I have extremely mixed feelings on this series, mostly because I'm not trying to be blinded by nostalgia while writing this. Reason being that this is the first manga series that I ever read, and currently one of the only titles that I have completed. I will also not be comparing this series to the books as I have not read them and am honestly not planning on doing so. Anyway, the structure of this review will be in the order of what you rank before writing a review (this is my first review, so I apologize if it's a bit wordy!)

Okay, prepare yourself, because this is going to be a long section.
I have mixed feelings about the story. On one hand, I find it to be very cohesive, and there are some sudden realizations (especially by the end!) and some unexpected character moments that nearly left me in tears. Aside from those, however, there were some points in the story that I had to cringe through because of second hand embarrassment, and some sections that seemed to go on for too long. While I understand why the artist chose to shorten many conversations to keep the pace up, at the same time many conversations went like this: "Here's this crazy story about this vampire war, things called vampaneze, how I almost died (and kinda did), and how I know none of this makes any sense" and then the person hearing this for the first time says, "Oh ok understood i'll fight with you now lol" so that's pretty frustrating. Apart from these couple of instances I think the story flows pretty well from one event to the next, aside from some unusually large time skips. Honestly, it's probably 7/10 because I'm sure many people who aren't new to manga could see a lot of the twists coming and some of the things I described very annoying.

The art portrays these characters extremely well. There are many gorgeous panels that really convey a sense of space, and how vast an area is. Something else that I noticed is the artist's improvement through out the 12 volume run. Some panels in the first few volumes are a bit wonky but it really evens out towards the end and gives some amazing fight scenes. Honestly, the art was probably my favorite part about this manga, and is why I keep going back to it.

The characters are pretty developed by the end, especially the main cast. Their designs are good and instantly recognizable, however some of the supporting cast doesn't get nearly the same amount of development. Some characters seem to have only one trait, like being evil or loving the main character and that's it, while some others are focused on and explored, showing different sides to them you wouldn't expect. Some are better than others, but I did enjoy reading about them.

Like I said in the intro, this was the first series I ever read/finished, so I absolutely adored it, and I still like it.

Honestly, if you want to immerse yourself in a world inhabited by vampires and other creatures that's mostly aimed toward a middle school demographic, then you'll probably find something to enjoy. If that doesn't interest you, then I'd skip it or read it online. (Or, wait until the omnibus comes out this month and read the first couple of volumes in it).