Record of a Fallen Vampire 2
August 1, 2009
Story by Kyo Shirodaira, Art by Yuri Kimura – Viz – 2008 – 9 volumes
I loved this volume, though I still think volume 3 is where things really get interesting. There were a few interesting story elements in the first volume, but nothing outstanding that made the series really stand out. Volume two takes those elements and makes them far more interesting, and then volume three takes that interesting plot and turns it on its head, and the rest of the story fragments it and brings it back together. I think. Let me read a little further to make sure.
Anyway, the most interesting thing here is the alliance between Strauss and the Black Swan. Now, one of the interesting things in the last volume was the curse of the Black Swan, the human race’s defense against Strauss, King of Vampire. The curse takes over one human and sets them against Strauss, and if that human is killed in battle, the curse jumps to a new human. Except for each new human, the magic of the Black Swan increases, and the collective memories of all of the Black Swans are also part of the deal, so the present human host has magic roughly equal to Akabara’s and knowledge of how each of her 50 predecessors were defeated. All of this is cool, but after establishing that the Black Swan and the Vampire King are mortal enemies now and forever, the second volume expertly reverses that and has the two pairing up at the behest of the Black Swan. Her intentions are not clear, and death is promised at the end of the alliance, but the fact that the story pulled this off in the second volume when most series who reverse a rivalry like that fail spectacularly is nothing short of astounding. Again, if you had told me that happened in this series, I would think there was no way it couldn’t be terrible. But that’s the magic of Record of a Fallen Vampire. It takes what should, by all accounts, be a really horrible story and makes it amazing.
The other good thing about this volume is that it humbles Strauss, but then shows that he may or may not have infinite tricks up his sleeve. He should have lost in battle several times, he has no magic to fight back against the Dhampires, and yet he seems to always win by outsmarting them. Bridget reveals the depth of his plans later, but the fact that he brought down four powerful opponents with no magic at his disposal was pretty cool. And again, this doesn’t sound cool, but something about it was. The fights are interesting, and I love seeing how the dynamics of them work. There’s even a fantastic art sequence where Strauss takes a sword from someone and turns it on them.
Strauss works as a character, I think, despite his status of Godlike powerful being, because he rarely says anything, and also doesn’t really show off or struggle or use his powers when not necessary. He’s very secretive, and no matter what, even without his saying anything, he always seems to have the upper hand in battles. I like his personality and the mystery surrounding him, which probably would have hooked me here had I started from the beginning of the series.
Lots of the mechanics of magic and the lines of friend and foe are explained in this volume, but even with lengthy explanations of what’s going on and a new representative for the human race showing up and turning the simple “rock, paper, scissors” game that Strauss, Black Swan, and the Dhampires played with one another into an extremely delicate and volatile system of checks and balances, with death promised at the end.
I like it. I like it a lot. It’s definitely a high recommendation. I’m very much looking forward to the next few volumes, and will probably cover up to the current release this weekend.
This was a review copy provided by Viz.
August 3, 2009 at 6:11 am
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August 4, 2009 at 5:02 am
-I loved this volume, though I still think volume 3 is where things really get interesting. -
Once again, told ya :) ;)
-The other good thing about this volume is that it humbles Strauss, but then shows that he may or may not have infinite tricks up his sleeve. He should have lost in battle several times, he has no magic to fight back against the Dhampires, and yet he seems to always win by outsmarting them-
The series the author did before this was all about characters trying to outsmart each other.
It really, really shows in the fights of this one.
-Lots of the mechanics of magic and the lines of friend and foe are explained in this volume, but even with lengthy explanations of what’s going on and a new representative for the human race showing up and turning the simple “rock, paper, scissors” game that Strauss, Black Swan, and the Dhampires played with one another into an extremely delicate and volatile system of checks and balances, with death promised at the end.-
One of my fav things about the series is how in *every one* of the first three volumes, it sets a status quo of the power balance, then shatters it by the end of the volume.