Vampeerz

Man, what a ride! What a nice story that takes a classic trope and tweaks it in interesting ways. Too bad the ending is not to my tastes. Each character was not generally too complicated, but there were a couple of twists here and there. Seeing Aria change as she grew closer to Ichika was probably my favorite part of the series. The large backstories were lengthy, as is fitting of vampires. My favorite part of the story was its pacing. A big problem I have with realistic settings with a twist is that most of them have "word vomit." For the setting to make sense,a huge amount of terminology, peoples, organizations, etc have to be digested in a fairly short time (usually within a couple of chapters). You learn some terms as the story goes, but it never gets too complicated. My biggest complaint for this series is the ending. I'm not sure if it had to be trimmed down, but the pacing quickens significantly and backstory floods for a while. Without spoiling, I do not like when solutions are overly convenient and feel like a magical solution. It feels like the author doesn't know how to solve an issue but needs to solve it asap. The very end needed more time to breathe, so it felt rushed. 7/10 I recommend it; it's a fun read. It is some good yuri fun with a nice gimmick for the world. I think most people won't be bothered by the end events, but I know it took the wind out of my sails pretty quickly.

Skip to the conclusion for a TL;DR. ~Intro~ I happened upon this work when the bright red cover caught my eye from the sidebar of a manga site. It had a timeless look that frankly set my expectations too high. I'm usually more of a shoujo/josei yuri reader, but I'm a sucker for vampires and I think it does well enough with what it's trying to accomplish. ~Art~ - The quality of the composition varies throughout, ranging from utilitarian and flat to bursting with creativity to borderline confusing to cluttered mess. - The backgrounds are almost exclusively 3d objects or filtered photos, which I found distracting for mostof the experience. - Facial expressions remain consistent for most of the series and are occasionally exaggerated or stylized for comedic effect. But there are several instances where they just look awkward, like the artist can't take the expression far enough and its stuck in an uncomfortable limbo. - There's a stiffness to some of the poses that's mainly noticeable during action scenes. Some of the fights in the later chapters look BAD. The lines of action are off, the poses aren't just stiff but also awkward, there's no sense of depth or momentum, the pacing of the action and dialogue seems unnatural, and I could probably go on. I wouldn't be surprised if you told me this artists draws over photo or 3d character references. + The character designs are simple, but they stand out enough that I wasn't ever uncertain about who was who. + The quality of the character illustration is great. Accurate proportions and clothing. Besides the manga-esque faces, the style aims for photorealism. + There are some panels and pages that are very memorable (and not just ecchi ones). + As you would expect, a disproportionate amount of care and detail is spent on the ecchi scenes, to the point of becoming hyperreal in the detail of the kissing. There's also a strong emphasis on the eroticism of blood sucking shown skillfully through facial expressions and body language. Overall, the combination of photorealism, 3d/photo backgrounds, and stiffness left the art generally feeling sterile in a clinical way. Plenty of panels look fantastic, but the space between them felt bland. ~Writing~ The comedy landed more often than not. The emotional beats of the later chapters were effective. The dialogue is decent. The themes center around immortality, which is explored from start to finish. There's a seriousness and gravity afforded to some of the scenes that balance out the ecchi and comedy to form a more well rounded whole. ~Plot~ There are elements that are introduced and later dropped, time spent on things that ended up not mattering, and inconsistent pacing. It starts off slow and seemingly aimless, but overtime develops a narrative destination as well as internal vampire lore. For the first half, things are just happening without much information given to the reader. The latter half begins tying these threads together. The ending hinges on factors that feel convenient rather than satisfying, but it did look cool. The story is okay. Its serviceable as a backdrop to the relationship and romance of the two main characters. There are a variety of locations spanning several continents which was fun to see. ~Characters~ The main character, Ichika, is our point of view for most of the manga. Unfortunately, she has limited agency, so the plot is happening around her for most of the story. She's impulsive, sincere, and kindhearted, and acts as a foil to Aria, who is reserved and apathetic after living for so long. The supporting characters are pretty one note, with the exception of two who get an extended flashback sequence that was one of the highlights of the manga for me. The characters don't develop much through the story, and their motivations aren't always clear. The racial diversity of the supporting characters is notable, which includes an Indian woman and an Arab woman. ~Conclusion~ If "male-gazey yuri vampire erotica with plot" sounds good to you, give it a shot. Otherwise, skip it. Cute girls kissing and sucking blood is the focus of this manga. Everything else is secondary. That’s not to say there's nothing else of value, but that should be the reason you choose to pick this manga up. If you tend to have reactions like "ugh, why is anime/manga like this?", then give this one a pass. There are things that will definitely trigger a reasonable disgust response in many people.