Hey all! It’s Luna again. After last weeks brief interruption of top 10 anime openings, we’re back to our usual programming of reviews. With October approaching, and the spooky season nearing, I figured we’d take a walk on the darker side of summer anime and look at something that pleasantly surprised me with it’s werewolves and vampires. No, I’m not talking about Phantom in the Twilight, this week it’s all about Tenrou: Sirius the Jaegar.
Tenrou: Sirius the Jaegar, came out of left field for me this season. I was vaguely aware of it, but as far as I could see, it was going to be like any typical vampire action anime. Well, I was totally wrong. How could I think Sirius the Jaegar would be so bad and think that Lord of Vermillion was going to be good? Clearly pre-season me was mistaken on many levels.
First off, this series had me hooked within the first few minutes (unlike Vermillion which lost my interest in the same amount of time). There’s no opening music, just a blood red moon. Within the next few moments, we see a party where a blonde man makes a toast. 
The men in the room, all who are paired with gorgeous women, raise their glasses only to drop them, embrace their ladies, and drink from their blood. It’s a beautiful entrancing introduction to the vampires in this show, meanwhile we see glimpses of our main characters, who carry musical instrument cases and get ready for a “performance” as they head to where the vampires are. It is at this blood bathed hall that our main character, Yuliy, shows off his rash nature as he jumps into battle first (all beautifully framed shots if I might add) and begins fighting the vampires who morph from their human forms into their truly monstrous forms. The others follow and in less than five minutes, I was already hooked on this version of vampires and vampire hunters. Why? For no other reason than how wonderfully these first few minutes flowed, how beautifully the shots were framed, and how even with few words spoken, I was sold on following Yuliy as our main character.
While I wasn’t immediately taken with the others, I liked their designs enough at first glance, and the further I watched, the more I enjoyed this vampire hunter dynamic. Too often do stories involving hunters and vampires find themselves with a singular hunter who tends to lone wolf for the entirety of the plot (anything based off Van Helsing for instance). But in Sirius the Jaegar, the first episode makes sure to inform the viewer what exactly these jaegar’s in particular do. They don’t lone wolf it (even as Yuliy dives into battle, the others follow him) they work as a team—corner their prey, and attack together. Very similar to a wolf pack. The group also clearly has certain dynamics—Willard being the leader, Phillip and Yuliy not quite getting along, Fallon being the peacekeeper between those two, and Dorothea being who I’d call the responsible and mature one, and then Yuliy being the lone wolf (literally). Together, this group is really enjoyable to watch both inside and outside of battle without making the series be too overbearingly about friendship and teamwork (no Yugioh friendship speeches here).
What also got me hooked on this series was the fact that the first episode had the balls to not only show how Yuliy gets when he wolf mode rampages, but also to shoot him in the shoulder. The reason why this was good to me, was because a lot of shows like to play it safe by having their characters seem invincible in the first episode, or at least give them a few successful fights before injuring them to avoid having them be called weak. That’s maybe episode three normally, so seeing them go ahead and show Yuliy’s weakness’ first episode was kind of cool. Because it made him feel like a real protagonist. Like, earlier he fought and won being rash (which most protagonists do), but this time when he was rash and should’ve been OP, he was injured without it resulting in some huge arc about him having to grow as a person or get stronger. It was just legitimately the result of a battle mistake—and also (spoiler alert!) his brother.
Which brings me to the last thing that’s making me really love this series. SPOILER ALERT! His older brother who is the person who shot him in the first episode, and who we’ll later find out he thought had died but really had been forced into a blood pact with a vampire, therefore turning him into one.
While this sounds like something that would be expected: brother turning against brother, there’s one thing about the whole plot line that kills me, and that’s that no matter what Mikhail does, it never seems like he’s actually trying to kill Yuliy. It’s not just Yuliy wanting to spare his sibling turned evil like with most plots that are similar to this, it truly seems like Mikhail is trying to protect Yuliy. There have been plenty of moments so far where I think Mikhail could’ve easily hurt his brother, but all of them he’s chosen not to. It’s an interesting dynamic—that despite the fact they’re now on opposing sides—both of whom are trying to find the arc of the Sirius, completely different species, and expected to kill each other—they still seem to see each other as “brother” first. It makes me hyped to see if this dynamic will keep up, and if it does, where it will take the plot.
Overall, I’ve been thoroughly enjoying Tenrou: Sirius the Jaegar. I’ve only seen about five episodes, even though the series is slated to end next week with the release of episode twelve. I can’t wait to see where this plot will go, what exactly the ark of the Sirius is, and how all of this will effect the vampires and humans alike. For now I’m totally sold on the music, fight sequences, beautiful shots—and of course, my beloved Yuliy.
I’d definitely recommend giving Tenrou: Sirius the Jaegar a try. It’s an anime that deserves more love than it’s gotten this season, but if it ends up being released on netflix like I’ve heard it might, I’m sure a lot more people will find the joy of it. It will definitely be a good one to watch as we move into the fall season where darker anime might be a bit more fitting to watch to match the spooky season. That’s about all I have to say for now, that way I can go binge the remainder episodes before the final comes out this week. Until next time! These have just been my first impressions.
First Impression Rating:
7/10 more episodes full of Yuliy to watch
P.S. No. We’re not going to mention the stalker girl
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