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Chibi Vampire: The Novel, Volume 1

2007Tohru Kai

4.4/5

Chibi Vampire is a popular manga series translated into English by Viz Media. A few years back, before it's closure, Tokyopop translated the light novels based on the manga into English as well and released them in the States. I found online that each novel corresponds to a manga taking place at certain times between them. You could almost read them manga - novel - manga - novel, so on.Anyways, Chibi Vampire is the story of Karin Maaka, a young girl living in Japan with her vampire family of European descent. But there is one odd thing about Karin - she's a "reverse-vampire". Instead of sucking blood out of a victim, she injects blood into a victim. In the world of Chibi Vampire, being bitten by a vampire is actually a fun experience. When the person awakens, they feel much better with whatever emotional or other problems seemingly resolved. The key is that it isn't really resolved, but the person copes better as their moral or personality flaw is "pushed back" for a time.All of this is central to the first novel's premise. A young man who is rich, good-looking, and athletic has a really problematic home life right now and so when he falls victim to Karin's blood injection, he only remembers a girl hugging him and then his problems being not as bad. He desperately seeks out this girl and that's where the plot takes off.I really enjoyed the book though it was a tad disjointed. The first hundred or so pages went by reeeaaaalllyyy slowly, and then the plot picked up and the last hundred pages flew by. I hope the author did a better job in the subsequent novels and I also really hope that some company gets TP's license, so they can translate the last novel that didn't get done when TP went under.My favorite parts of the novel were getting to see inside the characters' heads, especially Karin and Usui Kenta, her love interest; and also seeing the truth of how much Karin's family really does love her, despite their harshness at times due to the messes she makes. The latter was actually kinda heart-warming, and the former was cool as we saw that Karin and Kenta do care for each other.Lastly, the illustrations are brilliant and captured the feel of the manga perfectly. I enjoyed this foray into the universe of Chibi Vampire and look forward to returning sometime.
Picture of a book: Chibi Vampire: The Novel, Volume 1

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