Rosario + Vampire, Vol. 1

By Akihisa Ikeda
Viz, 192 pp.
Rating: Older Teen (16+)

Remember Rick Moranis in Gravedale High? From my rather vague recollections of Saturday morning cartoons growing up, I remember it being about a lone human in an all-monster high school. When I first looked at the cover to Rosario + Vampire, which, thanks to the magic of the Internet, you can see above and to the right, I groaned. A cover featuring a ridiculously short schoolgirl skirt hiked up far beyond the line of decency on a young woman of sexually superior proportions makes every warning siren in my head sound off all at once. The back cover doesn’t help any, with even more fanboy-bait imagery and a synopses that made me hope that Rick Moranis was the hapless lone human.

And, you know what? I was surprised. Not because Rosario + Vampire is good; it isn’t, by any stretch of the imagination. I was surprised because Rosario is not unforgivably horrible as I had anticipated. Yes, sexy vampire-girl Moka and nerdy-but-courageous-around-vampire-girl Tsukune aren’t the most likable characters I’ve ever met, and the whole premise of a secret high school for monsters, vampires, werewolves, and other mythological beasties to learn how to live alongside humans whilst somehow never being discovered by said humans is, at best, sketchy. But most of the comic did not grate at my nerves, and some of it even made me smile. Moka’s cute affection for Tsukune (and, by extension, Tsukune’s supposedly tasty blood) is actually amusing, as is the student body’s reaction to seeing the two together. Tsukune’s interactions with Moka’s “other” self–accessed when the vampire’s rosario, a cross-shaped pendant, is removed–are suitably tense. Characterization isn’t particularly deep but it’s still present, and both Moka and Tsukune show signs of believable growth, albeit small ones.

That said, Rosario + Vampire still falls into many of the same traps that others of its ilk do. The fanservice is blatant and wholly unnecessary (though I’d argue that fanservice is never necessary except when being parodied); I’ll trade all the panty shots in the world for three panels of thoughtful storytelling. The misunderstandings that arise between the two leads often should have been diffused before they ever got out of hand; even the most understandable one (involving a vampire’s weakness to water) could have been resolved with three simple words (“water hurts me”) followed by four simple words (“sorry, I didn’t know”). And, for a comic about youngsters with powers that occasionally do battle with other superpowered types, none of the villains have proven themselves memorable or likeable. All of the Bad Guys™ have questionable motives, and none have proven a match for Moka’s powerful dark side.

Rosario + Vampire isn’t as shallow as its cover and synopsis leads you to believe, but it does come close. Formulaic and wholly unoriginal, Rosario + Vampire doesn’t satisfy my ravenous narrative appetite. But don’t let that stop you from giving it at least a glance-through. You can do worse.

Volume one of Rosario + Vampire will be available on June 10th.