I just realized I still don’t know if these guys are meant to be vampires. However, they do seem to drink plenty of tea – maybe there’s blood mixed in?

I’m hesitant to be too harsh on Noblesse, given that I’m clearly not its target audience here (though had this aired a couple of decades earlier, I’m sure I would’ve had slightly more interest). To its credit, the show wastes no time in getting down to what matters most in terms of catering to its demographic: hot guys sitting around sipping tea, hot guys standing around brooding on rooftops, and hot guys casually chatting to one another on balconies, all complete with the most dramatic hair and/or accessories you could ask for given the modern-day setting. I confess, I am a little confused as to exactly why the whole high school thing was deemed necessary, since it does pretty much nothing to further the plot in any way as far as I can tell – but then again, if we didn’t have the entire female student body swooning over our main bishies, how would the viewers possibly know they’re hot?

I do at least appreciate that the series isn’t always intent on taking itself 100% seriously. There are a couple of moments where the writing takes some brief swings at comedy, mostly based around Raizel’s lack of knowledge of the modern world, having recently awoken from his 820-year nap. Unfortunately, the jokes don’t quite manage to land, perhaps because the comedy doesn’t set itself up well to begin with and is weirdly dry in tone – I only realized I was probably meant to laugh several seconds after the delivery.

Somewhat making up for this are the production values. There’s nothing special to see here (the backgrounds are the biggest disappointment, being super clean and lacking in detail), but the character designs are consistent from frame to frame, the lines are fairly crisp, and the colors are nice and vivid. Oh, and I’m sure there are more than enough Hyde fans out for the OP to gain some popularity, even if it’s not really my thing.

Bottom line: you’ll know within the first few minutes whether this show is for you – and if not, well, you could definitely do worse this season.

Rating: 4/10