After reading my first manga on vampires, Vampire Knight, I began to explore this well known concept more.  It's not politically correct to say that the stories with vampires are a category on their own because they are still specific, in a way.  But there is a growing number of vampire manga out there.  Why are they so popular? 

I am following three other vampire stories, and because they're all good, I really want to share them with you.

KARIN: Chibi Vampire

Demographic: Shounen
Author: Yuna Kagesaki
Vintage: 2003
Rating:

By the first chapter you might set this aside as one of those typical shoujo (girl) comics about a high school vampire girl.  After reading the second chapter, you're hooked.  The reason is because this is not in any way typical.  Karin, the high school vampire girl, is actually a very likeable character as she strives to be somewhat ordinary.  This is not just because she wants to, but because she has no choice.  She feels she must belong with the humans because as a vampire, she is abnormal.

In this story, vampires do not drink blood of any random human.  There are certain conditions that have to be met in order for them to feed.  There is a certain human attribute that attracts a vampire and that vampire will seek that kind of human his/her entire life.  For example, Karin's mother seeks the blood of females who are excessive liars.  Her brother is attracted to the blood of stressed women.  In the vampire world, puberty is when the vampire starts to finally crave for that specific blood, and feeding should be at least once a month.  And biting a human for the first time could actually be as special as your first sex.

Karin is a good daughter.  She hides her true identity in school perfectly.  She does good enough in her class so that the teacher need not talk to her parents.  Still, to Karin's family, she is a disgrace.  She reached her puberty as a vampire like any other vampires should, except that she did not have the ability to suck blood.  Instead, at least once a month her blood levels would increase and she needs to inject her blood or it would force its way out of every orifice in her body.  At least she is like any vampire that she looks for a specific condition that induces her to "feed".  She needs to inject her blood to someone who is unhappy.

And when a new student transfers to school and meets Karin for the first time, Karin gets a violent nosebleed...

MIDNIGHT SECRETARY

Demographic: Josei/Smut
Author: Ohmi Tomu
Vintage: 2006
Rating:

Kaya is an exceptional secretary.  She starts working in a company where the director is reluctant to let her do her job.  It is rumored that the director is very picky in choosing secretaries, and fires them quite easily.  He also has a reputation of bringing in a lot of women into the office.  Kaya feels she is up for the job and is out to prove that she will not be laid off just because the director feels like it.  She goes as far as scheduling the director's dates with his many women.  Little does she know that what she's making is a schedule of his feeding times...

In this story, a vampire can only feed on the blood of the opposite sex.  When the victim is "excited", vampires claim it is where the blood is sweetest.  When Kaya works overtime one night, out to prove her best, she stumbles upon the director in the middle of his "meal".  Now that she knows his secret, the director cannot let her go.

What makes this story interesting is, surprisingly, the smutty scenes.  I admire the author's work because she is able to portray the passion and excitement in their relationship as boss and subordinate.  The director at first only bites Kaya for fun to scare her from peeping into his business.  But it is safe to say in this review that the director is soon tormented when he realizes that he craves for Kaya's blood more and more.  He cannot tell if it's really her blood, or Kaya herself that he wants.  As for Kaya, she keeps telling herself she is nothing more to the director than his secretary, and his sneak snack in the office.  The author gives you agony by showing them both in denial, and then suddenly she brings them together like lovers who have been apart for decades, both hungry for the other, and ready to devour each other yet restraining themselves for fear of giving themselves away.

This story has great characters, totally believable emotions and consequential actions, despite the fact that it's purely fantasy.  Hot vampire bosses, anyone?

ROSARIO+VAMPIRE

Demographic: Shounen
Author: Akihisa Ikeda
Vintage: 2004
Rating:

Tsukune- Mediocre: Average in sports, average in class, average in popularity.  Turning point in life: when he flunked all high school entrance exams and became slightly less than average.  His parents send him off to a private boarding school which does not require any entrance exams.

Moka- Elite: Very beautiful and athletic, smart, no. 1 most popular girl in campus.  Turning point in life: when she meets Tsukune on her way to class and feels a sudden urge to bite him in the neck and suck his blood. 

What?

Is what Tsukune would say when he hears his teacher explain that everyone in this school is in his or her human form because this is a school where monsters learn to blend into human society.  It is absolutely unnecessary to show off your true monster form, to Tsukune's relief.  Because his true form is a human.  No more, no less. 

Rosario+Vampire gets its title from Moka's rosary that she wears around her neck with a detachable cross.  Only, this cross can be detached by a special "key", which later turns out to be Tsukune.  This rosary keeps Moka in her human form.  When Tsukune detaches the cross, she turns into her true form which is a pureblood vampire.

In this story, vampires are considered elite, and the most powerful of all monsters.  They have the ability to convert "demonic aura" into strength, which gives them a good advantage in battles.  Vampires have blood that have either of the two effects when injected into another being: death or life, depending on compatability.  As Tsukune finds himself in near-death situations from the monsters in school, Moka injects her blood. 

What makes this manga awesome is that it's like the character Tsukune himself, who is at first mediocre and typical.  Then he suddenly becomes COOL.  This happens when he becomes an elite vampire temporarily as Moka's blood courses through his veins.  At this point, the manga also suddenly became COOL.  The art upgraded in an instant from the ordinary manga into one of the finest drawn shounen manga I've seen.  The action scenes just explode out of the panels.  The truth is, if the art stayed as it was in its earliest chapters, with this kind of story, the manga would not have been successful.  But the art strung it together and pulled it off.  Sometimes, you just gotta love something for just being cool.  It's an X-factor.

And that concludes our vampire festival.  Vampires is a fascinating concept in a story, as we can twist them around in our imagination.  These stories have all different takes on vampires.  One of my reasons to read these is probably my own fantasy of being bitten by a vampire.  Somehow they all make it look so sexy.  Slurp.