Rosario + Vampire (ロザリオとバンパイア Rozario to Banpaia?) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Akihisa Ikeda. The story revolves around Tsukune Aono, a boy who accidentally gets enrolled in a school inhabited by monsters and demons. He quickly befriends Moka Akashiya, a vampire who soon develops an obsession with his blood, and later meets other girls who soon take a romantic liking to him. The manga began serialization in the August 2004 issue of Monthly Shonen Jump and ended on the June 2007 issue (one extra chapter was serialized in Weekly Shonen Jump in September 2007), and sold ten volumes between October 2004 and October 2007. Rosario + Vampire: Season II (ロザリオとバンパイア seasonII Rozario to Banpaia Shīzun Tsū?), a continuation of the series, is ongoing and began serialization in the November 2007 issue of Jump Square, with ten volumes available in Japan as of December 2011. The series is licensed in North America and in the United Kingdom by Viz Media, and in Australia and New Zealand by Madman Entertainment. The series also spanned three CD dramas, two visual novels, a novel adaptation, and two internet radio shows. A 13-episode anime adaptation of Rosario + Vampire aired in Japan between January and March 2008.[1] A second season of the series also aired in Japan between October and December 2008. The anime is licensed in North America by Funimation Entertainment, who released both seasons on December 20, 2011.[2] The anime is also licensed in Australia and New Zealand by Madman Entertainment, who will be releasing both seasons in 2012.[3]
Tsukune Aono is a normal high school teenager, who is unable to get into any private school due to his poor grades. However, with the help from his parents, he gets enrolled to a private school called Yokai Academy. When he arrives at the school, he soon discovers that Yokai Academy is a secret private school for supernatural monsters and mythological creatures disguised as humans, and any human who finds out about its existence, they will eventually be killed without mercy. Realizing of this problem, Tsukune fears for his life, thinking that his admission into Yokai Academy is a mistake. His luck soon changes when he quickly becomes friends with a beautiful girl Moka Akashiya, who turns out to be a vampire, attracted to the sweet taste of his blood, sometimes biting Tsukune on the neck when the chance seems right. While at the beginning of the series, Moka was upset upon discovering Tsukune's human identity, as she realizes that he is the first real friend she had ever made in her life. Despite Moka's vampiric nature, she is a kind girl and Tsukune quickly falls for her, and ultimately decides to stay at Yokai Academy, despiting the various dangers while hiding his human identity from the faculty and other students. Tsukune soon discovers that when he removes the rosario around Moka's neck, she transforms into her true vampire form (her true perspective and personality is sealed, as the sweet Moka being an different version or artificial person), being stronger and more powerful than almost any other creature at the school, and Tsukune is the only person who can physically remove it in order to transform into her true self. However, "Inner Moka" has an entirely different personality, often cold and merciless, and thus the rosary is only removed in dire emergencies. As the school year continues, Tsukune becomes involved with other students who start out as enemies, but who are won over into becoming his friends: Kurumu Kurono, a busty succubus; Ginei Morioka, a perverted lech of a werewolf who is a second-year student and president of the school's Newspaper Club; Yukari Sendo, an eleven-year-old witch; Ruby Tojo, a witch from the human world, and Mizore Shirayuki, a yuki-onna (a teen version of the legendary snow woman of Japanese folk tales) who stalks around Tsukune, believing them to be soulmates. However, after Tsukune befriends each of the girls, they become friendly rivals along with Moka, vying for Tsukune's affections, and later most become members of the school's Newspaper Club with Tsukune and stand by him even after they learn that he is really a human. Later on in the second manga serialization, Kokoa Shuzen, Moka's younger half-sister, appears, and as time goes on, as they discover dangerous organizations like the Anti-Schoolers and Fairy Tale, and must do battle against them to keep the school and both the monster and human worlds safe, and Tsukune starts to undergo changes that will truly solidify his role as the link between the human and monster worlds. [edit]Yokai Academy Yokai Academy (陽海学園 Yōkai Gakuen?) is a special school made for the purpose of monsters coexisting with humans. It is founded by the three Dark Lords, one of whom is the dean of the school. Yokai Academy is surrounded by a barrier called the Great Barrier (大結界 Dai Kekkai?), which separates the academy from the human realm, hiding it from plain sight. The only known way to get to Yokai Academy from the human world is through a bus that travels through a tunnel called the "Tunnel of the Fourth Dimension", which, according to the bus driver, has various "mouths" that open to various tunnels all throughout Japan.[4] The barrier is powered by a rosario seal that is similar to Moka's deep within the academy, and according to Mikogami, if the barrier collapses, all of the suppressed energy contained in the yōkai world will flood over to the human world, creating chaos and disorder
Tue Apr 10, 2012 9:08 pm
