Karin Review

Karin
Genre: Comedy, Romance, Supernatural
Air Date: November 2005
Episode Count: 24

Karin Maaka is the middle child in a family of vampires living in Japan. However, unlike the rest of her family, she does not need to suck blood from humans. Instead, her blood level increases to the point that she needs to infuse her victims with blood--if she doesn't, she suffers from massive nosebleeds. Due to the fact that she's not a 'real' vampire, Karin also can do things that the rest of the fully mature vampires in her family can't, like be out in the daylight. Because of this, she goes to high school like a regular teenager. One day, a boy named Kenta Usui transfers to her school. Karin's body reacts to him and starts to overproduce blood whenever he's around, and Kenta soon discovers Karin's secret. The budding romance between Kenta and Karin is complicated by her eccentric family and the fact that she is not fully a vampire but neither is she fully human.

While Karin may not be groundbreaking or a masterpiece, it is quite an amusing addition to the romantic-comedy genre. For me what really made the series enjoyable was the cute and well-done romance between Karin and Kenta and the antics of Karin's family. While the other side-characters were occasionally amusing, it was really the family dynamics that helped make the show for me. The dopey dad, pushy mother, suave older brother (Ren), serious and brilliant younger sister (Anju) with her loud-mouth puppet and the later addition of the strong-willed (and well-preserved) grandmother all helped fuel moments of comedy and provided some of the most memorable characters.

Karin is on the surface the same large-breasted, sweet, oblivious, clumsy, bento-making anime female that typically annoys me. However, somehow she never got on my nerves--well, maybe once, when her obliviousness reached the point of ridiculousness in the scene when her friend illustrated a 'hypothetical' situation in which the 'hypothetical' people obviously included Karin and Kenta, which Karin didn't pick up on. Her needlessly large chest still annoys me, but Karin herself doesn't.

Besides the bustiness of the main character, the only other aspect that occasionally got on my nerves was Winner-kun, the gung-ho vampire hunter who fell madly in love with Karin and rivalled her in obliviousness. In the beginning he was funny, but eventually he became a tad grating.

The music was well-done, if not anything spectacular. However, the OP, "Scarlet," was very catchy and got stuck in my head after every time I listened to it. The art was also nothing to write home about, but the bright colors and pleasing character designs made it quite passable.

I'm a sucker for romance (no pun intended, honestly) and love anything that can actually make me laugh out loud--which the show did, multiple times. The show did turn a bit more dramatic in the second half--and espeically in the final few episodes--but even then it still provided a few laughs. While Karin won't break into my top 10 list, I'm still very happy I found this show. Not every show can become a favorite, but it can still be worth watching. Karin is definitely worth watching for light, fluffy, romantic fun.

I also just found out that the Karin manga is being published in the US by Tokyopop under the title Chibi Vampire. I find this title silly, but I suppose it could have been worse. The second volume is coming out in August 2006, and there are currently eight volumes are out in Japan (don't know if the series is finished or not yet).

Overall: 8/10