Ranked #1705

Junketsu + Kareshi (Manga)

This manga is a classic example of a promising plot with amiable characters gone wrong in the hands of unsophisticated imagination.

Story:

The manga starts off with a pleasant introduction of the female protagonist, Kana Takachiho, a normal teenage girl leading her normal school and home lives. As predictable as it could get, her life was turned upside down when she was injured in an accident, saved by a pureblood vampire , Aki, (who was introduced as her childhood friend) and obtain immortality as a result of him sucking her blood. However in exchange of immortality, the female protagonist belongs to a “possession” of the pure blood vampire who sucks her blood every now and then.

In addition, a werewolf bishonen was introduced into the story and the trio sets off in an adventure in search of the 7 stigmas (also loosely referred to as the 7 sins/desires in the Christianity Bible) as part of a quest to revive another childhood friend (supposedly another attractive pure blood vampire) from his inexplicable comatose.

Then, just think Twilight – as expected, the pureblood vampire and werewolf fell in love with the female protagonist. While Kana (the female protagonist) is not as annoying as Bella of the Twilight fame, what made this manga intolerable was the subsequent weak development of the storyline and loose focus on irrelevant events.

While not entirely original, I always believe that even an unoriginal plot can prove to be an entertaining read if executed aptly. Although the first couple of chapters were engaging and made sense, with the passing of time, it seems as though the author has lost focus on what she was supposed to be doing and as a reader, I find myself going around in circles with the characters, pondering in puzzlement at the brow-frowning turn of events. While reading the subsequent chapters, my mind was often bombarded with tons of “WTHs” and “WTFs” and then I realized, it’s time to stop for a while.

Normally when I read manga, I don’t expect the heroes/heroines to be perfect. They can come with flaws but the important thing is that with each chapter there must be some sort of progress / development in the plot or the characters. Sadly, here, there has hardly been any substantial development after Volume 3. What’s the use of throwing in scenes of handsome-vampire-sucking-girl’s-blood from various positions when there is no point in doing that? (it seems like a deliberate act just to fulfil the raging hormones of fan girls).

Art:

Despite the weak development in the storyline, the art is fantastic, as expected of Aya Shouoto. Perhaps the only redeeming factor that kept me from dropping the manga (until now) is the artwork that is so handsomely executed.

Having read other works of Aya Shouoto, this manga gotta be one of her worst.
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Before I get any fangirls sending me hate mail, like, "OMG WAI DO U H8 DIS SERIS!!!!! D:< AKI IS SOOO HAWT!!!!!! :DDDDD" allow me to clarify a few things.

1) I have never read an Aya Shouoto work before. Yes, this is my first. No Barajou no Kiss, no SLH, none of that. This is the first.
2) I love vampire stories. No matter what the genre, I am game for any.
3) I hate, more than anything else in the world, cliché shoujo heroines and story scenarios.
4) This review contains spoilers up to where I stopped reading; chapter nine.

So, with this in mind, try and hear me out, all right? For any fans of this series, I apologize for being so harsh, but everyone has their own opinions, no?

When I read the first few chapters of Junketsu + Kareshi (is this trying to copy Rosario + Vampire?), I was not impressed. From the get-go, basically, I found this series to be unappealing. The story revolves around Cana, who gets hit by a truck in the first chapter, proceeding to get saved by a vampire named Aki who is actually a childhood friend of hers. The story seems to revolve around their relationship and such at first, but a bunch of side characters, a love rival, and a "compelling" (*insert sarcasm*) mystery gets thrown in and just jumbles everything up and makes it hard to understand (was that a run-on sentence or what?). Some "stigma" thingies that hold powers, Aki's twin brother Eriya, Aki's succubus fiancée, and a bunch of other really confusing components are just a few other things in the mix. By the sixth or seventh chapter (I believe), Cana, Aki, and the love rival, Jin, form a club at their school...called the "Extraordinary Club." Okay, what? Seriously? A club? How much more cliché and dumb can one get with a story like this? Not to mention random...

Plain and simple; the characters of Junketsu + Kareshi are pathetic. Aki is supposed to be a "dark, handsome, blood-sucking" vampire, but he is actually an arrogant brat who is supposed to be Cana's presumèd love interest. Then Cana, our cliché shoujo herione, is flat-chested, sweet, tries to act tough (but is not in any way, shape, or form), and relies on Jin and Aki to save her...what a surprise. Did I mention that she is now immortal, strong, and Aki's new food/ghoul? There is also Jin, who acts as the antagonist in the first few chapters, but then becomes Cana's new best friend, and is actually a cheeky werewolf who obviously has the hots for Cana.There are some other people, too, like Kana's friend Rie, a random tengu/penguin/I'm-not-sure dude, Cana's brother, and the student council people, all who are just really "there" and make, like, one appearance in the most random times. What are these characters' purposes? Why are they so unappealing, boring, and sterotypical? The world may never know. Heck, we will probably know how many licks it takes to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop before we know that.

The art is annoyingly bad. I will admit that it was the original cover art that got me interested in reading this series, and I was interested in reading Aya Shouoto's other series, too, at one point, but I have become very disappointed. "Don't judge a book by it's cover." Exactly. Now, if you are about to do what I did, and only read this series because of the cover art, kindly set the manga down and step away from it calmly. The art is really strange overall and my OCD reared its ugly head as I stared at the characters longer and longer. The proportions are off in many, many places (a lot of the side profiles, I noticed), and the characters, who are supposed to be beautiful, handsome, etc., are really not. I was very disgusted in the way that Aki's "vampire fangs" were drawn, if they can even be called that. They looked round and had no definite shape, looking nothing like the fangs we all know and love. The backgrounds were also heavily lacking in detail, relying on the overuse of screentone to add "pseudo-detail," and all of the "dramatic/romantic" scenes between Aki and Cana were way too exaggerated and not romantic at all. After seeing how she draws her manga, I am not so sure that I like Aya Shouoto's general art style very much. Cana also looks like a boy! Just throwin' that out there...

So overall? This manga is absolutely pitiful. Spare yourself by not even looking twice at this. If you want some real vampire romance/action/etc., look somewhere else, not here. Heck, if you do not believe me on how terrible this is, consider the fact that the only person (at the time that I wrote this) on the internet who was translating this series announced that she was dropping it because, "I've grown tired of the random and amateurish plot." She also apologized, "I'm very sorry to all the fans out there who love this series, but this is for the best -- at least for my sanity." Believe me now? read more