From the beginning, the frustrations of a Vampire Princess being locked in a house are many. The first episode throws a lot of scattered world-building jargon at the viewer, along with some very unpleasant, non-consensual yuri fetish fanservice, that if it weren’t for my grim determination to find out What the hell is going on, I’d have given it up a long time ago.
The exasperation requires the majority of the audience—not only to accept that this is a world constantly at war, where death is no longer an issue (dead warriors are revived by their proximity to each other). nation’s “Dark Core,” a MacGuffin that remains unexplained), but a weak, scared, squeaky little girl can earn the respect to command a military unit. Despite the superficial similarities, this is not a situation where Tanya-Komari’s Demon is not the reincarnation of a super-powered, sociopathic businessman. She is a poorly socialized child and her constant fear is evident through her body language, words, and actions.
The more we learn about Komari’s world, the harder it becomes to take Vexations seriously. I know this is an anime, but do we really believe that the stability of an entire country depends on the military decisions of a group of extremely unstable teenage girls, many of whom harbor Inexplicable lesbian thirst for awkward Komari, an actual child? So maybe this is a comedy? It’s certainly filled with great humor, only some of which lands due to the odd timing and very different tones.
One moment Komari is accidentally slaughtering her subordinates, the next she’s clumsily propositioned by her mysterious horny maid, then engaged in complex discussions about her plans. military plans with his colleagues or reliving a past tragic childhood trauma, witnessing bloody violence and mutilation before interacting with an enlisted soldier who constantly showing excitement and only communicating through rap. Every episode is filled with moments of extreme tension, like the show can’t decide what genre it wants to be, let alone what kind of story it wants to tell.
In particular, yuri added seemed to be stuck in it purely to cater to specific interests. They add very little to the story or the characters; If anything, the maid Vill’s predatory behavior seems annoying and repetitive. Komari never agreed and almost always asked Vill to stop his behavior. As Komari meets newer female characters, they often develop confusing romantic attachments to her—none of which she reciprocates. By the end of the show, she has a harem built around her, including three central girls, none of whom show any romantic interest. In a season that featured the excellent next-level yuri storytelling of I Love Villains, Vexation’s pandering yuri feints come off as superficial, creepy, and misguided. Komari also looks (and acts) like a thirteen year old, so make of that what you will.
Technically, the film starts off strong with beautiful and detailed character designs, smooth animation, flashy, colorful action, and entertaining pyrotechnics. Unfortunately, studio project #9 couldn’t maintain the pace, with a noticeable drop in quality in the second half and a truly embarrassing final episode filled with off-model characters and limited animations restrained to the point of reducing the effect of every climactic action scene. This may be rectified as the Japanese release of the last two Blu-ray volumes has been delayed by a month for “quality control” purposes.
In terms of storytelling, this is a frustrating show to watch. There are several main arcs, and within each of them, the conflict is ultimately resolved by using Komari’s deus ex machina special ability, “Core Implosion”, to grant her unexpected divine powers to overpower her. Island your enemies. Once or twice, I can understand, but using this plot device on three separate occasions is just lazy. The conflicts are often difficult to follow, with the writing prioritizing humor and nonsense over coherent communication. Very few characters act naturally; everyone seems to know more about Komari than she does, making the choices of some characters difficult to justify even when considered later with hindsight and subsequent new information.
Despite my overall negative reaction to Vexations, there were still plenty of enjoyable moments in the show, mostly from the show’s truly absurd instances of humor. WTF am I even watching? ”. I suspect this might be one of the shows best experienced while drunk, and unfortunately, I made the mistake of watching without the aid of extreme chemical enhancement.