Rosario+Vampire: Season II, Vol. 4 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: 978-1-4215-3544-9
Rating: 4/5
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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
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 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.
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 Moka’s little sister. She thinks Tsukune’s only redeeming quality is the taste of his blood, but she doesn’t go around biting him like Moka does.
Ruby Tojo is a witch met in season one. She currently works for the school to help keep the students safe.
Kahlua Shuzen is Moka and Koko’s older sister. This volume spells her name “Kalua” but two and the internet spells it the other way. I don’t know why they are different. Someone must have made an editing mistake somewhere.
Story & Thoughts
This volume picks up where three left off in Mizore’s village. It takes two chapters to wrap up that event. We get some foreboding warnings as foreshadowing for things to look forward to.
The next two chapters are some I think are highly memorable. My first time reading this was years ago, and I still remember pieces of these chapters vividly. Inner Moka gets to come out to play more as Tsukune is beginning his training to control his power. It’s nice to see more of her outside of purely combat.
There’s a Castlevania reference in that section I never noticed before. I didn’t know much of anything about Castlevania back when I first read this, but I know enough now to recognize the name of the whip. It’s a pretty obvious reference, so you’ll know it when you see it.
The last chapter of the book focuses on Kurumu. She’s at her wit’s end regarding how to improve her chances with Tsukune. This chapter brings up her ability that we haven’t seen in a long time, her charm mind control. It mostly shows she can still do that, but the chapter is also a bit sad as we see Kurumu struggle with her emotions.
What do we learn from this volume? According to the combination of chapters and bonus comics, we learn which characters are masochists.
Season II is focusing more on the characters themselves, rather than monster of the week like season one. I love season one, but I also love how connected to the characters this season feels.