Back to MelodyKondrael's Profile MelodyKondrael's Profile

Rumour has it that the manga has been dropped; the lack of updates seem to confirm this.

All in all, I enjoyed it. The story isn't driving although it is interesting enough. The characters are much more interesting. There are hints of over-arcing plots (the magician Kuroe shares a name with, his sister, the musician father of Misaki, his connection to Kuroe, etc) but nothing ever goes anywhere because of the apparent cancellation. It's still worth reading, though.

Pardon for rabbit trail discussing the potential loli interpretation. :)

The (onesided?) romance between Misaki and Kuroe is in heavy squick territory. She's pre-pubescent and thinks ... she's in love with a man who (admittedly) resembles her father. He's in his mid-twenties to early thirties and moooooooooost of the time doesn't seem to reciprocate or even acknowledge her feelings. There's enough little bits of fanservice here and there though that indicate the feelings of the author, and this is where the squick lies.

I wouldn't be quite as annoyed if she was in fact of legal age but just looked like a loli. Unlike the young boy vampire Higure, she is actually the age that she looks (it's indicated she's been a vampire probably less than a year while he has been a vamp for probably a couple hundred). I still would be annoyed because the implications of lolicon would still be high but technically it would not be. Also why I don't mention about Higure's definite interest in (adult) men as something that bothered me. Visually it's more than a bit off-putting and feels like it's fanservice, but technically Higure is very legal. =P

At any rate, this is my basic reason why I don't rate it higher. The squick is high and while the story was good enough to finish out what there was scanlated - 8 volumes/34ish chapters - it's not as good as I wanted it to be.

That aside:

I really like the approach to vampires and vampire hunters and vampire assassins. A lot of it isn't new but picks up the best of vampire lore - blood families, territory disputes, the question of co-existing with humanity, vampire servants/masters (Hellsing), even the domestic angle (Moon Phase) etc - but the execution just really rings true.

Yes, there are bloody, super-powered battles, but at the core it is a story about a little vampire girl who is mostly little girl and not very much vampire. Higure, the vampire with the appearance of a young boy, might give a hint towards Misaki's future. Despite the old soul in a young body trait, he pulls off the balance of a not-fully-developed mind with the knowledge and experience of a vampire. He's still a lonely little boy despite (maybe because of?) the hundreds of years and the claim that he's not the boy Higure anymore.

Do I wish there was more and a proper completion to the story? Yeah. Am I okay with the focus on Misaki's crush on Korue? No. But it was worth my time anyway.

Side note: I actually really like the art. I forget what it reminds me of (maybe Usagi Drop?) but I just really do like the artstyle.