365 Days of Manga, Day 233: Vassalord

VASSALORD • Tokyopop • Nanae Chrono • 16+
The nice thing about Vassalord is that Nanae Chrono (Peace Maker) abandons all pretense of seriousness. Forget all that historical stuff about the Shinsengumi and the Meiji era, forget all those long Peace Maker plotlines that she shamelessly abandoned in mid-story because the franchise was running out of steam–Vassalord is a story which started out as a pin-up of two hot guys for a magazine cover and was later expanded into a series about a pair of live-in gay vampires. Johnny Rayflo, a ripped, scruffy vampire, dwells with his former vassal Charles, a “daywalker” vampire cyborg who hunts other vampires in his day job as a Vatican priest. Still reading? Well, Charles and Johnny occasionally fight and bicker with one another, but it always ends with them making out and licking blood off each other’s toes. (”I’ll reward you for your hard work. You can suck me until I drop.”) In addition to the gayness, there’s a ton of action scenes, with various kinds of vampires and little Vatican girl assassins jumping around impaling one another with different objects. Chrono’s artwork has improved since Peace Maker, a manga in which it was impossible to tell what was happening. In comparison, Vassalord is only mildly confusing and pretentious, and if you like hot-guy action (in both senses of the word), it’s a decent soft-softcore manga. Sensitive or politically correct readers may find some of the filthy dialogue hard to take, though; at the very least, you’ll find yourself asking “is this the funny, self-aware homophobia, or the old-fashioned, bad homophobia?” (Review by Jason Thompson; originally published in Otaku USA magazine.)
** (two stars)
Today’s winner is Wendy W. of New York! Congratulations, Wendy! I’ve been a little behind schedule with the manga sending-out lately, but this week I’ve been doing double duty, so everyone who’s been mentioned recently should be getting a special package from the stork (the Manga Stork) soon.
My latest writings are the second episode of House of 1000 Manga on Anime News Network, in which I discuss a manga which is a delightful intersection of Capcom games and Medieval Catholicism. Check it out today!