined" Moka puts some sense back into them. The talk the mother had with Moka was really something and Moka is more determined now about Tsukune then ever before. The bat even called Tsukune afterwards to give him the battle time for this weeks fight like usual - LOL. Genuinely funny episode and I laughed like it was a disease. This title is everything in one package and like i've been saying all along, it would be perfect if they toned down the slap-stick (just a little bit from the first half of eps) and focused more on the girls or the story. I still love this title regardless and can't wait for more laughs/story/romance/battles!!!

Ep 8: FOR CRYING OUT LOUD!!! Episode eight is exactly what i've been negatively preaching about! This ep was ridiculously retarded and random (keyword on random). I didn't even crack a smile, so (for me) what was the point of this stupid ep!!! They weren't even trying to deliver a "half-way" decent episode here! They literally stalled though the whole 25 minutes by using a bunch of "chapters" (>_>) to fill half the ep with random scenes and skits of the girls all doing random things (not funny at all by the way). To add further insult-to-injury, they threw in a crappy scene with Ruby walking to a "sing-along" type beat while with her dog and she meets the gang to end the episode. Also, to spit in the viewer's face even more, after the credits they finally decide to show something of interest. I recall saying to myself, "Oh NOW they want to give us a little story-line"! This ep should be (I say it was) a complete disgrace to all anime-lovers! Stupid, crappy, worthless, disgraceful, retarded, useless, meaningless, trash, filth, gargabe, waste, zero, sad excuse for a piece of work episode ever!!! Avoid at all costs!

Ep 9 shapes up the story again (this roller coaster style is very taxing). This ep was funny, had plenty of drama, and was just as enjoyable as the other eps as far as fanservice is concerned. With the focus on Kokoa this time, she comes up with the plan to beat the "weak" Moka by stealing her rosemary. They all go to a skii resort (their school sure has a lot of field trips) and the gals all want to be alone with Tsukune. Mizore talks about warming him up with her “pink soft skin” (i'll let you ponder on what that can mean). A bunch of things happen and he finds himself in a situation where he and Kokoa are alone and trapped together. They talk (for the first time) and things shift over to her jealousy of Tsukune always stealing what Moka has to offer (who told her about the blood transfer last season). He answers her anger with kindness but she swears that she wouldn't fall for him like the other girls. A yeti attacks and I don't need to mention what happens after that as you already know (rosemary pull and resulting kick of death). When this title tries to be good, it excels like no other but when it isn't trying, it sucks like hell. Very wishy-washy to say the least but what can you do? Great ep anyway...

Ep 10 some punk gets transferred to the school and has a knack for luring females into doing whatever he wants! He puts the moves on all of Tsukune's girls and Tsukune is powerless to stop him. The guy puts on a huge concert (great music by the way) that has a Spanish flare to it and causes the whole school to fall under his control (where are the males during this time?). Tsukune is stopped by the controlled Ruby and Kokoa finally arrives to shut him up (while looking for the stupid bat). She discovers that the guy is the bat (!) and can't stop him! Moka tries to save her sister but fails and Tsukune pulls the rosemary. The powered Moka and Kokoa both put him in his place and Moka tells Kokoa that the weak Moka is the one that tried to save her. Kokoa doesn't want to believe it and runs off. All is well with the rest of the gang. No progress for the main pair but a small issue has been sparked between Kokoa and her sister. Normal ep that belonged where some of those stall eps didn't...

Ep 11: Kick a** episode!!! Now this is what i'm talking about. Finally, the story is worthy of what the last season left us with. Too bad the series is almost over (it usually happens this way and they wonder why most animes always turn out regular or just plain crappy in the end)! This ep featured flirting, romance, comedy, action, panties (about 30% was cencored), breast fondling, drama, and an unexpected ending that will drive the rest of the series foward. Let's me just say that the issue with the two personas of Moka takes a dramatic turn for the better (or worse) in this ep. Great ep but it's a little too late to be happy about it...

Ep 12: Typical ending and a complete waste of a series.

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Last updated Thursday, February 12 2009. Created Saturday, September 27 2008.

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