“Seraph of the End – Vampire Reign†is an exciting, dark and kick ass anime series that I look forward for the second season! An exciting and enjoyable anime series that I definitely recommend!
Image courtesy of © Takaya Kagami, Yamato Yamamoto, Daisuke Furuya. All Rights Reserved.
TITLE: Seraph of the End: Vampire Reign – Season, 1 Part 1
ORIGINAL AIR DATE: 2015
DURATION: Episode 1-12Â (300 Minutes)
BLU-RAY INFORMATION: 1080p High Definition, Japanese 2.0 and 5.1 TrueHD, Subtitles: English
COMPANY: FUNimation
RATED: TV 14
Release Date: May 24, 2016
Originally created by Daisuke Furuya (Storyboard), Takaya Kagami (Story) and Yamato Yamamoto (Art)
Director: Daisuke TokudoNaoyuki Tatsuwa
Series Composition by Hiroshi Seko
Music by Asami Tachibana, Hiroyuki Sawano, Megumi Shiraishi, Takafumi Wada
Character Design by Satoshi Kadowaki
Art Director: Seiko Yoshioka
Anime Production: Wilt Studio
Featuring the following voice talent:
Kaito Ishikawa/Ian Sinclair as Shiho Kimizuki
Kensho Ono/Justin Briner as Mikaela Hyakuya
Miyu Irino/Micah Solusod as Yuichiro Hyakuya
Nobuhiko Okamoto/Chris Burnett as Yoichi Saotome
Saori Hayami/Felecia Angelle as Shinoa Hiragi
Takahiro Sakurai/Eric Vale as Ferid Bathory
YÅ«ichi Nakamura/Dave Trosko as Guren Ichinose
Yuka Iguchi/Alex Moore as Mitsuba Sangu
Aoi YÅ«ki/Monica Rial as Krul Tepes
Atsumi Tanezaki/Skyler McIntosh as Sayuri Hanayori
Daisuke Ono/Duncan Brannan as Norito Goshi
Kenichi Suzumura/Austin Tindle as Crowley Eusford
Tatsuhisa Suzuki/Jerry Jewell as Shinya Hiragi
Tomoaki Maeno as Kureto Hiragi
Yu Shimamura/Trina Nishimura as Mito JÅ«jÅ
Yui Ishikawa as Shigure Yukimi
The world of Seraph of the End Vampire Reign is overrun with vampires, and humans have been hunted to the brink of extinction. The only way they can fight back is with a series of demonic weapons known as Cursed Gear. Reserved for soldiers with exceptional talent, these weapons require humans to form pacts with ancient demons in exchange for their power.
Yuichiro Hyakuya is a young member of the Moon Demon Company, a prestigious army squadron armed with Cursed Gear and tasked with exterminating vampires. After the blood-sucking monsters killed his family when he was a child, Yuichiro vowed he wouldn’t stop fighting until every last one was dead.
But when a familiar face from his past appears sporting a new set of fangs, the line drawn between good and evil begins to blur. There’s something special about Yuichiro – a dark power that the vampires call the Seraph of the End. When that power is unleashed, will he be the key to humanity’s salvation or its complete destruction? Don’t miss out on the first season of Seraph of the End Vampire Reign!
In 2012, mangaka Takaya Kagami (“The Legend of the Legendary Heroesâ€), artist Yamato Yamamoto (“Kure-naiâ€, “Denpa Tei na Kanojoâ€) and storyboard artist Daisuke Furuya teamed up to work on the dark fantasy manga series “Owari no Serafuâ€.
While the manga series is ongoing in Japan, the first season of the anime series was released on television in 2015 and was released on Blu-ray + DVD in the US in May 2016.
Produced by Wilt Studios, the anime series is directed by Daisuke Tokudo (“Guilty Crown”, “Hal”), series composition by Hiroshi Seko (“Attack on Titan”, “Ajin: Shototsu”, “Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress”), character design by Satoshi Kadowaki (“Attack on Titan”, “Kannagi: Crazy Shine Maidens”) and art direction by Seiko Yoshioka.
“Seraph of the End†begins with an introduction of how an unknown virus brought the world to a sudden end. Only children under 13-years-old survived and those children were enslaved by vampires.
The story introduces us to an impulsive boy named Yuichiro Hyakuya who wants nothing more but to kill vampires. But his friend Mikaela Hyakuya is a boy who is more levelheaded and tries to get his friend to think straight and know they are not powerful enough to defeat them.
For Yuichiro, he wants nothing more but his fellow friends to escape captivity from the underground city of Sanguinem and reach the outside.
And one day, all of them decide to make their escape…but will they be successful?
Yuichiro Hyakuya wants nothing more but to get his revenge on the vampires who killed his friends, especially his best friend, Mikaela Hyakuya, who sacrificed his life in order for Yuichiro to escape.
Fast forward years later and as Yuichiro is wanting to become a member of the Japanese Imperial Demon Army, the army responsible for fighting against the vampires, he needs to learn discipline and train for combat. But first he must go through the various tests in school which include being friends with others and being a team player, all are hard for Yuichiro to try and do.
But now is his chance to pass the test to advance, but it means having to partner with another hot-headed teen like himself, who doesn’t mind getting into brawls…Kimizuki.
Will Yuichiro, Kimizuki and Yoichi be ready for their next test? And will Yuichiro make new friends?
Meanwhile, what happened to Mikaela Hyakuya after Yuichiro escaped from the Vampire lair?
VIDEO:
“Seraph of the End: Vampire Reign” is presented in 1080p High Definition. The anime series is absolutely vibrant and colorful. The background, especially the foreground artwork are beautifully painted and well-detailed, while the character designs are well-done and well-shaded. This is a gorgeous looking anime series and definitely a series a television series that caught my attention because it’s not soft, if features amazing detail and is full of colors and really does a great job of complimenting the manga series.
AUDIO & SUBTITLES:
“Seraph of the End: Vampire Reign” is presented in Japanese 2.0 Dolby TrueHD and English 5.1 Dolby TrueHD. Dialogue and music is crystal clear through the front channels and I heard no distortion while watching this anime series. The voice acting is fantastic for both Japanese and English soundtracks. Of course, with the English 5.1 soundtrack having better use of more audio channels.
Subtitles are in English.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
“Seraph of the End: Vampire Reign – Season 1, Part 1″ comes with the following special features:
- Episode 1 Commentary – Audio commentary featuring Micah Solusod, Eric Vale and Justin Briner.
- Episode 8 Commentary – Audio Commentary featuring Alex Moore, Ian Sinclair, Felecia Angelle and Micah Solusod.
- Episode 11 Volume Commentary – Video Commentary Micah Solusod (voice of Yuichiro), Justin Briner (voice of Mikaela Hyakuya), Felecia Angelle (voice of Shinoa) and Alex Moore (voice of Mitsuba).
- Textless Opening and Closing Songs
- US Trailer
- Promo Videos
- BD/DVD Promos
- Seraph of the Endless Parts 1-9 – (18:49) Hilarious omake that were shown at the end of each episode.
EXTRAS:
“Seraph of the End: Vampire Reign” comes with a slipcover and both the Blu-ray + DVD discs for this first season.
“Seraph of the End – Vampire Reign†is a dark fantasy anime series based on the manga by mangaka Takaya Kagami (“The Legend of the Legendary Heroesâ€), artist Yamato Yamamoto (“Kure-naiâ€, “Denpa Tei na Kanojoâ€) and storyboard artist Daisuke Furuya.
The three teamed up to work on the dark fantasy manga series “Owari no Serafu†(“Seraph of the End”) and an anime adaptation courtesy of Wilt Studios. The series was rather enjoyable as the storyline featured children living underground as slaves of vampires. Literally, as cattle that they can feed upon.
Wanting nothing more but to escape the vampires even though they are not powerful, the main protagonist Yuiichiro is your typical headstrong teen who desires nothing more but to defeat them but desperately wants the power to do so.
But in order to join the Demon Army, he must make friends and learn the importance of family. But as for his orphan family and the person he was most close to, Mikaela…what will happen when Yuichiro find out the boy he called brother, has become a vampire?
While Mika became a vampire, he still harbors his hatred towards the vampires. While Yuichiro, thinking Mika is dead, has used his thirst for revenge to become a member of the Japanese Imperial Demon Army, the army responsible for fighting against the vampires. And he has trained with his partners and received discipline and power to fight back.
But when he has a chance to kill the vampires, he is shocked to find out that the one he has to kill is Mikaela, and vice versa, as Mikaela finds out the vampire hunters he is to kill, one is Yuichiro.
But now that they know that one another is alive, what will happen to them now?
There is quite a bit of potential that leaved me wanting to watch more after all was done, as the humans vs. vampires war seems to get exciting with each episode.
The animation production by Wilt Studio is fantastic! The series is colorful, well-shaded and the art backgrounds was really well done! The series really compliments the original manga style with violence, darkness and more! So, on Blu-ray, picture quality and lossless audio is fantastic! Voice acting is wonderful on both Japanese and English soundtracks, with the English dub getting a nod for its 5.1 lossless soundtrack!
And the Blu-ray also comes with a good number of special features including a video and two audio commentaries!
Overall, “Seraph of the End – Vampire Reign†is an exciting, dark and kick ass anime series that I look forward for the second season!
An exciting and enjoyable anime series that I definitely recommend!
