The Case Study of Vanitas: Things to Remember

New Official Art Analysis

So... that new Vanitas art... before I say anything else I just need to say: sexy. The make-up, the corset, the hairstyle, the pose, all of it. Hot, distractingly so. Sorry for being a whore about a 2D man but mochijun shouldn't have drawn him being a whore if she didn't want this reaction.

Anyway, this art is the cover for a magazine (not gangan joker) that I think is about art. The article will apparently talk about her process. The important thing is that this image is a vampire Vanitas and it's been implied on twitter that it's just for fun and not directly related to the story. But I'm still interested in analysing the meaning behind it anyway, because the details mochijun has added are really fascinating.

First thing's first, he's clearly a blue moon vampire. She didn't give him red eyes even though his fangs are out so that kind of confirms that Luna's eyes never turn red either. Not a lot else to say on that, making him a blue moon vampire is a logical choice, it's completely natural. Technically this art could be taken as a hint that Vani will become a vampire later in the series but, though I can't dismiss that outright, it doesn't seem particularly likely. Not only because we know Vanitas is incredibly protective of his humanity, but because people getting turned into vampires has to involve their formula being completely rewritten and we don't know how blue moon vampires come to be either. Certainly if Vanitas became a vamp I don't think he'd take as much joy in it as he appears to in this illustration.

The hand at the top of this illustration is almost certainly Noé's. We don't know anyone else in the series with a skin tone like his, and though the nails look longer than Noé's the hand does look the right size to be his (though, admittedly, drawn at this angle it's hard to tell). I will be assuming this is Noé's hand either way.

Noé's holding a flower in his hand, his grip seems to be crushing it and the petals are falling down towards Vanitas. A very similar flower is blooming from Vanitas's heart, more intact than Noé's but the petals are still scattering outwards, though in no particular direction, unlike Noé's. If we are to assume these flowers represent their hearts, then Noé has seemingly ripped his out. When it comes to Noé's 'heart', it's difficult to determine if he is trying to hold it together or if he's squashing it. Whatever the case, it is being held in the direction of Vanitas and that is where the petals are falling. It's hard not to read gay subtext into this, the inclusion of Noé at all is noteworthy because he very much does not need to be here. If mochijun wanted some extra red she could have added more blood splatters or something equally innocuous.

Also in regards to Noé's hand, he's bleeding. It's impossible to tell if the blood is coming from the hand itself or is dripping down from somewhere else on Noé's arm but we could read this as a 'bleeding heart' metaphor or we could read this as an implication that Vanitas was drinking his blood.

Speaking of blood, there's a good amount of it in this picture. There's the aforementioned blood on Noé's hand, the blood on Vani's lips, the blood on Vani's arm and (potentially) a little in Vani's eyes. Vanitas has obviously been drinking someone's blood and recently too, considering it's still fresh and spilling from his mouth. Again, easiest explanation for this is Noé. There's also a considerable amount of blood on his arm and the cushion he is laying on. I'd considered the possibility of this being Vani's blood but it really looks more like a stain on top of his sleeve than something soaking through the sleeve so, again this could be Noé's blood as well. The sheer amount of blood in this illustration kind of implies that whatever blood drinking session Vanitas was involved in was quite... intense. As for the red in his eyes/on his bottom lashes I'm not sure what to make of it. It could be blood or just red for fun but it's a shockingly small detail and I'm not sure why it's there but mochijun took the time to draw it so I may as well point it out at least.

This drawing also shows some very striking similarities in terms of pose when compared to an old art of Noé. They're both holding their hands in just about the same position. Mochijun outright stated that the Noé illustration was drawn to represent Noé's desire to drink Vani's blood so that only adds further merit to the interpretation that Vanitas has been drinking Noé's in this art, if indeed the two pieces are a pair meant to parallel one another.

Final thing. Vanitas is in a coffin. Mochijun really decided we could have a beautiful vampire Vanitas art but only if it's ultimately a reminder he's inevitably going to die. I love her.

Sorry to anyone who reads this book and is constantly seeing me flip between analysing vanoe and vanijeanne, but to be fair both are important relationships to the story and I'm not the one making sure there's romantic subtext for them both. Blame mochijun.