The Record of a Fallen Vampire Vol. 1

Rating T+ Genre manga Author Kyo Shirodaira Publisher VIZ Media External Links Official VIZ Webstie

It’s not easy to write a story and have it published. I find it admirable that some people are able to accomplish that goal. However, a book that gets published and sent out into the world may sometimes still need some fine tuning. I found this to be the case with The Record of a Fallen Vampire.

The plot of this manga has the potential to be an interesting one. It tells the tale of King Akabara “Red Rose” Strauss, a vampire king who is in desperate search for his queen, Adelheid. The missing queen has been sealed away by the human race due to her overwhelmingly powerful magical abilities which almost destroyed the entire world. Akabara is searching endlessly to free his queen but is encountering numerous fake seals that humans have placed as decoys.

The search for his queen is deterred further by Yuki Komatsubara, a human girl who is host to ‘The Black Swan’, a curse that enables the carrier to follow Strauss in an attempt to kill him. The curse inhabits a new host every fifty years. Yuki is the forty-ninth Black Swan, and therefore holds the power that the preceding forty eight before her had. Her life will end in five years if she does not succeed in seeking out Strauss and killing him.

Further mayhem ensues for Strauss. Dhampires (humans with vampire blood that do not have vampire weaknesses) are also attempting to kill him in order for the queen to remain sealed away. One particular dhampire, Jin Renka, holds a personal vendetta against Strauss and wants to kill him himself.

The story opens almost instantly with a confusing battle between Strauss and Jin Renka. The characters look similar so I wasn’t sure who was winning or losing this fight and the panels provide little explanation of what is going on other than flailing swords, battle cries and printed sound effects. The whole attempt at an action packed opening filled with verbs just reminded me of an old Batman episode. It also tends to drag a bit, which was making me a little bored and really hoping for some actual excitement other than sword fighting.

The story does pick up a bit by the middle of the book and I hung on. However halfway through a book is a long time to wait for some, and it could leave potential fans ready to throw in the towel. This isn’t a particularly good quality, especially for the first volume of a manga that’s trying to draw in a new fan base.

Overall, it’s not a completely horrible story. Author Kyo Shirodaira is on the way to a decent series, provided the rest of it isn’t as choppy as the first volume is. It leaves room for more character introductions which will help the story to progress a bit more. If you’re a fan of vampires, battling swordsmen and you have enough patience to wait for a plot to pick up, then it’s worth a try. If none of the above applies to you, it’s probably best to skip this one.