I took a leap of faith on this one and I'm glad I did. I'm not one for Shouen Ai but it seems to be the only way to get a good blood drinking scene so it's something I can deal with.
I'm not 100% on just what the plot is but I'm enjoying finding it out. Normally with manga it easy to tell a couple chapters in what the whole thing will be about and even guess the ending. So it's nice I can't do that with this one. I only have one problem with it and that is that the chapters seem to jump around randomly; there's little connection from one chapter to the next so following gets tricky from time to time.
The artwork is incredible, I love how there is detail but it's not over kill as it is with some mangas. It isn't so simplified though that the manga begins to feel like a child's manga but it isn't so detailed that it takes away from the story. The artist managed to actually find a happy medium and a style that suited the genre of the manga.
The characters are well thought out but Johnny is slightly annoying because he is somewhat immature. I do get tired of there always being one serious character and one immature character in every manga I have ever read and for some reason, they're either very close (as in friends) or lovers. In real life, someone with Chris's personality would never be able to tolerate someone like Rayflo.
As I've mentioned, I'm not a fan of guyxguy pairings. Nothing against it but I just don't like it. That being said, I am still enjoying Vassalord because of that bloody element you can't seem to get with hetro pairings in vampire manga. Hetro vampire manga doesn't have many blood drinking bits and what little it does have is often boring. So I'm willing to ignore the homo pairing to get great blood drinking scenes and gore.
Anyone who isn't a fan of Shouen Ai but likes actual vampires, not sparkling pansies or gun toting nuts, will enjoy Vassalord. The vampires have the sexuality that they're supposed to have without being whiny little bitches or complete space cases. They aren't good but they aren't evil either. Vassalord vampires are like humans in that sense. They can choose whether to live anonymously with humans or go on killing sprees. Either way there is no "I want to be human" or "I do this because I'm a vampire" type vampires in this manga. Even Chris doesn't seem to regret his decision.
I recommend this to anyone who wants actual vampires with good blood drinking scenes but not the sheer amount of gore that comes with Hellsing or the overwhelming drama that comes with Vampire Knight (both are still good mangas).