Record of a Fallen Vampire #1 - Record of a Fallen Vampire

The Record of a Fallen Vampire starts off somewhat strange. First to give a little back-story the series began when Kyo Shirodaira (known for Spiral: The Bond of Reasoning) was asked to pen a story involving vampires by their editor. A new artist (Yuri Kimura) who recently had begun working for Square Enix wanted to make a story involving vampires. Reluctantly Kyo agreed despite another popular vampire manga that they would have to compete with at the time the series launched and reservations of such an overused concept. Oh and boy does it ever show.

            As stated the manga begins very scatterbrained with very attractive art and a dark somewhat typical shōnen series. It begins with the dark and brooding bishōnen vampire Akabara “Red Rose” Strauss who is searching for his queen is in the middle of fighting a dhampire (half vampire) named Jin Renka who is out to kill him for having murdered his girlfriend Yuki. Who was the 49 incarnation of Black Swan, a spirit parasite that possesses young women giving them the power and memories of the previous ladies with the end goal of killing Strauss. The rest of the volume is filled with more fights and no real discernable plot to really tie them together. During this more key characters are introduced such as Bridget, a dhampire who was somehow involved with Strauss’s 1000 years ago when he ruled as the king of a nation of vampires known as the Kingdom of Night. Some other dhampires who follow her and a very young dhampire girl who seems to act as little more than the loli sidekick to Strauss are all introduced as well. The final chapter of this volume is where things get interesting with Strauss, Bridget and the four dhampires under her command (including Renka) all duking it out when the current Black Swan shows up suddenly and defends Strauss.

            This is where the story really begins and becomes interesting, which is a shame because the series actually does genuinely become interesting in later volumes as it changes from the typical over the top battles to more of a mystery about how the Kingdom of Night fell. For those looking for an interesting mystery manga skip this volume, instead just read a summary and grab volume 2.