Ms. Vampire who lives in my neighborhood.

Ms. Vampire who lives in my neighborhood.

Ms. Vampire who lives in my neighborhood anime cover art featuring Sophie, Akari, Ellie, and Hinata
Ms. Vampire who lives in my neighborhood. Cover Art

Overview

Ms. Vampire who lives in my neighborhood. is one of two shoujo ai, comedy, slice of life anime I watched during the Fall 2018 season; the other being UzaMaid! which I plan to review tomorrow. This series centers around a group of four girls, two of which are human and two of which are vampires.

There’s not much in the way of plot, as the series is episodic, so instead let’s move right on to what matters for an anime like this: art, animation, and characters.

If you couldn’t guess from the art style in the cover art (pictured above), this is a moe anime. As such, the art style is very rounded, cute, and full of color (except when it comes to Sophie’s wardrobe). If you’ve seen any other moe anime, then you won’t be surprised by anything this series does from a visual standpoint.

And, just like with the art style, the animation isn’t anything crazy either. That said, as long as the animation isn’t noticeably terrible, like it was in My Sister, My Writer, that’s all that matters for most slice of life anime.

So if the art is standard moe and the animation is standard slice of life, then is there anything that makes this anime stand out? In fact, there is. For all slice of life anime, the most important aspects have to do with the characters. Are they likable and do they have good chemistry?

As far as this is concerned, I think Ms. Vampire who lives in my neighborhood. did a good job. Each character is unique, and since there’s a very small cast, four main characters, and two to three supporting characters, we see enough of everyone to really get to know them.

Further, each character has her own set of quirks which all the other characters play around in different ways. Simply put, it’s enjoyable to watch these girls interact with each other even though nothing exciting really ever happens.

In some worse comedy, slice of life anime, only a few of the main cast are anything more than character tropes, so I was glad to see this wasn’t the case this time around. But, that’s not to say character tropes aren’t included at all; there’s a reason they’re tropes.

On the other hand, while the characters are all unique, none of them really stuck out to me as extremely special characters. For example, in Yuru Yuri, Kyōko Toshinō is the standout character who I felt really brought the series from “good” to “great.”

Characters

Akari Amano is the first of the four main characters we’re introduced to in the series. She’s a high school-aged girl, but despite this, she has an obsession with dolls, and I don’t mean children’s dolls, I mean those creepy, porcelain dolls.

After hearing a rumor about a living doll who has frequently been seen wandering throughout the woods nearby, Sophie wants to meet said doll and make her a part of her collection. However, instead of a living doll wandering in the woods, she finds Sophie Twilight, a vampire.

Due to being a vampire, Sophie doesn’t age and has a perfect complexion, which makes Akari instantly want to be her friend so that she can dress her up and admire her as if she were one of her dolls. But, while Sophie agrees to be her friend, the two don’t really have anything in common.

Sophie is a very modern vampire. She mainly stays indoors, but she enjoys going on walks at night ever since her elderly neighbor suggested that it would be good for her health (despite vampires being immortal already). She also doesn’t drink blood straight from humans and instead orders it online and has it delivered.

But, most importantly, Sophie is an otaku vampire. When she’s not sleeping during the day or going on walks at night, she’s watching anime, reading manga, and purchasing figures online. Relatable, right? In fact, she’ll even occasionally risk her life and go outside during the day if it means getting a limited edition piece of anime merch.

Speaking of merch, there’s a link to the DoubleSama.com shop up in the main menu.

Sophie Twilight and Akari Amano from the anime Ms. Vampire who lives in my neighborhood.
Sophie Twilight and Akari Amano

The next character is Akari’s best friend and classmate, Hinata Natsuki. There’s always one tomboyish girl who doesn’t think she looks nice in “girly” clothing in every anime like this, and Hinata is that character. Of the four main girls, she’s the one who most fits into a single trope.

However, she’s still a likable character nonetheless. Whether it’s that she has a crush on Akari or she simply doesn’t want to be replaced as her best friend, Hinata always wants to be close to her and gets jealous when anyone else gets to do so, especially Sophie.

Of the four girls, Hinata is also the most mature and is often able to “read the room” even when the others can’t. This trait in particular leads to some great interactions between her and the other three main characters.

Hinata also has a dog whose name I forget.

The final of the four main characters is another vampire, Ellie. I don’t remember how old Ellie is, but Sophie is 360 years old, so she’s probably somewhere around there too. However, unlike Sophie who has been living in the world this whole time, Ellie has actually been asleep for at least the past 100 years.

As a result, while Sophie is a very modern vampire who uses the internet to order everything she needs, Ellie doesn’t even understand the first thing about modern technology, such as computers, or modern customs. For example, she was shocked to learn that Akari was Sophie’s friend and not simply an emergency food supply.

While I enjoyed Sophie’s character a lot, I think Ellie is probably my favorite simply due to her outlook on the world. She remembers the good old days when you could go to a town square and see a public execution by guillotine, something she once took Sophie to see.

Ellie also doesn’t understand that things have value. She’s so used to the old days when she could simply take anything that she wanted or needed that she doesn’t understand that things cost money. Due to this, she frequently drinks or bathes in all of Sophie’s refrigerated blood which Sophie has to purchase.

Conclusion

Overall, Ms. Vampire who lives in my neighborhood. is a solid 7/10 as far as I’m concerned. I enjoyed it a lot while watching it, but I don’t think it’s so good that I would ever go out of my way to watch it again. It’s definitely better than many other similar series, but as I mentioned earlier, there are still better ones such as Yuru Yuri.

If you enjoy moe or slice of life anime in general then I would recommend giving this one a try, but if you mainly watch anime for either action or a real plot, then this may not be for you. That said, you can still always give it a shot and potentially find a new appreciation for series like this.

Have you watched Ms. Vampire who lives in my neighborhood? If so, what did you think of the anime? Let me know your thoughts on the series in the comments. And, if you liked this review and want me to review more anime like it, then click the like button down below.

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