The Case Study of Vanitas Part 2
ヴァニタスの手記 (Vanitas no Karte Part 2)
- Action
- Fantasy
- Mystery
- Historical
- Urban Fantasy
- Vampire
- Episodes
- 12
- Duration
- 23 min per ep
- Aired
- Jan 15, 2022 to Apr 2, 2022
- Status
- Finished Airing
Synopsis
Vanitas and Noé Archiviste travel to the town of Gévaudan to investigate the rumored “Beast,” a massive wolf-like creature blamed for the deaths of hundreds. Convinced the culprit is a curse-afflicted vampire, Vanitas intends to use his grimoire to cure it rather than destroy it.
Their search takes a sudden turn when the pair are separated and thrown into the past, arriving at the very moment the Beast prowls the forest. After clashing with the enormous wolf and a vampire hunter, Vanitas joins forces with Jeanne to track down Noé—an uneasy partnership, since Jeanne has been ordered to kill the Beast and believes it may be tied to someone from her past.
Elsewhere, an injured Noé is taken in by the enigmatic vampire Chloé d’Apchier and her servant. Chloé’s existence has been erased from public record; known as a guardian for future generations, she once sought a way to become human again. Though Noé is thankful for her aid, he remains unaware that Chloé may be aligned with threats even more perilous than the Beast.
Otaku Consensus
The Case Study of Vanitas Part 2 lands as a confident gothic fantasy cour: Bones’ polished character acting, Tomoyuki Itamura’s theatrical direction, and Yuki Kajiura’s grandiose music make the Gévaudan material feel operatic rather than routine. Its strongest reception centers on the cast chemistry and the Chloé/Jeanne-driven emotional material, while the recurring criticism is that the back half grows too dense and rushed, compressing what many viewers felt could have sustained a longer season.
Why You Should Watch
Watch this if you want vampire anime built around psychology, flirtation, trauma, and gothic mystery rather than simple monster hunting. Part 2 is especially tuned for viewers who like the ornate emotional machinery of Pandora Hearts or the stylish urban-supernatural energy of Bungou Stray Dogs, but want something more romantic, more baroque, and less team-battle driven. Bones gives the series crisp facial acting and elegant action cuts, while Yuki Kajiura’s score pushes conversations and confrontations into full melodrama. The appeal is in the friction: Vanitas and Noé’s uneasy partnership, Jeanne’s conflicted intensity, and Chloé’s tragic presence all turn the Gévaudan arc into a character pressure cooker. If you enjoy fantasy where intimacy can be as dangerous as violence, this cour pays off.
Key Characters
- VVanitas(VA: Natsuki Hanae)
Vanitas remains compelling because his showmanship, cruelty, and flashes of sincerity are constantly at war, making him less a heroic doctor than a walking provocation.
- NNoé Archiviste(VA: Kaito Ishikawa)
Noé’s appeal comes from the contrast between his gentle curiosity and the unsettling weight of his role as someone who observes, remembers, and is repeatedly forced to judge.
- JJeanne(VA: Inori Minase)
Jeanne is one of the cour’s emotional anchors, with fans often latching onto how her lethal discipline clashes with vulnerability, embarrassment, and unresolved loyalty.
- CChloé d’Apchier(VA: Rie Kugimiya)
Chloé gives Part 2 its tragic gothic center: a character framed less as a villain than as someone shaped by memory, isolation, and impossible longing.
What Makes It Stand Out
- 1
The Gévaudan arc uses the historical Beast of Gévaudan legend as its gothic springboard, aligning the series’ vampire mythology with a real French folk-horror reference rather than a generic fantasy setting.
- 2
Studio Bones handles the cour with an emphasis on expressive character animation, especially in close-quarters exchanges where smirks, panic, flirtation, and hesitation carry as much weight as action choreography.
- 3
Yuki Kajiura’s music is a major part of the adaptation’s identity, giving speeches and confrontations a cathedral-sized gothic sound that critics and viewers repeatedly singled out as memorable.
- 4
This cour is structurally denser than the first half: it concentrates much of its emotional payoff and lore escalation into 12 episodes, which created both its urgency and its most common pacing complaint.
- 5
The production reunites a strong adaptation team around Jun Mochizuki’s source material, with Tomoyuki Itamura directing, Hitomi Mieno handling series composition, and Yoshiyuki Itou translating the manga’s ornate character designs for animation.
Fun Facts & Trivia
- Fun fact 1
- Part 2 aired as a 12-episode winter 2022 cour from January 15 to April 2, 2022, and finished with a strong reception profile: 8.19 on MyAnimeList from over 153,000 votes and 81/100 on AniList.
- Fun fact 2
- The anime is produced by Bones, the same studio whose catalog made it especially well suited to Vanitas’ mix of supernatural action, stylized comedy beats, and dramatic character staging.
- Fun fact 3
- AniList’s tag distribution captures the show’s unusual identity: Vampire sits at 98%, Foreign at 93%, Steampunk at 87%, Anti-Hero at 85%, and Tragedy at 81%, reflecting a series sold as much on atmosphere as on genre mechanics.
- Fun fact 4
- Director Tomoyuki Itamura’s work on the series drew attention because of his Shaft-associated visual sensibility; even critical reviews that challenged his direction singled out the show’s heightened, theatrical presentation as impossible to ignore.
- Fun fact 5
- Jun Mochizuki, credited as the original creator, is also widely known for Pandora Hearts, which helps explain why Vanitas shares that series’ taste for elegant character design, tangled loyalties, and emotionally loaded fantasy lore.
Studios
- Bones
