Acclaimed director Mamoru Oshii’s latest venture VladLove had just released a special preview of its first episode on YouTube. From the look of this first episode, VladLove seems to be Oshii’s return to his comedy roots. Oshii first became famous directing the romantic comedy series Urusei Yatsura, as did VladLove's co-director Junji Nishimura. What is truly striking is VladLove’s bizarre animation style, which is quite unique for anime.
VladLove’s first episode introduces the main characters and the series' premise. The story is about a high school girl Mitsugu Bamba who is obsessed with blood donation. She meets a vampire girl named Mai while trying to donate blood. Mai cannot bite humans directly, since her bite turns humans into vampire slaves, so she can only drink from blood bags. Following the advice of the school doctor Chihiro Chihmatsuri, Bamba decides to help Mai by starting a blood donation club at school.
The episode starts out with live-action helicopter footage of Tokyo’s night skyline before shifting into a serious-looking scene of the police breaching a shipping container, with only an antique doll sitting inside. The opening credits also combine the live-action music video of the opening song with characters in the anime, with the characters becoming the band by the end of the opening. The blending of live-action with animation is not unusual, but still quite interesting.
This is only the start of the series’ visual idiosyncrasy. The animation contains a copious amount of split-screen scenes that take place against very stylized yellowed and withered backgrounds, much like old photographs. The contrast between the vibrant colored animation and the antique style background does present visually exciting possibilities, but when every other scene is done in this style, it feels redundant and gimmicky.
The split-screen animation is especially confusing when a lot of the split screens do not present any new information, only serving as distractions. The above screenshot shows a particularly pointless one, with a view of Mai’s face on the left, the close-up of her mouth on the right and Bamba’s tired face in the middle. If it is an attempt to show Bamba’s point of view and her fetishization of Mai’s mouth, the animation could do more to display this on Bamba’s face. In comparison, the next scene where Bamba peeps on a sleeping Mai is a much more effective use of the split-screen. The inconsistency with how and why split-screens are used is the primary problem with the style.
It is a bit hard to tell whether it is done simply as a visual style or as a cost/time-saving measure. Most anime is produced by a production committee, which means multiple companies share the financial burden of the production. In contrast, VladLove is produced by a single company called Ichigo Animation, a subsidiary of a Japanese real estate company Ichigo Inc. The advantage of having a single investor is that it allows the creator more creative freedom. However, if the series fails, all the loss will fall upon Ichigo Animation. It's possible that Oshii is using animation tricks to save some money for his sole investor.
Another possible money-saving trick is the use of still images with voice-overs. This is a common trick done by series such as Gintama. While Gintama uses still images in a meta and self-deprecating way to acknowledge its lack of money, VladLove’s use of still images is not as consistent. When stills are used as flashbacks, they look beautiful and are good for storytelling. Other times, they're used more arbitrarily, perhaps as a way to put in more dialogue without drawing the action.
In fairness, there are many moments where the animation is fluid and very effective at enhancing the atmosphere or the comedic effects. The comedy is also a bit old fashioned and not as edgy as some more contemporary comedies, they are nonetheless charming and quite funny, such as this visual gag of censoring nudity with the words "artistic necessity."
It's also worth noting this stream is considered a "special version" of the episode, and the version that makes it to air might be different. The series' premiere was delayed due to the pandemic. Will the final aired version showcase any new animation, or is it just more of the same split-screen tricks?
