Nuns with guns make the vampires run.
Gunbured × Sisters (ガンバレッド×シスターズ) is a Gothic Punk Yuri Seinen manga by Wataru Mitogawa.In a World… where vampires prey on the weak and helpless, Sister Dolores Lily "Dorothy" Argencruz, a warrior nun of the Crimson Sisters order, searches for a more potent weapon against the grotesques: a being who can wield the Optare, a Mix-and-Match Weapon in the form of a cross.
Well, one fine day, that being falls out of the sky and accidentally skewers herself on the weapon. Street kid Maria Belford is a dhampir who has been waging her own one-woman war against the vampires since she was a child while searching for her missing sister Noelle, and her half-and-half nature makes her exactly what Dorothy needs. If she plays ball with the not-so-saintly nun, she'll get the church's protection and access to its information network that may lead her to her sister. And it doesn't hurt that a mere sip of Dorothy's blood is enough to unlock her true fighting power.
Gunbured × Sisters ran for 21 chapters in Sunday Gene-X from 19 September 2019 to 19 August 2021. In March 2022 it entered English publication under Seven Seas Entertainment's Ghost Ship imprint.
Tropes:
- Ambiguous Gender Identity: Secondary character Shannon, with whom Maria forms a Love Triangle over Dorothy, was assigned female at birth (they're seen wearing a bra while shirtless) but is a "Brother" of the Knights of the Cross who wears their hair short and dresses in a men's uniform and is alternately referred to by Maria as either "butch bitch" or "dude" at times. Maria also once asks Dorothy whether Shannon actually is a girl but doesn't get an answer, and starts off using she/her pronouns for Shannon before switching to they/them mid-sentence in chapter 12, following the example of the Dramatis Personae from volume 2.
- And the Adventure Continues: The manga ends with the vampire pureblood responsible for the recent outbreak dead and the church higher-ups' deal with the purebloods exposed. However, Noelle has been revealed to be working with the renegade purebloods willingly, and Dorothy, Maria, and Shannon are resolved to do what they have to do.
- Anime Catholicism: Pretty standard stuff: plenty of Catholic imagery but very little actual Catholic practice, in favor of nuns with guns hunting vampires and yuri ecchi content.
- Barbie Doll Anatomy: In chapter 2, Dorothy gets into the shower with Maria without asking first for some skinship. Neither of them has any attributes drawn.
- BFG: Even in collapsed form, the Optare is as tall as Maria herself. She's strong enough in Super Mode to swing it around with one arm.
- Dhampyr: Maria and her sister Noelle are both half-human, half-vampire. This means they have vampires' Super-Toughness but can walk in daylight without trouble and, while they do need to drink blood, don't have the overpowering thirst for it that normal vampires do (Maria specifically draws a distinction between bloodthirst and being hungry for food). Maria usually prefers blood bags when she needs it, but if she consumes blood directly from another human—invariably Dorothy—she transforms into a Super Mode of a Stripperiffically-clad female vampire and can wield the Optare. The Church, unfortunately, draws no distinction between dhampyrs and full vampires, meaning Maria would be executed on the spot if anyone but Dorothy and her closest allies ever realized it.
- Flipping the Bird: Shannon crushes hard on Dorothy and clashes with Maria about the latter's relationship with her. After Dorothy breaks up the incipient fight and leads Maria away, Maria flips Shannon the bird behind Dorothy's back as a parting shot.
- Gothic Punk: The story takes place in a decaying 20th century-ish urban hellscape full of cathedrals and cathedral-like architecture where vampires emerge at night to prey on the living and are hunted by an order of warrior nuns.
- Hand Cannon: Being a dhampir, Maria is much stronger than a human, and her pistols are sized accordingly. Shannon tries to fire one once and can't handle the recoil at all.
- Interservice Rivalry: The Church Militant and the local police don't get along very well, though Dorothy has a Friend on the Force, Detective Louis. The police resent the Church's good publicity for slaying vampires while they get stuck with cleaning up the mess afterwards.
- Masculine, Feminine, Androgyne Trio: Dorothy is a buxom and traditionally feminine Lady of War (Feminine). Maria is a foul-mouthed tomboy and as a dhampir is the most powerful physical fighter of the three (Masculine). Shannon is a graceful bifauxnen swordsperson with an Ambiguous Gender Identitynote (Androgyne). Dorothy is the clear leader of the three, being both the Manipulative Bitch who brought the trio together and the apex of the Love Triangle between them.
- Masculine–Feminine Gay Couple: Played with. Maria seems at first glance like a Butch Lesbian, with a short fuse, foul mouth, and more boyish taste in clothing, not to mention being much more of a physical fighter than Dorothy. Dorothy, seemingly the Lipstick Lesbian of the two who passes herself off as a proper lady and prefers long dresses, is actually the more dominant and sexually rapacious partner between them. Maria is also charmed when Dorothy makes her try on a sundress and then buys it for her, even though she insists that kind of thing is more of Noelle's style. Similarly, Shannon is a Bifauxnen swordsperson who likes to play the Knight in Shining Armor, but like Maria is completely under Dorothy's thumb.
- Mix-and-Match Weapon: The Optare is a man-sized Christian cross that can act as a BFS in its collapsed form, and a BFG in its un-collapsed form.
- Naughty Nuns: Not unusually for Anime Catholicism, the concept of celibacy is completely ignored in favor of yuri fanservice. Before she meets Maria, Dorothy is shown masturbating to the thought of having a pet dhampir; afterwards she loves to grope Maria whenever she gets a free moment. Shannon of the Knights of the Cross also has a massive crush on her, which Dorothy isn't above manipulating. Meanwhile, higher-ranking Sisters Helen and Miranda are explicitly shown having sex at the start of chapter 14.
- Panty Thief: Dorothy steals Maria's underwear out of the laundry in one of the omakes.
- Sexy Backless Outfit: Dorothy's customary garb mashes up a nun's habit with a floor-length gown, with a cut-out that leaves her entire back exposed from neck to lumbar curve. It makes for an early visual clue that, for a nun, she's not terribly saintly.
- Tomboy with a Girly Streak: Maria is a foul-mouthed jeans-and-T-shirt girl and brute of a fighter who slings a pair of Hand Cannons as her primary weapons. But she has a soft spot for the sundress that Dorothy buys her during an afternoon on the town, though she insists they're usually more her sister's thing.
- Torture for Fun and Information: Dorothy enjoys flogging information out of a captured vampire waaaaaay too much.
- Vegetarian Vampire: Prior to meeting Dorothy, Maria sated her blood-thirst by drinking from transfusion bags. Dorothy is in fact the first human whose blood she has consumed "from the vein", which lets her transform into a Stripperiffic Super Mode and was implicitly likened to losing her virginity.
- Wanted a Gender-Conforming Child: Dorothy is the daughter of the current Pope, who wishes for her to stay in the church and pray for salvation from the grotesque. Dorothy prefers to take a more active role in exterminating vampires.
- What the Hell, Hero?: In chapter 12, Maria viciously calls out Dorothy on her manipulative behavior towards both herself and Shannon.
