Review of a Generic Vampire Manga

Have you ever read a book that was so bad, you wanted to write a review of it as soon as you managed to drag yourself, kicking and screaming, to the final pages of the book? The Reformed, an OEL manga by Christopher Hart, was one such book.

I originally posted this review at: The Reformed – Vampire Manga Review | Bookstove

I picked up a manga at Borders last week called The Reformed by Christopher Hart. I normally don’t read things about vampires out of principle, but Borders was having a buy 4 get 1 free sale on manga and there were only four books that I wanted to get my boyfriend for his birthday. I figured I’d find a single volume manga for myself to read between classes as I don’t want to commit the time or money to a longer series, and The Reformed seemed kind of interesting (mostly due to the fact that the female lead has my name).

The Reformed is pretty much what you’d expect from a one-shot OEL (Original English Language) manga about vampires. It’s fun to pick out the cliches and pathetic attempts at “originality.” Though I don’t read much about vampires, even I could tell with in the first few pages that this manga wasn’t going to offer anything original.

The Reformed centers around a vampire who (shock!) falls in love with a human woman. The story starts out with the vampire, Giancarlo, saving Jenny the prostitute and taking her back to his home. This plot point seemed way too much like the beginning of V for Vendetta (the comic, not the movie).

Anyway, you find out later that Giancarlo is responsible for a string of hooker killings. I don’t know why he only likes the blood of hookers, he just does. It’s best not to think too hard about this book. Of course, Jenny is somehow different from the rest of the prostitutes and he falls in love with her and sleeps with her and doesn’t even think about killing her. The fact that he shows compassion for one person out of 6.5 billion shows that he has a conscience. Oh, he does free his servant by giving him back his soul near the end of the book as well. What a great guy.

The story ends the same way as any other book that’s supposed to be about romance. The last panel contains what was probably meant to be a huge surprise, but anyone who’s ever read a book involving two characters who fall in love and sleep together can see it coming from the beginning.

The plot is paper thin, predictable, and extremely generic. The characters are also extremely generic and flat. The story seems to progress way too fast without room for any real character development, though I guess that is forgivable given that it is a single volume. It seems like the only reason behind the two character’s relationship is the fact that Giancarlo is a male and Jenny is a female and they simply fall in love for the sake of falling in love (though I guess the target demographic, teen girls, can probably relate to that sort of relationship, so maybe that was the point). All we really know about Giancarlo is that he is a vampire who supposedly has a conscience and is in love with Jenny, and all we really know about Jenny is that she is in love with the vampire.

The artwork in The Reformed is alright. Nothing spectacular, but it could have been a lot worse. I tend to focus more on the story and dialogue than the artwork when I’m reading manga anyway, so even the best artwork in the world can’t save a weak plot. The artist, ANZU, is from Singapore, I believe.

In the afterward, the author talks about his inspiration for the book. One day he apparently came up with a super original idea all by himself: “What if a vampire had a conscience?” *yawn* it’s been done to death already. Ever watch Angel?

I think I know what the real inspiration was. Money. It’s obvious that this book was simply an attempt to cash in on the vampire fad created by Twilight. I can respect that. It makes sense to write about what people will buy, and right now books with hollow plots and Vampires are in demand.

If you are 14 and are into the whole Twilight fad, you will probably love The Reformed. The rating says ages 16+, but I think most readers over the age of 16 would expect a bit more from their manga. There wasn’t really anything in The Reformed that I really thought warranted a 16+ rating anyway, other than possibly the implied sexual encounter (nothing too graphic at all) and vampire violence. If you are over the age of 16 and prefer manga with any amount of substance, you can probably find something better to read.