#Mamoru Oishii’s Vladlove Releases First Episode On YouTube

Upcoming vampire anime Vladlove, which features Ghost in the Shell and Patlabor‘s Mamoru Oishii as executive director, released its first episode on YouTube on December 17. The series was originally meant to premiere in Fall 2020 but was delayed due to the COVID-19 coronavirus. 

In a statement provided in the YouTube video’s description, Oishii said that he “really wanted” to write an anime involving a girl meets girl theme and “connections between people”. “That’s why it’s about blood,” he said. “I considered ‘blood ties’ and ‘friends connected by blood’ as themes, but I was serious about writing a story focused centrally on ‘blood.’” 

Oishii added that the blood focus was why the show also revolved around vampires, and that he wanted to pen a “multifaceted story about blood”. He also said that he wanted to produce something more light-heated even though such stories “tend to be dark and gloomy”.

Vladlove‘s staff credits include Junji Nishimura (Basilisk: The Ouka Ninja Scrolls, Glasslip, Ranma 1/2) as director, Oishii and Kei Yamamura (The Next Generation: Patlabor, Nowhere Girl) as screenwriters, Issei Karakaki (ViVid Strike!) as character designer, Kauzhiro Obata (Kemono Friends 2, Classroom Crisis) as Background Art Director, and Kenji Kawai (Ghost in the Shell, The Ryuo’s Work is Never Done!, No Guns Life) as music composer. 

Ayane Sakura (The Day I Become A God, My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU) and Rina Hidaka (The Ryuo’s Work is Never Done!, A Certain Magical Index) are playing the roles of lead characters Mitsugu Bamba and Mai Vlad Transilvania respectively. The voice cast features names like Romi Park, Saori Hayami, Kaito Ishikawa, and Jouji Nakata as well.

The story is described as:

Mitsugu Bamba is a high school student with a blood donation obsession, to the point that she feels compelled to visit a local blood bank on a daily basis, earning the ire of an unfriendly nurse. One day at the blood bank Mitsugu encounters a beautiful girl named Mai who looks like she is from overseas. Mai is so pale that she appears ready to faint. Instead, she suddenly starts smashing equipment. Mai then loses consciousness, and Mitsugu takes her home.