The vampire genre on a whole is just down right over used and over served to the point that it now has it's own genre, but that doesn't mean there's no creativity left in it.

STORY: The basic set up is of the school life/romance set ups, girl meets boy, girl and boy fall in love, happy ending, the end.
Though, as over used as this set up is, a lot of us still keep coming back to it.

Why?

Cause coming back over and over again may end us up with precious worth while gems.

I consider Karin (Chibi Vampire in the US) one of these gems.

While following the set in stone way of romantic comedies, it also throws in an original spin on the vampire genre.
The heroin, Karin Maaka, is a typical manga highschool girl, she's well endowned, pretty clumsy, yep, normal every where you look at her.
But, she has quite a secret, she's a vampire (Surprise!) but that part of her anything but normal.
You'll see her walk around during the day time, just like a human, she's unaffected by the typical vampire banes like garlic and water, and she doesn't even need to drink blood.

But instead, she gives blood once a month by biting people's necks and injecting it through her fangs that appear only during that time.

The male lead, Kenta Usui, is the new scary looking class member at the school Karin attends. Despite the fierce look on his face, which isn't on purpose, he's quite the nice, hard working guy who's working towards a normal life, though he and his mother are quite poor.
In fact his life is really unfortunate, and that in itself is the catayst of the events in the manga.
Because their paths cross instantly (By instantly I mean as soon as Karin lays her eyes on him) and one of Karin's only normal traits as a vampire in this manga makes him her "blood type" (Horrible pun).

But their eventually soon to be romance isn't brought together by that nearly alone, the plot setups, character development, and nearly everything is written very well, and not much of it is lacking in most aspects.

The romance does not begin immediately though, as the beginning is more focused on comedy that ranges from hilarious to amusing, especially if clumsy characters is your type of humor, if they are, you're in for a hoot.

The pacing of the story is very comfortable, with each event coming very naturally. Good story twists, and even extremely powerful cliff hangers depending on your pacing on reading this series. At times the story can be quite addicting, making one eager to continue onwards, and kinda makes you realize it may be too short (Almost sixty chapters, but with pletly of bonus chapters that explore and expand the world of the manga).

The supporting cast consists of the titular characters friends and family members: Anju Maaka, Karin's solemnly spoken little gothic lolita sister, Ren Maaka, their cool older gigolo brother {And bully to Karin), Karin's parent's Henry Marker and Calera Marker, and Fumio Usui, Kenta's mother, whom looks too young to be his mother.
Though, of all of them, Karin's best friend Maki Tokito, may come across to a lot of people of being rather annoying, but overrall, a very strong cast of characters each getting their adequate spot light.
And their relations are full of strong chemistry as each of the main characters families act just like families would, making their relations a little more realistic and believable.

But even with my high praise of this manga, there is one obvious flaw from the get go; at times it can be very generic and predictable, especially to those who fancy themselves to be fans of the comedy romance genre, it really offers nothing new to that genre.

Instead adding more to romance comedies, it honestly makes other vampire stories look very uncreative by comparison.

ART: While this is comedy romance for the male audience, the art work has very strong shojo over tones.
The character designs are very diverse and not many look alikes are found (Aside from the ones that are on purpose).
However, the style is very artsy, and can be obnoxious at times.
So the look overall is potentially hit and miss, but it doesn't look bad it all.

OVERALL:
The Good:
+ Offers a much needed twist on the over served vampire genre.
+ Progression of the story feels natural and hardly rushed.
+ A cast of strong and likable characters, great support characters that are not ignored.
+ Has a good balance of comedy and romance.

The Bad:
- As a comedy romance story, it really adds nothing new, and can be generic and boring.
- Aimed at male audiences, yet it feels more like a shojo story for female audiences.
- Art can be a bit over obnoxious at times.

Of course this manga will never appeal to the Hellsing crowd, you want badass vampires? Karin is completely out in that department.