For starters, there's a reason why most stories have a trio rather than a duo. It's just far more dynamic when the people interacting are 3. Vanitas and Noé are good main characters, but I kept on thinking that if there was a girl in that duo to shake things up a bit and stop them from bickering with each other all the time, it would have been better. The anime did well in cutting some of that bickering, which while it can be fun, it can also get tiring when it goes on for so many panels.
The point about adding a girl to the main trio brings me to my second criticism. The female characters are not necessarily badly written, but they're all romantic interests to the main characters. Now, I do like romance! And I'm all for mangaka who discard the trend of no romance being canon until the very end. But in this manga, the female characters start off as love interests, rather than the other way round i.e. being introduced as their own character, and *then* becoming a love interest. Again, having a main female character who isn't a love interest would have somewhat lessened this criticism. I honestly wish they kept the girl Vanitas cured at the very start and have her join the two main characters since she was forbidden from going home anyway. Unconvinced? Read the mangaka's previous work, Pandora Hearts, and see what I mean. It has a trio and a bunch of female characters who aren't meant as love interests, and it's more interesting that way.
The humour doesn't always land either. I'm a massive fan of Gintama, so I don't get mood whiplash when a story suddenly switches its tone, but chibi humour veering on the cute side doesn't work the same way as humour which pokes fun at how outrageous a situation is. This might be more of a personal issue though, as comedy is very subjective. However, given how heartbreaking some of these characters' backstories are, it's sometimes quite noticeable.
Last but not least, while the lore is incredibly enticing and might in fact be my favourite part, there are so many things which are muddled, which frankly shouldn't be after 57 chapters, aside from those things which are obviously kept as mysteries as they will unfold later on.
Overall I'm glad I'm reading and will catch up when/if further chapters are released. However, I'm still waiting for that one vampire steampunk story which hits all the right notes.
