Author(s): SHIRODAIRA Kyou
Artist(s): KIMURA Yuri

Akabara Strauss, the vampire king who has destroyed his own country, has been searching for and destroying seals that may have been keeping his queen, Adelheit, for now a thousand years. His queen has been sealed by the humans after going on a rampage that almost destroyed the entire world, but the Dhampires, the race of vampires that Akabara has abandoned, along with the Black Swan, a curse that infests a human to kill the vampire king, is out aiming for Akabara’s life and preventing him from Adelheit’s revival. Or so it may seem, as this series has a lot more surprises waiting to be discovered than meets the eye.

Vampire Juuji Kai may look like your typical tale about vampires and whatnot, but it is in no way similar to any of what we have seen before. While it still does have themes of a typical vampire-themed story, i.e. a powerful vampire fighting for the humans, romance between the two races and a hunt for the pure-blooded vampire king…Okay, maybe it almost has all of the themes of a typical vampire-themed story, but the things it did have that made it so different from the others are the politics and the power struggle between the humans, the Black Swan, the Dhampires and the Vampire King, the mysteries of Akabara’s past and, of course, let’s not forget about the aliens that wants to invade the Earth appearing in a vampire story.

If this series can be described in a few words, it would be “Classic folklore meets science fiction”. That would be it. But that won’t be enough to do justice on how smartly made this series is. Crossing vampires and aliens may sound ridiculous, and it did look like it when the latter was introduced, but the author has done well to make the two coexist in a single plot. Although it delves mostly into Akabara’s past, some of the revelations that have been dug up has been beneficial to the occurring events presented in the manga.

Of course, since it visits the past often, it certainly does not lack flashbacks. In fact, it has a ton of them. But they are not just complimentary info on the characters; rather, they are a big part of the main plot that the story will not be able to move without them. Furthermore, they are not just simple pointers on how something came to be, but a pursuit in finding truths behind established truths. There is no lack of surprises with them and it certainly does make the series as suspenseful as it can be.

Its art is not the least spectacular. Although it is not bad, it’s a bit too simple to stand out. Costume designs can be sometimes too flashily fantasy-like to be either in a medieval or a modern day setting, too. Inconsistencies can be also found at times but it did improve over time.

While it is not something to look at, it is definitely something to read. Vampire Juuji Kai could easily be one of the most suspenseful vampire stories there is that is not in the horror genre. Surprises after surprises will definitely keep you in suspense and would keep you engrossed with as new mysteries surface after another. Definitely a must read especially for those who are fans of thrillers.

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