Master of Mosquiton

Original Title: マスター モスキートン
Romanized: Master Mosquiton
Literal:

Plot Synopsis

Part vampire, part human, Mosquiton is a powerful being who is able to control his vampire blood and use his powers for good, so long as his thirst for blood is not aroused. As an immortal, he cannot die--it takes only a drop of blood to resurrect him, and he will be bound to serve whoever's blood it is.

Therein lies the rub: Mosquiton's current master is a 17-year-old treasure hunting girl who's absolutely determined to find an ancient artifact that will grand her the eternal life (and youth) that she needs to spend the aeons with her Moskie. As if that weren't bad enough, Mosquiton isn't exactly the angst-ridden paragon of vampirehood, either--he's got a soft spot for his new master, at least when she's not forcing him to crank-start her biplane or carry her to safety. Joined by Mosquiton's two supernatural sidekicks, the crew set out to capture eternal life. Or something like that.

Their quest gets a pretty obvious jumpstart when an immense pyramid suddenly pops up in the middle of London. Now for those pesky traps and guardians ancient pyramids always seem to be full of...

Review

Rating: 3.5 / 5
Reviewer: Marc
Review Date: 2006-08-01

Master of Mosquiton the Vampire isn't exactly higher entertainment. It's not even very clever. But after all those dark, gothic, angst-soaked vampire movies it's a relief to see one that just doesn't take itself seriously. Loaded with cheap jokes and lots of banter, Master of Mosquiton has its heart in the right kind of wrong place, and more than enough spunk to support the laughs. Add to that a small cast of silly but likable characters and some nice visuals, and you've got yourself a fun romp.

The humor is nothing special, to be sure. Master of Mosquiton isn't so much a parody of the vampire thing as a serious vampire story with heroes that are too self-absorbed to even notice they're the good guys and too many conflicting personality quirks to realize that they're involved in some dark plot. The actual jokes range from simple character stupidity to some really tasteless stuff involving a top-heavy villainess, a sphinx, and several sphincter puns in the second episode. Dumb, yet almost depressingly funny.

The characters are just right: Silly, dumb, and still just likable enough to root for. Mosquiton and his rather beleaguered and reluctant devotion to his master is particularly funny. Their English dubbed banter is the best part of the whole thing; I don't know if the original Japanese is as funny, but the dub has its moments and is easily worthy of a cheesy adventure flick.

The feel was light and corny most of the time, but Master of Mosquiton isn't completely devoid of seriousness or plot. On the contrary, many of the settings are appropriately dark and gothic for a vampire movie, and the villain (the real bad guy, not the big-busted Egyptian in part 2) is entirely creepy. Even Mosquiton, once he gets the bloodlust thing revved up, is an appropriately frightening and uncontrolled vampire, complete with bloody tears. It's minimal, but it isn't devoid of vampire bloodsucking and animalistic lust for blood, to be sure. There is even a brief touching moment or two between Master and Mosquiton. The actual ongoing storyline is convoluted but rather imaginative.

The one other thing that sets Master of Mosquiton out from the crowd is the visuals. The art is relatively detailed and very attractive, with some impressively painted backgrounds. The subjects being drawn aren't lacking, either: the character design is not wildly original, but distinctive and quite attractive (or notably ugly, in the case of the villain, or just character-full in the case of some minor British fellows). The world is a spectacle; set in the 1920s, there is an abundance of clunky-but-cool Jules Verne-esque flying machines and close packed London streets.

The sphinx and its rider are notably awkward looking, but I thought that was intentional for the sake of humor--the horribly stiff-looking sphinx harkens back to the awful special effects of old time adventure movies. Past that, the animation is mostly well done (the frame rate certainly isn't lacking), but unfortunately the action sequences are poorly choreographed. Most are short, and fly by so quickly and chaotically that you can't get a firm grasp on what's going on. A couple of cool action scenes would have perfectly completed the cheesy adventure flick picture, but the lack thereof isn't that much of a liability.

The acting in the dub (I haven't seen the sub) is surprisingly good. The well-written (or at least very funny) banter helps a lot, and both the casting and acting are quite good. I particularly like the two primaries: Mosquiton is just whiny and annoyed enough to be really funny and his Master is appropriately over the top and shrill. They also got the Moskie/Mosquiton thing to work--all to often a dub takes a naming quirk that works well in Japanese and either makes it sound awkward or saps the humor out of it completely (Washu/"Little Washu" in the Tenchi series comes to mind).

The music is quite good; well performed and appropriately bubbly, with a classic air to it.

In all, Master of Mosquiton may not be deep, and it may not be clever, but it is full of good dumb fun, and is spunkful enough to make it work. As a bonus, even though it turns stock vampire darkness on its head, it still has enough gothic visuals, creepy villains, and hidden demons to satisfy most people's vampire angst cravings. An all-around quality dub and some surprisingly good visuals round out the picture to make Master of Mosquiton a fine adventure romp in the grand anime tradition. It's no doubt too silly for some people, but for fans of light adventure and good banter, it's definitely worth checking out.

Related Recommendations

The mood and plot is sort of similar to Ruin Explorers, though it's generally less serious. Phantom Quest Corps also does the not-so-serious vampire thing, though is far less silly.

US DVD Review

The hybrid DVD (from Media Blasters) doesn't list any special features.

Content Guide

A fair amount of crude humor and some bad sphinx stuff make for at least a 13-up.

Violence: 3 - Violent, but not overly so.

Nudity: 1 - Nothing much.

Sex/Mature Themes: 2 - Some vampire-related eroticism and tasteless humor.

Language: 1 - Not much worth noting.

Notes and Trivia

Based on a concept by Hiroshi Negishi and Satoru Akahori, the manga version (art by Tsutomu Isomata) began its 4-book run shortly before the OAVs hit the market in 1996 and continued through the end of 1998. There is also a TV series that retells a version of the same story, Master Mosquiton '99, which somewhat ironically aired 1997-8. Neither the TV series or manga is currently available in the US.

Availability

Available in the US from Anime Works on a single hybrid DVD collection. Was previously available on three subtitled or dubbed VHS volumes from AD Vision, now out of print.

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