Customer Reviews

Chibi Vampire: The Novel, Vol. 1

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Lately there have been a series of manga novels. That is to say, books that for the most part are regular text novels that were written in Japan (but translated into English for American fans,) that are based on anime and manga series. These books usually have a few manga pictures scattered throughout visualizing certain scenes. This particular book wasn't written by the series creator, Yuna Kagesaki, but by Tohru Kai, who read the manga. So I guess this could perhaps be considered fan fiction. (Yuna Kagesaki did draw the pictures in the book, however.)

I'm going to assume anyone reading this review is already familiar with Chibi Vampire and won't bother explaining who characters are or their history before this story. Most it takes place between manga books one and two, although the opening prologue takes place three months before the first graphic novel. Karin is running through Shiihaba Park one evening. It's that time of the month for her. Frantically in search of someone, she finds a boy from a private school. Quickly as she can, she embraces and then bites him on the neck and expells her blood. The boy goes unconcious, then Anju shows up and erases his memory. As the two sisters are leaving, Anju gets a message from a bat that says the boy got up and said he could swear there was a girl with him, then left. Anju says some peoples memories are harder to erase than others, but that he doesn't remember being bitten. Things seem fine, until three months later...

After the events of the first manga book, Karin returns to school after her two-week absence to find out that during the two weeks several girls from her school were kidnapped from Shiihaba Park. Someone would sneak up behind them, grab them, drug them with chloroform, and then they would wake up blindfolded in some house. Someone would pick them up and embrace them, then knock them out with chloroform again, and they would wake up on an empty street with 100,000 yen in thier purse. When Karin hears this, she wonders if it was one of the people she bit in the park.

As it turns out, it is. The boy Karin bit three months before is Youichiro Juumonji, heir to a wealthy family. His life had been going sour up to the moment he met Karin, then after their encounter things started going well for him, then one month later his life started going bad again. Convinced being hugged by the girl was a good-luck charm and remembering her uniform but nothing else, he had his butler Sasaki kidnap several girls from the school and brought to his place so he could hug them, but was unable to find the right one. So Youichiro decides to transfer to the school until he can find her.

Two days later, the girls at Karin's school are excited about the new transfer student, who is handsome and who transfered from Ginrei Academy, a rich private school. When Karin meets Youichiro, she's horrified to find that her blood reacts to him the same way it does when she's near Kenta. Things get worse when he remembers it was her who hugged him in the park that time. When his confronting her makes her visibly uncomfertable, Kenta comes to her rescue. He tells Youichiro to back off. Youichiro tells Kenta that Karin must like him since she hugged him. This causes Kenta to blurt out that he saw her hugging a businessman once, which causes an uproar amoung the students listening, and is another huge embarrassment for Karin.

The next day at school most of the other girls are giving her harsh glares and saying mean things, except Maki, who tries to stand up for her. Then Youichiro comes to Karin's class with a bouqet of roses for her. She tells him she hugged him in the park because she was scared by a snake, and he says he'll have to make her fall for him. Later that day when he's giving her a ride home he tells her about how he considers her to be his good-luck charm and why. After she is let out, she begins to wonder if Youichiro was the kidnapper.

After coming home and changing and then going to work, she tells Kenta about her suspicions. He tells her it's too dangerous to confront him directly, but they also don't have any solid proof to bring to the police. Unbeknownst to any of them, Youichiro has a few enemies who want Youichiro brought down, and they're planning to use Karin to do it...

I have read all 14 volumes of manga so I was really excited to find out about the novels so I bought 1 and 2. I am halfway through novel 1.

TYPOS!!!! So many weird typos. I found several in the chapter Accused Unjustly.
A couple examples: End of page someone starts to speak, "That -turn the page "That etc..." So they started the sentence then restarted on the next page.
2nd is Youichiro speaking to Karin, "I'm going to make you fall ME in love with me." Too many ME's in that sentence.

It appears someone didnt edit this properly, oh well I suppose.

The story is great, I love 'hearing' things from Usui's perspective. As for the 'violent' cornering scene, there is only harsh words and the threat of stripping her naked because they think that's what they did in the olden days. But there is no physical violence. This seems tame considering what I have heard of true violence amonst students in foreign countries and sometimes large cities.

All in all, of you're a fan of Karin and want some fillers, read these novels.

Exactly what I wrote in the title.

"Didn't like it as much as I thought I would."

I was really excited to get this book; I loved the novel and manga of Chibi Vampire.

The storyline was awesome, I loved the details...

But, I didn't like it as much as I thought I would.

Why?

Because at one part in the book, Karin gets cornered by some mean girls who attack her, and call her vulgar things.

All because they thought she was prostituting and they were jealous of her getting attention from the new kid.

And they don't even get in trouble!

I know that it's not much, but I had a very similair experience; getting cornered, and attacked, not because of jealousy, but because of my beliefs.

All in all, this book is great, but if they hadn't included that one part, I would've given it five stars.

Great for Karin (Chibi Vampire) and anime fans! Not as good as the manga, but still really good. Very funny and cute! Would recommend it to anyone interested in romantic comedy, vampire romances, anime, or Karin (Chibi Vampire). Great book!

Could'nt wait to get my grubby lil' hands on this Manga. Unfortunately it was your typical paperback style:{ Alas, not Manga. Not very exciting. Long,boring read. The worst is this is one of my favorite subjects. Now dont' get me wrong I am an avid reader & love books,but this just did not do it for me
Ciao! >"<