Mahiru Shirota firmly believes that simple is best and troublesome things should be avoided at all costs. It is troublesome to do nothing and regret it later—and this ideology has led the 15-year-old to pick up a stray cat on his way home from school. As he affectionately names the feline Kuro, little does he know that this chance meeting will spark an extraordinary change in his everyday life.
One day, Mahiru returns home to find something quite strange: a mysterious young man he has never seen before. His subsequent panic results in the uninvited guest being exposed to sunlight and—much to Mahiru's shock—transforming into Kuro! Upon revealing himself as a mere lazy shut-in vampire, Kuro promises to leave once night falls. However, one disaster after another leads to Mahiru accidentally forming a contract with his new freeloader, dragging him into a life-threatening battle of supernatural servants and bloodthirsty beings that is anything but simple.
I have seen plenty of Josei anime to the point I can surely say what makes it quite distinguishing from other genre is that most of the time, it consisting characters driven story and has high attention to the realism. Servamp caught my interest because it happens to fallen to be one of the genres and it ended up to be exceptional. Exceptional that it is so badly done that ends up being counterproductive.
The story of Servamp follows Mahiru... actually; the main story is pretty much covered in the synopsis, so there isn't much reason for me to regurgitate the same thing in different words.
Long story short, Servamp is really something we’ve seen hundreds of times before; ordinary high school boy meets weird stuff (in this case black cats) and gets caught in a live or die situation with all convenient we’ve come to expect of such story.
Now, in all respect there’s nothing wrong with a premise that is lack of originality. But servamp just feel…. quite empty. The plot is just something you encounter in battle shounen series; if you’re looking for in-depth plot then look further because the show doesn’t had any. Everything in the plot is pretty clear black and white, the bad guy is obvious and the good guy is always on the side good guys. The first few episodes are generally geared towards comedy with little real progression. The actual comedy isn't too bad and some moments are fairly funny, but hit or miss jokes aren't enough to make something entertaining. The series then shifts to more of a battle shounen with action, however, the action isn’t that much interesting and feels rushed because most of the time it ended with always ends with one slash. I’d also like to mention the tone is pretty I don’t know… not appropriate? because the show explained that the bad vampires is a creature that kills human, yet everything is feel so mundane and light, there no sense of urgency; it is as if the show doesn’t take the whole the matters seriously.
The characters well... we get to see the major protagonist and the major villain gets a backstory (which is all sad/ tragic story by the way) but somehow it wasn’t full enough to make us sympathize with them. The supporting is even worse, because they don’t even have time due to the short length. One of the prime example is Misono, on which his dreams is to protect people, but it never be explained why he do so considering he looks like some rich boy who doesn’t care with anyone.
Furthermore, due to the short length, many of the questions raised are left unanswered, coupled with an unsatisfying conclusion (not that it concludes anything), which ends just as it seems the real story is about to begin; it told the viewers there are seven servamp based of seven sins yet at the end of the series there are only five present and the ending was cop out and feels like Disney’s ending.
Then there is the art, which is certainly Servamp best area. But even then, it is not above series in at least 2 years back. There are a wide range of colors used for all of the characters, which is nice but it the background are just present I guess. The animation quality is decent. There are a few instances where they turn it up a notch, but this is mostly for action scenes, which rarely last more than two minutes. all in all it is competent to today standard.
The soundtrack was okay. The opening were all right and suited the series but were also pretty generic themes. The opening theme was slightly better as it set up the episodes quite well, and the visuals associated with it were actually relevant to the story of the anime. The rest of the soundtrack, while not being anything noteworthy, matched the mood of the scenes and worded well overall. However, I found the ED to be terrible, but that’s more like luxury than actual criticism.
Servamp is a pretty underwhelming action/comedy series The early couple of episodes maybe mildly entertaining, but as a whole the series is quite frustrating, due to a lack of any real closure. We’re introduced to an extensive cast, but many of them lacked a decent back story. Mahiru, being the main character, wasn't particularly interesting, but the side characters were, even if most were given very little time to shine. It's in the middle episodes, where it feels very rushed, that most of the enjoyment is lost. The production values are solid, but nothing to blow anyone away. I would also like to mention, that if you are expecting to see traditional vampires, then you will be generally disappointed.
A forgotten series and probably one of few Josei series that I personally found bad.
The top rated review for this being a '3' seems very exaggerated. An anime that is rated a '3' lacks not only in story, but also art, sound and character. Here's why that is not true:
Story: 8/10
This is a setting that many have seen before. Normal High School student is met with the supernatural and pulled into a whole different world. So far, it doesn't seem like there is anything too amazing about it. However, I have not yet encountered a story in which said supernatural creature is literally THE most lazy person in the show, which often helps loosen the 'deep' mood that the
story is going for with an amusing comment about how he'd rather take a nap than do anything 'bothersome'.
Art: 9/10
The animation is great, and the character design is a very favorite of mine. Bright colors, distinctive character designs so that you don't get confused about who is who - nothing to complain about here.
Sound: 8/10
I really love the opening by Oldcodex that suits the anime's darker theme, but also the ending that gives you a more upbeat and happy-go-lucky feeling if there has been a particularly 'dark' episode.
Character: 8/10
The main character is your everyday hero who wants to protect his friends and do everything right, which comes across as a bit generic at times. What really pulled me in was Kuro, the second main character, who (while being one of the laziest people on Earth) still manages to be powerful when needed, and also funny at times.
A few episodes in is when the character development of Kuro starts to happen, when you start getting a deeper look into what has happened in his past.
Enjoyment: 9/10
I really cannot say I disliked watching any of these episodes. I'm always looking forward to the next one, and can't say that I felt like I wasted time with any of the episodes.
Overall: 8/10
If you're someone who enjoys an anime with a pretty art style and bright colors, an anime that is somehow 'deep' but still manages to bring in funny and amusing scenes (sometimes when you least expect it), then I highly recommend this to you.
At first I just brush off this anime like those typical shounen, blah, plain MC ect. But somewhere through the 3rd and 4th episode, Mahiru grew on me. Not because he is anything special but the way he thinks. I can't deny that Mahiru's words are gonna stick with me the rest of my life. No matter when or where, there is always people hoping that 'someone' would come and because that 'someone' would definitely appear, the world keeps going. It isn't gonna be just him or just Kuro but it will be them.
If it's Kuro's problem, Mahiru has to be there, there isn't anything
to be faced alone. The problem might be Kuro's but Mahiru is his eve, his partner and his 'reason'. (as Mikuni had said) And seriously, despite everything, do you guys really want this to be 'oh I stab the antagonist, he ded, the end' is that kind of ending what you want? I think the ending was quite nice and peaceful and it wasn't unpleasant. It was a nice change. I don't need to see blood flying everywhere and people dying to call it a GREAT VICTORY! =_=
Licht, Lawless, Kuro, Mahiru, Tsubaki and Sakuya are really interesting characters and even though the anime did not best in showing off characters such as the Pride pair and Lust pair, C3 as such, it did made some great show out of the more standing out ones. I enjoy the Greed pair the most (no surprise)
I guess one of the reason I liked this anime is because there are a lot of angst going on in some anime now *COUGHDANGANRONPACOUGH* and not only that, because people now a-days just keeps spamming horror/angst/negative emotions. I really like how this anime turns out despite it's various flaw.
Looking for a series that constantly likes to add characters and ideas, then let it all pile up and do nothing with them? If that’s the case, then “Servamp” is right up your ally.
To make things clear, I do not mind the ideas the show has to offer. I found the concept of Servamps and Eves to be quite interesting. The problem I had with it was how everything was presented. Each episode gave us new subplots after another where eventually we have a bunch of things happening at the same time with almost no conclusion. It then makes me question what the main plot
is because when something new happens, that suddenly takes priority. By the time the series finished, many things were left discarded and unanswered.
Similar to the plot, the characters never go anywhere in terms of personality. They just appear and decide to be involved in the conflict like it was nothing. The main characters have zero presence and don’t even feel like main characters. I had a hard time figuring out who the actual antagonist was or if there even was one. It’s not an exaggeration when I say that we get two of more characters introduced each episode. We’re overwhelmed with all of these people who have little to no presence. There is one thing I would like to mention. Each of the Servamps represent one of the seven deadly sins, and two of them are disregarded save for a flashback scene way later into the show. It was to my surprise that these two had appeared within five chapters of the manga, which baffles me because I don’t know why that choice was made.
The only positive thing I can say about it is the animation. It’s actually not that bad. The character designs were unique and each episode was often consistent. The action sequences weren’t terrible, but still a bit uninteresting. I did like it when the style changed like when a Servamp was using its powers or we were inside their minds.
Although it had some good ideas and animation, “Servamp” is still pretty boring with nothing to it. If I may be completely honest, the only thing that I truly got out of the show was the opening theme. It’s one of the styles of music that I love, but what got me was how unexpected it was. I had known beforehand that this was based on a shoujo manga, so this opening surprised the hell out of me. Knowing there are major differences in the manga, I may give that a shot someday. Otherwise, I don’t plan on revisiting the anime.