Dance in The Vampire Bund is honestly pretty unique in my eyes, while it works to change up some of the tried and tired vampire tropes it still remains true (kinda) to the nature of it's source material (that being traditional vampire myth). The story follows the dual protagonists of Mina Tepes, Queen of the entire vampire race and her loyal werewolf servant/protector Akira Kaburagi-Regendorf as they try to navigate and stay alive in the complicated political and fantastical vampiric and human society.
I was honestly surprised by the amount of world building and (slight) realism added to the story. Such as a depiction of the societal and political affects of vampires exposing their true existence to mankind. While there are a number of bright spots within such a revelation, the story is not afraid to show the depths of what could/most likely would go wrong. On that notes it does follow a lot of the typical vampire lore like stakes to the heart, sucking blood, avoiding sunlight, etc.
But a lot of these tropes have been upgraded to the modern age such as special UV gel that temporarily renders the sun harmless, or blood substitutes that will allow a vampire to avoid drinking the blood of a human and spreading vampirism, heck there's even a cue to vampirism itself (though it has a limited time window of effectiveness).
On the world building side of things, it applies more to vampire/werewolf history and instead of going back and claiming it's source from the Bram Stoker tale of Count Dracula (Vlad Tepes) like most myths, it spans past even that all the way to ancient times and perhaps even BEFORE the dawn of mankind itself. What astonishes me is the level of creativity that was put into the werewolf myths as well as their depiction. They aren't simply hulking beasts at the beck and call of their masters, but trained, organized, intelligent, and skilled knights who from time to time use their wolf forms but mostly use their weapons (swords, guns, etc.) to get the job done.
Though with all of the praise I have to of course touch on the main issue and those of you who have read the manga and watched the anime know where I'm going. Mina Tepes the queen of all vampires is over 400 years of age but has the body of a prepubescent girl and that's where the main issue comes in. Despite her age and overall maturity it doesn't change that her appearance or scantily clad moments as well as some questionable undertones are an uncomfortable part of this otherwise fantastic manga. While there's a whole western vs. eastern cultural divide/perception debate on the matter I don't have the space or time to cover the fine points of it.
All in all this is a mixed up, complicated, yet beautifully detailed story about vampires that manages to follow and defy tropes at times, and while there is a very questionable issue regarding the depiction of Mina, it manages to provide a well rounded story and pretty interesting characters.
Manga Complicated But Beautiful
Dance in The Vampire Bund is honestly pretty unique in my eyes, while it works to change up some of the tried and tired vampire tropes it still remains true (kinda) to the nature of it's source material (that being traditional vampire myth). The story follows the dual protagonists of Mina Tepes, Queen of the entire vampire race and her loyal werewolf servant/protector Akira Kaburagi-Regendorf as they try to navigate and stay alive in the complicated political and fantastical vampiric and human society.
I was honestly surprised by the amount of world building and (slight) realism added to the story. Such as a depiction of the societal and political affects of vampires exposing their true existence to mankind. While there are a number of bright spots within such a revelation, the story is not afraid to show the depths of what could/most likely would go wrong. On that notes it does follow a lot of the typical vampire lore like stakes to the heart, sucking blood, avoiding sunlight, etc. But a lot of these tropes have been upgraded to the modern age such as special UV gel that temporarily renders the sun harmless, or blood substitutes that will allow a vampire to avoid drinking the blood of a human and spreading vampirism, heck there's even a cue to vampirism itself (though it has a limited time window of effectiveness).
On the world building side of things, it applies more to vampire/werewolf history and instead of going back and claiming it's source from the Bram Stoker tale of Count Dracula (Vlad Tepes) like most myths, it spans past even that all the way to ancient times and perhaps even BEFORE the dawn of mankind itself. What astonishes me is the level of creativity that was put into the werewolf myths as well as their depiction. They aren't simply hulking beasts at the beck and call of their masters, but trained, organized, intelligent, and skilled knights who from time to time use their wolf forms but mostly use their weapons (swords, guns, etc.) to get the job done.
Though with all of the praise I have to of course touch on the main issue and those of you who have read the manga and watched the anime know where I'm going. Mina Tepes the queen of all vampires is over 400 years of age but has the body of a prepubescent girl and that's where the main issue comes in. Despite her age and overall maturity it doesn't change that her appearance or scantily clad moments as well as some questionable undertones are an uncomfortable part of this otherwise fantastic manga. While there's a whole western vs. eastern cultural divide/perception debate on the matter I don't have the space or time to cover the fine points of it. All in all this is a mixed up, complicated, yet beautifully detailed story about vampires that manages to follow and defy tropes at times, and while there is a very questionable issue regarding the depiction of Mina, it manages to provide a well rounded story and pretty interesting characters.
It's all just my opinion though :)