Rosario+Vampire, Vol.1-2By: Akihisa Ikeda
Reviewed by: gothiclolitamaiden, 16
Rating: Didn't like it
No, I have not dropped off the face of the earth, I’ve just been busy, too busy with AP classes to read books (I feel very deprived) and write reviews. But I’m back, sort of.
“All-around average student Tsukune transfers to Monster High, where he discovers the turf war isn't between the jocks and the nerds but the vampires and the werewolves.”
I have seen the future of the vampire genre, and it is a cold, frightening future. I wish I could take back that comment I made on Gina’s post “Awww, vampires are sweet” back in August. I wish that I had never said anything about vampire girlfriends, because Rosario + Vampire is just as bad as any of the vampire-boyfriend stories out there. I hesitate to consider Rosario + Vampire a “vampire-romance” story because its intended audience is teen boys and there is a ton of male-oriented fanservice that is decidedly un-romantic. Of course, you could say that the vampire-romance stories aimed at girls are also fanservice, but Rosario + Vampire is shameless in its ex
ploitation of pretty, well-endowed female characters. I’m willing to like ecchi, as long as it’s funny, but Rosario isn’t funny. None of the jokes are laugh-out-loud funny, and the plot is repetitive. Nothing really redeems this series, especially not the characters. Most of the characters are shallow or even annoying. Tsukune is the worst example. He’s average in every respect, completely and utterly boring in appearance and personality, but somehow he has half the girls in school wanting to date (and often, but not always, eat) him. I’m pretty sure he tastes as bland as his life and personality, and if I were a monster I wouldn’t want to eat him. No one is really like that, except Bella from Twilight, but I digress. All of the other characters either want to steal Tsukune from Moka or to steal Moka from Tsukune. Moka is just about the only nearly likeable character, and I found myself thinking far too often, “Girl, you could do so much better than him.” She’s a genuinely nice character, but she’s kind of bland and shallow too. And she has terrible taste (literally and figuratively) in boys to boot.
ploitation of pretty, well-endowed female characters. I’m willing to like ecchi, as long as it’s funny, but Rosario isn’t funny. None of the jokes are laugh-out-loud funny, and the plot is repetitive. Nothing really redeems this series, especially not the characters. Most of the characters are shallow or even annoying. Tsukune is the worst example. He’s average in every respect, completely and utterly boring in appearance and personality, but somehow he has half the girls in school wanting to date (and often, but not always, eat) him. I’m pretty sure he tastes as bland as his life and personality, and if I were a monster I wouldn’t want to eat him. No one is really like that, except Bella from Twilight, but I digress. All of the other characters either want to steal Tsukune from Moka or to steal Moka from Tsukune. Moka is just about the only nearly likeable character, and I found myself thinking far too often, “Girl, you could do so much better than him.” She’s a genuinely nice character, but she’s kind of bland and shallow too. And she has terrible taste (literally and figuratively) in boys to boot.The plot is bound to get repetitive as the series continues, because, as I mentioned, all of the characters either want to take Tsukune from Moka or to take Moka from Tsukune. In every chapter we meet a new romantic rival who tries to tempt one of the fabulous leads, and at the end of every chapter Moka goes psycho-vampire on the rival and kicks his or butt. And after that she usually bites Tsukune’s tender young neck. See the pattern? The pattern starts to change a little bit in the second volume, especially when the School Protection Committee are introduced as antagonists, but it’s still really stupid.
Just look at the cover of the first volume and you’ll figure out exactly what this series is all about. A cute, pink-haired girl in a very short skirt. That should tell you enough about the story and the intended audience. And there are other cute girls in short skirts, and many of the jokes, which aren’t that funny, revolve around said girls being spied upon by male classmates. The sole purpose of this manga is basically fanservice, and there really is no plot.
The art doesn’t really redeem the manga either. Obviously Ikeda spent far too much time learning to draw…female anatomy and didn’t learn anything about plot or character development. The female character designs, overall, look better than the male designs. Tsukune doesn’t look bad, just boring. I concede that Ikeda has a knack for drawing various monsters, but I still think that Rosario+Vampire is very, for lack of a more eloquent word, stupid.
Rosario+Vampire does not get my stamp of approval, to be blunt. I recommend it only to ecchi fans, and even ecchi fans might not like it. It is somewhat amusing at best, but it’s not really a standout in plot or art, just a typical shonen-romance, with vampires thrown in.
Recommended to: Some ecchi fans, 16+ for its pervertedness
No comments:
Post a Comment