Mamoru Oshii is famous for influential anime feature films like Patlabor 2: The Movie and Ghost in the Shell. Prior to that, he made a name for himself directing the Urusei Yatsura TV series in the early 1980s. He’s now returned to TV anime with Vlad Love.
Created by Oshii and co-directed with long-time collaborator Junji Nishimura, Vlad Love is an over-the-top comedy starring a high school girl whose life changes after meeting a blood-thirsty vampire girl. The series was supposed to debut this fall but was delayed due to the covid-19 pandemic. You can watch the first episode below:
As Brian Ruh, author of Stray Dog of Anime: The Films of Mamoru Oshii, points out, Vlad Love is Oshii’s first anime in about a decade, and the first TV anime since Urusei Yatsura in which he’s had a major role. Regarding Vlad Love’s YouTube premiere, Ruh notes, “Since they keep saying it’s a ‘special edition’ of the first episode, I’m guessing there will probably be some differences from the eventual broadcast version.”