Audience reviews
11 · Sample from the first available page, separate from the total number of ratings.
jabutigemido
This is not an anime for the faint-hearted. No, it isn't because is an "horror" anime or because of the sensitive topics the story covers, but because its direction, style, and even the structure of the episodes in general are so different from most animes, movies, series, or anything that is possible to watch, that I believe that this will filter out most of the anime fans out there. Well, let's start.
First of all, this anime has some similar aspects found in the anime of Boogiepop Phantom (the first one, from the 2000), to a point that Hitsuji no Uta seems to be a child of Boogiepop's production, altrough the staff of the two anime doesn't seem to be too related. The darker ambiance with few colors, the more 2000's IDM inclined OST and SFX, the abstract storytelling and structure of th…
Read at the sourcejoethedodo
Hitsuji no Uta offers a more realistic take on vampirism and being a vampire, despite traditional western views of this mythical creature that sucks blood and turns into a bat in the night here we see a more original and humanistic view on it where it appears to be more like a cursed illness instead. For many, this is a breath of fresh air and is something original and interesting. Additionally, the atmosphere created at certain times is excellent though sometimes repetitive. The animation and voice acting are pretty standard. This anime does fall short at its plot, it is very shallow and there isn't much to it, it sometimes feels as if you're watching the same episode every time and this becomes quite repetitive though rewarding considering the pacing of the story. The ending was good but…
Read at the sourceSgtSalamander
Sheep's Song is an atmospheric yet low-budget snorefest, heavy with melodramatic dialogue, and the lamest vampires ever front-and-center. I can see what they were going for with this title, but needless to say it didn't really come together all that well. Beginning with the story, its setup is basically fine. Mysterious vampire disease, mysteries surrounding the protagonist's father, estranged sister with the same condition, on and on. However, as the story itself unfolds, and the mysteries are unraveled, it doesn't really get good at any point. It remains decidedly boring, with endless dialogue and hardly any reason to care about what's happening. The vampirism is essentially just this weird anemia, with no benefits or interesting conditions whatsoever, which is a big letdown since they'r…
Read at the sourceGhost-Hardware
Hitsuji no Uta is unfortunately let down by a VERY limited budget. The story is interesting and it's a unique take on the vampire origin story, but the way the anime is presented makes it hard to recommend. The overload of flashbacks to progress the story, the constant reuse of animation, and the lack of character development (despite the slow pace) is really jarring. There is also only about 4 pieces of music in the entire soundtrack which adds to the repetitiveness. I think with a bigger budget this could have been a good series (even with only four episodes), but as it is I can't really recommend it.
On the positive side, it did give me enough interest to check out the manga, so hopefully that's better (as the consensus seems to be).
Read at the sourceDarleenaCanania
OVERALL PROS;
An interesting take on vampires that's more slice of life, not the generic vampires you usually see.
Art can be good in some ways.
OVERALL CONS;
Not much character development, hardly any or none depending how you look at it.
The sound design is poor. Uses low quality sounds, but not the worst I've heard in anime. Art is better in the manga. I only read the manga in hopes that the kissing bit would be gone but wasn't.
Story could be better, the one thing I disliked the most was the brother and sister kissing and their overall relationship. The kiss shows in both anime and manga. If that part wasn't in this, for me I would give it a higher rating.
Read at the sourceSeyfert
I'm going to compare three separate narratives I've recently watched that I enjoyed almost equally, but for different reasons. A couple are from Madhouse, which I think is interesting because they're quite a contrast, separated by five years. Even animation-wise, they are distinct and yet, still, use this technique involving colour - for different reasons, though, it seems. Shiki is by Daume, but since I haven't yet seen anything else by them I can't compare anything more, except for these three as distinct narratives from the same genre and topic.
But, this is mainly about Hitsuji no uta, although I think comparisons would be worth it since the symbolisms and ramifications of all three have different consequences.
The 'lamb' in the title, I assume, refers to the docile nature of the pro…
Read at the sourceBobSamurai
A poor attempt at a manga promo.
Hitsuji no Uta is a retelling of the story told in its manga counterpart stuffing 7 volumes of well developed plot and characters into 4 episodes of rushed anime with poor animation. I wont be getting into the plot or characters because if you haven't read the manga or don't intend to; you have no reason to know of the existence of this OVA series. Even as a fan of the manga (which has its flaws) this OVA is completely pointless. The story skips so much that you cant really understand all of whats going on, i mean the deeper elements that actually require thought process while reading the manga. the animation is also poor; i expect more from madhouse and looking at still images of this anime youd think its got proper animation but it doesent. the framerate…
Read at the sourceCaraniel
A slow paced, unusual vampire themed OVA.
PLOT: A very interesting premise, quite similar to Tsukihime in a number of ways but with the action element stripped away. Hitsuji no Uta is at its core a character study of the two central siblings and the way they cope with the vampiric illness the Takashiro family is cursed with. The pace is extremely slow but tense, with long pauses and meandering dialogue as it tracks Kazuna and Chizuna’s slow degeneration and their attempt to alienate their loved ones to spare them pain. Its quite touching, but the slow pace may be off putting to some – also the end felt rushed. Another episode would have been required to gain closure and I also would have liked more character development in order to give the end some more emotional impact. However these ar…
Read at the sourcektulu007
Hitsuji no Uta is the story of two siblings who meet after being separated for a long time. The twist is that they have a genetic disease that gives them cravings for human blood. The story really focuses on Kazuna learning to live with his disease and about his family's past with some help from his sister. The story is pretty interesting and full of suspense, but it does have one major annoyance. There are a lot of Flashbacks, A lot of which show an event that happened in the same episode, less than five minutes ago. What's the point? Did Gisaburo Sugii really think that the audience would have such a terrible attention span that we won't remember the important events that happened three and a half minutes ago? The over-reliance on flashbacks also destroys the pacing pretty thoroughly.…
Read at the sourceComposerLOST
Story
Hitsuji no Uta is an interesting anime, and if it had more time to develop it would have been really good. The anime as it stands at 4 episodes manages to tell a good story, even though it is short. What I found cool about it was that, instead of the low budget taking away from the enjoyment, it actually added to it. The repeated images and switching between black and white and color make the anime a little more stylized, rather than hindering the interest of the story. The way they show Kazuna's attacks also adds quite a bit of tension to the experience.
Art
The art style looks good most of the time, but sometimes ends up looking a bit off from the way you see it normally. This only happens in a few scenes, and it doesn't really disturb the presence of the theme. And like I said be…
Read at the sourcebettynoire
Considering that this series obviously had a rather crap budget, I'd say it was done rather well. Not that it doesn't have it's problems, but it's story still manages to be enjoyable, if you can get past it's faults.
STORY:
A sort-of non-traditional take on vampires. Kazuna and Chizuna are vampires, but vampirism is more of an illness and a hindrance than it is anything else. It's quite a sad story, following how the illness ultimately destroys their lives. The anime's ending differs from the manga, however, as well as leaving out a couple side characters entirely, but as the story (in the anime) is focused mainly on Kazuna and Chizuna's interaction, it's not a major issue.
VISUALS:
PROS:
- The backgrounds/settings are rather gorgeous. The muted palette overall reflects the melancholy…
Read at the source