Rosario+Vampire: Season II, Vol. 1 by Akihisa Ikeda
Series Name: Rosario+Vampire: Season II
Genres: Action, Comedy, Ecchi, Fantasy, Harem, Monsters, Romance, Vampires, Witches
Intended Age Group: Older Teen
Publisher: Viz/Shonen Jump Advanced
Edition: Paperback
ISBN: 978-1-4215-3136-6
Rating: 3.5/5
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Description from the Book
Average human teenage boy Tsukune accidentally enrolls at a boarding school for monsters – no, not jocks and popular kids, but bona fide werewolves, witches, and unnameables out of his wildest nightmares! And now he’s a sophomore!
On the plus side, all the girls have a monster crush on him. On the negative side, all the boys are so jealous they want to kill him! And so do the girls he spurns because he only has eyes for one of them – the far-from-average vampire Moka.
On the plus side, Moka only has glowing red eyes for Tsukune. On the O-negative side, she also has a burning, unquenchable thirst for his blood…
Personal & Info
This manga continues from Rosario + Vampire. It’s been almost six months since the school got wrecked, and repairs have been made. I don’t see many manga that start over at volume one for new “seasons,” so this is a little unusual.
Since I’ve already read a large chunk of the series before, I’m giving the volumes I’ve already read a slight bump in rating to show how much I liked it my first time through. I don’t want my familiarity with the series to hurt the score. There is less thrill when you already know what happens, so I’m accounting for that. The bump is only about a half star.
Characters
Tsukune Aono is the main character. He is the only human at a school for monsters. Due to various events in season one, he wears a chain lock on his wrist, similar to Moka’s rosario.
Moka Akashiya is the beautiful vampire love interest. She is considered the most beautiful girl in school, and the series likes to play up that fact.
Kurumu Kurono is the second beautiful love interest. She is the character with the largest breasts in the group, and the whole school also fawns over her, but not nearly as much as Moka.
Yukari Sendo is a twelve year old genius, and a witch. She was eleven in season one.
Mizore Shirayuki is love interest number three. She is a yuki-onna, but the translation constantly calls her a snow fairy. She’s also the most considerate of Tsukune’s happiness.
Koko Shuzen is a new character this volume introduces. She is Moka’s little sister, and boy is she feisty.
Story & Thoughts
The story in this volume is set up to both welcome back readers, and make things easy for new readers who are using this as a starting point. I don’t know why anyone would start with season two, though, that just seems weird. Go back and read part one. It’s pretty great.
The first chapter heavily readdresses character details and the premise of the story. We relearn everyone’s names, their monster types, and what powers they have. Inner Moka even takes a minute to rehash the fact the two Moka’s are basically split personalities. This isn’t a spoiler. We already know all this.
Tsukune is demoted back down to a weakling. He doesn’t do anything outstanding in this book. Aside from the visual representation of the lock on his wrist, there is no sign anything ever happened to him in the first season. Nobody so much as mentions it.
There’s a lot of bickering and arguing, more so than usual. The volume seems to be going a little over the top with all that to really drive the refresher/introduction home.
The big news in the volume is Moka has a sister! We meet Koko halfway through. I love her. She’s great. She has her issues, but unlike everyone else, she doesn’t fawn over Tsukune. I can’t remember if that changes or not later.
As usual, there are bonus comics in the back. These ones take place in the time between seasons one and two. They just cover a little of what everyone was up to over their break.