The Record of a Fallen Vampire Vol. 1

Title: The Record of a Fallen Vampire (Vol. 1)

Story By: Kyo Shirodaira

Art By: Yuri Kimura

Publisher: Viz Media

Rating: T for Teen [Due to themes of Death and Violence]

Manga Synopsis: Thousands of years ago, Vampire King Akabara "Red Rose" Strauss lost both his kingdom and his queen. Since humans were unable to kill the queen, they sealed her away, erecting thousands of fake seals so that the king would never find her true location. Despite being pursued by relentless dhampires, Akabara continues to search for his queen to this day...

Volume One Plot: Akabara's quest takes a sinister turn when an entity called the Black Swan appears. The Black Swan inhabits the body of a young human girl every 50 years, giving her the power to destroy the Vampire King and his queen. With each incarnation the Black Swan grows stronger-- will the 49th Black Swan mean the end of Akabara?

To prevent confusion, let me clear up two main points.
As you read this manga, please note that this story does not center around the 49th Black Swan, but rather it focuses on the vampire king Akabara.

As I started reading Vol. 1 for the first time I was noticing how rushed the story seemed to be and so I couldn't really develop a connection to every character. At first I wrote it off as a flaw in Shirodaira's writing, but soon realized my mistake. Shirodaira rushed this segment of the story because the reader isn't supposed to focus on the 49th Black Swan, but on the Vampire King instead. This is his story, the Black Swan is just another character.

Also, these are not your conventional vampires. They are confined to only travel by night, yes, but they do not feed off humans, and they cannot be killed with a steak to the chest. These are magical beings whose powers are the real threat. To kill them you have to fatally wound them with magic and/or weapons.

Keep those two points in mind, and it'll be an easy read.

Record of a Fallen Vampire tells the story of vampire king Akabara who lost his kingdom and queen in one night. The Vampire Queen's magic had gone out of control and nearly destroyed the Earth and so a group of humans sealed her away forever. On top of that, they erected thousands of fake seals so that Akabara would never know the queen's true location -- In fact so many were created that the humans themselves have forgotten which is the real one. However, Akabara is determined to find her and so he searches for centuries, destroying thousands of seals, hoping the next will be the real one. 

In an effort to stop him, both humans and dhampires alike hunt after Akabara -- hoping to kill him before the queen is released. Dhampires are humans with vampire blood and so they also have magical abilities, including the ability to heal severe wounds. But their forces combined have still not been enough to kill the King.

To help in the battle, a magical entity called the Black Swan possesses a human girl every 50 years. Each generation of the Black Swan inherits the skills, memories, and abilities of her predecessor. So, in turn, each generation is stronger than the last.

I picked up this manga a couple of weeks ago when the storyline caught my eye. I fount it all makes for a very interesting plot and as I learned more details about the story I grew to enjoy it more and more. The quick progression in the beginning was necessary to move the story along appropriately, and then from there it continues at a normal pace. And just when you think it all might get repetitive with Akabara fighting against a dhampire from seal to seal, Shirodaira throws in a surprising twist! 

This is Shirodaira's first time writing a vampire story so I'm really impressed about how he made it his own. It's definitely different, but not necessarily bad. Some of the dialogue seems a bit... off by word choice but he was still able to establish a great foundation for all the characters. It allows the reader to be really stumped by the sudden twist in the story. Kudos to him because thanks to that cliffhanger I will definitely continue to read this series. 

Just like graphic novels, not all manga writers do their own art. In Fallen Vampire's case, the art is done by Yuri Kimura. Kimura's style of drawing reminds me of DN Angel, where the bodies are lean but the hands are slightly larger than they should be. Usually the disproportion annoys me and distracts me from the story, but in this case her style actually helps the story. With stories that use magic as the main focus it can be hard to follow the battle scenes. Most of the panels are filled with "moving wind" and symbols and since mangas don't have the advantage of color that American comics have, it can get confusing sometimes. I know I've been lost dozens of times while reading Juvenile Orion. 

However, in Fallen Vampire it's actually a lot easier to follow each magical blow because the source of all the magic is made easier to see. And with none of it being distracting I can safely say that Kimura's style is not a flaw. If that weren't enough, Kimura is very skilled at drawing expressive eyes and faces which brings the characters alive.

All in all this manga is definitely worth looking into. I've already started reading its second volume and I'm sure it wont be my last.

The Record of a Fallen Vampire 4 out of 5 stars.