Vampeerz

Edit

What would you like to edit?

SynopsisBackgroundAlternative TitlesPictureChapters/VolumesPublishing DatesRelationsTypeExternal Links  

This is the perfect mesh of horror, comedy, and romance. It has gay vampire girls! You will really enjoy this manga if you read GL, horror, or anything about vampires, as said. The main character, Ichika, is really funny. I'm only 2 volumes in, but so far it has been a super cute story: a tale of a girl's first love with a "bloody" twist. The art style is lovely and there are many entertaining characters throughout the story. There is a fun sleepover scene with the friends at one point and it's really sweet. However, underlying it all, is a dark request of Ichika ... made by her love interest, Aria, the vampire who appears to her after her Grandmother's funeral at the beginning of the story. I'm looking forward to seeing where it goes!

Skip to the conclusion for a TL;DR.

~Intro~

I happened upon this work when the bright red cover caught my eye from the sidebar of a manga site. It had a timeless look that frankly set my expectations too high. I'm usually more of a shoujo/josei yuri reader, but I'm a sucker for vampires and I think it does well enough with what it's trying to accomplish.

~Art~

- The quality of the composition varies throughout, ranging from utilitarian and flat to bursting with creativity to borderline confusing to cluttered mess.
- The backgrounds are almost exclusively 3d objects or filtered photos, which I found distracting for most ... of the experience.
- Facial expressions remain consistent for most of the series and are occasionally exaggerated or stylized for comedic effect. But there are several instances where they just look awkward, like the artist can't take the expression far enough and its stuck in an uncomfortable limbo.
- There's a stiffness to some of the poses that's mainly noticeable during action scenes. Some of the fights in the later chapters look BAD. The lines of action are off, the poses aren't just stiff but also awkward, there's no sense of depth or momentum, the pacing of the action and dialogue seems unnatural, and I could probably go on. I wouldn't be surprised if you told me this artists draws over photo or 3d character references.

+ The character designs are simple, but they stand out enough that I wasn't ever uncertain about who was who.
+ The quality of the character illustration is great. Accurate proportions and clothing. Besides the manga-esque faces, the style aims for photorealism.
+ There are some panels and pages that are very memorable (and not just ecchi ones).
+ As you would expect, a disproportionate amount of care and detail is spent on the ecchi scenes, to the point of becoming hyperreal in the detail of the kissing. There's also a strong emphasis on the eroticism of blood sucking shown skillfully through facial expressions and body language.

Overall, the combination of photorealism, 3d/photo backgrounds, and stiffness left the art generally feeling sterile in a clinical way. Plenty of panels look fantastic, but the space between them felt bland.

~Writing~

The comedy landed more often than not. The emotional beats of the later chapters were effective. The dialogue is decent. The themes center around immortality, which is explored from start to finish. There's a seriousness and gravity afforded to some of the scenes that balance out the ecchi and comedy to form a more well rounded whole.

~Plot~

There are elements that are introduced and later dropped, time spent on things that ended up not mattering, and inconsistent pacing. It starts off slow and seemingly aimless, but overtime develops a narrative destination as well as internal vampire lore. For the first half, things are just happening without much information given to the reader. The latter half begins tying these threads together. The ending hinges on factors that feel convenient rather than satisfying, but it did look cool.

The story is okay. Its serviceable as a backdrop to the relationship and romance of the two main characters. There are a variety of locations spanning several continents which was fun to see.

~Characters~

The main character, Ichika, is our point of view for most of the manga. Unfortunately, she has limited agency, so the plot is happening around her for most of the story. She's impulsive, sincere, and kindhearted, and acts as a foil to Aria, who is reserved and apathetic after living for so long. The supporting characters are pretty one note, with the exception of two who get an extended flashback sequence that was one of the highlights of the manga for me.

The characters don't develop much through the story, and their motivations aren't always clear. The racial diversity of the supporting characters is notable, which includes an Indian woman and an Arab woman.

~Conclusion~

If "male-gazey yuri vampire erotica with plot" sounds good to you, give it a shot. Otherwise, skip it. Cute girls kissing and sucking blood is the focus of this manga. Everything else is secondary. That’s not to say there's nothing else of value, but that should be the reason you choose to pick this manga up.

If you tend to have reactions like "ugh, why is anime/manga like this?", then give this one a pass. There are things that will definitely trigger a reasonable disgust response in many people.

I started reading this by recomendation of some random person on the internet and this may be the last time I do that.

The story itself wasn't terrible, if thats all it was then I likely would've finished it but i couldn't handle the constant sexualization, I can only put up with so much "fanservice". As others have said, the constant sexualization - and sometimes nudity - of the underage characters made me very uncomfortable. The characters themselves were mostly fine, I liked Aria and Khara, but the way they acted sometimes was too much. It's even called out sometimes by other characters that it's ... weird for middle school girls to be acting this way.

I don't want to ramble on with the same things others have said so to keep it short, don't read this if you want actual storytelling, theres more softcore-porn than story. The art was great, I liked the worldbuilding, but everything else made me unconfortable. Anyone who would reccomend it is probably a weirdo.