Filed under: Yuri

So, the cover didn't really catch my eye but I'm running Kobo out of new yuri manga so I decided to grab it. Vampires aren't really my cup of coffee, anything focused on them tends to be repetitive of a handful of themes. Immortality, redeemable-bad-boy-syndrome, pointless mysticism and the like. This is to say that going in I was biased against the work at the outset, but I've already read "I can believe I slept with you" twice and thought I should read something else before I go for round three.

It only took about 10 pages to win me over. First off, the cover does not do the art justice. Where I went in expecting a predictable and cookie cutter style, I found the characters to be well defined and possessing a wide range of expression. The vampiric tropes aren't present for the most part, no bursting into flames in the sun, no garlic issues, and not supernatural. They don't even like being called vampires. Aria, the vampire love interest, isn't dark or brooding. She is revealed to be in the range of a hundred or more years old and seemed to have some kind of relationship with the protagonist, Ichika's, grandmother.

What really won me over was the depiction of Ichika's interest in Aria. A lot of otherwise good Yuri manga can't seem to grapple with wanting to portray a lesbian relationship positively while also acknowledging that this isn't currently seen as normal by a lot of people. Some just don't ever depict any kind of pushback whatsoever which leads to a story that seems too much a fantasy. Some spend the whole story overcoming that pushback to then come to a screeching halt before any actual relationship develops. Vampeerz does not do this, Ichika recognizes that there will be pushback but decides her new love for Aria is too strong and she just leans in to it.

Another unexpected highlight is Sakuya, Aria's mother. Anyone who knows me will know that I love characters that are unabashedly open about their desires, and Sakuya is just that. She winds up as the school nurse, and in a hilarious scene that has Ichika and Aria going to the nurse Aria has to stop Ichika from seeing into the room because her mother has her legs spread, feet on the desk, drunk and looking at her laptop. I'm positive the implication was that she got caught masturbating and I genuinely laughed out loud.

I want more, the story is just getting started by the end of the second volume and I feel like its set up a great cast and premise. Depressingly I noted that the second volume was published in December of 2022 so I'm hoping this series doesn't just fade away.