I ran across this title while browsing Books A Million for a new series. At first, I was sure I was going to buy Shokugeki no Soma, but Seraph caught my eye and I decided to take a chance on it. I'm glad I did.

[WARNING: SLIGHT SPOILERS AHEAD]

STORY- 8/10

First of all, I know this manga is cliched as all hell. In fact, it reminds me of what would happen if you tossed the characters from Blue Exorcist into the world of Attack on Titan. However, cliche doesn't necessarily mean bad. Cliche works if the story can be pulled off well, and Seraph does just that.

From the start, the plot looks like your standard shonen: following a catastrophic plague thirteen years ago, vampires emerged to enslave most of what was left of humanity, including our orphan protagonist, Yuichiro, and the others from the same orphanage. They decide to escape the vampires, but all of the children are killed except for our hero. After making it to the safety of the Japanese remnants walled in Shibuya, Tokyo, Yuichiro vows to join the elite force of the humans, the Moon Demon Company, and kill all vampires for revenge. Relatively straightforward, right? Wrong!

In my opinion, one of the hallmarks of great postapocalyptic stories like The Walking Dead and the aforementioned SnK is moral ambiguity: the "heroic" side might be just as bad as the "villains". As of this review, (vol 4/ch 15), there have been no outright evil actions by the humans to confirm this, but there is quite a bit of foreshadowing suggesting that maybe the Imperial Japanese Demon Army aren't the squeaky-clean saviors of humanity they might appear at first glance, especially with the methods they use to fight the vampires (no big spoilers, but it involves a deal with another type of supernatural creature, whose motives for being the humans' accomplices have not yet been revealed). At the same time, frequent scenes of the vampires show that they might not be the outright evil creatures they appear at first glance. All this buildup, along with a fair bit of action, character development, and well-placed comedic relief has really endeared this manga to me. Kagami is a seasoned writer and knows what he's doing.

CHARACTERS- 6/10

Just like the story, most of the characters fall into cliche. Once most of the main characters have been introduced, we have a cast that can be easily described with a few words from TV Tropes.

Yuichiro Hyakuya is the idiot shonen protagonist, to levels that can induce facepalms and bad memories of Emiya-kun.

After meeting Yoichi Saotome, I can understand why people hate Shinji so much. Whiny, annoying boy is not a great character type to start with, especially when it's never stated exactly how this wimp ever managed to get into the army in the first place. His backstory is also too generic and not visited enough to evoke much sympathy from the readers.

Shiho Kimizuki is your jerk with a heart of gold. However, his backstory is done tastefully enough and given enough time (it appears Kagami learned about audience apathy!) and both tsun and dere sides of him are given character development. He's quickly become my third-favorite character (you'll see why he's not #1 or #2 down below). Also, pink hair! On a guy! And it's natural! And he rocks it like a badass!

The final member of the Hiiragi Squad, Mitsuba Sangu, has not had enough screentime to make an impact, but her seemingly textbook tsundere nature holds a darker secret and one that I really find believable. Hopefully she takes a bigger role in the future.

Major Guren Ichinose? Oh, you mean Captain Levi!

On the other side of the coin, among the vampires we have Krul Tepes, the creepy loli (bonus for speaking in prophecy) and Ferid Bathory, the white-haired, bishonen rat bastard. Like I said, nothing too original, but damn Ferid is sure hot for a villain. Draco repeat anyone?

There are a couple characters that do break the mold that SnK and AnE set. Shinoa Hiiragi is the leader of Yuichiro's squad and a capable female lead. Despite being a member of the powerful Hiiragi family, which pretty much runs everything having to do with the human resistance, she chose to prove her worth on the battlefield because she hates the politics of higher ranks, and manages to hold her own without being overshadowed by the boys or being a damsel in distress.

For another great character, (SPOILER) we have Mikaela, one of the boys in the orphanage with Yu and his best friend. We thought he had died when the orphans attempted to escape, but he actually became a vampire. Now, he wants to find Yu again and make him see their side of the story. Of course, Yu has sworn to KILL ALL THE TITANS I mean VAMPIRES, so this makes it a little difficult for him. But still, great plotline and one that had the most impact on me out of all the young series's dangling plot threads so far.

ART- 9/10

The art in this manga is impressive. Yamamoto is an experienced artist, having done art for two different light novel sets, so he knows what he's doing as well. The action scenes are drawn well and I never have to turn back pages to make sense of what just happened, as I often do in other manga (which pisses me off to no end). I'm not too big a fan of the big round-eyed character design as it makes the characters look younger than they should be, which is not too great for a postapocalyptic story where characters are supposed to grow up far faster than they should, but it's just a minor gripe. The character designs, despite being all very pretty, are distinct enough to not be confused with each other, and the monsters shown in the series also have distinct designs. Altogether Yamamoto's art is at least a solid B+ if not more.

OVERALL- 8/10

This story may sound unoriginal, and it may be unoriginal, but it kept me entertained. It's got something for everyone: fight scenes and pretty girls for the guys (Shinoa is best don't deny it), and loads of pretty boys for the girls (the dynamic between Yu and Mika is bound to produce buckets of fangirl screams). If you have the time, pick up this manga. You won't be disappointed.