A good friend first told me about this manga months ago and it various traits; the vampires and monsters, the school setting and the fact it was meant to have a action sub genre instantly reminded me of the American hit Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It was a really cool show that worked really well and I had expectations back then that R+V would be the same. Sadly though I later had a bad experience on how to ruin the same concepts listed above. And of course I don’t think you even need half a brain cell to know what I’m referring to is the Twilight series. God I hate it, with its emo, disco ball vampires, to its laughable werewolves, and just plain god damm awful characters and themes.

So when I made the decision to start reading the manga I was extremely cautious. And by the time I had finished reading it I honestly had mixed feelings about it.

Let's get the sticky question that I had hovering over me when I began reading: is the main character, Moka, actually a vampire? The answer, thankfully, is yes... well kind of. She's definitely no Edward Cullen but she isn't on the same level as Alucard from Hellsing, who I feel is the embodiment of a good classic vampire of the night.

I' m gonna have to go into spoiler territory as to why this is the case so if you don’t won't to be spoiled stop reading right now!

When the two leads, Tsukune and Moka, meet, the writer does this really good gag with how Moka's vampire nature burst through and she bites Tskunene's neck , but rather than doing it in the bloodthirsty traditional way, but it’s done with comic effect making it first appear as though she gonna embrace him. This scene is used again and again throughout the series and forms one of the best running gags I've seen. It not only funny, but it serves as a really good twist of the traits of a vampire.

So the comic relief concerning the vampire lead is good, because it actually funny but also stopped me worrying about the issue I mentioned earlier. Oh but we aren’t nearly done yet, because the best is yet to come. You see, Moka' true vampire form is actually sealed away in the form of a rosary. Vampires are weakened by crosses in their mythology, even more points scored for her and the writer in my book. Though not many as I will now sink my teeth into the other issues of this manga

The other main characters, is Tsukune who is the only human in a school full of monsters , and said monsters often try to kill him or his other classmates . Interestingly despite being human, he seems to think he would make an adequate hero or even human shield when trying to save or protect others. If I didn’t know better I would have thought he had some kind of death wish. I mean, here he is, the only human in a school of monsters, and on a daily basis seem to try and kill him. And he just shrugs off any attack. If I was in his shoes, I would run home crying to mummy. But no, simply having a gorgeous vampire potential love interest who likes to feast on your blood will make it all better. In writing it appears funny, but really it’s just stupid.

But of course Tsukune’s idiotic behaviour has a rather unwelcome effect on other female characters, which make up a harem. Yes, a monster harem! Now this could have worked, if the other girls had been even likeable. We have to contend with Kurumu, who’s a succubus or the term slut would be more accurate. She forms the vast majority of the ecchi genre; by often getting her tits out whenever she sees or even thinks Moka and Tsukune are have a cosy moment. Then, there is Yukari, who’s a witch, but sadly also, the loli of the harem. And last there’s Mizore a yukki- onna, which is a being with ice powers. But again she would be better described as a stalker. Though to be fair to her, this attribute of her is actually rather funny, as she would often appear in the most random of places, so she always made me chuckle.

The odd thing is that even though they oppose each other at first, they do come together as friends. But this doesn’t change the fact they all want Tsukune , the human shield, and will just bitch at each other. Never mind the bonding we share throughout the series. Let’s just bitch about a man rather than do the honourable thing and just get over their feelings for him. It seems clear as day that Moka and Tsukune will get together, so much that the other characters do is just hindrances to these two least annoying people getting together. I could try to see that the writer was trying to be funny with the concept of harem, but I barely laughed at any of these scenes.

And now finally there’s the plot, or the lack of it be precise when you do read the first chapter, expect almost the exact same thing to happen almost endlessly. It’s so formulaic and repetive down to the scenarios, to the generic school bully villains, the really frustrating combat, that just so dull. Inner Moka just seems to get an instant knockout with a single kick, in fact sometimes I would feel she just wants the reader to see up her short skirt rather than fight generic henchmen.

Now that I got the bad stuff out of the way, I will admit that the design for many of the monsters is very good, many of them ranging from many different mythologies all over the globe. This I quite liked, making it only one of the few things I liked about this series. I mean even when this series does slightly improve along the way it only really very average, and just very predictable. Moka was the only one I actually liked, both her true vampire form and her general personality. It a real shame it’s not enough to compensate for a manga series which at its best is average and at its worst is terrible and frankly rather annoying.