For people with actual culture and the ability to actual appreciate art and read critically, Vampire in the Garden is a beautiful, heart-felt take on classic star-crossed lovers via the medium of music in a painterly, evocative setting of the decaying culture of Russiaās slide from tsarist decadence into militant communist utilitarianism.
Where Humans have retreated behind tall concrete walls and use industrial technology, military might, and hard labour to survive the onslaught of blood-thirsty vampires and the cold of winter, the vampires live amidst decaying palaces and mansions awash in the lingering remnants of art, music, and history as their lower classes lose their minds to their hunger and their base instincts, starving for blood.
Among them, our protagonists are both outcasts; a human girl disillusioned with the bleak and joyless life of the stronghold desperate for meaning, and the Queen of vampires, equally disheartened by the meaningless brutality and decline of her people and burdened by the tragedy of her lost love, who meet in the dark of night, both of their yearnings for more connected by the simple act of mournful song as they travel together to search for a paradise where they can live together, human and vampire and appreciate music and love in peace.
Frankly; this movie is beautiful. The aesthetic of post-revolutionary industrial Russia feels under-utilized in similar media, and the depiction of the snowy reaches and dilapidated mansions as both harsh and deadly but also beautiful and serene comes across clearly between the more gritty struggles of human and vampire existence. Music and visuals are both pristine and evocative, and thereās plenty of vivid imagery reflecting the narrative.
The explicit and central homosexuality of the protagonists as both women-loving-women is integral to the story and serves to enhance the Shakespearean tale of love, war, and tragedy as their struggles to express themselves clash in parallel with the rigid expectations of their societies; a queen expected to marry and breed to continue her imperial bloodline, and a girl expected to surrender personal desires to the uncaring military machine.
No slouches either; the antagonists and deuteragonists of the film are no less ripe for dissection; men and women so wholly committed to the ideology of their regime that reconsideration is impossible; who have given their lives and their love to the cause and would sooner die than be broken by the weight of their sacrifices bearing down on them even as the lies unravel and reality confronts them head on.
Iād absolutely recommend Vampire in the Garden to anyone looking for anime with more artistic integrity and cinematic grandeur than mainstream fare, but itās absolutely essential that itās watched as one piece! Despite Netflixās format and advertising, this is notĀ a television series with 5 episodes! This is a feature-length movie cut into 5 parts! Please watch them all together!
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