SPOILERS: This review contains spoilers for Dark Moon: The Blood Altar, Episode 1 “New Moon -Meeting-”
Dark Moon: The Blood Altar has been on ENGENEs’ (the name for ENHYPEN’s fans) radar for months, and the first episode was finally released on January 9. As a disclaimer, I’m not an ENGENE nor have I read the webcomic or the novel, but I was curious to see how this HYBE/WEBTOON collaboration would turn out in an animated adaptation.
The animation isn’t Ufotable-level quality, but Troyca’s production does a fairly good job of making the animation engaging and aesthetically pleasing. If there was one part that stood out, it was in the opening sequence when the seven boys were walking. The eerie synchronization was unexpectedly hilarious, and I wasn’t sure if it was meant to poke some fun at how the K-Pop industry demands idols to dance in synchrony.
Episode 1 introduces the key characters of the story: Sooha, the new transfer student who was ostracized due to her superhuman strength, and the seven mysterious boys who strangely feel themselves pulled toward her. They have no explanation for it except this strange desire to make her wishes come true. Sooha and the boys have gravitated to Decelis Academy for the same reason: no vampires are admitted here—a safe haven for both those who don’t want to be mistaken as one and those who are one.
Solon is me, I am Solon
I really related to Solon. If my six friends all seemed hell-bent on revealing almost everything to a strange human girl they’ve only met two days ago, based on a “gut feeling,” even though I was trying to save their necks, I’d be frothing at the mouth. How could you lay out all of your cards to someone you don’t even know?
I was a little unsure about what kind of rules there were in this world, because the casual way in which Sooha’s super strength was introduced made it seem like humans with unique supernatural powers existed. With the entire episode focused on just eight characters, it’s hard to know if that’s true or not.
The pacing of the episode was a little all over the place. There was a fair amount of info-dumping in the last few minutes where every single vampire boy, save for Solon, decided to tell and demonstrate their powers. It was difficult enough to figure out who was who… but now I had to match names to powers.
Murder, What Murder?
As pretty as the characters were, there wasn’t anything that particularly stood out in the premiere. It was a fairly typical reverse harem story with all seven boys finding themselves drawn to one girl for some inexplicable reason. That being said, all seven boys had their charms, and I was impressed by how most of them were distinguishable from each other. Sooha was also not as bland as I expected; she had an endearing, silly side to her that was highlighted in her interaction with Solon.
The first few minutes felt out of place compared to the tone of the rest of the episode. By the time I finished watching it, I had completely forgotten that a murder had taken place close to the school. Even though it’s mentioned that it was likely the work of vampires, and the episode ties it together by revealing the boys are vampires, I wish that the murders had been brought up again. Shouldn’t people be talking about it? Are murders commonplace?
All in all, Dark Moon: The Blood Altar was an enjoyable premiere episode. I have a sneaking suspicion that this won’t be the last time we see Sooha’s childhood blond best friend, but I’ll have to keep watching to see if that’s indeed true.
Dark Moon: The Blood Altar is now streaming on Crunchyroll. The webcomic is digitally available on WEBTOON with the print versions of both manhwa and novel published by Ize Press.
