Seraph of the End: Vampire Reign

Episode 6

The Seraph of the End manga is apparently made by three different people (a writer, storyboarder, and artist) and that makes a lot of sense to me. Its story is highly competent, but lacks the particular fixations that characterize an individual creator. Its almost like Seraph of the End was synthesized out of pieces of other works for the widest mass-market appeal. It has Attack on Titan's premise, the combination school/military setting of The irregular at magic high school or World Trigger, Soul Eater's original character-based weapon types, and simplified character designs from Fullmetal Alchemist. I don't think that this is bad, necessarily. I enjoy the small doses of flavor that Seraph of the End does have. (For example, everyone is unnecessarily mean to each other all the time.) It's even managed to be entirely inoffensive in a climate where I expect some degree of “ugh” in most mainstream entertainment. This neutral narrative quality has its upsides and downsides. For example, I have mixed feelings on Kinoko Nasu and NisiOisin as writers, but their distinct voices keep me coming back for more. By contrast, Seraph of the End is defined more by what it isn't than what it is. Although the show works better than most, its lack of an independent identity seems to turn some people off.

Last week ended with Guren shepherding Yuichiro, Yoichi, and Kimizuki off for their final exams. This involves giving them weapons (a katana for Yuichiro, bow for Yoichi, and dual daggers for Kimizuki) and having them fight off the demons inside. Shihou Kimizuki is afraid of feeling burdened by his sister, but he gets over that easily enough. This new demon – named Asuramaru – confronts Yuichiro with pretty much the same material as the last one. He wins against it by yelling for a little while and gets a sweet lime green katana out of the deal. Asuramaru also warns Yuichiro not to trust humanity, and that's he's also “10% inhuman.” Curious. I wonder if this has something to do with his time living with vampires? Or the fact that he's the CHOSEN SPECIAL ONE OF THE PROPHECY? That hasn't been brought up for a while, actually.

Surprisingly Yoichi is the one who fails the test. The demon possesses him because he lacks the will to fight back. It plays into an incident from his childhood where he saw his sister get killed by a vampire, but couldn't do anything. He has the opposite of Yuichiro's problem – a gentle soul, he holds no malice towards anyone. Unfortunately, he's a total pushover who lets other people take advantage of him without fighting back. He's a good foil to the rest of the cast, all impulsive meatheads of various stripes.

So Yoichi turns into a demon (complete with tiny oni horns) and starts trying to kill everyone. Guren declares him a lost cause and commands Yuichiro and Kimizuki to slay their friend. Instead, they manage to draw Yoichi back out by appealing to his humanity - something that's apparently never ever happened in the entire history of humans messing with demon weaponry. Shocked but impressed, Guren sends all three to the front lines. Soon the vampire hunting will begin in earnest!

This was a fine episode. It had the right pathos for the moment (Yoichi was the least developed of the main five) and featured a nice action scene. The character animation is back to normal after last week's excellence, but production values remain high. Seraph of the End is still high-quality shonen action.

Grade: B

Seraph of the End: Vampire Reign is currently streaming on Funimation.

Gabriella Ekens studies film and literature at a US university. Follow her on twitter.