Vampire manga with a twist on vampires can be really good or really bad. I’m not naming names, but ones come to mind. But this manga both has an interesting and non-cringe take that keeps vampires cool while also making clear "these are not literal vampires, a term we just sometimes use." You might think it sounds similar to Tokyo Ghoul and it definitely is in some ways, but very much on more of a surface level.
It’s a great story and when you see "romance" among tags like "action" or "drama" you think that either the romance or action/drama are going to take the main stage. That one of these will be the real genre and plot. I definitely applaud this mangaka for managing to make such a wonderful balance. We get a great amount of plot drama and romance drama, and in addition to their growing relationship, we also get to see them growing as individuals. There is also amazing and positive queer representation (with the exception of a trans woman being constantly misgendered, but everyone seems to respect her so I’m guessing it’s a translation choice, since Japanese does not have gendered pronouns).
It’s towards the end (or maybe latter half? It’s after a specific plot point but I’m avoiding spoilers) that the story begins to fall flat. The story has great side characters, but those side characters begin to drag the story down because there is simply TOO much focus in them for a story that is only 69 chapters. “Ah yes, now is the time to bring back that one character we saw for a chapter and a half like 30 chapters ago so we can hear all about his backstory and give him a love interest even though the story ends in almost ten chapters). As someone who started reading this story because I heard there was asexual representation and I am asexual: I’d rather they have just scrapped that part because I don’t even feel we need to hear this character’s backstory and about their relationship with their boyfriend because they are simply not a huge enough character for it to be necessary and we’ve got a handful of chapters left at this point.
Which brings me to my second issue: it seems like every single character has to be in some sort of romantic relationship. The first romance side story, yeah, that was lovely and wonderfully dramatic and had the interesting twist on the gender roles in a human/devil relationship. Yuki’s parents was as well, and it was one I felt necessary. But then it’s like every single side character suddenly needs to be paired up with someone. I don’t need to know the entire life story of every single person in this manga and seeing them all paired up with one another feels forced, even in some of the cases where I genuinely enjoy the couples. The story is great, the main couple is great, the character development is great, but it simply is not necessary to give every random Joe and his aunt a side storyline, nor is it necessary to pair up any two characters who enter the same room. My opinion? Focus on Taira, Yuuki, the main squad (including Asami, Ishimaru, and Lee)—even then picking and choosing who you want to give the most time), Nanako, Kikuhara, and eventually the big boss. I’m wondering if at this point the sequel isn’t a new story and just a continuation of this because it doesn’t even seem possible to wrap all this stuff up in the few chapters I have left.
Another suggestion: if you want to do redemption arcs, make it so that the characters are… idk… redeemable?
But yeah, overall I enjoyed this story very much. Those two things did get genuinely annoying after a while, but not enough that it made me start disliking the manga or anything like that.
