ROSARIO VAMPIRE (MANGA VOLUMES 8 & 9)
August 8th 2010 23:48
Category: Graphic Novels/Comics
Publisher: VIZ Media LLC
Story & Art by: Akihisa Ikeda
Translation: Kaori Inoue
English Adaptation: Gerard Jones
Touch up Art & Lettering: Stephen Dutro
Cost: AU$12.95(Vol 8) $14.95 (Vol 9) /US$7.99/CAN$9.50
Imagine you’re a young guy who just having finished school is looking to head off to high school; trouble is you can’t get into any of the schools, you’re a very average guy and they’re very much above average schools. Suddenly out of nowhere comes a flyer advertising a private school, Yokai Academy, which whilst a fee paying institution has no entrance exams. Off you go to further your education, looking forward to your new school...only to discover it’s actually a school for young monsters to get them to better assimilate into the human world, and you’re the only human in the entire place. This is the predicament average guy, Tsukune Aono, finds himself in, he’s the only human in a school full of monsters; welcome to Yokai Academy.
Since then though things have moved on, Tsukune has become infected with vampire blood, he and Moka have ended up being targeted by a gang known as the Monstrels and after several climatic confrontations with these young ‘scallywags’ Tsukune literally looses the plot as the vampire blood coursing through his veins that has been injected into him by Moka, is changed him into a literal killing machine - a ghoul whose sole reason for existence is to kill and feed on the flesh of his foes. And you thought puberty was a bad thing, still somehow Tsukune is able to retain a degree of his humanity but only at the hands of the intervention of the academy’s Headmaster, the mysterious Exorcist.
A monstrel is the result of interbreeding between monsters; they’re not pure bred monsters like vampires, werewolves or witches. Instead they might be the child of say something like a werewolf and gorgon parents or succubus and ogre parents, you get the gist. Now it seems that a number of these Monstrels have organised themselves into a gang, known as the Anti-Schoolers they’re hell bent on bringing down Yokai Academy and anyone who is pro school. They’re naturally mixing in their efforts to kill Tsukune in with this sinister agenda, a sort of extracurricular activity in their evil scheme. So far though this extracurricular agenda hasn’t been working to well for them, Tsukune has managed to get on top of things either through his own efforts or with help from his friends, so it’s gotten to be Anti-Schoolers: 0, Tsukune & Friends 3.
School festivals seem to be a big thing in Japanese high schools and thus it would be silly for a manga set in a high school, even one for monsters, to not have this particular element of school life appear at some stage in the story. In Volume 8 this is what opens the story, Tsukune finds himself ‘volunteering’ to become part of the School Festival Committee, the Headmaster wants someone on that committee he can ‘trust’ as he believes that the Anti-Schoolers are plotting some malevolent scheme involving the school festival. Tsukune is the Headmaster’s pawn, agreeing to the scheme in order to not be expelled and leave behind his friends.
Here we’re introduced to the president of the School Festival Committee, Hokuto Kaneshiro, a bespectacled charismatic figure who hides a dark secret, one that he strangely shares with our plucky protagonist. He is dedicated towards making the school festival a success and using it to showcase peace and coexistence between monsters and humans. Strangely Hokuto’s appearance reminds me a little of Kunimitsu Tezuka from the Prince of Tennis, and as another little bit of train spotting another character in this particular story arc; Kiriya Yoshi is often seen reading a book titled “No Longer Human” by Osamu someone which could be a reference to the creator of Astro Boy – Osamu Tezuka. Who knows, perhaps it’s a long bow I’m drawing here. Regardless you’re no doubt wondering just how bad can things be? What could the Anti-Schoolers do that would be so horrible at a school festival?
It’s all about misdirection; the ploy with the committee is simply that a move so that the lead villain can get close to the Headmaster and eliminate him, then take his magic Rosario which is used to maintain the barrier around the school. Yokai is sealed off from the Human world via a magical barrier, when that barrier is dropped then the academy is back into the ‘real’ world and all chaos is bound to break loose. This is what the Anti-Schoolers want, the end of the academy through this one simple act, of course they don’t seem to realise that it’s likely to see the end of just a heck of a lot more than the academy. The best laid plans of mice and in this case monsters gang aft agley perhaps? Not quite, this horrible destiny is exactly what the leader of the Anti-Schoolers wants, an apocalyptic confrontation to satisfy his bitterness and rage. Frankly when the dust finally settled it was a good read, Rosario Vampire Volumes 8 & 9 are worth the effort of tracking down and reading.
| 31 |
| Vote |
subscribe to this blog
