Visual Prison lures us into the dark lair of the vampires, who just happen to be really hot music idols! Ange Yuki, a dhampir (half-vampire, half-human), meets two popular visual kei bands, ECLIPSE and LOST EDEN, who compete in Visual Prison, the competition vampires participate in to access the power of the Scarlet Moon.
Visual Prison is the guilty pleasure of this season, with an amazing OST, original songs, and many swoon-worthy vampires. It’s perfect for Halloween, fangirls, BL lovers, and visual kei aesthetes. We do have some hangups about it, but first, let’s take a look!
The Rival Bands
It’s super cool that each of the rival bands has their signature sound. The series’ soundtrack is composed by Elements Garden, a renowned composer group of scores for several anime and video games. The opening is performed by Oz, which is composed of members of the popular visual kei group Golden Bomber.
ECLIPSE has a melodic classic visual kei sound with soprano vocals. They want to maintain the existing order of things and that is reflected in their harmonic compositions. LOST EDEN has a darker, rougher sound with nu-metal elements, and with passionate lyrics to match the music. They are the “bad boys” of the scene and they have a really strong scene presence. All in all, both bands feel like real bands, the execution is not wishy-washy at all, and we love that attention to detail.
Outfits We’d Love to Cosplay! ...and Poor CGI
The visual quality is a mixed bag overall. We get awesome costumes that will easily make it to the top outfits list at the end of the season, however, the CGI scenes are weak. More and more idol anime use CGI to animate the live performance scenes, to varying degrees of success. Hypnosis Mic, for example, a popular hip-hop idol anime series from Fall 2020, uses CGI to its benefit with impressive backgrounds and visuals. Visual Prison’s live performances feel a bit stale, which is a pity, given that the music itself is perfect for visual kei fans.
The outfits, though, are phenomenal. For example, Eve Louise of ECLIPSE is a stylish fashion designer himself who loves all things beautiful, and that is reflected in his frilly gothic lolita dresses. Saga wears a killer bondage outfit, matching his angsty lyrics. It makes sense that Visual Prison is set in Harajuku, the neighborhood where the stylish kids hang out in Tokyo.
The Ship Has Sailed
Visual Prison is a fujoshi-friendly anime and we love how unapologetic it is about it. There are kabedons thrown into the mix, the biting scenes are all horny, and each vampire has a different aesthetic to satisfy all tastes. Ange’s first meetings with Hyde from ECLIPSE and Sada from LOST EDEN have a strong BL flair, making the show a great experience for all fujoshi out there!
Final Thoughts
Visual Prison is a really fun watch. It has extravagance, rock music, killer outfits, and sexy vampires. The plot is good enough, too, so if these keywords tickle your fancy, give it a chance!
What do you think of Visual Prison so far? Do you want ECLIPSE or LOST EDEN to prevail in the competition? Let us know in the comments below and thanks for reading!
Author: Andromache Kokkinou
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