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.

Haridama: Magic Cram School

By Atsushi Suzumi
Del Rey, 198 pp.
Rating: Teen (13+)

Just as a college-bound junior might take an SAT prep class, the young wizards in Haridama attend special schools to study for their sorcery exams. Kokuyo and Harika, the only students at the rundown Seikiei Magic Cram School, need all the help they can get, as neither has mastered an essential skill: channeling the complimentary forces of yin and yang to create “pressure” (a.k.a. power, juice, magic, force) so that they can cast spells. Put the two students together, however, and they prove formidable, handily besting monsters of all shapes and sizes. Of course, there’s just one drawback to teamwork: they may not be allowed to work together on their big test. Will their limited skill set prevent them from enrolling at Harvard becoming full-fledged wizards, or will heretofore undiscovered powers enable them to pass the exam and give their second-rate school a good name?

If the Harry Potter plot, plucky teen characters, and pep talks of the “just believe in yourself” variety are standard-issue, the artwork is not. Manga-ka Atsushi Suzumi has a cinematographer’s knack for staging action scenes, using a variety of dramatic angles to immerse us in the fighting. Suzumi’s characters are crisply drawn, wearing smart-looking costumes that harken back to Taisho-era Japan. Though her monsters aren’t terribly ferocious-looking, Suzumi does conjure an ethereally beautiful creature for her third story that redeems the other chapters’ woeful assortment of lizard-, crab-, and octopus-like demons. The story moves briskly—aside from the opening, which reads a bit like a textbook—reaching a satisfying conclusion before the premise wears thin.

Haridama: Magic Cram School will be available on May 21st.

The Reformed

Story by Christopher Hart, Art by Anzu
Del Rey, 172 pp.
Rating: Older Teen (16+)

Vampires—they rock the coolest rides, own the coolest crash pads, and wear the sharpest threads and Giancarlo, the handsome hero of The Reformed, is no exception. Alas, his material trappings prove more interesting than he is; at bottom, he’s a sensitive, brooding type who’s sworn off killing, even if it proves his undoing. As proof of his sensitive nature, he rescues a virginal prostitute from a violent john, inviting her to live with him, Pretty Woman-style. Though Jenny is smitten with her mysterious savior, she begins to suspect Giancarlo of being a serial killer—or worse—after evidence implicates him in a string of sordid murders. (You’ll never guess: each victim sports two puncture wounds on her neck.)

Such a played-out premise can only succeed if the storytelling is first-rate, but neither the illustrations nor the script rise above the level of mediocrity. As Johanna Draper Carlson observed in her review, Anzu draws lovely pin-ups but lousy scenes. The characters move stiffly and look flat, despite the generous application of speed lines and screen tone. (Too generous, in fact–many of the images have a murky, smudged quality that makes them hard to read.) The script, too, has a slapdash quality, relying excessively on cliché and type to propel the story to its all-too-predictable denouement. None of the characters are fleshed out beyond their plot function, nor are they provided with enough backstory for us to understand their motivations.

Perhaps the most disappointing aspect of The Reformed is that author Christopher Hart seems blissfully unaware of the sheer number of movies, manga, and young adult novels exploring the very same vampire-with-a-conscience theme… and doing it better. (Or the fact that he recycles a scene from Pretty Woman, leaving its icky gender dynamics intact.) About the best I can say for The Reformed is that the story is coherent, giving it a slight leg up on undead competitors such as The Record of a Fallen Vampire.

The Reformed will be available on May 27th.

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.

Yes, there will be blood… in the latest installment of The Otaku Bookshelf, that is. This month, Ken and I take a look at two of the most popular anime-manga-novel franchises on the market right now: Blood+ and Trinity Blood. And in keeping with our vampire theme, books are rated on the following scale of one to five garlic bulbs:

= Drive a stake through it–it’s terrible!

= Find the silver bullets–you may need them to slay this stinker!

= Good fun.

= Great–put away that wolfsbane!

= Awesome, even if you’re not one of the living dead.

Blood: The Last Vampire: Night of the Beasts

By Mamoru Oshii; Translated by Camellia Nieh
Dark Horse, 300 pp.

Despite its title, the real hero of Blood: The Last Vampire isn’t Saya, the katana-wielding schoolgirl who dispatches Chiropterans with ferocious abandon; it’s Rei Miwa, a high school student and sometime anti-war activist living near the Yokota Air Base in 1969. The first time Rei spots Saya, he can’t believe his eyes: there, at the end of a dark Tokyo alley, is a teenager attacking what looks like a gorilla-bat-wookie hybrid while two black-suited foreigners watch from a car with diplomatic plates. Before he can so much as yell “WTF?!,” Riku takes a knock to the head, eventually waking up in police custody, unable to explain what he was doing in the blood-soaked alley where they found him. Once sprung from the pokey, a seedy investigator approaches Riku with information about Saya and her possible connection to a string of student-activist murders: will Riku help him gather intelligence on these radical groups in the interest of protecting his fellow protesters from Saya? Riku agrees, but quickly learns that the mystery is more complex than the detective initially let on.

Sounds like a great set-up for a supernatural thriller—if the execution were more skillful. Alas, Blood: The Last Vampire is so pretentious that any sense of fear evoked by Saya’s first appearance is quickly buried under mountains of long-winded prose. Mamoru Oshii, the creative mind behind Ghost in the Shell, relates most of the story through artless dialogue that’s studded with Cliff Note glosses on famous Western philosophers, Darwinism, vampire lore, and the Rothschilds. That last topic is handled with an astonishing lack of sensitivity, frequently crossing the line into anti-Semitic territory with its unflattering depiction of this powerful family as the engineers of Europe’s greatest crises. Oshii also tosses a Vatican conspiracy into the mix—an equal opportunity gesture, I guess—that’s as poorly integrated into the story as it is laughable.

The biggest problem with Oshii’s novel, however, is that almost nothing happens. For a chapter in one of Japan’s most enduring, popular vampire franchises, there’s precious little information about the titular character. To some extent, that might be expected—spin-off novels and manga often explore secondary characters and side stories. But when they’re this dull, it’s hard to imagine how even the most devoted fan would want to commit the time and energy to reading it, especially when the title character appears in just a handful of scenes.

–Reviewed by Katherine Dacey

Blood+, Vol. 1: First Kiss

By Ryo Ikehata, Illustrations by Chizu Hashii, Translated by John Thomas
Dark Horse, 354 pp.

This faithful, fast-paced adaptation of the Blood+ anime covers the first fourteen episodes of the series. Most of volume one focuses on Saya’s re-awakening, as she struggles to remember her past: where and why she fought, how she ended up in the custody of the mysterious Red Shield agency, and why a ridiculously handsome young man (who just so happens to play a mean Bach Cello Suite) risks life and limb to protect her from Chiropterans. The prose gets the job done, but abounds in ungainly metaphors, odd shifts in tense, and statements of the obvious. When Saya visits the Yanbaru laboratory where her father is being held, for example, author Ryo Ikehata offers this awkward description of the facilities:

All places called nature conservation centers were basically small-scale museums. There are carefully tended tropical plants and stuffed versions of endangered birds and wildcats. These displays are arranged in an attractive and efficient way throughout the building.
Naturally, they had entered after hours. The lights were out and the staff had all gone home.

If the text reads like something from a high school literary magazine, the packaging is first rate, featuring illustrations by Chizu Hashii, the artist responsible for the anime’s distinctive character designs. The book also includes several full-color glossy plates as well as a helpful character guide. For fans who may have missed a few episodes of the television series, Blood+: First Kiss is a painless way to catch up. For anyone curious about the Blood+ franchise, the novel makes a good introduction to Saya and her world, as everything is spelled out clearly and concisely. For folks who care about good writing… well, that’s what V.S. Naipaul is for.

–Reviewed by Katherine Dacey

Trinity Blood: Rage Against the Moons, Vol. 1: From the Empire; Trinity Blood: Reborn on the Mars, Vol 1: Star of Sorrow

Written by Sunao Yoshida, Art By Thores Shibamoto, Translated by Anastasia Moreo
Published by Tokyopop

Set in a distant future after a massive war, the story follows the adventures of Abel Nightroad and his exploits as a special AX Agent of the Vatican. In this future world, the Vatican has once again risen to power and now exists in a Cold War-style standoff with an empire to the East, an empire ruled by Vampires. A shadowy organization emerges with a sinister purpose: escalating this new Cold War into a rather hot one.

Rage Against the Moons is a collection of short, loosely connected tales, including the story for the first episode of the anime series, while Reborn on the Mars is a single volume story focusing on an undercover mission to the free state of Istavan. I’m pretty sure that every single story has been adapted into an anime episode or episodes. The biggest difference is the order, along with the fact that we get a little more background. Sadly it’s not a whole lot more information on the Trinity Blood universe, and most of it pops up in Reborn on the Mars. I have to admit, I was hoping for Vampire Hunter D levels of new material. I figured we’d get reams of back story, inner monologues and the like that never made into the anime. Frankly, I’m surprised at just how much of this material I remember from anime. Still, the stories move along at a nice clip and manage to be fairly enjoyable, plus what little new information was given was quite welcome.

One of the common threads throughout both books are the machinations of the mysterious Orden Rosenkreuz, as they attempt to orchestrate a war between the humans the vampires. They’re far more prominent in Reborn on the Mars, but they turn up on several occasions in Rage Against the Moons as well. Both times they stick to the shadows and are portrayed as the movers and shakers behind the scenes. This is actually one element I’d love to see expanded as the novels continue. I’d love to find out more about the group and their ultimate end.

The art is scattered throughout the two volumes and usually depicts a scene from the one of the stories. It’s black and white and quite pretty. It does a good job at rendering the characters in various cool and important moments and the most of the character designs look wonderfully detailed. I think I preferred the art choices in Reborn on the Mars more than Rage Against the Moons, as Shibamoto just seemed to pick better scenes to illustrate. There are a few odd moments where the art clashes with the writing, the most notable being the description of Sister Kate, the Iron Maiden. In the novel she’s described as older nun, but Shibamoto draws her like a teenager. It’s a minor nit pick but it really leapt out at me.

Ultimately, Trinity Blood is fluff, but it’s pretty fun fluff. It’s not especially deep or though provoking, but Suano’s certainly created an interesting post-apocalyptic world that should engage sci-fi and vampire buffs alike.

–Reviewed by Ken Haley

Here’s the scoop on VIZ Media’s big spring releases, including an example of comeuppance theater, a new series from Kaori “Godchild” Yuki, an old-school classic from Kazuo “Drifting Classroom” Umezu, and two series starring vampires. Yes folks, this spring… THERE WILL BE BLOOD! (Hah! Take that, Daniel Day-Lewis!)

From the VIZ Press Release:
The new releases are aimed primarily at Teen and Older Teen readers, which form the core of the manga market, and encompass a unique selection of genres ranging from action/adventure and shojo romance stories to darker, more twisted tales that exemplify the gothic and horror genres that have become extremely popular. The new series will include GUN BLAZE WEST, HARUKA: BEYOND THE STEAM OF TIME, NIGHTMARE INSPECTOR: YUMEKUI KENBUN, B.O.D.Y, FAIRY CUBE, THE RECORD OF A FALLEN VAMPIRE, ROSARIO+VAMPIRE, GIMMICK! and CAT EYED BOY…

GUN BLAZE WEST
Rated “T+” for Older Teens • MSRP: $7.99 • Available April 1, 2008
A brand new addition to the SHONEN JUMP imprint from Nobuhiro Watsuki, the creator of the successful samurai manga series RUROUNI KENSHIN and BUSO RENKIN (both published domestically by VIZ Media), GUN BLAZE WEST puts a new twist on the genre as it is set in 19th century America. Legend has it that in the far West lies a sacred land called Gun Blaze West, where only the strong can set foot. Viu Bannes, a cheerful and persistent boy, aspires to become a great gunslinger and yearns to travel to the West and test his strength. He befriends a vagabond, Marcus Homer, and they both decide to set off on a journey to find Gun Blaze West. The new title is VIZ Media’s first Western/Wild West series and will also be previewed in SHONEN JUMP magazine. Nobuhiro Watsuki’s critically acclaimed previous series RUROUNI KENSHIN is a fan favorite that has sold more than 1.1 million copies in North America and his BUSO RENKIN series likewise enjoys a wide and growing following.

HARUKA: BEYOND THE STREAM OF TIME
Rated “T+” for Older Teens • MSRP: $8.99 • Available April 1, 2008
HARUKA: BEYOND THE STREAM OF TIME is a highly anticipated new series based on a popular PS2 and Nintendo DS video game that is hugely popular in Japan. Akane is your typical teenage girl, until she swallows eight Dragon Jewels and is transported to the Heian period of ancient Japan! There in the Capital City, Akane learns that she has been preordained to lead the people as the Priestess of the Dragon God. But all is not well: Akram, the head of the Demon Clan, has sworn death and destruction on the Capital. So Akane is appointed Eight Guardians to stand by her side as she faces the danger that waits. HARUKA: BEYOND THE STREAM OF TIME is a new addition to VIZ Media’s SHOJO BEAT imprint and is currently being serialized in SHOJO BEAT magazine. The original Haruka video game was created by Ruby Party (aka Ruby Patty), the same group that designed the wildly popular Neoromance video game Angelique, and helped to define the modern Neoromance dating RPG format. Bandai Visual USA is also releasing the anime in April 2008.

NIGHTMARE INSPECTOR: YUMEKUI KENBUN
Rated “T” for Teens • MSRP: $9.99 • Available April 8, 2008
For those who suffer nightmares, help awaits at the Silver Star Tea House, where patrons can order much more than just Darjeeling. Hiruko is a special kind of private investigator, he’s a dream eater, and he’ll rid you of your darkest vision – for a price. Each chapter of NIGHMARE INSPECTOR is a self-contained story that offers a glimpse of mankind’s folly and gradually reveals a little more about Hiruko and his dark past. A highly anticipated new series with a gothic edge, NIGHTMARE INSPECTOR was published in Japan by Square Enix, the publisher of the first manga series from Shin Mashiba. Fan-buzz has abounded on this series and comparisons have been made to Neil Gaiman’s Sandman and DC’s classic House of Mystery/House of Secrets.

B.O.D.Y.
Rated “T+” for Older Teens • MSRP: $9.99 • Available April 8, 2008
Everyone thinks 16-year-old Sakura has weird taste in guys because she can’t stop drooling over Ryunosuke, the strong silent type who sits next to her in class. When she discovers he works for a host club, where women actually pay men to date them, will she finally wise up? Will he leave his job to be with her? Or will she take a job at the club so he can quit so she can be with him so…? Only one thing’s for sure in B.O.D.Y. - you can’t put a price on love! B.O.D.Y. originally appeared in the Japanese shojo monthly Bessatsu Margaret was created by Ao Mimori. It is her third shojo manga series and is also currently serialized in SHOJO BEAT magazine.

FAIRY CUBE
Rated “T+” for Older Teens • MSRP: $8.99 • Available May 6, 2008
Ian and Rin used to just see spirits. Now Ian is one. Using the Fairy Cube, Ian must figure out how to stop the lizard spirit Tokage from taking over his life and destroying any chance he has of resurrection. FAIRY CUBE is the long-awaited new series from gothic manga mastermind Kaori Yuki, who created ANGEL SANCTUARY, GODCHILD, and THE CAIN SAGA (all published by VIZ Media). A new addition to VIZ Media’s SHOJO BEAT imprint, FAIRY CUBE will be previewed in the April 2008 issue of SHOJO BEAT magazine.

THE RECORD OF A FALLEN VAMPIRE
Rated “T” for Teens • MSRP: $9.99 • Available May 13, 2008
Thousands of years ago, Vampire King Akabara Rosered Strauss lost both his kingdom and his queen. Since humans were unable to kill the queen, they sealed her away, erecting thousands of fake seals so that the king would never find her true location. Despite being pursued by relentless humans and half-vampires alike, Akabara continues to search for his queen to this day. Akabara’s quest takes a sinister turn when an entity called the Black Swan appears. The Black Swan inhabits the body of a young human girl every 50 years, giving her the power to destroy the Vampire King and his queen. With each incarnation the Black Swan grows stronger –will the 49th Black Swan mean the end of Akabara? THE RECORD OF A FALLEN VAMIRE is illustrated by Yuri Kimura and written by Kyo Shirodaira, the award-winning writer behind the popular mystery manga and animated series SPIRAL – BONDS OF REASONING.

ROSARIO + VAMPIRE
Rated “T+” for Older Teens • MSRP: $9.99 • Available May 13, 2008
All-around average teenager Tsukune can’t get accepted to any high school save one, but on his first day, he finds the rest of the student body doesn’t appear average in the least. Best of all, the cutest girl on campus can’t wait to fling her arms around his neck! Wait a sec’, are those her teeth around his neck too? Tsukune’s going to have one heck of a hickey when he gets home from Monster High! But does he have a chance in hell of raising his grades at a school where the turf war isn’t between the jocks and the nerds but between vampires and the werewolves? Find out in the new series from Akihisa Ikeda.

GIMMICK!
Rated “T+” for Older Teens • MSRP: $9.99 • Available June 10, 2008
Gimmick! is an interesting new series by Youzaburou Kanari and focuses on Kohei Nagase, a genius in the realm of movie make-up and special effects. With his stuntman buddy Kannazuki, Kohei helps various people in need get out of tough situations through the use of his brilliant make-up skills. This series has action, mystery, and lots of insights about the technical aspects that go into doing really cool movie make-up.

CAT EYED BOY
Rated “T+” for Older Teens • MSRP: $24.99 • Available June 17, 2008
Cat Eyed Boy is a half-human, half-monster child whose mostly human appearance bans him from the demon world. He lives hidden in the shadows of the human world, hated by humans and demons alike. Wherever he goes, awful events occur as the humans and demons interact. In 11 stories of revenge and retribution full of disturbing images, Cat Eyed Boy acts as a trickster, saving the innocent and helping the wicked receive the punishment that fate metes out. The first volume contains four stories and the first part of a fifth and longer story. CAT EYED BOY was created by Kazuo Umezu, the undisputed master of Japanese horror manga and creator of the critically acclaimed DRIFTING CLASSROOM (also published by VIZ Media). Cat Eyed Boy offers up a concoction of dark vignettes dripping with the macabre and the absurd.

Pistol packin’ mamas. Chibis gone wild. Vampire knights and vampire-slaying princesses. Yes, it’s time for another batch of Manga Minis! This month’s column examines the first volumes of four brand-new series—Canon, Hoshin Engi, Platina, and Princess Resurrection—as well as the second volume of Vampire Knight and Junko Mizuno: Pure Trance.

Canon, Vol. 1

By Chika Shiomi
CMX, 200 pp.
Rating: 16+

The eponymous heroine of Canon is a smart, tough-talking vigilante who’s saving the world, one vampire at a time. For most of her life, she was a somewhat sickly but otherwise unremarkable human—that is, until a nosferatu decided to make Lunchables of her high school class. Canon, the sole survivor of the attack, was transformed into a vampire whose blood has an amazing property: it can restore other victims to their former human selves. She’s determined to rescue as many human-vampire converts as she can, prowling the streets of Tokyo in search of others like her. She’s also resolved to find and kill Rod, the vampire who murdered her friends. (Uh, Rod? Was Vlad taken?) She’s aided by two vampires with agendas of their own: Fuui, a talking crow who’s always scavenging for blood, and Sakaki, a handsome rogue who also loathes Rod.

Though I enjoyed Canon, I had two reservations about this volume. First, Shiomi’s action sequences are sometimes hard to parse. There were several close-up panels that left me utterly mystified: just what the heck was I looking at? Second, Fuui is more of creaky plot device than a character. As several other reviewers have observed, Fuui’s primary function seems to be intoning expository dialogue. To some extent, such passages are unavoidable in a series with a complicated mythology, but Shiomi doesn’t integrate them gracefully. That said, I have a feeling that future volumes will be more enjoyable now that Shiomi has laid the foundation for her story. I’ll be tuning in, if for no other reason than to catch a glimpse of Rod.

Volume one of Canon is available now; volume two will be released in July.

Hoshin Engi, Vol. 1

By Ryu Fujisaki
Viz, 202 pp.
Rating: 13+

In the Hoshin Engi universe, real Chinese emperors co-exist side by side with a group of demi-gods called Sennin, who normally reside on a higher plane of existence than humans. The story begins when Dakki, a female Sennin, uses her power to usurp the Chinese throne. She then embarks on a campaign of wanton destruction and self-aggrandizement that rivals only the modern-day antics of Kim Jong Il. Taikobo, a young shepherd, is one of Dakki’s many victims, losing his entire family in a raid on his village. To avenge his family, Taikobo becomes an apprentice of Genshi Tenson, a Sennin elder. But Taikobo lacks the discipline to attain demi-god status. Frustrated by Taikobo’s slacker antics, Genshi devises a novel training regimen for his underachieving pupil: kit Taikobo out with a fancy ride and a cool weapon, then dispatch him to the human world to round up 345 dangerous demons.

Though the set-up has great potential, I found Ryu Fujisaki’s storytelling uninspired. Taikobo is a generic shonen hero—all action and no reflection—while his sidekick/vehicle Reiju Supushan is a classic fuss-budget foil who questions the wisdom of Taikobo’s decisions. The first two chapters are a slow read, as Fujisaki tries to cram as much exposition into those early pages as possible. Once he’s dispensed with the basics—names, realms, spells, and such—the story quickly falls into a predictable pattern: Taikobo engages a demon, feigns oafishness, then gains the upper hand. No doubt Hoshin Engi would make a terrific RPG or anime, but I didn’t find it a compelling read.

Volume 1 of Hoshin Engi will be available in June.

Junko Mizuno: Pure Trance

By Junko Mizuno
Last Gasp, 192 pp.
Rating: Mature

Junko Mizuno’s first published work could best be summarized as a post-apocalyptic meditation on celebrity, pornography, and eating disorders. In the brave new world of Pure Trance, humans get all their nutritional needs from a multivitamin pill called—you guessed it—Pure Trance. Pure Trance has some nasty side effects, however, causing addiction, binging and purging, and other forms of self-destructive behavior. There’s not much plot or genuine social commentary here; instead, Mizuno uses her futuristic set-up as a pretext for cute illustrations of women doing ghastly things—hey, look at this picture of girls whipping each other and puking! Though Last Gasp has done a superb job of packaging Mizuno’s work, Pure Trance is better suited to the hardcore fan than the first-time reader. For novices, I’d recommend her subversive retelling of Hansel and Gretel instead. It’s a better showcase for her storytelling style, as her taboo-busting cutesiness brings the more perverse elements of this famous fairy tale to the surface.

Junko Mizuno: Pure Trance is available now.

Platina, Vol. 1

By Yeon Joo Kim
Central Park Media, 177 pp.
Rating: 13+

As best I can tell, the plot for Platina goes something like this: Auna is a former aristocrat whose family suffered a disastrous reversal of fortune. As a result, Auna has been reduced to scrubbing floors at Princess Vellotte’s palace. For reasons unknown, Vellotte entrusts Auna with Jinen, an adorable little fox with a very big secret: he’s actually a handsome human thief who, thanks to a curse from the princess, transforms into a kitsune for twelve hours each day. No matter what form he takes, however, Jinen has a knack for getting into trouble. In the short period of time that Auna has custody of him, they endure kidnapping attempts, shoot-outs, and a stint in jail. What makes Platina a fun—if sometimes confusing—read is Yeon Joo Kim’s decision to dispense with the fourth wall, allowing her characters to poke fun at her, discuss events from previous chapters, crack wise about comic clichés, and speculate about how the story will unfold. With so many digressions and meta-jokes interrupting the narrative flow, events don’t always have a logical connection, but Platina’s kitchen-sink humor and stylish visuals compensate for its shortcomings.

Volume one of Platina is available now.

Princess Resurrection, Vol. 1

By Yatsunori Mitsunaga
Del Rey, 224 pp.
Rating: 16+

Meet Princess Hime. She’s equal parts Cinderella and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, dispatching werewolves, vampires, zombies, and creatures from the Black Lagoon while clad in a tiara and crinoline. Her entourage includes Flandre, a cute robot with Hulk-like strength; Hiro, a nebbish that Hime resurrected after an unfortunate traffic accident; Hiro’s older sister, Sawawa, a none-too-bright maid; and Riza Wildman, a brash werewolf girl who favors mid-riff baring tank tops and rides a motorcycle. Together this improbable team fights armies of the undead, transforming a variety of objects—SUVs, chainsaws, cardio paddles—into lethal weapons with MacGuyver-esque ingenuity.

Whether or not you warm to Princess Resurrection will depend on how funny you find the principal joke, as the plot and characters are wafer-thin. I enjoyed the Disney-does-Dawn-of-the-Dead premise, but found one of the series’ running gags less amusing. In his recent review at Comic World News, David Welsh coined a memorable phrase for this weird and distasteful bit of fanservice: mood boobs. He explains, “You can tell when the sister [Sawawa] is preoccupied, as her giant breasts don’t jiggle as vigorously.” So if mood boobs don’t distract you from comically gruesome goings-on, you’ll probably enjoy this smartly illustrated series.

Volume one of Princess Resurrection is available now; volume two will be published in August. To read a short excerpt of volume one, click here.

Vampire Knight, Vol. 2

By Matsuri Hino
Viz, 208 pp.
Rating: 13+

When I reviewed the first volume of Vampire Knight back in January, I expressed some reservations about the series’ generic characters and warmed-over vampire lore. A surprising number of fans posted polite but firm rebuttals, informing me that the story improved in subsequent chapters. Impressed by their depth of commitment, I decided to give the series a second look.

On the plus side, Matsuri Hino seems to have found her footing with the material. She adopts a more appropriate tone for her story, dispensing with the shojo slapstick of the early chapters in favor of supernatural suspense. She also fleshes out the vampires’ backstory, explaining why they have enrolled at Cross Academy, delineating a hierarchy within the vampire world, and introducing a new character, Yagari Toga, a vampire hunter who packs heat, talks tough, and has history with Kaname and Zero. On the minus side, I couldn’t distinguish the male vampires from one another, as most of them look like members of Duran Duran (at least to this child of the 1980s). And I still found Yuki a less-than-compelling character. Not all heroines need to administer karate chops to be powerful—or empowered, for that matter—but Yuki seems incapable of tying her shoelaces, let alone subduing vampires. Unless she engages in some serious slayage in volume three, I’m probably going to focus my energies elsewhere.

Volume two of Vampire Knight is available now; volume three is scheduled for publication in October. To read a short excerpt from volume one, click here.

Millenium Snow, Vol. 1

By Bisco Hatori
Viz, 208 pp.
Rating: Teen

Millenium Snow epitomizes what I call “kitchen-sink” shojo, freely mixing supernatural elements with melodramatic plotlines and slapstick humor. Done poorly, the results would yield something akin to NBC’s campy Passions. A human-vampire romance set in a high school? A heroine suffering from a life-threatening but unnamed disease? A supporting cast that includes a talking bat and a werewolf? Yet in Bisco Hatori’s capable hands, these disparate elements gel into an appealing story with surprising emotional resonance.

Millenium Snow focuses on Chiyuki, a terminally ill seventeen-year-old girl, and Toya, a brash, eighteen-year-old vampire who finds the very smell of human blood revolting. Toya has the power to grant a human being unnaturally long life by sucking her blood. Once bitten, that person becomes his partner (and, presumably, on-call snack) for the next 800 – 1,000 years. Yet Toya cannot bear the thought of biting anyone. It’s not a great leap of imagination to guess what happens next. Chiyuki becomes smitten with Toya, and offers to become his partner. The two engage in a classic shojo courtship, trading public insults while secretly harboring feelings for one another. What prevents their relationship from blossoming is fear: Toya worries that his human partner might grow tired of his company, while Chiyuki worries that she may not live to see the first snowfall of the year.

The real pleasure of Millenium Snow is the skillful way in which Hatori balances Lifetime movie moments with goofy sight gags. Toya’s sidekick Yamimaru, the aforementioned talking bat, injects the right amount of comic relief into many potentially mawkish scenes. Some readers may find this kawaii critter an irritant, as Yamimaru has a tendency to misconjugate verbs and mangle words in the not-so-proud tradition of Jar-Jar Binks. Yet I found him an essential, endearing member of the cast, as he offers insights into Toya’s personality, acts as a go-between for Chiyuki and Toya, and serves as Toya’s punching bag, sounding board, and butler.

Much as I enjoyed Millenium Snow, I found the book visually chaotic. Many pages feature panels-within-panels, overlapping images, and jokey asides addressed to the reader. Used sparingly, all of these devices can enhance a story; used too frequently, they clutter the page with unnecessary information and hamper the narrative flow. The overly fussy layout of the first chapter is especially choppy and disjointed; I had to re-read the first ten pages several times before I could piece together the sequence of events. When Hatori exercises restraint, however, the results are pure shojo gold; through a few simple gestures or the placement of a figure on the page, we learn more about Toya’s true nature than from a chapter’s worth of dialogue.

Volume one extras include the usual manga-ka commentary on the characters, presented in the form of a five-page mini-comic. (You know the drill: “This character is my personal favorite, but alas, I don’t draw him very well. This character is very cute and a fan favorite. Doesn’t he look good in leather pants? This character is dressed as a nun because I like drawing Catholic vestments.” And so on.) The book also includes “A Romance of One Moment,” Hatori’s first published work. “Romance” is a short story that shades ever-so-slightly into yuri. While it lacks the polish of Ouran High School Host Club, “Romance” demonstrates something that Hatori’s legions of fans already know: she spins a good yarn.

The second and final volume of Millenium Snow will be released in July. This review is based on a complimentary copy provided by the publisher.

Vampire Knight, Vol. 1

By Matsuri Hino
Viz, 200 pp.
Rating: 13+

Who would like it: Girls. Vampire fanatics. Cosplayers who dig school uniforms.
Who would hate it: Just about everyone else.

Vampire Knight is an unabashedly adolescent take on the unending (if undeclared) war between humans and vampires. Set at the imaginatively titled Cross Academy, Vampire Knight focuses on three characters: Yuki Cross, the adopted daughter of the academy’s headmaster; Zero Kiryu, the headmaster’s other ward; and Kuran Kaname, an attractive, popular student. Yuki and Zero are tasked with guarding Cross Academy’s Day Class—comprised mostly of squealing human girls—from the Night Class—comprised, in Matsuri Hino’s words, of “an elite group of good looking students” who just so happen to be vampires. Yuki and Zero’s job is complicated by two factors. First, the students in the Day Class are blissfully unaware that their nocturnal compatriots are jonesing for their blood, and second, the vampires’ charm and beauty inspire the bolder members of the Day Class to break curfew. Aided by Kaname, President of the Night Class and Big Vampire on Campus, Yuki and Zero labor mightily to preserve the academy’s secret.

In the right hands, this material could be deliciously subversive—think Heathers or Mean Girls with vampires as the school’s A-list clique. Alas, Hino chooses a different tact, grafting the earnest romanticism of Interview with the Vampire onto the romantic slapstick of Happy Hustle High. No shojo cliché is left unturned. Stepsiblings Yuki and Zero banter with the gusto of Beatrice and Benedict; Yuki and Kaname trade soulful looks before Yuki dissolves into chibi-fied embarrassment; Zero fumes when Kaname crushes on Yuki; Yuki agonizes over whether to give Kaname and Zero chocolates on Valentine’s Day. (What kind of chocolate does one bestow on a vampire—AB negative ganaches?) And just in case the reader has lost sight of the horror element, Hino periodically interrupts the story to share received wisdom about vampires loathing sunlight and special bullets.

Such tired bits of vampire lore coupled with paint-by-numbers plotting give the impression that this series originated in a focus group of 13-year-olds rather than an artist’s imagination. Want androgynously beautiful male vampires? No problem. A spunky heroine? You got it. A forbidden love between a vampire and a human? Check. Stylin’ school uniforms? Check.

Yet a few scenes suggest that Vampire Knight has the potential to develop into a more interesting series. A mid-volume flashback to the night Yuki and Zero met is both haunting and touching, while a racy exchange between Yuki and Aido Hanabusa, Cross Academy’s resident bad boy vampire, hints at an erotic subtext that’s sorely missing from most of volume one. (In fact, subtext of any kind would make this series more palatable to the over-13 crowd.) That said, I’m not sure if I’ll pick up volume two. Enticing as the series’ sartorially splendid vamps may be, reading such hokey lines as “I can’t keep my composure when my dear girl has been pierced by someone else” made me cackle gleefully instead of swoon.

POSTSCRIPT, 5/22/07: I was impressed by your passionate defenses of this series, so I decided to give it a second look. My review of volume two can be accessed by clicking here; scroll to the end of entry.

12 Days

By June Kim
Tokyopop, 208 pp.
Rating: Older Teen (16+)

In the abstract, 12 Days sounds like something out of a forgotten Tennessee Williams play: a young woman mourns the loss of her lover by drinking her lover’s remains. Yes, you read that right—when Jackie’s ex-girlfriend Noah dies in a car accident, Jackie decides that the best strategy for coping with her grief is to consume Noah’s ashes in the form of a daily smoothie. Over the course of twelve days, Jackie punishes herself with this gruesome ritual while confronting painful memories of Noah and sparring with Noah’s brother Nick.

The problem with the smoothie conceit is that it feels self-consciously literary. (The fact that Jackie’s ash-drinking ritual has an analog in classical antiquity only affirms its preciousness.) No one in their right mind would choose to remember a loved one this way, yet we’re never asked to question the wisdom of Jackie’s decision or, frankly, her sanity. That’s a pity, because June Kim’s book is filled with lovely, quiet observations about the way we grieve, the way we define family, the way we express desire, and the way we remember moments of hurt and betrayal. She dares to fill up pages with nothing more than close-ups of faces and hands, allowing us to experience the characters’ emptiness for ourselves. And those faces are beautiful—not in a shallow, shojo sort of way, but in their realism and attention to small details.

I’m of two minds about the overall quality of the artwork. Though the characters are drawn with a refreshing degree of naturalism, the backgrounds have a stiff, perspective-drawing-exercise feel about them. The plain, ugly font doesn’t help matters—it looks as if someone pasted the dialogue straight from the word processor into PageMaker. Like the smoothie premise, these design shortcomings detract from an ambitious, thought-provoking, emotionally stirring story. Despite my reservations about plot details and design elements, I highly recommend 12 Days. June Kim is a gifted artist and storyteller. Let’s hope Tokyopop has the good sense to publish her future projects.

The Dreaming, Volume 2

By Queenie Chan
Tokyopop, 190 pp.
Rating: Teen (13+)

In the first volume of The Dreaming, manga-ka Queenie Chan introduced us to identical twins Jeanie and Amber Malkin. The two girls enrolled at Greenwich Private College, a boarding school located deep in the Australian outback. With its Gothic architecture and period furnishings, the school is a character itself, filled with walled-off chambers, mysterious paintings, apparitions in Victorian dress, and a headmistress harboring a terrible secret that may explain why 23 women have vanished from Greenwich’s campus over the past 50 years. Volume 2 finds Amber hiding in her room, paralyzed by fear and boredom, and Jeanie investigating the death of their classmate Millie and the background of the school’s sole remaining teacher, Miss Anu.

There’s much to like about The Dreaming, from Chan’s atmospheric backgrounds to her Picnic at Hanging Rock-meets-The Others premise. The artwork is crisp and unusually detailed (though some may object to Chan’s heavy use of toning). Chan manages the difficult feat of distinguishing Jeanie and Amber through subtle touches: the more reserved Amber tends to slouch and scrunch up her face, while alpha twin Jeanie appears taller and more physically robust. At times, however, I found the characters’ facial expressions odd, as if they’d all had Botox treatments. Jeanie, Amber, and their classmates look mildly astonished no matter what befalls them: ghostly visitations, power outages, math tests.

My chief complaint about the second volume is that many of its key developments unfold in flashbacks or newspaper articles. While these revelations give the manga a pleasantly spooky vibe, I found this installment a bit too talky. I would have liked to see more happen, and to have learned more about Jeanie and Amber’s classmates. That said, The Dreaming is a solidly crafted, consistently entertaining series that should silence skeptics about the quality of Tokyopop’s OEL line. Look for the third and final volume of The Dreaming in 2007.

A tip for Drifting Classroom fans: be sure the read “The Haunted Linen Cupboard,” a mini-manga that appears at the end of volume 2. There’s some nice little in-jokes just for you.

Trinity Blood, Vol. 1

Story by Sunao Yoshida, Art by Kiyo Kyujo
Tokyopop, 178 pp.
Rating: Older Teen (16+)

Let’s face it: Trinity Blood isn’t the most original manga to arrive on American shores. One could make a list of character types and plot elements that it shares with dozens of other vampire-themed stories. But there’s something to be said for a well-executed bit of formula, especially one with such gorgeous artwork.

Anyone familiar with the anime may suffer a touch of déjà vu reading volume one of Trinity Blood, as the plot conforms roughly to the two-episode “Star of Sorrow” storyline. Abel Nightroad, a seemingly inept emissary from the Vatican, arrives in the city of Istavan to assist the local parish in combating the despotic overlord Count Gyula, a vampire (a.k.a. “Methusaleh”) with a grudge against humans (a.k.a. “Terrans”). Abel’s disguise, one should note, is about as convincing as Superman’s “I’ll just wear glasses and pretend to be a wimp” front; fans know that Abel is actually a supremely powerful vampire who just happens to have sided with humans in the ongoing Methusaleh/Terran conflict. As Abel begins to unravel the mystery behind several gruesome murders, he forges an alliance with a feisty novice named Esther. Together, the two blunder into a dangerous face-off with Gyula and his minions. Bullets, meaningful glances, and one-liners ricochet off the pages as we hurtle to a satisfying conclusion that gives closure to the story arc while leaving the door open for future developments.

As for production values, Trinity Blood is one of the sharpest-looking manga in Tokyopop’s catalog. The characters are elegantly drawn, the action scenes vividly rendered, and the cover design eye-catching and rather sexy. Some readers may find the drawing a little too feminine for their tastes; were I to compare Kyujo’s style to another manga-ka’s, I might mention the languid bishonen found in Kaori Yuki and Kazuyo Minekura’s work. Other readers may find some pages too busy for their liking. Kyujo seldom confines his images to neatly defined panels, allowing his artwork to fill almost every inch of some pages. (Think of Hinoto’s dream sequences in X/1999, and you’ll have the general picture.) Still, it’s hard to resist Trinity Blood’s heady mix of vampirism, Vatican intrigue, romance, and over-the-top action sequences. Nuns with guns and hotties of the cloth… if only CCD had been this exciting!