Karin is your typical teenage girl as far as everyone at school is concerned, but she's got a secret, she's actually a vampire and she is anything but a typical vampire. She enjoys the sun, attends school like a human, and she has way too much blood! Instead of drinking blood once a month her body has to expel all of her excess blood through nosebleeds that look like a crime scene! Thanks to this she's an outcast in her own home and after the arrival of transfer student Kenta Usui her condition grows worse, instead of just once a month nose bleeds the poor girl gets on every time, she sees him! Karin is certain she can kiss her normal life goodbye if she can't figure out how to control herself around Usui!
I've wanted to read this one forever, so I was pretty stoked when my local comic book shop had four copies of the first four volumes. Honestly, so far, it's pretty much what I expected, and I am totally okay with that because it's adorable.
Thanks to Karin's condition she is treated like the odd one out in her family, so you've got some pretty interesting interactions with her parents and her siblings. What I found interesting though is while her parents definitley seem to be against her being so "human" at first as the story goes on it's pretty clear that the do support her, they just don't know how. It's a pretty great reference to both parents and children dealing with the teenage years. As a parent I have to admit that I'm super lucky in that my kids are very much like myself and my husband, so we've never really had to deal with having a kid that just made no sense to us. However, I have several nieces that are just the exact opposite of my sister in every way possible and there's a scene in this where Karin's parents have used a tv show as a reference as to how to deal with their "weird" child and honestly, I could see that happening in my sister's home. And there's nothing wrong with that, I think if anything it shows how dedicated her parents are to trying to meet her on her level and I love that. I also enjoyed how her relationship with her little sister seems to be reversed. Not going to lie since I watch almost strictly animated shows, collect plushies, and have been known to make a blanket fort to spend my days coloring more than a few people have assumed that I am the younger sister so it's just kind of nice to relate on that level.
We don't get to see a lot of Usui in this one, mainly because Karin spends most of the book avoiding him but what I've seen of him I've enjoyed. He's the only child of a single mom who has problems keeping a job due to her employers sexually harassing her, Usui of course feels like he needs to step up and contribute more to the household because of this, while his mom absolutely believes he should spend as much of teen years being a teen. Honestly, this is a pretty common theme for both male and female characters during this time period for manga and anime, so he is very stereotypical for the time. But I think for the younger generation this gives a pretty accurate glimpse of several issues in Japan during the timeframe. Being a single mother was (and is still just not to this extent) frowned upon in not just Japan but many parts of the world during this time, her employer even makes it clear that she shouldn't be working but be at home taking care of Usui. I think it really shows how far we've come in equality rights that this isn't a theme that comes up as much as it did anymore. Obviously, we have the conversation regarding his mom being punished for unwanted sexual advances as well. Something that most definitely still happens.
The one thing that really surprised me though is how little Kagesaki compares Karin's once a month nose bleeds to a period. The implication is there of course but at least in this volume she doesn't pursue it as much as I thought she would. To be fair I think the only reason this stood out to me is that I just kind of assumed that there would be some gods awful jokes about it so it was nice when they never appeared. At one point a classmate even explains that because Karin is anemic, she has fainting spells every once in a while. As a person who is anemic and does actually have side effects when I am on my period I figured she'd at least grab that low hanging fruit, but she didn't and I gotta say I respect her for it. Again, it's volume 1 so that may not last, but I am hopeful!
I think it's safe to say that I will be continuing this series, unless it goes sideways in the next three volumes, which I just don't see happening.
Volume 2
After catching Karin "hugging" his mom Osui has got a pretty good idea that his new classmate is a vampire. Or maybe just weird. Against her family's wishes Anju steps in and makes the executive decision to let Osui in on the family secret as she points out someone will need to keep an eye on her as Anju isn't going to be able to do it forever, this leads to their father kidnapping Osui after work one evening, their mom threatening him and Karin deciding that her family is way too embarrassing.
Okay I love Anju, honestly, she seems to be the only sensible person in the family Maaka family! Her reasoning for letting Osui in on the family secret are sound, Vampire or not Karin does have a medical condition that she needs someone to be able to look out for her and I can't think of a better person to do that. Especially since Karin seems to have a lot of guilt associated with her condition, it does seem to take a toll on her family, however that guilt is clearly misplaced. It's clear in this volume that Karin's family loves her and wants to protect her since she can't control these nose bleeds. I really enjoyed that, her family seems a bit dysfunctional in the first volume, however, in this volume while they may be a bit dysfunctional the love and respect, they have for each other shines through.
Osui is definitely the stereotypical poor kid, however, this volume really does drive home that living in a single parent household during this timeframe was not remotely common. Karin goes through all of these reasons as to why Osui may be poor, but not once does it occur to her that it's because he's living with a single mom. When she does finally realize this, she's shocked. So again, we've got this really great time capsule of how differently single mothers were viewed twenty years ago. I also like that while his motivation for wanting to know the truth about Karin is mostly motivated by wanting to find out if his mom is okay after she bit her, he is very dedicated to the fact that it would be a personal insult to himself to let her family's secret slip. Honestly, he's just a good person.
Finally, there's something weird going on with a classmate and we've got an interesting cliffhanger at the end. A girl seems to have turned to petty theft and possibly prostitution in order to support herself after running away from home. That's about all of the information we get in this volume and it would be an understatement to say I'm simply intrigued.
Vol 3 is usually where I decide whether or not I am going to continue a series but I think I can say with 90% certainty that this is going to become a regular series for me at this point. It's an interesting take on vampirism for certain with some adorable characters and some serious if surface level conversations about topics such as socioeconomic status and living with a family member with a medical condition both from the family's perspective and the person living with the condition.
Volume 3
We have an interesting little side story involving Osui's mom, we discover the truth of Anju's creepy doll Boogie, Kiran's has to find a way to keep her older brother Ren from biting Osui's mom, and we discover that Kiran's family is still trying to figure out how exactly Karin ends up as a reverse vampire.
The first half of the volume revolves around the teenage girl Karin bit in volume 2, we discover that this girl has ran away from home and is working as a prostitute at the love hotel Fumio, Usui's mom works at. For the most part this just gives Ren a good reason to bump into Fumio and decide that he is going to go after her. But it gives us a chance to get to know Fumio a little better.
The side story with Anju and her doll is probably the best part of this volume though. Anju loses the creepy thing in volume two and discovers that a classmate has stolen it. The classmate refuses to give it back, which oddly doesn't seem to concern Anju too much. We find out why later that evening, which I knew it was creepy, but I didn't think Kagesaki was going to take it that far! I also now need to know the rest of her doll's stories! Kagesaki could have probably done an entire spin off series just about Anju's creepy doll collection!
Kiran is mostly preoccupied with figuring out how to bite Fumio before her brother gets to it in this volume. I suppose I am a bit on the fence about this particular storyline. I understand why Kiran wouldn't want her brother to bite her but at the same time if the effect is the same then I'm not sure that Usui would actually care who bit her.
Finally, we have a very brief discussion about Kiran's "condition". Her parents seem to be researching older family histories and historical documents to find out if there is a precedent for her condition. To be honest, Karin has a Marilyn Munster (Here's a link for those who do not know what The Munsters is) feel to her at this point which I am enjoying for sure, however, I am just as curious as her family is to find out what exactly she is. The fangs are the only vampire trait she has going for her, so she doesn't feel like a vampire but any stretch of the imagination.
I sadly only have one more volume before I'm going to have to go buy the next few in the series so I am hoping volume four doesn't end on a cliffhanger!
Volume 4
After her friends push her a bit too far Karin announces that she has absolutely no feelings for Usui, unfortunately he overhears her. She tries to make ammends, which does work but now he is offering to be her personal blood repository! Which would be great but Karin has finally admitted to herself that she is indeed in love with him!
We also get a bit more of Ren's backstory. We really just find out he's always been a womanizer, and he's always disliked humans.
Luckily no cliffhanger ending so I think I can put off buying the next album for a bit longer! However, at the end of vol four I can 100% say that this is an absolutely adorable series and I highly recommend it!
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