One element of my "past life" at Virginia Tech that hasn't really made it into the fan fiction is that is where I became a rabid anime fan. Now 20 years later, I'm something of an "old fogey" otaku ("Current stuff all sucks. Back in my day...") so I'll fully admit I don't keep up with thing as well as I once did.
Lately, I've been using my Netflix account to remedy that to some degree. It should probably come as no surprise that vampire/gothic themed anime are one of the things I've been checking out. The series I've been enjoying the most is Dance in the Vampire Bund.
This is a somewhat disturbing series. It's not scary because it's not really horror. It's much more the "urban fantasy" romance genre (like, ugh, Twilight). But that's part of what makes it disturbing. There is a lot of fan-service in this series, most of it focused on the lead female protagonist, Mina Tepes.
Have I mentioned that Mina has the body of an 11-year old girl? Yeah, fan-service plus that equals creepy. I'm marginally familiar with the Japanese genre of "lolicon." Never thought I'd get interested in an anime series based thereon.
The opening title is a good example of what I'm talking about...
The series plot is solid enough for me to overlook the creep factor to a large degree. (Most of us wouldn't have gotten into the gothic scene if we weren't willing to get a little creeped out from time to time.) And the character of Mina herself raises an intriguing question that I'm going to explore in the fan fiction later.
Either way, if you don't mind the creepy lolicon stuff, check it out.
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