Manga Review: Vampire Game by Judal

Vampire Game didn’t irritate me enough to give it a bad review, but it didn’t wow me either. Although I didn’t enjoy it, my best friend loves it. Maybe I should put it this way... If you enjoy talking cats, silly jokes, and a princess preoccupied with getting into trouble, you’ll like Vampire Game.

You might ask yourself, "If Emz didn’t like it, why did she read beyond volume one?" Well, it was a discount buyers mistake all the way. One day while shopping, I expected to pass by the little manga kiosk with nothing but a groan because I had spent my book money on skeleton leg warmers. To my surprise, they were having a manga sale. So, if you think about it, Vampire Game is a manga worth a buck a volume and if you run into a manga sale like that, grab it up! For the rest of you, read this little review before you spend your hard-earned cash.

The story:  A once great vampire king named Duzell led a war against humans. The king of the humans used a spell to defeat Duzell. One hundred years later, Duzell has been reborn as a wildcat who falls into the hands of a princess named Ishtar who likes to get in trouble. A cute bodyguard named Darres is charged with making sure she doesn't get into trouble and boy does he earn his keep! Though she is being courted by the most eligible princes in the land, you get the feeling Darres is her romantic prospect.

Here are some highlights from the series:

• Volume one: This was the beginning of the end for me. The cat is irritating and talks. The art reminded me of bible story cartoons from when I was a child.

• Volume two: The tale starts to get a tad interesting as we learn that Duzell the cat, can turn into a human if they drink that human’s blood. Since Dunzell drank from Ishtar, he becomes a clone of her. There is a great sword competition where he is able to fight.

• Volume three: The sword competition continues. We finally see this tale’s version of vampires which look like Hellraiser characters with no skin.

• Volume four: We get to see some ghouly demons. My favorite quote from the whole series is in this volume, said by the princess of a neighboring kingdom. “Dad! There’s this really hot naked weirdo in the stable and he was fooling around with your horse.”

• Volume five: Scary mermaids show up who have wings and sharp teeth.

• Volume six: The story for me finally gets good. The whole castle is in chaos as the monsters are allowed to come on grounds and to flood out of the dungeon. Another good quote, this time from a warrior. “For the record I am not cleaning this mess up. These guys smell bad enough now, I don’t want to think about when they start to stiffen!”

I am not a fan of this sort of art and since it started in 1996, it is in the older style. I wouldn’t suggest buying this manga unless you want to spend hours reading many pages to get to that one funny joke or cool monster sequence.

Get your copy here from Amazon

To learn more about Vampire Game, by someone who likes this series, visit http://www.princessishtar.com/