Vamp! Volume 1

Vamp! #1

by Ryohgo Narita, Katsumi Enami (Illustrator)

Vampire action meets vampire comedy!

"Ladies and gentlemen! I apologize for asking such a mun-dane question, but do you believe in vampires?"

"I beg your pardon. It seems I'm a bit tardy in identifying myself. My name is Gerhard Von Balstein and I am a vampire."

Vamp! is 3-volume light novel series about rival vampire clans, a vampire princess, and the man who hunts them. This comedic dark fantasy is sure to tap into interest in all things vampire, in the vein of Vampire Hunter D, Chibi Vampire, and Vampire Knight.

http://popcultureshock.com

Genres: Light Novel, Fantasy, Japanese Literature, Manga

275 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1999

About the author

Ryohgo Narita (成田 良悟, Narita Ryōgo) is a Japanese light novelist. He won the Gold Prize in the 9th Dengeki Novel Prize for Baccano!, which was made into a TV anime in 2007.[1] His series Durarara!! was also made into a TV anime, which began airing January 2010


There are two traits found in most of Narita's works:
* Narita writes extremely fast, one volume a month if he wishes - with tons of spelling errors and missing words as a tradeoff. The editors like to leave them sometimes just for fun, though.
* His work titles often have an exclamation mark at the end (i.e. Baccano!, Vamp!, Durarara!!, etc.).

Kanji names: 成田 良悟 & 成田良悟.

Reviews

[handsfeetlegs · Rating 5 out of 5]

AMAZING! I first read this nearly 10 years ago, and this is my first time since then rereading it. UGH it's so good. I love Narita's style of story telling: how he's able to switch between perspectives on the fly while still telling the same cohesive story; how information and world building is presented in such a way that it never feels extraneous; and just the lovely moments of dramatic irony when a huge plot twist/reveal occurs without ever breaking the flow of a scene,,,, simply sublime. it's so fun to see so many moving parts all coalesce, while allowing every character to have their time in the sun (hah).
As the first installment of the series, it does a great job of serving as an introduction to the world and characters in such an incredibly engaging way via its first act (taking place in only the span of a single night.) left me both satisfied and itching to start the next volume immediately (which I will probably do.)

[Johanna · Rating 5 out of 5]

I just love, love Ryôgô Narita, he is a brilliant author! And all his works have that same similarity, a whole bunch of completely crazy characters there is a watermelon boy, for godsake, a freaking waaaaatermelon meet up, wild coincidences happen and at the end, there is just one nice chaotic mess. That volume has more supernatural elements in it than his usual stuff and I actually dared to be skeptical at the beginning, even when it was holy Lightnovel master Narita-sama. However I quickly became intrigued and now I love it as much as I love Etsusa Bridge and Drrr! (Baccano will always be my number one I fear)

[Cecille · Rating 3 out of 5]

This first book's characters didn't resonate with me as much as the characters in the Etsusa Bridge series, and there's a lot more setup here to get through, but the quirky personalities and shockingly interwoven narratives all hurtling towards an all-over-the-place climax that keeps... well, climaxing, is what really gives it away as a Ryohgo Narita novel, and as such it's still quite the joy to read.

[Rolaka Pisarka · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nie wiem, czy to Vamo jest winne, czy Ryohgo Narita mi się przejadł. Książka jest o niczym. Ma jak to Narita ma w stylu, kilka osi fabularnych i kilka wydarzeń, Tysiąc bohaterów jest wciskanych do kilku scen, człowiek się gubi i... w zasadzie nie dzieje się nic ciekawego?
Ogólnie, nie podobało mi się

[Jess · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ever since Twilight became overated, and then I attempted a bit of Vampire Knight, I've lost all interest of the vampire category in fiction. And even though I shouldn't have doubted Ryohga Narita, I admit there was a time when I feared Vamp! would be another one of those type of vampire fiction. Thankfully, I was so utterly wrong.

Once again, Narita has written a piece that crashed and collided to create chaos - and this time, with vampires. I must admit, at first I was very confused as to which character is which, since I got Val and the Magic Man mixed up, and this was also the first Narita work that I haven't watched the anime before reading it, though it does become clearer later on.

I think the only flaw difference in this series compared to the other ones, was that I found a lot of characters annoying at times. (By a lot, I mean 2... but with all the other Narita works, it's usually 0). But naturally, they do have their better side, I guess, so I'll just hope I can grow to like them in the 2nd and 3rd volumes.

[Max · Rating 4 out of 5]

The main reason I picked up and started to read "Vamp!" was because currently I am a huge fan of several other works written by Ryohgo Narita and as always his work doesn't fail to make an impression with it's variety of flavor in characters.

It should be known that the first volume of "Vamp!" is more of a introduction of each of the characters personality, or that's what I felt while first reading it myself.
The story doesn't really heat up until the second volume and gets really nasty in the third.


And I should add that I liked it very very much... very much.