NoaIzumiManga Review: Chibi Vampire
January 16th 2009 17:28
The cover of the first volume
Karin Maaka appears to be just another normal (if slightly klutzy) schoolgirl in Japan. But, she’s not, she’s actually a vampire, and she lives with her vampire family incognito. Karin is unusual even among her own kind, as she doesn’t suck blood, she makes it! When a new student transfers to her school, she discovers that he causes her blood-making problem to get ten times worse. What is she going to do now?
Chibi Vampire (you may know it under the less descriptive name Karin; Tokyopop changed the title for the US release.) is about young love. It’s about Karin Maaka, new and troubled student Kenta Usui, and the relationship that gradually develops between them. Karin’s condition is such that her blood increases every month, so she either has to bite someone to inject the excess blood or it comes out in a major nosebleed. Whenever Kenta Usui is around, her blood increases in the same way (a nice little twist on the usual way nosebleeds are portrayed in manga and anime), so she has to avoid him (difficult since they go to school and work together), or learn how to deal with him. For Kenta’s part, he helps Karin clean up after one of the nosebleeds that he caused (although he didn’t know that at the time), so he finds out her secret fairly quickly. Thus begins the relationship, which is filled with fits and starts on both sides, but moves forward in its own way.
Kenta and Karin
Every vampire story has its own mythology, and Chibi Vampire is no exception. As befits a romantic comedy, the vampires in this manga are just about the most benign you’ll ever see. They suck blood from humans, but never kill them or “turn” them, and erase the memories of their “victims” in order to keep their secret. Their feeding comes with an extra side-effect; along with the blood, they (temporarily) suck out aspects of personality, such as pride, anger, deceit, stress, etc. Which trait is taken is different for every vampire, and each vampire (including Karin) is attracted to humans with an excess of that trait. A vampire is also not a true vampire until they “awaken”, sometime in their teens, before which they eat human food and can walk in the sun. The entire eleventh volume deals with the awakening of Karin’s little sister, Anju.
The manga has background on the vampires’ history and society as well. Karin’s parents are the children of refugees who were driven out of Europe, and vampire families live in secret all over Japan. But, modern vampires tend to have only one child per family, and even with the extended lifetimes, more vampires are dying than are born. I have the feeling that Karin ties into this somehow, as her family is the only one with multiple children and hints have been building up that Karin is much more important than she appears at first. But the last two volumes have yet to be released here, and no one is talking on the web, so I’ll just have to wait to find out.
Other multi-volume story arcs are Kenta’s reunion with his father, the visit of Karin’s grandmother, and the discovery of a vampire-human hybrid with a secret agenda.
The supporting characters are well developed as well, including Karin’s family and Kenta’s mother. Karin’s schoolmates, however, including best friend Maki, are given somewhat short shrift. The manga doesn’t really suffer for it, but except for one story about Karin and Maki as children, it tends to keep them in the background. I would have just liked to have seen more, although the anime does make up for the lack, at least in Maki’s case.
Great moments: The manga has a bunch of them, mostly between Karin and Kenta, but one of the absolute best is the introduction of Karin’s grandmother Elda. Her attitude, and her interaction with the rest of the family, especially Karin’s mother, is hilarious. And it was a stroke of genius to draw her just like Karin.
Karin (right) with her grandmother
Summary: Sweet romantic comedy, with a vampire twist that fits the storyline and a romance that’s portrayed with a touch more realism than most of the rest. One of the best of the genre. Grade: A minus
Age rating: 15 and up. Only light fan service, but a lot of (non-violence-related) blood and blood-sucking.
| 55 |
| Vote |
Add To: 
subscribe to this blog
Comment by Anonymous
Comment by NoaIzumi
Fine Politics
Anime Bottle