Darren Shan

Description

From Yen Press:
Darren Shan was an average kid until destiny brought him to the Cirque du Freak. Now Darren’s been immersed into a shadowy world inhabited by vampires, werewolves, and strange creatures the likes of which he’s never imagined, and his life will be changed forever.

Type

Manga

Related Series

N/A

Associated Names

Cirque du Freak

Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant

Darren Shan - Le cirque de l'étrange

Сага о Даррене Шане

ダレンシャン

ダレン・シャン

向达伦大冒险

达伦索拉奇怪胎

대런 섄

대런섄

Groups Scanlating

Aku Tenshi

Latest Release(s)

v.2 c.5 by Aku Tenshi 17 years ago

v.1 c.4 by Aku Tenshi 17 years ago

v.1 c.3 by Aku Tenshi 18 years ago

Search for all releases of this series

Status in Country of Origin

12 Volumes (Complete)

Completely Scanlated?

Yes

Anime Start/End Chapter

N/A

User Reviews

Darren Shan by Akari

Forum

0 topics, 0 posts

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User Rating

Average: 8.4 / 10.0 (143 votes)

Bayesian Average: 8.04 / 10.0

33%

20%

22%

12%

Last Updated

October 13th, 2025 3:31pm PDT - 3 days ago

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Genre

Action Adventure Comedy Drama Fantasy Mystery Shounen Supernatural
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Categories

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Recommendations

Author(s)

Artist(s)

Year

Original Publisher

Shogakukan

Serialized In (magazine)

Shuukan Shounen Sunday (Shogakukan)

Licensed (in English)

Yes

English Publisher

Yen Press (12 Vols - Complete)

Activity Stats (vs. other series)

Weekly Pos #753

(-22)

Monthly Pos #1869 (No change)

3 Month Pos #3818

(+215)

6 Month Pos #5178

(-277)

Year Pos #7168

(+221)

List Stats

On 642 reading lists

On 467 wish lists

On 167 completed lists

On 56 unfinished lists

On 205 custom lists

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Forum Posts Click to view the forum

User Comments [ Order by usefulness ]

Great!

by Yask
7 years ago

Rating: N/A

Absolutey loved the books and the manga didn’t disrespect them in any way! If you need a good read, I would definitely recommend this!

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wow this turned out rather...tragic...

by moonmystery
10 years ago

Rating: N/A

I didn't read the original book series, but spoiled myself the book ending through wikipedia. 🙁 The ending is..... 🙁

The story and creatures of this world are rather interesting. I really liked Darren Shan's vampires--they are not all beautiful undead statues that sparkle in the sun.

EDIT: i love how there's only one comment/review for this series every year. LOL.

... Last updated 10 years ago

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EPIC plot

by EminaLoli
11 years ago

Rating: 10.0 / 10.0

I've never really read the novel so i can't compare the two (saw the movie though) . but i think even if i had i'd still love this manga , cause the reason i found this epic was the plot/story.

The story's certainly unique for a vampire manga with all those other "freaky" characters in. the comedy and drama were well mixed in (oh how many times i cried T^T ) . The flow of the story's smooth as well.

For the characters , i think there's a lot of growth specially on the protagonist. He's not that strong but certainly not wimpy. The supporting characters also played very important parts 🙂

The art was good , decent and pleasant in the eyes.

The novel where this was adapted totally deserved it's reputation to gain a movie.
two thumbs up for darren-sensei \m/ , as well as for arai-sensei.

hope they would continue scanlating this one, it's such a loss.

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The ending

by Meilee123
12 years ago

Rating: 10.0 / 10.0

This manga was good, it reminded me of Hunter X Hunter. The art was good and I loved how everyone was depicted (except the little people, kinda confusing).
I wanted to comment on the plot especially (since everyone is just comparing the novel and manga). It was perfect up until the last book with the ending which I read in Novel form because I have no idea of the real status. But the ending was a big let down to me. The story was so fine and well thought out that you expected a finale ending but ...
There was a lot of things unexplained to me in the ending. Even I could have come up with an ending like that.

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Cirque du Freak

by IcyLou
14 years ago

Rating: 9.0 / 10.0

When I found out a year ago, that my all time favourite novel series had a manga, I was overjoyed. And I was not disappointed at all when I read it. Although, I have only read nine volumes, as I am saving my money for the moment. (I do not read this series online)

I was stuck even when I read the first novel, but I know that it's not really that good compared to the rest. They can't even compare.

It's hard to make a good depiction of an already written story, already so loved. To make the old fans satisfied is a hard quest, it really is. For me, Takahiro Arai did an amazing job. Of course, some scenes must be skipped, because of lack of time and pages. He did his work well, I never really missed anything.

Darren is exactly how I imagined, and the other characters is all beautiful. I'm especially happy that my favourite characters is done well. It warms a fangirl's heart. But yet, I am still waiting to read about the last of my favourites that has yet to show up.

The art is fantastic. The only thing that annoys me sometimes is their ears, but that is hardly noticed.

The scenes that in the novel has made me cry, made me cry in the manga as well. I know that I like a story when I can cry to it, it's an important factor in my opinion.

The reason of why I only gave this manga a nine, is because even if it's an amazing depiction, has great art and so on... It's still just a depiction. The novel, for me, will always be better.

Well no matter what, I can't wait to read the later volumes to see how the end is going to be in manga-mode!

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Pretty good, consider buying it now.

by HanaTenshiHimeko
14 years ago

Rating: N/A

Read up to vol 5 and it was quite interesting. Never read the novel so I can't do any comparison between them two.

I have to say, this book gave me a surprised. I mean, I judged the book by its cover and then I read the first volume. And I was like, "Urgh, vampires...don't know if it's really that good...." So I continued reading and I just got sucked in. It's based off a novel, so there is probably some details that I don't know about.

Story is about Darren Shan, a spider-otaku (a person who is loves spiders) gets a flyer that invites him to a freak show. His friend gets the ticket and they both go and enjoy the show. However, during one act, we see the person who plays the flute to tame the spider and see that the friend have a dark motivate and at the end of the show, the readers find out that the friends confronts the spider-flute player and we find out that he's actually a vampire! The friends wants to be a vampire, yet was rejected because of his bad blood. Darren flees from the scene a few days later steals the spider from the vampire. He enjoyed playing with the spider (by the flute) and eventually shows it to his friend.

However, what became a fun thing to do became deadly when Darren loses his concentration and the spider bites his friend. In order to save his friend, he became a half vampire in exchange for the antidote.

Storyplot is good. If you are looking for a good vampire story to read, this is the one. At least you don't have any vampires glittering, lol. You'll get to see some good vampire fights, learn about their ways of living and their code of honor, etc.

Character development...hmmm...I'll say it's 8 out of 10. I'll change it once I read the entire series.

So, go and read it! Yen is one of the few companies that license good mangas and I'm glad they licensed it.

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Cool

by morphin007
16 years ago

Rating: 9.0 / 10.0

This manga is really good, nice art and have a deep and interessant story.
The start isn't that good that good but since the vol.2 it's really entertaining =)
The vol.4 is really a big turn in the story and start to be really amazing =)

Btw i never read the novel so that's why i m so happy about this manga, i hate reading/looking a same story twice in different support, generally the second time isn't as good.

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Yah!

by dezin19
16 years ago

Rating: 9.0 / 10.0

Loved the books, so I was suprised to see a manga based on them. They even have a movie coming out!
Anyway, I like the manga. Although I would have prefered more mature art (after all the books are dark and are classified as kids "horror", even if I didn't find them scary at all lol) and so far as I can tell, the manga is a little different than the books, but the main story is the same. Hopefully it stays that way (I've only read the first volume).
But other than that, not too bad. I'm planning on reading it till the end.

... Last updated 16 years ago

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Darren Shan

by Dizz
17 years ago

Rating: N/A

I thought this was a wonderful manga. I never read the books, but I do now, It's a lot different from the other mangas out there. The main charactor seems more lifelike then the other main manga characters. Also he seems to have a different attitude probably because it was a book first.

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nooooo

by sweet despair
17 years ago

Rating: N/A

bad drawings... >_> cant they find someone else 2 do it?

the books (there are 12) was awesome.. >> cant say the same 4 the manga... >> im gonna cry... >> the movies coming out... >> so hopefully that would be better

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