Diabolik Lovers: Anthology Cardinal

Not bad, I guess? Hear me out.

If you're here after loving the anime, there's no doubt you'll like this. If you're here after despising the anime (me) then there's still a chance that you might like it, albeit much slimmer. I have seen both seasons, the OVA, and the recap episode of the anime, and to be honest, I hated all of them. Nobody had any character, the plot was a little dumb and really boring, nothing really made sense, there was no focus, there was too much rape that didn't have any place in the story but fan service, and the main character acted like she had the memory of a goldfish and didn't remember anything that happened more than two waking moments ago.

However, some of these issues are fixed in the manga. To put it better, the manga is split into 'one-shot' chapters. Each chapter stands alone with whichever guy the episode is focused on. This removes the dumb plot and characterization isn't even needed. In addition to this, Yui is revealed to be a masochist and she admits a lot of the things they do she actually likes. Because of these two big changes, the entire manga is much more readable.

But wait: that doesn't mean this is magically a good manga. This is a thousand times BETTER than the anime, but it's by no means good.

There really isn't a story. It reads like oneshots. The art is inconsistent but fairly clean enough. There is no character we can even speak of.

I enjoyed it enough to finish it. It also has (thankfully) short chapters.

I would recommend this if: you like one-shots, you like short stuff, you want to insert yourself into the heroine's place, you like forceful guys, you like romance with no plot, you don't care about there being a plot

I would NOT recommend this if: you wanted something long term, you want plot, you want a developed romance, you want character development, you like fluffy romance

Have a nice day everyone!!