Hina Alucard is a modern vampire who drinks blood from bags instead of from humans. But she’s also a complete shut-in who hasn’t left the house in 30 years. In an effort to reach her, Hina’s dad does something that changes her life—he gives her a DVD of the Vampire Cross anime! Hina is instantly obsessed, especially with the character Mao. But it’s difficult to fangirl as hard as she wants from her bedroom in Romania, so now Hina is out of the house and off to Japan to live her otaku dream!
鈴木ジュリエッタ Suzuki Julietta is a Japanese manga artist born in the Fukuoka Prefecture. Her pen name comes from a character named Julietta Sakamoto from the seinen manga series, Air Master. She likes cats, koalas, and sharks. According to an interview with Hakusensha, she first started drawing when she was in her second year of elementary school in a sketchbook of Japonica. During her free time, she meets her friends, goes for a drink, or out for a meal. She states that although she doesn't read much, she enjoys works by Junji Itō. Her favourite character is Ashia and mentions that male characters are easier to draw in general.
For all the unevenness in this series, there is typically one constant: at some point I will laugh very, very hard during the course of any given volume. No matter how narratively all over it gets, there will be a gag.
I could not resist the sight of Hina’s fearsome vampire hound getting accidentally domesticated by a Churu, which is an image so funny that it still makes me chuckle. Since my cat would likely trade me in for one himself, this really resonated.
Generally speaking, this is a very humorous continuation of the streamer arc from last time, as Amanatsu’s delicious blood goes viral and suddenly every vampire, uh, alive wants a taste. Huge bonus points for the hilarious Nosferatu cameo.
But Japan’s pretty peaceful and it turns out that Rinya, coincidentally the VA behind Hina’s favourite, Mao, has been keeping the peace. He devises a plan that will really keep the peace, but only after a lot of violence.
Those are the broad strokes, but it dips a toe into the romance side of things, with Hina getting a glow-up (shoes aside) and Rinya making his play. The ways he keeps distracting her with merchandise are amusing enough on their own.
Amanatsu, meanwhile, is bouncing from captor to captor and trying to stay alive and possibly also doing some mild cosplay. He still complains a lot, but I liked the way the narrative went with him being less helpless (they pretty much walk back the servant thing from last time too, once it has crushed somebody’s dreams).
The plot itself is not enough to carry this story, which I think is where it pales a bit when compared to Kamisama Kiss. This is far more overtly comedic, but the narrative and romance aren’t as satisfying.
That said, the way this particular arc plays out is incredibly satisfying in both departments. Hina’s solution is so on brand and works so well that it warps right around from being dumb to hysterical. Plus, well, they sure move the needle on that relationship.
If you like this, it’s great. There’s more than enough here. I think it’s a mixed bag overall, it never feels consistently good enough to be a strong recommendation, but I also enjoy the majority of my time spent on it. It could be better, but it could be much worse.
3.5 stars - 3 star plot, 4 star comedy, rounded up for that slight frisson of romance to take it home. Still, nearly worth reading just for the jokes - I bet this would destroy if it was only a 4-koma, but it does well enough as it is.
The conflict over the sweet blood comes to somewhat of a conclusion in the most fantastic way imaginable! I absolutely love the dynamics of this love triangle. There's just something delightful about the way the setup is and the main character is adorable! I can't help but absolutely love her so much!
I was reflecting on this series earlier and telling my husband about it and I got to thinking about similar series that had the Doki Doki beats that I really like. The closest I think would be chibi vampire, and I also feel like there are some similarities with vampire knights. Both of those series ended in a really dark place, it was most striking with chibi vampire because it was hilarity and rom-com until the final arc. When I was thinking about the way the two different stories twisted along the way I suddenly got very nervous. So far this series has been the most like chibi vampire, has been hitting all the buttons for me that the other series did. Now I'm nervous, I sure hope that we get the ideal ending... Considering their lifespans in this case she could have her cake and eat it too lol!
Best line in the book, "I have time on my side." That kind of devotion made my heart skip a beat just a bit lol!
This series is always so crazy and silly. Poor Amanatsu. His problems are immense but I am happy he has come to a realization here, it will make the rest of the series interesting. And can you believe how insanely majestic and beautiful Hina looked in that dress! OMG. The ending of this volume looked like it would be rather bloody but, wow, Hina knows how to throw a monkey wrench in things and pull off the ultimate Otaku moment! That had me laughing.
What a great volume. The foreign vampires flock to Japan to taste Amanatsu’s blood. Lord Rinya, who rules over vampires in Japan, has a plan to make them all go away. He’ll use Amanatsu to lure them all in one place and deal with them all at once. But he doesn’t take Hina’s determination to protect Amanatsu into account. We’ll finally have a true change in Hina and Amanatsu’s relationship too. Eager to read more.
I received a free copy from Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review.