Tag: Supernatural

Rosario+Vampire: Season II, Vol. 13 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: 978-1-4215-6949-9
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

This volume advertises a free mini-poster. As with volume twelve, and several others, this one is a fold out. It features a colored sketch style picture of Inner Moka and Aqua.

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.

Fangfang Huang is a freshman, and the son of the leader of a Chinese mafia.

Ruby Tojo is a witch who works for the school.

Kahlua is Moka’s older sister, and Gyokuro’s eldest daughter.

Gyokuro is the leader of Fairy Tale.

Koko is Moka’s youngest sister, and Gyokuro’s youngest daughter.

Aqua is Moka’s eldest sister. She has an obsession with Moka.

Story & Thoughts

This book picks up where twelve leaves off. Tsukune personally challenges Gyokuro in hopes of beating her before he completely becomes a ghoul. Between Tsukune and Moka fighting her, this battle takes the majority of the volume. However, before it’s entirely over, we learn a little more about the rosario and what Gyokuro’s studies reveal as its true intention.

Koko’s battle with Kahlua also wraps up in this volume. I would have liked to see her do the entire battle by herself, but unfortunately she needs assistance. It makes sense, though, because a huge aspect of the story is constantly team work. I just think Koko deserves a massive self-earned win.

Vampires have strange abilities in this series. Koko and Moka don’t seem to have any odd abilities, but that might just be because they haven’t grown into them yet. Their family members, however, have freakish abilities that I don’t think fits into any vampire lore.

I love that Kurumu and Mizore are team fighters. They’ve had a long journey through the series to become good friends. But, I don’t think their big attack for this volume makes any sense. How do they get holy water, and why does it need to be holy water? I think it was pretty clear regular water would be enough for their needs. Season one made that very clear.

The ending of this volume hits hard. It’s a blatant, “to be continued,” in the middle of trauma, tears, screaming, and impending disaster. You might want to make sure you already have the fourteenth volume at the time you read this.

The bonus comics at the end mostly focus on a few Fairy Tale members with some question and answer silliness.

Rosario+Vampire: Season II, Vol. 12 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: 978-1-4215-5702-1
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

This volume has a mini-poster inside, like volumes elven, eight, seven, and five, it’s a fold out. The poster features Kahlua and Koko sweeping up leaves.

I didn’t recognize Kuhlua on the cover right away. She looks obviously tan in the panels of the manga, and she even looks tan on the color fold out mini-poster. I’m not sure why she looks so pale on the cover. It makes her look like a completely different person.

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.

Aqua is Moka’s oldest sister. She is has an obsession with Moka.

Kahlua is one of Moka’s many sisters. She participates in the family profession of assassination.

Koko is Moka’s youngest sister, and Gyokuro’s youngest daughter.

Gin and Haiji tend to be tag team fighters. We finally find out what monster Haiji is.

Gyokuro is Kahlua and Koko’s mother, and the leading member of Fairy Tale.

Story & Thoughts

Things get intense in this volume as everything that can go wrong does. Everybody is fighting somebody. It’s so close to the end of the series now, that everything is combat. Unfortunately, Mizore and Kurumu are benched for the volume. We see them unconscious toward the beginning from the events of volume eleven, but that’s about it. Yukari and Fangfang aren’t in this one much either. They appear for maybe a page and that’s it.

The first fight that takes up a large chunk of the book is the confrontation with Aqua. Tsukune finally gets his chance to use his training against her dimension sword. Moka and Tsukune fight together for this battle. It’s nice to see him be a relatively competent fighter compared to how he originally started off in the series as a whole. He’s had a tremendous amount of growth in such a short time.

Koko, whom we haven’t seen much of in a while, finally gets a chance to shine. She gets to show her improvement in skill and confidence with a battle of her own. I get that she’s been spending a lot of time training and everything, but I think it would have been nice to have her in the story more with the main group. She’s one of my favorite characters.

The bonus comics feature Kahlua. She is given a mission by her mother that requires seduction, which apparently is one of the few skills she did not learn in her assassin training.

I think there was a typo on one page when Gyokuro says, “the tide of battle is already turning against us.” I’m pretty sure she means, “against you,” because the following panels show supporting evidence of the typo.

Rosario+Vampire: Season II, Vol. 11 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: 978-1-4215-5240-8
Rating: 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 volume advertises a free mini-poster inside. Like volumes eight, seven and five, it’s a fold out. This one features Mizore and Kurumu in a sort of spy pose theme. They are wearing nice clothes and posing with guns.

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.

Fangfang Huang is a freshman, and the son of the leader of a Chinese mafia.

Ruby Tojo is a witch who works for the school.

Story & Thoughts

This volume picks up with Fangfang’s fight scene. The first two chapters finish that off. All in all, it’s not a long battle compared to others. I’m glad Fangfang gets to shine at least a little bit. It seems like his main problem in life is he doesn’t know what he is good at. However, it must be devastating to find out Yukari can essentially master anything he can’t do within the timespan of only a month. Geniuses can really make a person feel inferior without intending to.

We see a few returning villainous faces from season one. Some we already know about, and some are a surprise. This leads to Tsukune getting a fight scene that spans about three chapters, with many cut-aways to keep up with what others are doing. There’s some recap here as well in case the reader doesn’t remember who he is fighting and what their previous interaction was.

Kurumu and Mizore get to fight, too. I think it’s cool and interesting that Mizore and Kurumu have become a team duo for combat. That has been slowly building up over time, because they seem to train specifically with each other quite a lot.

Basically, this is another high combat content volume. We’re at the tail end of the series, so it’s not that surprising. I’m fully expecting even more combat encounters in the three volumes after this. We are far away from the light hearted romantic comedy the series started out as, but the characters are showing their depth and skills, proving how hard they have trained, and how strong their friendships have become.

The bonus comics are a little random. They feature Ludie of all people, and her crush on Xilong.

Rosario+Vampire: Season II, Vol. 10 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: 978-1-4215-4879-1
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 volume advertises two free mini-posters. These ones are no different than standard color images at the beginning of any manga. Like volumes nine and six, the posters are front and back, so you can only actually display one of them if you choose to tear them out and hang them anywhere. The first one is Tsukune with some kind of circuit board pattern on his arm, and the second one is a pretty picture of Ruby with a magic circle on her abdomen.

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.

Fangfang Huang is a freshman, and the son of the leader of a Chinese mafia.

Ruby Tojo is a witch who works for the school.

Many members of Moka’s family make appearances.

Story & Thoughts

This volume is combat heavy, so don’t expect a lot of humor and fan service. Most of the book is a single fight scene, and the start of another. The good thing about this, though, is we get to see Ruby shine. She doesn’t usually get to do much, but she’s the star of the volume. I find it surprising she’s not the one on the cover.

The gang has spent a whole month training, and it’s finally time to go save Moka. We don’t get to see what everyone has learned, but we do get to see some of Tsukune’s new abilities, and a substantial amount of Ruby’s. I don’t think I ever thought about what kind of spell caster Ruby is before. Apparently she’s a conjurer, and that’s pretty cool.

I do think this volume is a bit stereotypical. It follows the final dungeon trope of everyone taking turns fighting the strongest foes while crunched for time. I like the trope because it gives the characters a chance to show off their skills, but at the same time, it’s a cliché.

There are only three bonus comics at the end of the book, because there weren’t enough pages. They are mostly about Moka’s time in captivity.

Rosario+Vampire: Season II, Vol. 9 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: 978-1-4215-4209-6
Rating: 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 volume advertises two free mini-posters. These ones are no different than standard color images at the beginning of any manga. As with volume six, the posters are front and back, so you can only actually display one of them if you choose to tear them out and hang them anywhere. One is Mizore and Kurumu is their swimsuits, and the other is Moka and Tsukune standing back to back.

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.

Fangfang Huang is a freshman, and the son of the leader of a Chinese mafia.

Lingling Huang is Fangfang’s big sister.

Tohofuhai is one of the Three Dark Lords. He looks like an old man most of the time, and his specialties are seals and magic.

Aqua is Moka’s eldest sister. She works for a branch of Fairy Tale and absolutely adores Moka.

Ginei Morioka, also known as Gin, is the Newspaper Club’s president. Normally we hardly ever see him.

Story & Thoughts

This volume has more chapters than usual. There are six. The first third finishes the events of combat with Aqua. There are some epic and dramatic moments there.

I think the most important section is the last half of the book. It focuses heavily on Kurumu. She shines here, but at the same time it’s so emotionally tragic it almost made me cry. Kurumu does not give herself enough credit. She doesn’t get many chances to shine, so I love that for her in this one, even if it’s in an unpleasant situation.

Gin arrives at some point with Ruby and a few others when the story switches focus to training. I don’t usually pay attention to how people talk, but Gin’s speech drove me up the wall in this book. I had to read it without the…What would it be? An accent, maybe? Gin speaks in an annoying way in this volume, and I just can’t help wondering if I just didn’t notice before, or if it was a new translation choice. He says things like, “yer” instead of your and, “purty,” instead of pretty. It makes him sound really annoying, and I hate it. I swear he did not speak like that before.

Overall, this volume is another serious one. There is very little comedy, if any, but it covers a significant amount of content. As a whole, I think it might be one of the best volumes, but that’s just my personal opinion. Everything in it is important.

Rosario+Vampire: Season II, Vol. 8 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: 978-1-4215-4050-4
Rating: 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

No bump for the rating of this volume. There are still things I remember later on in the story, but there’s enough I don’t remember to consider them fresh reads from here on out.

This volume boasts a free mini-poster inside. Like volumes seven and five, it’s a fold out. This one features Aqua, the eldest Shuzen sister.

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.

Fangfang Huang is a freshman, and the son of the leader of a Chinese mafia.

Lingling Huang is Fangfang’s undead big sister.

Story & Thoughts

Pretty much the entire volume consists of Moka’s backstory. We learn what her relationship with Aqua was like when they were kids. More significant vampire lore is addressed, and we learn more about Moka’s mother, Akasha. The story is intense and heart wrenching. The only comedy parts in this one are the bonus comics.

Kurumu uses an ability we’ve never seen before. She’s always been able to do it, but hasn’t had reason to until now. I’m not sure if it makes her tail gross, though…It looked slimy.

I imagine some people would probably be upset because this volume is super serious, but I love the serious volumes. The funny ones are great, too, but I enjoy both ends of the spectrum. I feel like a series needs a decent balance of both to be good. This series has some serious volumes and some funny ones, as well as some that cover both equally, so I think it’s great.

This volume doesn’t even wrap up this adventure, yet. It’s one of the longest events in the series. This book and the one before it focus on Moka’s backstory, and it looks like the next one will continue the invasion on the Huang house with the combat portion.

Rosario+Vampire: Season II, Vol. 7 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: 978-1-4215-4026-9
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.

This volume advertises a mini-poster inside. This one is a fold out, like volume five, featuring Moka and inner Moka separated by a mirror. Again, I can’t imagine why anyone would tear this out.

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.

Fangfang Huang is a freshman, and the son of the leader of a Chinese mafia.

Lingling Huang is Fangfang’s undead big sister.

Story & Thoughts

This volume focuses heavily on inner Moka. Now that she is out all the time, she’s socializing more than she ever has before, and her experiences are giving her more feelings than she is used to. She thinks this is a weakness forming, but she has the other Moka talking to her to help even things out and give her advice. It’s like seeing their relationship backwards, which is probably why the first chapter has the title Reverse.

The group is traveling to get Moka’s rosario repaired. The last two chapters are probably the most important. We get a look at a chunk of Moka’s childhood and see her family. The most important part of it seems to be the introduction of her third and final sister. We have not seen her, yet, so these flashbacks are covering a bit of what she is like.

Between those events and the usual shenanigans, there’s also plot building going on in the background. Fairy Tale is making moves and plans they have already put into motion are under investigation. There are some familiar faces returning, and not for anyone’s benefit.

I always enjoy the volumes that delve into character backstories. It’s also nice seeing inner Moka as more of a person. She deserves to be more than just the person who shows up when people need saving.

I can’t help feeling bad for Fangfang. He gets treated so poorly all the time. All he wants is to have friends and do right by his family.

Rosario+Vampire: Season II, Vol. 6 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: 978-1-4215-3831-0
Rating: 4.5/5
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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

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.

I can tell I’m getting close to the parts I have not read before, because my memory of some of this stuff is foggier. For example, I didn’t remember who Fangfang was. I am absolutely certain I still remember some events that have not yet to occur, so I still have some to go before I actually catch up to that point.

The cover advertises two free mini-posters inside. Honestly, these are no different than the standard color images we see in every volume. These ones aren’t even fold out like the last one. They are both Halloween in theme. One is Inner Moka reading a book, and the other is Yukari watering a plant. However, these “mini-posters” are not perforated for easy removal, nor are they actually two separate posters. They are back to back, so if you choose to tear them out, you can only display one side of it.

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. This now also entails supervising Tsukune’s training.

Ginei Morioka, also known as Gin, is the Newspaper Club’s president. Normally we hardly ever see him.

Fangfang Huang is a freshman, and the son of the leader of a Chinese mafia.

Lingling Huang is Fangfang’s big sister.

Three of the girls’ parents show up for sports day: Fujiko Sendo, Ageha Kurono, and Tsurara Shirayuki.

Story & Thoughts

This volume is more chill and fun than most of the others. There are no super serious adventures, but a couple new monster types are casually introduced as the story progresses. The tone at the end of the volume, however, is more serious.

The first two chapters introduce the Huang family, primarily Fangfang. Tsukune has a well known reputation now, so a representative of a Chinese mafia wants to recruit him. Jokes and shenanigans ensue from there.

The third chapter focuses mostly on Yukari. She gets a real look at herself from a different perspective and must deal with feeling self-conscious for the first time ever. Fangfang is just along for the ride in this chapter.

We get to see more of inner Moka in the final chapter. It’s another rare opportunity to see her out for a whole day. This time, she attends school for a full day, and her rivals in love try to analyze her skills to find a weakness.

After the usual end of the volume four panel comics in the back, there are a few pages of extra ones. The additional comics address fan mail concerns about the series regarding moe. Things like if the series has enough of it, if the creator even knows what it is, and drawing the characters in that type of style.

I think this volume is a little funnier than usual, since nothing particularly serious happens. It’s all shenanigans and chaos. Gin shows up a few times. We hardly ever see him in general, so it’s nice when he’s involved in something, even if it’s silly.

Rosario+Vampire: Season II, Vol. 5 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: 978-1-4215-3691-0
Rating: 4.5/5
Amazon Barnes&Noble RightStuf ThriftBooks

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.

This volume includes a small fold out poster of Moka holding a watermelon carved like a jack-o’-lantern. Do people actually tear these out? It’s not even perforated. I feel like I’m ruining the book if I remove it.

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. This now also entails supervising Tsukune’s training.

Ginei Morioka, also known as Gin, is the Newspaper Club’s president. Normally we hardly ever see him.

San Otonashi is an alumnus of Yokai Academy. She was the president of the Newspaper Club when Gin was a freshman.

Story & Thoughts

This entire volume encompasses one event. I think it’s the first volume in the entire series to do that. It’s summer vacation time again, and this whole volume is “the beach episode.” But don’t let that fool you, some cool stuff actually happens, so it’s not just fan service.

The Newspaper Club goes on another one of their vacation trips to the human world. This time, they go to the beach. Everything is all arranged so they will be staying with a former member of the Newspaper Club, San. San is also the main focus of the book. Using her as an example, we get to see what it’s like for a monster who has graduated from Yokai Academy and continued on to live in the human world.

Fairy Tale shows up, being the main villain for the season. And so does Gin! We hardly ever see Gin, so this is a pleasant surprise. He even sticks around for the whole book. Well, sort of. He’s off doing something else while the main group is dealing with their own problems.

I think this volume has more typos than usual. Aside from that, it has a great story. The insight into a monster living in the human world among humans is something the gang is curious about as they all wonder what their own futures will be like. Obviously this is only one example, so they can’t base expectations off it, but it gives them hope, and it’s good insight for the reader, too.

We also get to see a new monster type. Unlike the usual set ups, we get to see a good version and bad version of them. Normally we only see one, and the gang beats them up, end of story. There’s a little more to it this time.

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
Amazon Barnes&Noble RightStuf ThriftBooks

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.