Bringing back the original hand-drawn style of anime, scriptwriter and directors Ryotaro Makihara and Hiroyuki Tanaka formulate a compelling story about an ongoing war between vampires and humans. “Vampire In The Garden” depicts the losses faced by each side, yet their resolute stance of not giving up creates a suffocating and oppressing society. Two individuals, Momo and Fine, long to escape this life and meet due to circumstances. The anime series depicting love and war aired on May 16th, 2022, on Netflix. With a pragmatic approach and a nostalgic style, the series is sure to be a hit among fellow anime lovers.
Major Spoilers Ahead
‘Vampire In The Garden’ Season 1: Plot Summary – What Is The Animated Series About?
In a desolate world where humans and vampires are at continuous war, the Vampire Queen, Fine and the Commander’s daughter, Momo, seek asylum in an imaginary paradise where vampires and humans live together happily. While at war, Momo meets Fine, and they set out together in search of this paradise. They journey across the cold seas only to arrive at a suspicious village where happiness is abundant, but there seems to be something very off about it. They get caught up by the vampires sent by the council to retrieve Fine and the soldiers and mercenaries sent by the commander to retrieve Momo.
Momo was first introduced in “Vampire In The Garden” when the human army discovered a vampire hideout in the city they lived in. The vampires living in the hideout were ambushed and killed by the army. However, Momo didn’t have the heart to kill a vampire child and hesitated, putting her comrades in trouble. She was rebuked for it later on by her mother, the commander. Momo and her friend Mirena had kept the music box that had belonged to the vampire child for themselves so that Momo could repair it, and then they’d listen to it play. But music, dancing, and alcohol were prohibited in human lands. They were mainly associated with vampires and therefore shunned in human society. Momo was elated to hear a simple tune through the music box. She longed to escape the oppressive world as she was tired of fighting all the time.
The news of the ambush reached the vampire kingdom, and the vampires, disgruntled by the humans, devised a plan to snuff them out. Fine, the queen of vampires refused to drink blood and was against fighting from the very beginning. She, like Momo, longed for a paradise where humans and vampires could live in harmony and cease fighting. She retreats to her cabin after a banquet party, and Allegro follows her to talk about his decision to lead the ambush they planned on the humans. Allegro asks her to follow and lead them to battle.
In the battle, however, Fine rescues Momo, who had left human society to seek refuge in the forest to calm her mind. Fine hears her singing and is compelled to meet her. With the help of a drug, however, a vampire turns into a monster as a last resort and attacks the human army. This monster resorts to attacking Momo, who is saved by Fine and Mirena. Fine rushes to save Mirena too, but it is too late. Fine takes Momo’s hand, and they escape to Fine’s hideout.
The Commander sent out soldiers and contacted her brother, who heads the mercenaries, to bring back Momo. They arrive at the hideout and discover Fine and Momo singing and playing the piano. They shoot at an unsuspecting fine and try to separate them. Allegro arrives with the vampires to take Fine away. Momo and Fine escape into the woods in a car and set out on a quest to find paradise. Fine, momentarily relapses due to not drinking blood, but is resuscitated by Momo, who steals blood bottles from a nearby human town while staying in the vampire town. Momo is attacked by Allegro during her heist to bring the blood back to Fine as he demands to know Fine’s whereabouts. Momo pushes off Allegro, and she rushes to save Fine. She and Fine continue with their journey; however, Fine’s condition deteriorates with time.
They arrive at a town where humans and vampires live together in harmony. They enjoy dancing and singing together, but there seems to be a suspicious lilt in the air. Fine is suspicious. However, she does not want to ruin Momo’s experience of finally finding joy. She leaves Momo and is supported by Allegro as her condition deteriorates further.
Did Allegro Die?
Momo, on finding Fine’s note after her disappearance, panics and sets off to find her, only to be stopped and locked in by the townsfolk. They started hunting down Fine and put her in a coffin after making sure she would not wake up and leaving her abandoned among the other coffins. Momo escapes, but she is hunted down by the remaining townsfolk, who chase her into the mysterious submarine. There she discovers the truth; the townsfolk keep a vampire who is overfed blood and generates electricity for the town through his regenerating capabilities. Momo is disgruntled but finds herself unable to escape the submarine. Fine saves her after waking up. Simultaneously, the army and the commander arrived at Fine, and Momo escaped yet again.
However, they follow them to a township, where they confront Fine. She uses the drug to save Momo and face the army. Allegro confronts Momo and asks for Fine’s whereabouts yet again. She confesses that Fine has taken the drug. Meanwhile, a mercenary creeps up on Momo and threatens her life. Allegro saves her only to compromise his own life. Allegro pushes Momo to go to Fine and save her. He loses his life by bleeding out after he saved her. Allegro died with the last regret of not being able to save Fine as he had promised her. He had to see her lose herself a second time after falling in love with another human. But he simply wished for her to be happy.
‘Vampire In The Garden’ Season 1: Ending Explained – Is Fine Dead?
Momo rushes to save Fine, who has turned into a monster. She begged Fine to listen to her while Fine wreaked havoc on the mercenaries. Momo’s uncle started fighting Fine as a last resort. Fine stopped hurting Momo, and her uncle after Momo’s word got through to her. Her uncle lay on the floor thinking about the time his bride, who was a vampire, had been killed by his sister as she entered a phase of bloodlust. Momo escaped with Fine.
They reached a field of azalea flowers, where Fine confessed to having had a lover before, Momo, who shared her appearance and voice. She went by the name of Aria. Aria was killed after the humans, and the vampires discovered their existence and that they were together. This was marked as an anomaly, and Aria lost her life in the crossfire. Fine confessed to first having Momo as a replacement for Aria, but then she changed her mind and fell in love with Momo and her spirit. During their journey, Fine had come to love Momo for herself. After confessing her love for Momo, Fine took her last breath. Momo cried out in pain while Fine died. She composed herself as she took Fine in her arms to give her a proper burial. She met her mother on her way out. The Commander pleaded for Momo to return, but Momo left her to live out her own life with Fine in her arms. She left the oppressive and suffocating world forever.
Momo gave Fine a proper burial so that Fine could rest easy and go back to a life where there was no more fighting. Momo never returned to the town; in fact, she stayed and found a new town where she achieved the idea of paradise that she had shared with Fine. She found a town where humans and vampires lived peacefully in harmony. They sang and danced to their hearts’ joy and were no longer dealing with a suffocating life.
Though Fine left Momo for the afterlife, she was still there with her in spirit, guiding and watching over her. Fine and Momo did break out of the overbearing lives they were leading. The humans had no joy in their lives; they had turned into robots and were on the lookout to kill the vampires. Similarly, the vampires had no discipline and were seemingly immersed in debauchery. They were on the lookout to ambush the humans to avenge their fallen members. They were polar opposites of each other. However, too much of everything is not good. There needs to be a balance between total discipline and total fun. The humans had forgotten the simple joys of life, and the vampires did not adhere to discipline. Momo and Fine could be seen as mediators between these two extreme points. Momo succeeded in finding the balance between them and was successful in creating a place where both were observed in moderation.
If we draw a parallel between this anime world and the human world, it can be said that Momo and Fine tried to escape the rat race that we go through from the very beginning of our lives. Most people who try to escape this rat race have to pass some exceedingly hard tests, and those who cannot pass simply perish along the way. The real world is as cruel as the world depicted in the anime and has next to no mercy. However, when the ones who pass those tests succeed, they change the world. Momo was set on changing the suffocating world she was in. She held her head high and fought through the battles life threw at her. She then successfully changed the world, through small steps, into the vision she saw for it. Momo became the visionary the world needed when it plunged into chaos. Aria was the beginning of the movement, and Momo led it to its finesse. Fine acted as the guiding light both times.
“Vampire In The Garden” is a 2022 Anime Series streaming on Netflix.