Manga Review: The Record of a Fallen Vampire, Vol. 1
Posted by: Katherine Dacey on May 10, 2008 at 10:40 am
The Record of a Fallen Vampire, Vol. 1
Story by Kyo Shirodaira, Art by Yuri Kimura
Viz, 200 pp.
Rating: Teen
In the postscript to The Record of a Fallen Vampire, writer Kyo Shirodaira cheerfully admits that his editor goaded him into taking on the project:
“Let’s do a vampire book.”
It was my editor who suggested this, not me.
“We have this new artist named Yuri Kimura, and she wants to do a vampire book. I’d like you to write the story, Shirodaira-san.”
I’m paraphrasing a little, but that’s basically the gist of the conversation. But I did not immediately jump on board.
“Um, I want to do a military fantasy series with a pretty girl using cunning strategy to defeat an invincible flying magic sumo wrestler who’s so powerful he can sink battleships with a single spell. Maybe a few magical girl power-ups.”
“Vampires also fly, and they can use magic.”
“I guess…”
I think we said something like that. Maybe we didn’t. But this is how editors and manga writers find common ground.
It’s too bad Shirodaira’s editor didn’t allow him to pursue the magical sumo wrestler concept; though extravagant, it might have yielded something fresh and funny instead of this dour, incoherent mess.
The plot, as best I can tell, goes something like this: Vampire King Akabara “Red Rose” Strauss has spent one thousand searching for his queen, who was hidden behind a magical seal by humans and dhampires (half-vampires) who feared her world-destroying powers. Hot on Akabara’s trail is the Black Swan, a demon-parasite that uses nubile young ladies to channel its lethal powers. After slaying one of the Black Swan’s hostesses, Akabara acquires a second powerful foe: Jin Renka, her dhampire boyfriend.
At least, I think that’s the basic story—the first three chapters are so fragmented that it’s difficult to figure what’s happening at any given moment, or why these characters engage in such protracted battles. What few explanations are offered appear primarily in the form of tin-eared, long-winded speeches—the kind of dialogue never uttered outside the confines of a comic book or a bombastic popcorn flick. The excessive use of screentone, clip art, and trapezoidal panels muddies things further, inducing a kind of action-scene dyslexia even when characters are supposed to be engaged in quiet contemplation.
But the book’s biggest shortcoming is Yuri Kimura’s inability to translate the script into evocative images. During one of the pivotal confrontations between Akabara and the Black Swan, for example, one of the bystanders informs us, “The air is shimmering with magic and aggression. But the Black Swan is utterly quiet which makes her all the more sinister!” If there was ever a moment in which Miss Applebaum’s old dictum of “Show, don’t tell” applied, it’s this scene. Yet the image is as static as a diorama, and has sound effects superimposed on it. (The sound of silence, I guess?) In a word: gyaaaaa!
No doubt there will be vampire fanatics who find this series irresistible, but others are advised to arm themselves with wolfsbane before their next trip to Borders—you don’t want to get bitten by this Vampire.
Volume one of The Record of a Fallen Vampire will be available on May 14th.
5 Responses to "Manga Review: The Record of a Fallen Vampire, Vol. 1"
1 | Lori Henderson
Hmm…I was going to try and check this one out. I guess it’s a good thing I didn’t order it then.
2 | Katherine Dacey
It sounded promising, but I just found it so hectic and confusing that I had no desire to see if future volumes were any better.
3 | Alaena Night
I mostly agree with your assessment of the disconnected chaos that is the first volume of this series.
I actually stumbled upon the first few chapters before this was licensed for release in the U.S., and the first chapter behaved a bunch like a typical shounen series, which was what initially put me off.
The disjointedness is intentional on the author’s part, though, and only in later volumes, very slowly, is the past revealed through each character’s perception, so that everything is shown through their own biased eyes until the truth becomes clear. That’s one of the aspects that seems most interesting to me – the differing perceptions of the same truth. It’s a little confusing, but a more long-term, connected sort of story than the first volume makes it seem to be.
That bit you quoted is really scary, though. @_@ It’s horrible when the dialogue is so blatantly playing the part of narration, and that seems to be one of this series’ greatest flaws.
4 | Katherine Dacey
Thanks for the insight, Alaena… reviewing the first volume of a series can be very tricky, as it sometimes takes a while for a story to find its bearings. I’m glad to hear that the fractured narrative actually reflects a conscious choice on the author’s part!
5 | Silver
November 17th, 2008 at 3:21 am
Yes it’s very true to what Alaena said. I have read pretty far through it now and it’s very clear as to what is going on now. It’s interesting how the author intends that. Overall though, it’s always hard to review only the first volume like you said because it always needs time before the intention and direction of the story is revealed.
