Meeeow.

Review:Vampire Game
Updated: 10/31/04 (boo!)

Manga/Fandom

Reviewed by: Lianne

Title rating: 13+ due to some violence, swearing, romance, and the occasional frolicking of boys with other boys.

-At least 14 manga volumes, originally from the Japanese manga magazine Wings (1996-present; may or may not be over yet) and in English via Tokyopop (2003-present), still running

At the risk of getting personal, goth isn't...my thing. Black lipstick is bad for society, and anyone who feels the need to wear a mesh shirt or floofy black doll dress is in danger of a visit from the official Sleep is for the Weak Goth Bat. This subculture, based around a sadness that I still can't find the source of, is spreading its dark and angsty wings over America; trendy stores are starting to carry far more black leather than they should and screamy music has suddenly found eager (or rather, very tortured and sad) buyers.

In this expanding wave of popularized despair, the manga industry--privy to the common cross-mating of goths and otaku--has presented yet another outlet for the Black Legions: goth shoujo, an entire genre of dark-and-sexy tales from Japan and Korea. Although goth shoujo titles feature beautiful art and the occasionally decent story, they're still labeled by their style and can cause angry muscle twinges in goth-unsympathetic buyers. For those of us who enjoy manga but don't find life to be a terrible and poem-inspiring burden, that's quite a few titles getting written off as "no-gos."

Don't let that happen with Vampire Game. It looks goth, it sounds goth, but it's funny and brain-soothing and I can't stop reading it. And I'm a punker. Since punks and goths are natural enemies, I figure that alone should sell you this manga.

Manga

The plot of Vampire Game, although thin and not the comic's strong point, is based on a legend of typical fantastic might: the beautiful-and-powerful King Phelios defeated the beautiful-and-powerful Vampire King Duzell in an epic battle some one hundred years earlier, and now the reincarnated vampire is after the reincarnated king for some sweet revenge. However, there are two problems with this: 1.) Duzell has no idea where to find the reincarnated king and 2.) Duzell has yet to regain all his power and so resides in the body of an adorable kitty (or "kyawl," to be more specific). He soon finds a descendant of his rival king--the bratty Princess Ishtar--and she, oddly, decides to help him find and kill Phelios since she hates her stupid family. That's right, we now have a bad bout of puberty leading to the "jaded" acceptance of death. It's here that Vampire Game's goth influence is most prominent.

After Duzell finds the power to shape-shift into a male version of the princess, the two of them travel the country to seek out every member of Ishtar's extended family in the hopes of finding Phelios. Their newfound ability to switch places leads to two things: 1.) Humor and 2.) Boys kissing boys, since Ishtar's the #1 bachelorette in town and, predictably, it's always Duzell when the menfolk feel like stealing a smacker. Throw in Darres, Ishtar's frustrated and thoroughly bishounen bodyguard/love interest, and we have a journey tale with less purpose and more sexual tension than journal tales should generally have.

The main reason this manga succeeds is because it's an incredibly fun read. It's not particularly meaningful or thought-provoking or insightful--it's just, well, fun and funny and unassuming, and provides weirdness for its male readers and lots of touching for the ladies. Vampire Game is one of those rare titles where the presentation and characters are so engaging that the plot and genre is irrelevant; most people will read it, and smile, and feel a little better about their day when they're done. It can get surprisingly sensual, and goths will definitely eat up the vampire thread and the lovely cast, but by no means is romance-seeking or angst a necessary prerequisite for getting a kick out of this manga.

Vampire Game also features a rarity: some guy with pigment. Look at all that melanin!

Vampire Game also, thankfully, displays a high degree of subtlety. Most characters are mild-mannered and little in this manga could be defined as "in your face;" one of the biggest faults of anime and manga is the tendency to be so intense that some people will love it and others will just get annoyed. *cough*Naruto*cough* Subtlety is one of the main reasons Vampire Game is such a good read--there's never too much brooding and the humor remains amusing without getting over-the-top. The only bit I found edgy was the rather arbitrary shounen ai (yes, boys kiss even when they're not trying to be funny), but Vampire Game ran in the boy-happy magazine Wings. Maintaining a certain female Japanese audience suddenly turns shounen ai from arbitrary to standard, so one must simply keep that in mind.

The script is top-notch. Penned by Jason Dietrich and the very cool Tim Beedle/Morpheus--a Sleep is for the Weak fan and therefore superior human--the dialogue is tight, the jokes are funny, and the occasional dips into modern slang keep the comic from getting too dramatic. The subtlety and humor of the original manga is further strengthened by the excellent English script, and I'd even guess that it's funnier than the Japanese. The font, too, is absolutely lovely. For those of us who remember when Peach Girl's English version was printed in all caps, a fine font choice does indeed add points.

Vampire Game's art is also very pretty, but you could probably tell that from the images on this review. Judal's (the mangaka's) artistic paneling is occasionally too ethereal to be clear, but since this is a fairly rare fault, I won't hold it against her. And the lady has a way with beautiful covers--I don't know if I've ever seen title pages with fully-clothed individuals ooze so much sexuality.

Fandom

The queen of the Vampire Game fansites is princessishtar.com, where information and images flow like sweetened wine. Unfortunately, Her Majesty rules over a deserted wasteland; you can find a concise review of the manga here, and a mini site at Dallow here (complete with its own mini review), and even a mailing list here, but there's not much else. At least fanfiction.net has a selection of Vampire Game fanfiction, and I found a separate personal fanfiction site while surfing the interweb. I'm pretty sure a decent number of people read Vampire Game, but subtle manga don't tend to spawn hardcore fanbases. Perhaps it's for the best.

Duzell catches some downtime after pleasurable but exhausting vengeance.

Overview

Vampire Game is an entertaining manga on its own, but I give it extended praise for being so much better than it should be. If you're looking for a subtle, funny comic with sexual tension and an awesome script, give Vampire Game a shot. And if you're a goth, pick it up for your own good--it might make you realize life isn't so bad, and then maybe you'll go outside and get some damn sun. 3.8 stars out of 5.