Book Review- Rosario and Vampire vol 1 by Akihisa Ikeda

Title: Rosario and Vampire vol 1

 Author:  Akihisa Ikeda

Series:  Rosario and Vampire #1

Published: 3 June 2008 by Viz Media (under Shonen Jump advanced)

Length:192 pages

Warnings: suggestive situations, fanservice in the form of school uniforms and short skirts, violence, vampires, werewolves, monsters,

Other info: There are ten volumes in this series. The series has now finished. There is also Rosario and Vampire Season II, a continuation which currently stands at 4 volumes.

Summary : PJV’s Vampire Challenge #7
All round average student Tsukune can't get accepted to any high school save one... But on his first day, he finds the rest of the student body doesn't appear to be average in the least. Best of all, the cutest girl on campus can't wait to fling her arms around his neck! Wait a sec, are those her TEETH around his neck too? Tsukune's going to have one heck of a hickey when he gets home from Monster High. But does he have a chance in H-E-double hockey sticks  of pairing his grades when the turf war isn't between the jocks and the nerds but between the vampires and the werewolves?

Review : Tsukune Aono enrols at the only school that will take him. Which he doesn't particularly like, considering the only  way of accessing the school is through a long tunnel, and the bus driver tells him he might not see anything other than the school ever again. But things start to look up when he comes across a really cute girl who seems to fall in love with him. The bad side: she's a vampire who immediately snacks on his neck. And the rest of the students and staff are also monsters of various kinds.Everyone seems to want to get hold of Tsukune for some reason, because he's with a hot girl, because they're in love with him, or they just want to dial a fight with him. But never mind-when the Rosario around Moka's (the vampire) neck is pulled off, she  transforms, into her powerful form, whose kicks are able to knock the wind out of almost everyone. Which is a good thing for Tsukune, the only human with a zero tolerance policy on them-one that involves killing them.

The whole school for monsters idea is done quite a bit, but I don't think I've found a school with such a varied amount of monsters in it. You get the normal, vampires, werewolves etc, but you also get things like mermaids, succubi and lizardy things that don't have a name, as well as traditional Japanese monsters, yokai. The plot can get a little bit repetitive:its the first volume so it's all intros, and it wouldn't really move very much,  but each chapter is just:a little context, monster goes after Tsukune and Moka, Tsukune pulls off Moka's Rosario, Moka transforms, shouts "Learn your place", defeats enemy. While the backing behind each chapter is varied and interesting, it does get a bit boring, as each chapter doesn't seem to lead upto a climax. However this is only the first volume, so it should build up a bit more as the series goes on.

The romance in it is very funny. It's not the human falls hard and fast for the vampire, instead the human got into an incredibaly awkward situation which led to the vampire falling in love, and things go on from there. There's even the beginning of a love triangle, with Kurumu the Succubus falling for Tsukune. ((side note:even more girls start falling in love with Tsukune, ending up with a harem))

The art is well done. It's easy to distinguish the characters, even without colour. However, without colour it's hard get an idea of details such as hair colours.

The comedy at times can be a little adult, stemming from the extremely awkward situations that Tsukune gets himself into. However it is very funny and there is other flavours of humour and a few slightly more serious undertones. The pointless omake theatre, bonus panels at the end, are very funny, particularly the one involving Gin, the perverted werewolf.

It's an interesting take on vampires in that their power can be kept in check by  holy items, and that they transform when said holy item is removed.

Overall:  Strength 3 tea to a book that is a fun cute read with plenty of action included.

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