There just isn’t a lot to the plot apart from Tsukune building up his harem of monster girls, which means it has to rely on its fanservice to deliver a lot of the entertainment, as they all inexplicably fall head-over-heels for him after Moka in her super vampire mode gives them a beating.
While a monster-of-the-week series can be fun, I struggled to get into a lot of the early episodes here, as the rinse-and-repeat nature of both the action and the perverse humour quickly becomes stale. The first season is a more formulaic monster-of-the-week affair, where each episode throws a different monster at Tsukune, Moka and their odd bunch of friends, where often the only way to save the day is for Tsukune to fall into Moka’s chest and pull off the rosary that seals her true form as a super powerful vampire. Now the subject of her affections, Tsukune finds himself pulled into a wacky world of vampires, succubae, snow women and witches, who aren’t only out for his blood, but also for what’s in his pants!Īdapted from the popular harem rom-com manga by Akihisa Ikeda, this release collects both seasons of Rosario + Vampire in a single package, and while they are part of the same series, they are very different beasts in terms of presentation and storyline. Thankfully, Moka is a nice but lonely girl who is in the need of a friend, and she quickly warms to Tsukune, despite him being a human. However, as he finds out to his surprise on his first day, Yokai Academy is actually a boarding school for monsters! As most monsters like to kill and eat humans, Tsukune now must be incredibly careful not to reveal himself as one, but he doesn’t get very far before exposing himself to vampire girl Moka Akashiya, who cannot resist his human smell and quickly sucks his blood.
However, after his parents pick up a flyer for the suspiciously named Yokai Academy, Tsukune ends up enrolling there and is happy to get his high school career off to a start, despite his poor grades. After failing his high school entrance exam, Tsukune Aono faces falling behind the rest of his classmates and taking a year out.