I first began collecting the Karin Series last year when it was released by Geneon after the third volume it was gone. Gone! and all the trades said it was gone for good! Off into a vast anime oblivion, discontinued due to a failed distribution company. Thankfully My Personal Heroes at Funimation Entertainment caught the rights to distribute Karin and other Geneon Niche titles to the US and Canada.
Buy,Download, Or Stream Karin: The Complete Series Box Set! Click Here
Well enough of the history lesson. This anime is truly a great piece of art, and No I don’t believe I’m overstating it either. The Original Manga by Yuna Kagesaki differs somewhat from the anime namely the anime could not be an exact expression of Manga-ka Kagesaki’s vision it had to be cut down to fit into a 25 episode series, and “work for TV”. The Manga covers over 13 volumes of text and art. (avilable fom Tokyopop under the title Chibi Vampire) originaly published in “Monthly Dragon Magazine” and “Monthly Comic Dragon” in Japan. The animation was done by JC Staff known for fanservice, but, though evident, it is toned way down in the this series. The now defunct Odex of singapore produced the English dub. The English version was written and directed at Odex by American voice artist and puppetteer. Mr. Paul Pistore. Who’s script provided a very fluid dialect in English, which in my opinion captured the original writers intent fully. I have shaired many e-mails with Mr. Pistore regarding his work on Karin and other more recent projects. The main cast besides Mr. Pistore consists of Ms. Chelsea Curto as Karin Marker, and Mr. Yahav Rom as Kenta Usui. Both are excelent matches for their respective charicters, along with Mr. Pistore and the balance of the cast, well they should all be recognized for their work.
Karin is a very emotional story of unexpected love between classmates Kenta Usui, the new transfer student from the north with funny eyes, and Karin Marker, a popular, yet youthfully awkward child of immigrant parents who has lived her life in Japan as a native aparently since early childhood.
Buy,Download, Or Stream Karin: The Complete Series Box Set! Click Here
Here’s one of the hooks, Karen is a vampire. Or rather her situation is being an outsider in her own family. Instead of sucking or rather drinking human blood Karin’s body overproduces blood which she must either inject into a “victim” or she suffers painful and profuse nose bleeds, this qualifies her as an un-vampire.
“Look for a more friendly vampire mythos in Karin, it’s not the same old Dracula, Twilight, Forever Knight, Ann Rice, stuff. It’s much more… Friendly, as I said, and Karinesque vampires are more like a subspecies of human than the usual ‘undead bloodsucker mythos’ which we’ve all seen before.”
Considering this is a vampire title I was astounded to see the morality that each charicter shows. Kenta Usui dreams of working hard and being a good citizen and a family man. Karin also works hard like Kenta is genuenly a moral person, her family, though vampiric is a traditional nuclear family, and despite family disputes they all appear in their own way to love and support Karin. There really are no villans, only people with different perspectives.
One interisting thing is that Kenta is not bound to Karin by some spell, curse, transdimentional warp, Renfield like devotion, or any other anime cliche’ devise, as I would have expected. His bond to Karin Grows out of his and her personalities, and his desire to be friendly and a good man. Karin’s situation is a little more camplex. She feels uneasy near Kenta and has nose bleeds, she cheers herself, and himself up by making him a bento lunch, daily! As time goes by, boy and girl together, well you know.
I think Love would have come to the couple sooner if they weren’t constantly interupted by, Vampire hunters, classmates, and Karin’s family attempting to stop their budding relationship.
This anime is also very much about acceptance. When Kenta finds out about Karin’s vampiric heritage, he does not freak out, he accepts her as she is. Later Karin’s friends find out her secret and they accept her. Even the supposed villians accept her, and eventualy Karin’s family accepts Kenta, except for her father Henry Marker (voiced by Paul Pistore) who is stereotypicaly overprotective of his teenage daughter.
I think of this series and it makes me smile. It works as a shonen and as a shojo title. It’s so darn emotional and downright sweet, you’ll have to brush your teeth/fangs afterwards, or you’ll get cavities.
Karin is one of those unmistakably quirky but loveable Geneon properties that many anime fans (such as myself) feared would go down with the ship. Fortunately, Funimation has been diligent in their efforts of tossing out the lifeboats for countless such titles by re-releasing them to the North American market in all their original glory.
Released across 6 DVDs, the Funimation version of Karin consists of three thin packs (each containing two discs) within a tasteful cardboard slipcase. The show comes in at a 580-minute runtime and wears a fairly conservative 13+ rating. There is no real nudity to report (save for some covered-up body models in the opening) and the language is friendly to viewers of all ages. Sure there are a few juvenilely creepy vampire moments, but in all, this is definitely a title that will charm members of all age demographics.
The story goes something like this: Karin Maaka may seem like a perfectly normal teeny-bopper/ high school student with all of the usual dilemmas to keep her occupied: Dating, zits, anemia and the desire to bite into people’s necks.
Sure that last one isn’t that uncommon among the teenage set, keep in mind that our title character is in fact the middle child in a family of futuristic vampires who’ve made Japan their home.
As if being a vampire wasn’t enough, Karin is a reverse vampire (or an “un-vampire” as the case may be). This means that she doesn’t rely upon sucking the blood of others to live but rather makes her own supply just like the rest of us. Before you start to wonder if you are in fact a vampire as well, her condition is unique in that she makes too much of the red-stuff and has to bite others to get rid of some of her own.
Here’s the catch, Karin literally has to get rid of her excess corpuscles or risk volatile nose-bleeds as her body rids itself of the extra blood. The good news is that her victims don’t suffer from the bite/ injection but actually feel revitalized and refreshed (a trick that I’m forced to reply upon Red Bull to duplicate).
Another interesting facet of her “condition” is that the mood of those surrounding her has a distinct effect on her body’s blood affinity. In other words, Karin’s body starts working in overdrive in blood production when she’s around miserable people (good thing she doesn’t live around here). As such, the poor girl is often found doing all she can to try to better the moods of those around her.
Following in the footsteps of such classic shows as The Addam’s Family or The Munsters, a lot of Karin’s appeal comes from the fact that her family life is, for all facts and circumstances, surprisingly normal. Karin shares room and board with a brother, Ren and sister Anju with some fairly stereotypical parents (think protective father and quick-to-butt-in mother).
While her family may play the more traditional vampire role, Karin herself (don’t forget she is an un-vampire) lacks some of the typical traits such as vulnerability to sunlight, night vision, and the ability to erase memories. Yes she has the fangs but that only inhibits her on class-picture day.
The show itself just plain works, partially because Karin is a lovable lead character and partially because the whole vampire angle adds a nice element of mystery to the typical high-school comedy genre.
The show is as much High School Musical as it is Twilight and that’s not a bad thing. The heavy load of hiding the fact that she and hers are technically members of the “living dead”, teen romance, high school shenanigans, and a whole lot of coming of age in the modern world spruces things up.
Perhaps its greatest strength is how tastefully and humorously the context manages to parallel Karin’s unique blood dilemma to the budding menstrual cycles of all girls of similar age. As such many of the situations and tense moments have an inherent scale of relatability and realism.
Karin’s biggest weakness comes in the form of the art and animation, which isn’t anything spectacular. Not that either actually take away from a viewer’s ability to enjoy the smooth pacing and just plain fun prose, the backgrounds and character models are nothing spectacular either. The fan-service that managed to cause a bit of a reputation in the manga source-material has pretty much been eliminated entirely in the transition to anime (again except for the opening sequence, which hints toward much more risqué material than the show ever delivers).
The sound track is a mixed bag as well with upbeat pop numbers and smooth instrumentals that perfectly accent the teeny-theme of the show but the English dub isn’t one of the strongest out there. Like the visuals, the dub work is passable but not quite the butter-smooth masterwork that is so common with Funimation properties.
In all, this is a fun show that manages to capture the small moments of teenage life and blend them with a fictional backdrop nearly perfectly. Because the writers initially decided to add a unique twist on the vampire theme, Karin ends up being one of those rare shows that will hold viewer interest regardless of their personal genre tastes. The humor works and the drama never becomes so heavy that it drags the well-constructed prose down.
