Rosario + Vampire is a goth styled shonen harem action-comedy manga. Tsukune Aono is a high school student who has such low grades that the only school that eventually accepts him is a secret school for monsters, witches and other mythical creatures disguised as humans. There he meets and befriends Moka Akashiya, a sealed super-vampire who is attracted to his blood, due to him being human, although she doesn't realize that until later. While he is the only human in a school full of supernatural beings who perceive his weakness or are jealous of his relationship with Moka, several of these beings develop a relationship with him and aid him against others. During the course of the manga Tsukune evolves into a ghoul, a mindless killing machine with powers rivaling a super-vampire by being injected so many times with Moka's blood and now has his powers sealed away.
Hightlights:
In Volume 8 Tsukune is forced to become a student council member working with the festival comittee in order to lure out the student council's president, Hokuto Kaneshiro. He is also the leader of the anti-schooler and is someone who wants to destroy the ideal the school was created for. He wants to bring about war with humans by destroying the seal that separates the school from humanity.
The biggest highlight is getting to see Tsukune in ghoul mode and still getting trounced. The manga is clearly entering its end-game now (the first manga has only 10 volumes in Japan) with the revelation of the leader of the anti-schoolers and the breaking of Moka's seal. There were a few action scenes, but this volume looked to be more like a warm up before an epic battle.
Overview:
The volume pushes the plot along significantly revealing the leader of the anti-schoolers, the revelation of one of the three hell kings, powerful supernatural beings, who sealed the school away from humanity along with Hokuto stealing the item that allows the Hell King to create said seal and Moka breaking her own seal for which the permanent repercussions are yet to be revealed. Even as a partial ghoul, Tsukune's battle against Hokuto is clearly outmatched in Hokuto's favor.
Akihisa Ikeda's artwork gets a lot darker and bloodier towards the end of the manga with Hokuto attacking the other students. While the series has never been on the lighter side, the blood and violence has always been enacted against the main characters and thus to be somewhat expected. The attack on the other festival committee members brings it to a whole new level and does a lot to flesh out just how demonic Hokuto's character really is.
This volume was a bit subdued on the ecchi content the series is known for. While there were a few panels, most of it was focused around Tsukune, Hokuto and Hokuto's underlings which is a lot darker tone to the volume and there is little place for ecchi content except in splash panels and covers.
Rosario + Vampire is a good blend of dark action themed elements with comical moments and ecchi content thrown in to spice things up without going overboard. As the plot thickens, Akihisa doesn't resist the natural tendancy to lessn the comical and ecchi content in favor of more action and even darker themes, but doesn't completely leave them behind. I can't wait to see what Ikeda has in the next volume. I expect the trend with less ecchi content and more darker themes of blood and violence to continue. This volume gives a good preview for a great battle that's likely to occur in the next volume as well as some new twists whose ramifications have yet to be explored.
ComicsOnline gives Rosario + Vampire Volume 7 4 out of 5 sealing charms.
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