The Record of a Fallen Vampire Manga Volume 1
Story
Long ago a Vampire Queen was sealed away when her power threatened to destroy the world. Her beloved King Akabara “Red Rose” Strauss seeks to break the seal and free her from her prison. There are a few problems standing in his way. There are thousands of fake seals scattered across the globe, and there’s no way to tell if a seal is real or a fake until it’s broken. Then there’s the Black Swan.
The Black Swan is a curse designed to destroy King Akabara Strauss before he can awaken his Queen. To do that the curse possesses a human girl, giving her the speed, power and abilities of all the girls possessed before her. Each Black Swan is stronger than the last.
Can the Red Rose find his Queen before the Black Swan is strong enough to destroy him?
My Opinion
The Record of a Fallen Vampire comes across as a tragic romance in the description, and to a certain degree it is, but most of Volume 1 is an action manga. The Vampire King is trying to hunt down and break the seals. The dhampires, half vampires (kinda like BloodRayne), are trying to stop him. That means fight scenes.
Then you add in The Slay-errrrr…. I mean Black Swan. A young girl granted speed and power by a mystic force, chosen to fight and kill the Vampire King. Even more fight scenes. So, while the description may sound sappy, the manga itself packs a lot of action.
Some of the character designs bugged me. Particularly the eyes, they seem way too wide. Other than that the art is decent. It flows very well. Sometimes it has a cinematic feel to the layout. I liked that, it helped me to ignore the eyes that bugged me so much.
Is it worth it?
I think so. Volume 1 of The Record of a Fallen Vampire really created a solid foundation for the story. The stage is set and I’m interested to see what will happen next. I’d recommend this manga to Joss Whedon fans interested in trying manga for the first time.
Manga, Reviews, Vampire, Vampire Week, VIZ Media, The Record of a Fallen Vampire, Volume 1, Kyo Shirodaira, Yuri Kimura, BloodRayne, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Joss Whedon
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