Even the full moon won’t change this ugly duckling into a beautiful swan.
Creative Staff
Story/Art: Sanami Matoh
Translation/Adaptation: Mayumi Kobayashi
What They Say
Marlo has a problem. On the night of the full moon, this half-werewolf, half-vampire undergoes a mysterious and terrifying transformation: he turns into a girl! Desperate for a cure, his parents call on Doctor Vincent, a long-time family friend. Marlo objects, wanting to keep his condition secret from Vincent’s son, the vampire playboy David. Unfortunately, the secret gets out, and a new problem surfaces: David is interested in Marlo’s female form! If a remedy can’t be found, their parents believe the next-best solution is marriage – a marriage between Marlo and David!
Technical:
The front cover is a nice image of what I can only assume is the main cast relaxing and playing cards. The main pair is certainly there at least, but the cover’s art style is unfortunately so heavily removed from the actual art of the book that it’s hard to identify the characters used. However, it certainly looks good and has a nice style to it, far more so than the actual book itself. The back cover is a picture displaying a summary and furniture, which isn’t terribly exciting, but isn’t particularly offensive either. The paper used feels nice, a bonus story is included, the text reads smoothly, and honorifics are not used. Sound effects are subtitled and kept in their original form.
The artwork used in this book is certainly disappointing, especially when compared to that of the cover and the bonus story. While in those the art is crisp with clean, confident lines and details, the art used in most of the book is loose and almost sketchy. It’s average at best, and occasional details, particularly the hair, can look downright messy at times.
Content:
David is a young vampire who’s something of a womanizer. One day, as he’s about to go out to find himself some sweet neck, he learns that his uncle’s family is coming to his house, meaning he’ll get to see his beloved cousin Marlo, who he hasn’t seen for ten years. Marlo tries to keep his distance, but David accuses him of running away to America and avoiding him. Despite this, David still announces his love for Marlo, causing Marlo to back away as quickly as possible. As luck would have it, though, Marlo’s family brought him to David’s house so David’s father, an esteemed doctor, could diagnose a problem Marlo has been having: with the full moon, instead of becoming a werewolf like his mother, he turns into a woman! As it turns out, this is due to the genes of one of Marlo’s ancient ancestors, a member of the Yam Tribe. This tribe of werewolves consisted entirely of men, but a few of its members turned into women instead of wolves in order to help reproduce. David is ecstatic and pulls Marlo in for a kiss, stating that he’d love him even if he was a man. Their parents see this as a great opportunity, and decide to have their two sons marry.
In the second chapter, Marlo is somewhat reluctantly trying on a wedding dress, only to be abruptly kidnapped. Using only the note that the kidnapper left behind demanding the wedding be called off, David is able to discover the kidnapper’s identity, and decides to wait until nightfall to go after him. Marlo awakens in a room with a female werewolf by the name of Velucia Rouen, the sister of the kidnapper. She explains that she and her brother Elc were friends with David when they were children. After talking for a while, Marlo realizes his love for David, and Velucia lets slip that she is in love with someone, but it isn’t David. Elc then enters and announces that he kidnapped Marlo for Velucia’s sake, believing her to be in love with David, and then sets his hostage plan fully in motion. David appears and engages in a violent argument with Elc, only for Velucia to appear and tell her brother that he’s the one she loves. It turns out that Velucia was adopted into the family, making this only slightly awkward and allowing them to finally truly be together.
In the third chapter, a woman appears at David’s house looking for Marlo. She quickly announces herself as Marlo’s former lover from America, Aila Dantrich. However, when she discovers that Marlo’s “bride” is David, she flips out and outright rejects the union. Furious, she does her best to keep David and Marlo apart, even using the talents provided to her by her witch blood. When she realizes that she can’t stop the wedding through normal means, she decides to go all out and kill David, only to be stopped by Marlo in the nick of time. This actually allows them to make up a little, and helps David and Marlo become even closer.
The last chapter is a story set in the time of the Yam tribe, in which a stranger named “David” meets a member of the tribe named “Marlo.” As it turns out, Marlo is a reject because he can’t transform into either a wolf or a woman, but even so he ends up getting close to David. When Marlo’s current partner reveals that he needs to meet the right person to finally transform, Marlo panics and locks himself up, afraid he’ll become a wolf and never be able to become David’s lover. Hearing of this, David comes and coaxes Marlo into the moonlight, where he transforms into a woman, allowing the two to live happily ever after, at which point this is revealed to simply be a story that Marlo’s mother was telling.
In the bonus chapter, our heroes wander into the forest after seeing a mysterious light, all the while being watched by cloaked figures.
In Summary:
If there is one word to describe this book, it’s disjointed. Bits and pieces of the character development work, but things simply seem to advance too quickly between the main lovers. In the first chapter, Marlo is panicking about the situation, only to be deeply trusting by the second chapter with nothing in-between. For this reason, the only chapter that feels smoothly paced and legitimately interesting is ironically the one that has absolutely nothing to do with the plot. Hopefully now that the foundation is set, the series will be able to finally gain its footing and give a push to make the readers care about these characters. However, as it is now, this series is difficult to recommend.
Content Grade: C+
Art Grade: C+
Packaging Grade: B+
Text/Translation Rating: A-
Age Rating: 16+
Released by: Kodansha Comics
Release Date: August 23rd, 2011
MSRP: $10.99
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