Manga Review: Rosario + Vampire - Volume 10

The climatic end of Rosario + Vampire has come ― for season one that is.

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 human blood, although she doesn't realize that until later. While he is the only human in a school full of supernatural beings who perceive him as weak 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.

Volume 10 concludes the season with the festival going awry when Tsukune's cousin, Kyouko Aono, receives the Lilith Mirror which proceeds to unseal all the monster's disguises. At first (and for a considerable time), Kyouko continues to believe the monsters and the mirror are just really advanced special effects. By the time she realizes they really are monsters, almost every monster has had their disguise shattered. Ms. Hitomi Ishigami, the former Art Teacher, returns and gets Moka to come fight her. Moka does and realizes too late that using the mirror only partially broke her Rosario's seal. Fortunately, Tsukune, with the aid of the other girls, comes at the last moment to rescue Moka.

Highlights:
Most of the action takes place early on in the first half of the volume and when Ms. Ishigami actually appears most of the conflict and turmoil have ended. Moka does go out for a battle with the former Art Teacher, but the first part, where she still wears the Rosario, ends quickly and the second part, where she has it released, even quicker. Now its true this is how things usually go in the series, but I was expecting a bit more for a final conflict, but as this was the end of only the season, Akihisa Ikeda must have wanted to place more emphasis on Kyouka's discovery and the possible implications of that making who was behind it and the final confrontation almost a side-story. In the end, because it has a few follow through chapters, as well as an extended omake section, I wasn't too disappointed. Had those not been there I feel it would have been a bad ending to season one.

Overview:
The ending to the first part of Rosario + Vampire is almost anti-climatic. Sure there is a final confrontation with the one behind some of the chaos, but the cause of the turmoil is more devastating than the actual confrontation. However, because this series has never been about long, drawn-out fights and instead about humor, especially the perverted humor, I can't say that I was entirely surprised.

Instead of combat, as mentioned, Volume 10 focuses on the humor. With Kyouka its about her incredible density and unwillingness to believe in the supernatural. She goes out of her way to make up excuses for why monsters keep appearing. There are also the obligatory ecchi scenes, including ones where the girls visit his house in the human world. This is then followed by a final combat with a monster who looks extremely powerful, but is extremely weak, except against Tsukune. The juxtaposition of how powerful he looks and acts compared to his real power makes brings the ending of volume 10 on a comedic and generally positive note.

The omake sections were also a nice addition. They were all quite funny and they appeared this time to answer questions from the readers. One of the better ones dealt with Gin Morioka and why he hadn't appeared in so long.

ComicsOnline gives Rosario + Vampire Volume 10 4 out of 5 really dense human schoolgirls.