‘Vamp’ is such an odd word, owing to the differing meanings. It can mean, to wit:

1. the part of a shoe or boot upper covering especially the forepart of the foot, or
2. a short introductory musical passage often repeated several times before a solo, or
3. to piece something old with something new, or
4. a flirtatious woman

The word is derived from Anglo-French, alteration of avanpié, from avant- fore- + pié foot, but it can also be shorthand for vampire. In fact, the first vamp, silent movie star Theda Bara, was a caliber of vampire, as she sucked out men’s souls.

All that aside, this brings us to a rather odd entry into the vampire genre, “Servamp” (“Sāvanpu”), as it becomes an amalgam show, blending different disciplines into the story line, so it becomes more than the standard ‘my teeth in your neck’.

We start off with Mahiru Shirota (orange jacket), a normal high-school student who likes things simple. It makes life go along really easy. One day, on his way back home, he finds a black cat and decides to take care of him, naming him Kuro. However, he is surprised to discover that the black cat is actually one of seven vampires (and when you learn that, you immediately think of the Seven Deadly Sins, right?)

We learn that Kuro’s official title is Sleepy Ash (blue cat guy in the middle) and he represents Sloth. So how did he turn into a human? Sunlight. It was dark when Mahiru ‘saved’ him, so he went human-ish (in the lower right corner, you see Kuro in cat mode). Now, it gets complicated.

From the moment Mahiru called Kuro by his given name in his human form, plus gave him a neck collar, Mahiru formed a temporary contract, which is finalized once Kuro/Sleepy Ash drinks his blood. It’s the master/servant approach, making Sleepy Ash a “Servamp” (Servant Vampire, get it?!) and Mahiru as his master called “Eve” (and as to why he is called ‘Eve’, I never got a good explanation of that!).

Following this, Mahiru and Sleepy Ash encounters Tsubaki (upper left, sunglasses), a vampire who claims to be the servamp of Melancholy and the unknown eighth brother of Sleepy Ash (and the other servamps.) Tsubaki intends to wage an all-out war against the seven servamps. Mahiru decides to gather the seven servamps to fight together against Tsubaki and his group.

Yeah, so in on sense, it is like “The Magnificent Seven”, in that we have to amass these people, but since each has their own personality and needs and wants and dislikes of the others in the entourage, we spend as much time fighting the bad guy as fighting with each other. No one really seems to grasp the concept of ‘the greater good’.

And why does it take all of them to defeat one guy? I have never been able to understand why we abandon the mano-a-mano approach to things. Doesn’t it show a degree of weakness that it takes all of them to beat one guy? I guess I missed something in all of that. Sheesh, even Luke took on Darth alone. Yeah, he got his hand handed to him, but still…….

It’s not a bad series, but it is completely reflective of Kuro’s attitude: can we do something else and not get involved? It all started to wear thin after a few episodes and the conclusion means another season is lurking. Such is the case with shows of this caliber and genre.

On a scale of 1 to 10:

Artwork           7 (Everyone is too stunning)
Plot                  7 (Done better elsewhere)
Pacing              7 (Moves along consistently)
Effectiveness   7 (A decided lack of commitment)
Conclusion       6 (It reaches a ‘coupler point’, but hasn’t ended)
Fan Service      2 (It is eye candy for the ladies, so I can’t honestly rate it)

Overall            7 (Got a bit too indolent for me)

And remember, it’s first run until you’ve seen it. What a bother.