10 May, 2008
Manga Review: The Record of a Fallen Vampire, Vol. 1
By: Katherine Dacey
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.
