Work, travel, and nuking a 31 thousand word book I was working on in efforts to un-fuck it have all be heavy on my mind. This has lead me to be short on time to write or even consume any content. So as I was sitting here at my girlfriend’s house in royal Tennessee racking my brain on what to write about, a tweet came along making my life much, much easier. Coming from Jacob over at Side Of Fiction they took some time to write out a more personal narrative on their first anime, the wonderful Pet Girl of Sakurasou.
Enjoying the read, it got me thinking a bit of how I could phrase not my first, but a series I watched early on. A show that was not exactly good, but one that during the time I was experiencing it, instilled in me some sort of impression that I have always been easy to reminisce on.
To add some context I should say out of all of the occult fiction world, my favorite being has always been vampires. Their attitude, style, abilities, laws, and rules, arrogance, hell just about everything about them. So when it comes to vampire stories anime has had its fair shake. Shiki is a horrific tale of the plaguing of the undead beast in rural Japan. Vampire Knight is, well, has vampires. Chibi Vampire is a comedy take of a un vampire, it’s like a vampire but she gushes blood instead of drinks it.
Now that I read that on paper. Sounds quite unsanitary.
But even with all of that, there is one series that took the Shonen world by storm. A tale where man overplayed their hand, killing all humans over the age of 13 allowing the rise of vampires to protect their ‘cattle’. I am of course talking about Takaya Kagami epic Seraph Of the End. A massively successful manga and anime, it is a series that is loved and hated by many. But I digress, this post isn’t about Kagami’s Seraph, no, this is about an earlier work of his.
A Dark Rabbit Has Seven Lives is a 13 Volume light novel turned one-season anime back in 2011. To give some context I was heavily into Bleach at this time and was a freshman in high school. I was very much so trying to find my pallet when it came to the medium so when I stumbled upon this whimsical romance story about a vampire with rainbow hair I wasn’t sure what I was in store for.
A Dark rabbit is an ecchi fantasy story that follows high school student Taito Kurogane. A silver-headed not bright guy who is a classic ‘at least you got guts kid’ protagonist. Going through his high school life he idly lives out his days until naturally he gets hit by a truck, fundamentally ending it. Then his body walks around, finds his head, puts it back on his shoulder, horrifies all the witnesses then dashes as they scream.
Ya see Taito discovers in his resurrection that he meet someone in his past. A beautiful red-eyed girl with long, shining colorful hair and a white dress. Sitting on a swing, Taito sees her, noticing she is in pain he comforts her, blooming a friendship that breaks barriers. He discovers that this is no normal girl, stating the name of Himea Saito she turns out to be a very powerful vampire lord. One that is on the run as powers at be want to lock her away, she being too powerful to exist.
During these exchanges Himea falls in love with Taito, putting a curse on him that he will always be with her no matter what. 7 times in 15 minutes, that is the rules of the curse. As long as Taito isn’t fatally wounded more than 7 times in 15 minutes he will come back to life, always being able to stay at Himea’s side, standing defiantly against a world he doesn’t quite understand.
It is within the mix of vampire, ecchi, fantasy worlds that I found this undeniable charm. Taito struggles with his own feelings as out of nowhere he discovered that he has this power and this yandere (able) girl head over heels for him. All the while his classmate Haruka Shigure goes out of her way to win his affection back only to find herself in extreme danger.
When you add Gekkou Kurenai a council member, self-acclaimed genius, and seeker of revenge we discover that 9 years ago his brother, Hinata sacrificed their parent to make a pact with a demon. Gekkou is a prick but one that slowly grows in his own right. He never stops being a pompous ass but even with that, his actions make sense, partnering with Taito and his newly found vampire he decided that harboring the power of Himea is the only way they will be able to beat his younger twin brother.
Even years after I witnessed this series the sheer insanity of the plot matched with the avert fan services is what really impressed into my mind. The fact Himea falls into a murderous level of love with Tatio just cause he was nice to her once. Or how shitty Gekkou is to everyone even his right-hand demon Mirai Andou. The charters, the world, all of it is bat shit insane and in this weird stupid but the equally badass way that was really hard for me to look away from.
A Dark Rabbit was by no means my first anime, hell it wasn’t even my favorite or one I would happily tell people to go watch. But it was a show that, much like Aria The Scarlet Ammo instilled some sort of affinity for such things that only really existed from 2011-2014. And, honestly, It is probably for the best.
Curious if any of you out there have a similar appreciation for shows that in hindsight, isn’t so well placed. I am going to try to get back on track this coming week, I have a few series both anime and manga I plan on tackling and I’ll be back at my apartment.
As always, thanks for the read!
Otaku Post 
I’m really glad I could help inspire you in some way! That was such a cool thing to wake up to this morning. I always love hearing what anime has stuck with people throughout the years, whatever the reason may be.
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