Nanae Chrono

Breaking so many unwritten rules of plot development, Vassalord somehow manages to avoid become Soap Opera stupid, instead remaining a delightfully hlarious book filled to the brim with gay fluff, tastefully gory violence, and brain-melting plot crack.

When a back cover summary contains phrases like "cyborg vampire who does the Vatican's dirty work”, or "local vampire playboy," and couples those with the age-old standby "the two fight crime"...you sort of know what to expect from the contents. Tack on blatant excuse for homoerotic biting (the religious cyborg vampire will only drink blood from his playboy vampire to avoid further sinning), and despite vampires and the absolutely ridiculous not always being my thing, it seemed like it show more could be entertaining in a campy, incredibly over-the-top sort of way.

I made it about half way through and just couldn't go on. I write reviews largely just to give myself something to think about when the actual experience of reading something isn't holding my interest, but this manga was for me so empty that there just wasn't any sport in trying to decide why it wasn't working for me. I'm fine with the existence of robotic killer maids, the shooting vampire cyborg arms and bewildering porcupine-like attack/defense mechanisms. In a way, such silly things are the best thing about the manga because it means you can report to anyone around you while reading that "now I think he's hugging the other guy while impaling him on a long metal rod protruding from his vampire cyborg body."

The problem is, an occasional report on the latest amusing occurrence would probably be preferable to reading the actual manga. Read the manga, and you have to deal with being dropped into a story/situation/relationship with no context, chaotic fight scenes that are sometimes difficult to follow, disjointed scene changes, and odd juggling of humor vs seriousness/angst. The characterization and relationship displayed between the mains is a difficult to grasp mixture of silly bickering, cold irritation, smoldering angsty moments with occasional shows of tenderness/dedication, all with little to give a sense of why the characters behave this way, giving me the impression the writer was intentionally setting out to show different sorts of dynamics fangirls might find hot, and touching on all of them rather than trying to form a cohesive picture of a character or relationship.

While some of the flaws can be overlooked, I think for a series this over-the-top to work for me, it's got to have a cool style and charming characters. Instead of going for cool and charming, the manga sometimes tries a darker more serious feel (that perhaps was meant to fit with the usual idea of vampires) that doesn't really mesh with the humorous moments or ridiculous premise at all. Still, it's all about guy vampires biting other guy vampires, brooding, bickering, fighting, and probably some affection in there somewhere they would be loathe to admit. And I'm sure that's a mix that some won't be able to help but find a guilty pleasure in, whatever the execution. show less

I'm not entirely sure what to think of the first volume of this manga, since it feels like it is a continuation of the anime rather than an adaptation of the same story. Nevertheless, I am very curious about who the strange samurai (who seems to be American?) is and what the musterious cat-like man will do now that he has killed his master. The entire cast of characters are quite intriguing overall, even if their story and relationships are still a bit muddy.

I'm still not quite understanding the gist of this series, but I feel like I got a bit closer with this volume. I really should have finished watching the animated series first (since the book are officially a sequel), but oh well... The major points in this storyarc are the establishment of community issues - both that of sickness and its effects within a closed population, and of political divisions. Honestly, this was mostly just precursor to the larger storylines, but now I feel like I show more can go into the next volume with some idea of how the story could progress. show less