Shannon, here – Halloween is my favourite holiday and to honour it I’m counting down 13 manga throughout the month that I think best capture the Halloween spirit. They aren’t all horror manga, as to me Halloween is about more than scares: it’s about a sense of fun and wonder. It’s about discovering that there may be more to this world than meets the eye. So with that in mind, there’s everything on this list from action-packed shounen to romantic-comedy to children’s manga to some lock-the-doors-and-leave-the-lights-on horror. (See all 13 Days of Halloween so far…)
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
13. Chibi-Vampire
It’s easy to assume that Chibi-Vampire is just another shoujo vampire series like Millenium Snow or Vampire Knight. But Chibi-Vampire has something that other vamp manga lack: it’s fun. The characters go through some rough patches, but they never spend pages angsting about their lot in life. The manga manages to take something as tired as vampires and be both respectful to tradition and while still crafting its own mythology.
Karin is the middle-child in a family full of vampires. Even in a strange family like that she still manages to be the odd one out. Instead of drinking blood, Karin’s body is a hemoglobin-making machine, pumping out so much blood that Karin bites people in order to inject them with it and get it out of her system. If she doesn’t find someone to donate blood too, she ends with the mother of all nosebleeds. When her classmate Kenta witnesses one of them, Karin and Kenta get drawn into a strange friendship that slowly grows over the course of the manga.
What makes this a ‘Halloween’ manga in my mind is Karin’s family. They embody all the traditional vampire tropes: they sleep in coffins, can’t bear sunlight, use bats as familiars, and need to drink blood to survive. They even dress the part, wearing gothic-lolita outfits and capes. Ironically, the fact that they adhere so much to tradition makes them stand out against the wave of sparkly, sun-happy vampires that are in fashion (sure, Karin is fine in the sun, but she’s got drawbacks of her own to balance things out). But that’s only a minor part of their appeal. A much bigger factor is the fact that they like being vampires. Sure, there are some moments in the series where being what they are makes things hard for them, but they never stoop to angst and bemoan their existence.
The series is labelled as comedy horror, but as I said in my review of volume two it’s much more of a comedy with horror trappings. There’s enough respect and affection for the vampire mythos that a horror fan can read the manga and enjoy the comedy. It also works just as a romantic-comedy, as the characters are strong and the relationships well-written.
To find out more about Chibi-Vampire, you can read Lissa’s review of volume one here as well as my review of volume two.
Follow
First off I picked up the book copy of Hinako Takanaga’s Tyrant Who Falls In Love. I originally reviewed a digital copy of the book so was excited to have my order of the full edition come. Like other June books lately (including Love Sickness which I also picked up and is also amazing and has also been reviewed for your convenience), it has a smaller trim size than the imprint’s usual so I’m guessing it’s becoming the norm. It’s not a bad size, about the same as Viz Media or Tokyopop books, but it is a little sad not having them extra-large as they were before – made them extra special, you know?
From Viz I purchased the first print edition volume of House of Five Leaves. Admittedly I wasn’t very fond of Natsume Ono’s previous works (Ristorante Paradiso and not simple) but I was really impressed with House of Five Leaves. It had great pacing and was a nice change of pace from the often over-violent, super-stylized Edo-era samurai stories. Also Natsume Ono’s art has really improved as well.
Despite being a bit underwhelmed by the first, I couldn’t help but pick up the second volume of Chi’s Sweet Home. I’m not a cat person and it’s a story about a cat… just being a cat. But the adorable full colour art and great production values caught my eye again all the same. We’ll see if Chi can win me over in this one.
A new series I’ve been waiting for a while is finally out – NGE: Campus Apocalypse (Vol. 01). I was never huge into Evangelion but I’d consider myself a fan. Previous alternate-universe-esque takes on the original left me wanting anything but another, yet the artwork and plot of this one piqued my interest easy enough. Just flipping through after purchase, I know it was a good buy for the eye-candy alone. Really nice art, and past some similar character designs and names, it looks like a story that those not familiar with the franchise may be able to pick up and enjoy as well. We’ll see how this supernatural take pans out.
