Presentation

Fairly simple, as Viz manga novels tend to be, Rosario+Vampire’s cover sports a cute pin-up of Moka and in the background a faded image of her true self, the vampire side of her. The orange backdrop to contrast with the character was a nice touch, making the cover more eye-catching. The creator, Akihisa Ikeda, seems to have a fairly common-appearing art style for this manga. It has all the cute girls (even the teacher), menacing male antagonists, and generic background characters most shonen manga possess. It’s strongest point is that, while there is a fight in almost every chapter between Real Moka and whatever monster happens to mess with her and Tsukune, fight scenes and the general backgrounds don’t get too bogged down with heavy details and overdone motion illustration. Another plus is at the end of the volume is a couple of pages worth of four mini omake (extra) comic strips, just giving amusing insight to the interests of the main characters involved.

Overall

At its core, Rosario+Vampire is your typical harem comedy, such as popular titles like Tenchi Muyo or Love Hina. An average Joe meets a super cute girl, interest is sparked in both parties but unacknowledged, and then other girls start crawling out of the woodworks to get in Average Joe’s good graces, much to his dismay. But what makes Rosario+Vampire so unique is the concept behind it—a human loser basically having no other choice but to attend a school for monsters that will kill him instantly if they find out he’s not one of them. It adds an extra dose of tension for our poor anti-hero than he really needs on top of girls fighting for a nibble of him. This is an amusing manga, and all the characters have distinctive quirks that make them oddly endearing in their own ways. If you’re looking for a light read away from the hardcore battles of titles like Bleach, but with that small dose of action, then Rosario+Vampire is an excellent choice.