Visual Prison

Vampires have existed for centuries and live under the rule of the Scarlet Moon. Once a year, "Visual Prison" occurs, a visual kei competition where the vampire who sings the most beautiful song is bestowed with great power by the Scarlet Moon. At the forefront of the competition are ECLIPSE—the reigning champions who stand for an established order, and LOST EDEN—a group that believes the strongest should rule.

Ange Yuki is a lonely boy with no confidence in his singing ability. He moves to Harajuku in search of a musician he idolizes, but during his quest, he gets entangled in one of the many live performance clashes between ECLIPSE and LOST EDEN. Their fascinating stages stun him, but he soon collapses, overcome by bloodlust. Regaining consciousness, Ange finds himself under the care of Guiltia "Guil" Brion, the musician he ires, and learns that he is a dhampir—half-human, half-vampire.

While Ange now has the privilege of participating in the Visual Prison, Guil explains that he will not him in this endeavor. Meanwhile, Ange encounters Robin Laffite, a foreigner from England who is enamored by his astonishing singing voice. With the day of the competition slowly creeping up, Ange has to put together a capable unit in an exciting race against time.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Brion, Guiltia Main

Furukawa, Makoto Japanese

Yuki, Ange Main

Chiba, Shouya Japanese

Louise, Eve Main

Nanami, Hiroki Japanese

Latour, Saga Main

Eguchi, Takuya Japanese

Laffite, Robin Main

Horie, Shun Japanese

Veuve, Elizabeth Main

Nagatsuka, Takuma Japanese

Romanee, Dimitri Main

Masuda, Toshiki Japanese

Jayer, Hyde Main

Aoi, Shouta Japanese

Flaiv, Mist Main

Shimazaki, Nobunaga Japanese

Mouton, Jack Main

Yano, Shougo Japanese

Yokoyama, Shuko Producer

Kikuchi, Yuuichirou Producer

Tanaka, Tomoya Director

Furuta, Jouji Director, Storyboard

Reviews

Dec 24, 2021

Wasurena

Recommended

When I looked at Visual Prison, I was skeptical of it at first because I thought it'd be one of those idol type anime where the character fits into a generic trope but as I watched it, it actually took me by surprise and I ended up enjoying it and looking forward to every Friday. The reason why I decided to give it a chance is because of Masuda Toshiki (Dimitri Romanee's VA). As someone who is familiar with the Visual Kei genre and a fan of Masuda-san, this anime sold me right away. The seiyuu lineup is amazing.

Starting off with talking about the ... story which I rate a 6/10, imagine Eurovision but the vampires are singing for the Scarlet Moon. I feel the story didn't really answer a lot of questions that fans have. With 12 episodes, I think it is possible to answer some of them but they never covered it properly; why does the Scarlet Moon want songs? What is Eclipse's motivation to protect their 'lambs'? I feel like a lot of the character backstories and their motivations are still shrouded in mystery. I feel like we still don't know Beth, Saga, Hyde, Dimitri, and Guil properly. I'm crossing my fingers that the anime will have a second season because I want to know more and more about the characters! Also, there's barely any blood sucking moments in the anime. What's the point having everyone as vampires if we don't see any feeding moments?

Art, I give it an 7/10. I mean, the characters are not drawn ugly. They're pretty attractive on and off the stage. Visual Kei is supposed to have the band dres and putting make up on. I feel Eclipse (current and past Eclipse) is the only band living up to the appearance of how Visual Kei is supposed to be. They feel more Visual Kei of what it used to be. Lost Eden looks like modern day Visual Kei bands. As much as I like OZ, OZ is still too idolish. OZ looks more like an idol band than Visual Kei band. But enough about the character art, yes, there are CGIs used in the anime but they're only used 3 times but honestly, the CGI in here works better than the CGI in Berserk and the The World's Finest Assassin Gets Reincarnated in Another World as an Aristocrat. The CGI for when Eclipse sing their songs are amazing in my opinion. That is CGI done right there.

Sound, 10/10. The 10 comes from the songs. Yes, my favorite band is Eclipse but even if you have a band that you like, you still find yourself enjoying the other band's songs. If you like JRock or Visual Kei, you will enjoy this anime for the songs because the seiyuus really do bring life to band songs and their solo songs. I wouldn't say the seiyuu lineup is amazing if it wasn't. If you lean more to Kpop or Jpop, don't expect the music to cater to your taste because if you don't enjoy Jrock, what are you doing watching this anime? You might as well watch Starmyu, Idolish7, or Utapri. This anime is for those who enjoys Jrock after all so expect strong bass, drums and electric guitar sounds. If you ask me whose vocal carried this anime, I think it's a tie between Makoto Furukawa (Guiltia) and Aoi Shouta (Hyde). Masuda Toshiki (Dimitri) gets a bonus mention for using a deeper tone when he speaks. So hot.

Character, 7/10. Ange on his own doesn't really carry the anime in the first few episodes. The other characters in this anime have more life and soul than him. When the band get together, you feel a family vibe from each of them. Heck, you immediately find who is the mom and dad of the group XD
OZ is a warm group and their character interactions reflect that. Lost Eden is like a warm family in their own way too which really surprised me considering they want to destroy the Scarlet Moon. Eclipse is pretty much a married couple with one another. For me, the most fun character is Dimitri Romanee. It will be spoilers if I reveal why so you're going to have to watch it yourself.

Enjoyment: Enjoyment-wise, I'd give it a 9. If an anime can make me look forward to each song/episode for the sake of enjoyment and not just because I want to finish it for the sake of finishing it, I wouldn't give it such a high score. I'm now in a pickle because what will I have to look forward to now that Visual Prison is over? I hope they will give out an OVA or something.

Fangirl level: 11/10. I ship Dimitri and Hyde.

Overall: I give this anime an overall 8/10. The main guy (Ange) is weak as a character in the beginning episodes but he slowly picks up the pace and ends up growing on you. The rest of the characters are loveable and they're all precious in their own ways. It lost two points because there's not enough Eclipse. While they're trying to focus giving everyone their own solo songs, there's not enough screen time for Eclipse. I wish for a season 2, fingers crossed!

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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Oct 29, 2021

Ellenwitch

Mixed Feelings

Preliminary (4/12 eps)

Visual Prison can be best served up as an experience lol. Take the first episode as an example of it. You'll be left wondering if this is more a debut of a musical album, rather than an anime in itself. While there is a story there, the story isn't it's strongest part, it's strongest part is more it's music numbers, and it's flashy and deep coloured art.

It's almost like you've gone to the theater, or a pantomime, to see not only a show, but to see it in a musical form. It's that kind of experience all round when it comes to this show.

Like, it ... might be the sole reason why Visual Prison has close to a 6 on MAL's rating, and in my review, as it's purely because the sound, the music, is fire. I legit would want to listen to each and every song that has come on through this show from start to finish, and I'd listen to them over and over again. The art too, is so well detailed, if any of the budget for this show went anywhere, it went into these two directions for sure.

As for the story itself...It's not too bad, but just feels there in order to push the show along, and won't be what you came to the show for. It explains itself. As Yuki is a lonely boy with no confidence in his singing ability. He moves to Harajuku in search of a musician he idolizes, but during his quest, he gets entangled in one of the many live performance clashes between ECLIPSE and LOST EDEN. Whom now has the chance, to partake in the Visual Prison, which is basically vampires singing, and the winner by the end who is chosen, will be given remarkable power. So heavy stakes all round lol.

The characters are a bit hit or miss. Not that they're bad, but more that there is a fair bunch of them, that all fit into different groups, as after all, each musical talent is their own. Which makes sense. So they'd kinda match up to your tastes. But one thing is for sure. Most are quite the determined and mostly just have that aggressive, or 'better than you' attitude to them. Not all of them, but a lot can come off that way.

Visual Prison is a stand out of the season for sure. But for very weird reasons. It's hit or miss, depending your tastes, and may be ed for more of the music, then it's actual content. That, and if you like BL, you may like this a little more. But it might be worth giving it a watch.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Dec 24, 2021

KANLen09

Not Recommended

Of all the mixed-media musical features that are attached to Aniplex and A-1 Pictures within the recent times, they'd largely come off as being overly ambitious or just to fuel the fire by showcasing a certain demographic with a weird premise. The kinda Yuri-bait and depressing 22/7 was surprisingly good, the sci-fi action Fujoshi-bait Hypnosis Mic: Division Rap Battle was even better, and this season, yet another Fujoshi-bait show pops up: the supernatural vampire-based Visual Prison. And going back on my review of HypMic and testifying that you should stop watching anime from the lens of seriousness, I'm sad to say that I've tried the ... same for this one, and it just didn't click whatsoever.

And as someone whom still has HypMic pretty fresh in the mind, the glaring similarities between both shows aren't that hard to compare to. The story itself is largely similar, only in Visual Prison's case that you switch the genre and themes around to create a Visual Kei sinister setting where vampires rule the world, and that the strongest band/group is reigned supreme. Also, add in the peculiar MC which is an outcast and intertwines with the plot just by being there and receiving unwanted attention, only to then build his "career" of being an idol of sorts as a cry out to the cruelties of the world. Pretty typical stuff. The characters all have that classic badass feel of WWE-esque "No Mercy" trait symptoms to degrade each other when conflicts arise, even something as simple as the stereotypical staring, it's standard business practice of the trade. Music is just as important in this trade of a battle royale showdown, and it largely served as fodder to show off the magnifique voices of VA Bishounens, so female fans you can rest easy because of the banger sound material and thought that's went to creating songs of repetitions within a very limited functional subset of an OST. And need I say of the A-1 Pictures *chef's kiss* quality when you the viewer, know it best?

Shows like these are hit and miss, and for once, I have hit a roadblock with Visual Prison. You can love the J-rock pumpin' music and the dark "vampire of the night" visuals which is the actual content of the show, but everything else is just forgettable. Not so much a trainwreck, but it could be far worse.

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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