I wasn’t quite sure what to expect with this series. I’d heard many examples of the anime bastardizing the manga, yet most of them referred to the Season II manga. First, I’d have to get through the 40 chapters of the original series. As it turned out, there was a good reason most people talked exclusively about Season II.
Most of the series takes place in an academy for youkai, designed to help them integrate into the human world. While the premise is interesting, the devil is in the details; most chapters are rigidly split between "mundane high school life" and "superpowered battle," and neither is executed very well
For one thing, the main characters have very few significant interactions; most of the time, the female cast members are fighting over Tsukune, while he helplessly tries to placate them. Most of the humor amounts to the girls injuring or insulting each other, and it's rarely witty or cartoonish enough to warrant more than the occasional chuckle.
Even the more significant interactions amount to characters hating each other’s guts over a minor squabble, only to reconcile by chapter’s end (and repeat the whole song and dance later). The series wants you to believe they’re all close companions, but with how rarely they regard each other remotely fondly, that ends up hard to believe.
The battles are equally formulaic. Most of the battles are just the heroes being hopelessly outmatched before Inner Moka or Ghoul Tsukune emerges and solves everything in no time flat.
The formulaic layout of chapters also hinders the development of larger plots. There’s an antagonistic organization introduced halfway through, but it’s as if there’s a queue for its members to appear. Members appear to cause trouble for 2-3 chapters, get defeated, and are never seen again, just in time for another member to appear and repeat the process.
Strangely, the series doesn't end with that plot; after it’s resolved, there are a few more chapters before the series just stops. It’s obviously meant to lead directly into Season II, though that raises the question of why the distinction exists at all.
Overall, R+V is bland in its badness. I’m hard-pressed to think of anything it consistently does right, but the worst emotion I felt when reading it was boredom. Here’s hoping Season II makes it all worth it.
Manga, series 1: Bad, but not horrible
I wasn’t quite sure what to expect with this series. I’d heard many examples of the anime bastardizing the manga, yet most of them referred to the Season II manga. First, I’d have to get through the 40 chapters of the original series. As it turned out, there was a good reason most people talked exclusively about Season II.
Most of the series takes place in an academy for youkai, designed to help them integrate into the human world. While the premise is interesting, the devil is in the details; most chapters are rigidly split between "mundane high school life" and "superpowered battle," and neither is executed very well
For one thing, the main characters have very few significant interactions; most of the time, the female cast members are fighting over Tsukune, while he helplessly tries to placate them. Most of the humor amounts to the girls injuring or insulting each other, and it's rarely witty or cartoonish enough to warrant more than the occasional chuckle.
Even the more significant interactions amount to characters hating each other’s guts over a minor squabble, only to reconcile by chapter’s end (and repeat the whole song and dance later). The series wants you to believe they’re all close companions, but with how rarely they regard each other remotely fondly, that ends up hard to believe.
The battles are equally formulaic. Most of the battles are just the heroes being hopelessly outmatched before Inner Moka or Ghoul Tsukune emerges and solves everything in no time flat.
The formulaic layout of chapters also hinders the development of larger plots. There’s an antagonistic organization introduced halfway through, but it’s as if there’s a queue for its members to appear. Members appear to cause trouble for 2-3 chapters, get defeated, and are never seen again, just in time for another member to appear and repeat the process.
Strangely, the series doesn't end with that plot; after it’s resolved, there are a few more chapters before the series just stops. It’s obviously meant to lead directly into Season II, though that raises the question of why the distinction exists at all.
Overall, R+V is bland in its badness. I’m hard-pressed to think of anything it consistently does right, but the worst emotion I felt when reading it was boredom. Here’s hoping Season II makes it all worth it.