ROSARIO VAMPIRE SEASON II (VOLUME 4)
August 13th 2011 01:44
Category: Manga
Publisher: VIZ Media LLC
Story & Art by: Akihisa Ikeda
Translation: Kaori Inoue
English Adaptation: Gerard Jones
Touch up art & Lettering: Stephen Dutro
Cover Design: Hidemi Sahara
Interior Design: Ronnie Casson
Cost: AU$14.95/US$9.99
The village of the Snow Fairies is under some serious problems, bad enough that the population is declining in a major way but now it seems that there are other forces afoot. An organisation known as Fairy Tale has decided to become involved in the affairs of the village and is looking to cement an alliance via a strategic marriage with the Snow Fairies. Sadly though the girl who is chosen to fulfil the part of ‘willing’ bride, Mizore Shirayuki, isn’t all that keen on this set up nor is her mother Tsurara. Still what can either of them do? They are both from a rather tradition bound society, even if it is a society in decline.
Enter Mizore’s friends from Yokai Academy, Moka, Yuki, Kurumu, Koko, Ruby and the somewhat put out and put upon Tsukune. They know there is something rotten going on and regardless of the wishes of the Snow Priestess, the effective leader of the Snow Fairies they’re keen on preventing any mishap occurring to someone they value as their friend. Ah friendship, the bonds we all make as we go through life truly such things are a wonder and comfort to us all, although I don’t think many of us would be called to perform feats of daring do against sinister organisations and save someone from a loveless, diabolical marriage. Still we know what it means to be friends with someone and the values of such connections, and this seems to be a major theme in a lot of shonen manga and anime, the value of such bonds.
Of course strong bonds do not always mean you can easily overcome every single obstacle…but it can help, in this particular case though our fearless protagonists find that they might have bitten off a bit more than they can chew. It seems that Fairy Tale in addition to putting the hard word on the Snow Fairies and their priestess, have elected to keep an additional card up their sleeve in case anyone tries to interfere with their machinations. This card is none other than Moka’s other sister, Kalua. Have you noticed something about the names of the sisters yet…yes they’re beverages usually coffee derived which is rather clever in my opinion. But the wonders of caffeine aside Kalua is a rather dangerous individual – the Shuzen family’s most deadly assassin who is only ever dispatched when killing is on the agenda.
In other words she is the princess of tough cookies, the kind of tough cookie that comes with a lovely white coconut coating but is as hard as iron despite its attractive and tasty appearance. Still is this enough for Fairy Tale to carry out its particular agenda? Not when the Rosario comes off and the true vampiric power of Moka is unleashed in all its funkiness. Kalua may look and act like a princess but let’s face Moka is the undisputed queen of bad ass, female attitude and combat skills. Still she gets a run for her money when up against her older sister – Kalua is no push over and she has a few unusual abilities that she can call upon that make her a real frightening combat monster.
When the dust settles the conclusion of the events in the Snow Fairies village make up only the first half of this particular volumes contents although they also serve to establish an important direction of the following stories that are covered. Fairy Tale is an organisation that doesn’t believe in the mindset espoused by the staff and founder of Yokai Academy. They’re a group who is devoted towards pursuing what appears to be a selfish and decidedly sinister agenda and one of their members is a former enemy of Tsukune and his friends, the former member of the Anti-Schoolers; Kiria.
The rest of the events within this volume focus on the gang’s return to Yokai Academy and Tsukune’s efforts to train and get stronger. He knows within his hear that Fairy Tale is an organisation that will not let things rest with what has occurred. They will be back and who knows just how strong they will be or who will be leading their forces, they are the direct antithesis of what the academy is hoping to achieve, a degree of peaceful coexistence between monsters and humans. A storm is brewing and it’s only a matter of time before it eventually breaks and draws the various factions into a potentially catastrophic conflict.
So with the help of the headmaster’s assistant Ruby Tsukune finds himself dropped into a pocket dimension in order to boost up his skills and abilities. And this very act leads to whole new cycle of events involving himself and his friends, although the emphasis here is more the comedic than just purely action element as well as the usual social dynamic between Tsukune and the several girls that are his immediate friends. It’s often been said that Rosario Vampire II is a harem comedy although I find this particular appellation to be somewhat overdone, sure Tsukune has a lot of girls as his friends but this is more due to circumstance than any desire on his part to play the field as it were. In fact I would say that the series is more a supernatural, action, comedy manga with the harem element an aspect of the narrative than a specific feature. Still that’s my opinion.
Regardless of pigeon holing this manga into a particular category though this volume is an enjoyable read, giving the reader a nice variation in tempo of its various chapters and thus providing an good mix of its main elements – comedy, action, romance and drama. If these are things that you enjoy in a manga combined with supernatural characters then you can’t go past RosaVam Season 2 Volume 4…do yourself a favour and get your hands on a copy now.
Story & Art by: Akihisa Ikeda
Translation: Kaori Inoue
English Adaptation: Gerard Jones
Touch up art & Lettering: Stephen Dutro
Cover Design: Hidemi Sahara
Interior Design: Ronnie Casson
Cost: AU$14.95/US$9.99
The village of the Snow Fairies is under some serious problems, bad enough that the population is declining in a major way but now it seems that there are other forces afoot. An organisation known as Fairy Tale has decided to become involved in the affairs of the village and is looking to cement an alliance via a strategic marriage with the Snow Fairies. Sadly though the girl who is chosen to fulfil the part of ‘willing’ bride, Mizore Shirayuki, isn’t all that keen on this set up nor is her mother Tsurara. Still what can either of them do? They are both from a rather tradition bound society, even if it is a society in decline.
In other words she is the princess of tough cookies, the kind of tough cookie that comes with a lovely white coconut coating but is as hard as iron despite its attractive and tasty appearance. Still is this enough for Fairy Tale to carry out its particular agenda? Not when the Rosario comes off and the true vampiric power of Moka is unleashed in all its funkiness. Kalua may look and act like a princess but let’s face Moka is the undisputed queen of bad ass, female attitude and combat skills. Still she gets a run for her money when up against her older sister – Kalua is no push over and she has a few unusual abilities that she can call upon that make her a real frightening combat monster.
When the dust settles the conclusion of the events in the Snow Fairies village make up only the first half of this particular volumes contents although they also serve to establish an important direction of the following stories that are covered. Fairy Tale is an organisation that doesn’t believe in the mindset espoused by the staff and founder of Yokai Academy. They’re a group who is devoted towards pursuing what appears to be a selfish and decidedly sinister agenda and one of their members is a former enemy of Tsukune and his friends, the former member of the Anti-Schoolers; Kiria.
The rest of the events within this volume focus on the gang’s return to Yokai Academy and Tsukune’s efforts to train and get stronger. He knows within his hear that Fairy Tale is an organisation that will not let things rest with what has occurred. They will be back and who knows just how strong they will be or who will be leading their forces, they are the direct antithesis of what the academy is hoping to achieve, a degree of peaceful coexistence between monsters and humans. A storm is brewing and it’s only a matter of time before it eventually breaks and draws the various factions into a potentially catastrophic conflict.
So with the help of the headmaster’s assistant Ruby Tsukune finds himself dropped into a pocket dimension in order to boost up his skills and abilities. And this very act leads to whole new cycle of events involving himself and his friends, although the emphasis here is more the comedic than just purely action element as well as the usual social dynamic between Tsukune and the several girls that are his immediate friends. It’s often been said that Rosario Vampire II is a harem comedy although I find this particular appellation to be somewhat overdone, sure Tsukune has a lot of girls as his friends but this is more due to circumstance than any desire on his part to play the field as it were. In fact I would say that the series is more a supernatural, action, comedy manga with the harem element an aspect of the narrative than a specific feature. Still that’s my opinion.
Regardless of pigeon holing this manga into a particular category though this volume is an enjoyable read, giving the reader a nice variation in tempo of its various chapters and thus providing an good mix of its main elements – comedy, action, romance and drama. If these are things that you enjoy in a manga combined with supernatural characters then you can’t go past RosaVam Season 2 Volume 4…do yourself a favour and get your hands on a copy now.
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