On her fourteenth birthday, Emille gets to become bonded to her ‘sister’ at her private school. Except her new sister, Eve, wants absolutely nothing to do with Emille at all. But that’s not going to stop Emille from trying to convince Eve otherwise. Also, they’re all vampires.
First off, I have to say that I am no great fan of Class-S yuri. I acknowledge that it’s where the genre sprang from, but I prefer the more modern interpretations thereof. So, when I say that this is a good story, be aware that it is winning me over from behind the proverbial 8 Ball.
What I really appreciate here is how economical the storytelling is at the start, but how that isn’t an excuse to short shrift the narrative or make it more vague than it should be. We know Eve wants nothing to do with Emille, the why can come later. Even the art is minimalist, but effectively so.
Similarly, the vampire stuff definitely adds a little bit extra - Stoker would probably be proud that this bloodsucking has a little more sexuality mixed into it than we typically get these days - but it’s kept to the stuff we need to know.
Vampire hunters exist, vampires need blood, the girls try not to kill, they can mesmerize, that’s the particulars. It begs questions (you’d think this town would depopulate pretty fast due to the rash of neck bitings), but gives enough that you’re not lost.
Emille and Eve are your standard pairing, with Eve gradually thawing out over the course of the series. Her trauma is pretty believable - there’s some definite PTSD on the go there and it absolute explains why she has no desire to get close to Emille.
Emille is a little too bouncy for my own tastes, but she’s fun enough. And she certainly has an interesting friend group, including one girl who starts off sinister as all get out, plus her roommate Yukka (okay, the names in this one are wonky) who merely ends up being sinister as all get out.
There’s some fantastic melodrama - I do not often go ‘yay melodrama’, but I have to admit that the gothic atmosphere of this sort of school story practically invites it and that makes for some great story beats of the appropriate ‘dun dun dun’ variety.
Emille’s act of kindness towards Eve inadvertently leads to disaster and even if it isn’t something she could predict, she gets eaten alive with guilt over it. Uh, pardon the expression.
The yuri is pretty quiet thus far, minus Yukka’s silently simmering feelings, but this is definitely a story where the repression of more passionate feelings is going to be a thing. Taken on its terms, it’s a surprisingly good start.
4 stars - hey, good storytelling that matches the genre it was inspired by and makes me appreciate some of its choices as deliciously mean. Not a bad start at all.