Sleep all day, labor all night at the command of the vampire who turned you and then struggle to regain humanity, it’s great to be a vampire…wait, what?
Creative Staff
Story and Art: Nozomu Tamaki
Translation/Adaptation: Adrienne Beck/Janet Houck
What They Say
The Vampire Bund, a peaceful island nation of vampires off the coast of Tokyo and ruled by Princess Mina Tepes, has seen its share of conflict and turmoil. Yet there are times of relative tranquility when the Bund is a popular tourist destination.
When two teenage tourists visit the Bund and are unexpectedly turned into vampires, they appeal to Mina and her loyal lycanthrope bodyguard, Akira, for help. Their only hope is to find a cure to reverse their vampirism within forty-eight hours, or they will be stuck as vampires forever. Unfortunately for them, their race against time turns into a game of cat and mouse that takes them across the entire Bund in pursuit of the one person who holds the key to their salvation.
Technical:
The release for Dive in the Vampire Bund is done in typical Seven Sea’s style with their slightly smaller in height than most manga companies books and reasonably thick (though not always enough to completely counter strong and deep blacks against a reverse white space) paper. The binding is tight and the pages are not lacking in ink as the images are strong in how they standout on the page. As far as translation goes only Mina has an honorific and sound effect replacement isn’t terribly consistent as in some places the Katakana is replaced with English while in others the Katakana is left alone and an English translation is put next to it. The text itself flows well and feels natural however and it helps with the emersion into the story.
The cover for the release features an image of a new character named Akira Garcia Fujisaki. His hair is unkempt and covering his left eye and he is wearing a red coat with a fur lined color , no shirt with the top of his pants unbuttoned that grants him a rather wild and dangerous look. He is standing in front of a red and darker red checkered background that will be familiar to Bund fans as a large, transparent image of Mina Tepes looms over his left shoulder. The back continues the checkerboard background with the copy written in white and an image of the almost as barely dressed Ruli wearing a fur hood, open black shirt, black bra and red pants present on the right of the cover as she has an astonished look on her face. The spine uses the head/upper chest shot of Fujisaki from the front cover against a black background that has Dance in the Vampire Bund Gaiden written in red below his image and Seven Seas’ sailing ship logo is present at the bottom.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
In every age there are those who wish to drop out of society and find something new and in the age that this story takes place one option that attracts people is to become a vampire. Mina Tepes, queen of the vampires has established a small island nation just off the coast of Japan near Tokyo from which she has welcomed all vampires who seek a peaceful life (or as close to it as vampires can get) with the support of the state she has created using centuries of accumulated wealth. This proves to be a magnet not just for the undead but also for those not yet in its ranks as the duel siren call of the seductive life of the vampire and living in a place where all one’s needs can be provided for attracts many who may not have put much, if any, thought into the potential downsides.
The story picks up as one such individual, Masaki, lost in the dreams of the positives has decided he wishes to join the ranks of the damned. He takes a tour of the Bund during the day along with his friend who he convinces to come along Akira Garcia Fujisaki. At one stop they get off the bus and find a note left by the contact Masaki made online who will facilitate his becoming a vampire and the two hide out in the Bund until nightfall to meet the contact. When it looks like Akira will leave after the contact takes them to the vampire house where Masaki is to begin his new afterlife Masaki springs his trap-while he is there to escape from the murder he just committed in Japan he used Akira’s knife to do it so Akira is forced to go along as well…not that the vampires inside were going to leave him any choice in the matter anyway.
The two quickly discovered that the dream of paradise is a one way ticket as upon trying to leave the island they are met with force and find no one with the vampire virus is allowed to leave the island. They also discover that a vampire has no ability to resist the one who turned them as they are pressed into service unloading containers from a ship when their masters catch up with them. Masaski gains some of his will back and swipes some capsules from one of the containers just as the military arrives and opens fire and all hell breaks loose. The two new vampires manage to just barely escape the chaos and return to the building where they were turned to find that all the vampires there are dead as well.
As the try to figure out what their next move is they stumble upon a large case that when opened turns out to have a very beautiful, very naked and tied up young woman (Ruli) in it who also has been bitten by a vampire. When Masaki attempts to assault the woman Fujisaki steps in and the two part ways with no small amount of animosity. With the sun coming up Fujisaki tries to get Ruli and himself somewhere safe though they wind up hiding in the shade under an overpass which is precarious at best. They both are about to discover that their luck has gotten as good as it can get though as they are found by a passing jogger running during the day in the city of the undead. A young man who happens to share the same given name as Fujisaki- Akira Regendorf.
While helping them check in to the system the island has established to help immigrant vampires Akira discovers that the two were recently turned and tells them that there is a vaccine that can help them if it is administered in the first 48 hours after they were bitten. A quick phone call is placed and Akira tells them the vaccine is on its way though he fails in trying to talk the person on the other end of the phone out of bringing it herself. The two marvel when Akira’s friend shows up as they learn in the Bund connections don’t come much higher than the ones that Akira has as his call was placed to the head of the island Bund Mina Tepes who has answered his call in person. This will be the end of their good luck however as Mina explains that all the vaccine they had is contaminated and the new supply they were expecting was intercepted the night before and it dawns on Fujisaki what the capsules Masaki stole are. This will begin a mad dash through the Bund using many of the connections Akira and Mina have in an attempt to find the one person who may hold the key to saving the three people from a life as vampires-though it turns out that they are not the only ones looking for him as the group behind the assault want Masaki eliminated as well. Now it will be a race against time and an unknown group with even the Bund itself seeming to stand in the way as this determined group attempts to find one vampire in a city of thousands who is determined not to be found.
Dive in the Vampire Bund is almost a return to a simpler (relatively) time in the Bund storyline. With events in the main story moving with giant implications and tragedies abounding it is a bit of a change of pace to have a story whose ultimate effects are limited to such a small group of people. The story also gives the chance to explore a different aspect to the events of chapters that are located in volume 6 of the main series’ release as it relates to the Pied Piper virus that plays a large role in the ongoing events in that storyline. The art is characteristic of Tamaki’s ability to make vampires both seductive and frightening as the situation calls for and the depth she gives to the background. The story was put out in Japan concurrent with the chapters that would come to form volume 6 so it is a bit of a transition in tone to be made back to that time as picking it up right after finishing volume 9 proved to take a bit of a mental adjustment. It also feels a bit like filler as it introduces a few characters who then disappear and uses the story as an excuse to bring in some familiar faces though filler isn’t always a bad thing in and of itself.
In Summary
Dive in the Vampire Bund is an interesting side trip into the Bund with many familiar characters and their quirks along for the ride. As a side story it isn’t essential to the main series plot but it does grant a look at some aspects of the Bund that were previously unexplored. The characters introduced aren’t terribly deep but the story is equal part action and drama so it would have been difficult to expand them greatly in the space provided. It still is a fun, action filled ride with vampires and suspense as well as Akira and Mina so fans of Dance in the Vampire Bund will likely find this a fun and enjoyable, though not indispensable, addition to the world of the Bund.
Content Grade: B-
Art Grade: A-
Packaging Grade: B+
Text/Translation Grade: B
Age Rating: 16+
Released By: Seven Seas
Release Date: April 30th, 2011
MSRP: 10.99
