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Reviewed by Park Cooper I came in late to this series by DrMaster, and there's no "what has happened so far" section to bring me up to speed, so I've sort of come in in the middle of the movie, as it were. But here's what I've got so far: There's this kid, Shiki Tohno. He knows this girl, Arcueid (looks a lot like Alucard, from Hellsing, don't it? That's because ALUCARD is DRACULA backward, dig it?), who fights vampires. She's really quite good at it. At the start of volume 5, that's about it. There are some minor details, but that's the world Shiki thinks he's living in. The truth is a lot more complicated than that, as a warrior-type nun hints to him at the start of this volume. Arcueid seems, at heart, a mostly-good person, if rather violent and amoral, but better Amoral than IMmoral, if you get the picture. But it becomes clear that she's some sort of quasi-vampire herself... some really really old kind, who's trying to get rid of all the others, who are rather more corrupt than whatever she is. There's also, lurking around in the city, Michael Roa, full title Michael Roa Valdam-Jong, the serpent of Akashi. Whatever THAT means. Whatever HE is, he's a hardcore scary guy and is maybe as formidable as Arcueid. He's also been around for quite some time, 18 "reincarnations," although I'm not sure if he really reincarnates or if they mean, like Arcueid herself, that he sometimes just sort of takes decades-long naps like the vampire Lestat. I suspect he may really reincarnate, interestingly enough. Okay, so what, vampires, who cares, big deal. Well the big deal is that in this volume, Shiki starts remembering, now that he's laid eyes on Roa, that he feels like he's seen him somewhere before. Like when they were both kids. Even then, Roa was starting to get a little wild and crazy. So Shiki asks his family about these fresh wisps of memory. And they get all squirrelly and don't wanna talk about it. Uh-huh. And indeed, wasn't Kid Michael Roa, back in those days, not only talking about becoming a monster... didn't he sort of imply that it was also something that was gonna be a problem for Shiki himself someday, too? Hmmmm. Well, it's time for vampire patrol with Arcueid, but she's early (it's not dusk yet), so, out of curiosity about a modern world about which she knows little, they kind of go on a date for once. Food, a movie, an amusement park... it's all very nice, but it just confirms to Shiki something he's suspected for some time now... he LIKES Arucueid. I mean he kinda LIKES her likes her. Despite alllll the warrior-nun's warnings about these people, including Arcueid. They have a hug. But Arcueid, getting close (smelling him?)... kinda gets a little excited/thirsty. And Shiki kinda bleeds a bit. And Arcueid kinda smells THAT. And then she runs off. And when he follows her, Shiki sees something that makes him realize that Arcueid, even though she is able to tolerate daylight... doesn't just have powers like a vampire. Arcueid is really dangerous. And that's when Shiki starts to kinda lose it... When I started reading what I was writing about this title to Barb, she reminded me that we'd tried watching the anime of Lunar Legend Tsukihime a long time ago, but it seemed very slowly paced and so we gave up after one episode. Honestly? I say, I'm GLAD I started with volume 5 of this series. Since you've just read the above, I would advise you to do the same, because volume 5 feels like it's where everything really kicks in in the plot. I've seen vampires and battle-manga titles each come and go... I don't see how this title has much on TOKYOPOP's title Rebirth, as far as THOSE go. The art here is good enough, but other manga do things just as well or better... Hellsing is kicking the soft-and-round character designs of LLT into a cocked hat. No, I'm attached to Lunar Legend Tsukihime now for the characterizations and the plot twists, and both, it seems to me, seem to have really decided to roll up their sleeves and jump ahead as of this volume. I'm giving this an A-, and I hope that volume 6 doesn't make me feel like that's generous. Interested in writing for MangaLife? We're always looking for talented reviewers and columnists, so drop us a line! Charles Webb Editor-in-Chief, MangaLife.com |
1 September 2010
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