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Title: Chibi Vampire Vol 14

Author:  Yuna Kagesaki

Publisher: Tokyopop

ISBN: 9781427816252

May Contain Spoilers

Sadly enough, yet another of my favorite series draws to a close.  Chibi Vampire is a title that I didn’t have very high expectations for, and the only reason I bought the first volume was to fill out an order to qualify for free shipping.  It looked a little sketchy to me, and I was a little leery that there would be too much fan service for my tastes.  Panty shots and bouncing boobs are all well and good, I guess, but I prefer fan service of a different kind.  Six pack abs and ripped torsos are more to my liking, especially if they are attached to about six feet of male hotness.  While Kenta is a little too goofy looking to qualify for any hawt awards, Ren comes pretty close.  Those dark-natured, mysterious guys are always appealing, especially when they can turn into bats and possess very pointy teeth.

I was pleasantly surprised with this series – while there was fan service, it wasn’t overwhelming or obnoxious.  Instead, the focus was on the development of Karin’s relationship with her family and with the new kid in town, Kenta Usui.  Karin is a character who you immediately are drawn to, and you quickly grow to like.  Shy, self-conscious, she’s the oddball of her family,and she feels like she doesn’t even fit in at home.  It’s hard to be a failure as a vampire when the rest of your family are full-fledged bloodsuckers.  Her family tries to be accepting of her uniqueness, but even they wonder what they did wrong to have raised a child who spews blood instead of ingests it.

Karin and Kenta’s courtship evolved into a moving clash of personalities.  Karin’s ditzy, friendly personality contrasted with Kenta’s gloomy, worried outlook on life.  Drawn to him because he was so glum, Karin discovers that she has an attraction for blood from sad, miserable people.  This led to lots of soul searching on her part, as she struggles to decide whether is in love with him because he is so depressed, or because she has come to like him for more than his tasty, despairing aura.  This tug of war within herself was epic – here’s a girl who is a defective vampire, and she thinks she’s in love with a guy who constantly has a little black storm cloud of doom hanging over his head.  Her family is against a relationship with a human, and even Karin realizes that her love will bring her only heartbreak.  Wow!  How can you possibly resist an ill-fated tale of love and heartache like this?  I couldn’t!

In this final volume, Kenta and Karin’s family try frantically to rescue her from the dastardly Brownlick family, a powerful rival gang of vampires with big plans for Karin’s blood.  They don’t much care about the rest of her, and they are only interested in draining every last drop of blood from her veins so they can absorb the power of her hemoglobin.  The murderers of reverse vampires for hundreds of years, they only think of Karin as a vessel to strengthen their own blood.  Time is seriously of the essence, but Kenta is hampered by the company of Ren and Henry, because neither of them can travel during the day.  How will they ever get to Karin in time to save her from the evil clutches of the Brownlicks?

The race to save Karin was frenzied and fraught with high emotion.  Even Tachibana suffers from a wave of guilt after she learns what her uncle has in store for poor Karin.  I still don’t like Tachibana and I didn’t forgive her as easily as Karin, but Karin has never been one to hold a grudge.  The previous volume bothered me because Karin spent a lot of it sobbing and in deep emotional distress, and that continued here.  I didn’t like to see a distraught, frantic Karin; she is better suited to be bubbly and cheerful, so I was counting the pages until she was rescued.  Those rotten Brownlicks got off too easy.

The conclusion of Chibi Vampire was bittersweet, and I thought all of the loose ends were tied up in a satisfying manner.  Selfless sacrifices are made to ensure Karin’s happiness, and Kenta is once again forced to bear a very heavy burden.  His character has always been mature and he has always been old beyond his years, so it was difficult to see him forced to accept such a weighty duty.  

I was surprised by the ending resolution, and after being upset for a few pages, began to accept that it all fit very neatly in with the tone of the rest of the series.  As I reached the last page, it was hard to say good-bye to the Markers and especially to Karin and Anju.  For several years, the members of Yuna Kagesaki’s dysfunctional vampire family has entertained, bringing both laughter and occasional tears.  The foundation of this series has always been built on the interaction of the characters, and over the last three years, I started to feel like a part of the family.  The emotional ups and downs contained in this book are extreme and melodramatic, and some of them were so convincingly intense that it was agonizing to wait for the next installment.  I will miss the anticipation as I wait for the next volume.

Chibi Vampire is a fun series with over the top emotions, a sweet blend of comedy and romance, and a wonderful cast of delightfully eccentric characters.  It was hard to see it draw to a close, and it is difficult to believe that I will even miss the terrifying Elda.  Give this one a chance if you aren’t already hooked.

Grade: B+

Review copy provided by Tokyopop