The story telling is kind of wonky at some points? Like I can't tell if chapters are missing or the writing is just bad at that point. Like the thing with Sein and his brother being introduced, it seemed like the latter half of that event was missing since they later referenced scenes that I had no recollection of. And after the fight with Sein's brother and suddenly they're in Romania ?? What ??

Also, if you're coming into this looking for romance and development of said romance, I think you should look somewhere else. The story doesn't really focus on the romance between Sein and Lou, but more on the relationship between Sein and his brother since that's where the conflict comes from. If you take the romance out, it would still be able to stand on its own and it debatably might have been a better idea.

Also, just a warning, but there was some necrophiliac (possibly? was one of them dead or were both dead or are neither dead ?? hmnnnn) incestuous rape for one page and that was when Sein's bro was turning Sein into a vampire so I'm just warning people in case they wanna skip that.

Anyways, the art was amazing the extras at the end were funny and there were some straight up horror shit going on.

... Last updated on September 6th, 2014, 11:59pm

Hiroki Kusumoto set out to draw a vampire story and that’s exactly what she has done. The story focus is more on the vampire aspect than the boy’s love aspect and I applaud it for that. It would have been so easy for Kusumoto to have turned this into a no plot basic yaoi story with vampires just thrown in. However, because there is a plot it seems that Lou is a rather unnecessary part, or should I say he seems like more of a plot devise than a character.

A more detailed review can be seen here: http://nikkimanga.com/vampires-portrait-volume-1-review/

well, that was ... different. amazingly detailed art; just phenomenal. the story does not live up to it. i'm not much for vampires on the best of days, and this didn't change my mind. it's melodramatic (yeah, i know -- comes with the vampire territory), and there's more gore than sex (much, much more gore than sex; there's hardly any sex at all, and most of the gore is surprisingly not of the bloodsucking kind). the love story (hm. there might be two.) nearly disappears behind the two vampires fighting for ... i guess that would be a spoiler.

so; not very romantic, not very sexy, but packed with action, melodrama, and gore. did i mention the amazing art? amazing art!

I just finished reading the first volume (now available for purchase in the US). This is definitely not your typical yaoi. It's very violent, and not in the S/M sort of way.

I'll be eagerly awaiting the second volume. Which, unfortunately, probably won't be coming out for, like, a year.

The art in this manga is gorgeous- it's detailed, dark, and creative. The vampires are really awesomely-drawn, grotesque but still beautiful. It's pretty violent and gory, but it's still pretty, haha.
The story, on the other hand... really bad. Plot holes, random stuff going on, no chemistry between the main characters, strange pacing. The story was complicated enough that it definitely needed more than 2 volumes to be well-executed. Still, it had nice art and easy-to-follow panelling. For me, though, that's not enough to make a good manga. The plot and romance was seriously lacking for me; this one aimed for too much, and fell (unfortunately) short. A pity, really, because it had a lot of potential to be amazing.

... Last updated on November 10th, 2013, 8:52pm