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REVIEW: Vampire's Portrait GN 1




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yblees



Joined: 10 Jul 2008
Posts: 165
Location: New Zealand
PostPosted: Thu Feb 26, 2009 2:12 pm Reply with quote
LOL!
Loved the review, too bad about the book Laughing
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Dark Elf Warrior



Joined: 26 Nov 2007
Posts: 228
PostPosted: Thu Feb 26, 2009 8:13 pm Reply with quote
Twilight sucked, and Vampire Portrait looks like another Japanese attempt at European folklore. If anyone wants real books about vampires, read Dracula by Bram Stoker. It's a masterpiece.
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fighterholic



Joined: 28 Sep 2005
Posts: 9193
PostPosted: Thu Feb 26, 2009 8:46 pm Reply with quote
Not to say I'm going to read this, but it has been hard not to notice this title at my work. Why I say that is because of the fact that we've had ten copies of it get sold to my work within the past couple of months.
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sunflower



Joined: 04 Sep 2005
Posts: 1080
PostPosted: Fri Feb 27, 2009 10:08 am Reply with quote
There's no such thing as "real" vampires in fiction or myth. Vampirism is fluid in definition. Most cultures have had vampires of differing abilities and limitations, and those have changed throughout the centuries. Japan and its mangaka have decided, in the way of most storytellers, to take what they want of various myths and craft their own tales.

That said, this is one of the lesser.

However, when I picked this up I was not expecting weighty themes. I mean, it's a vampire romance. And as such I thought it OK. Anyone who enjoys the vampire romance sub-genre would probably think it OK too.
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manafairy



Joined: 04 Oct 2003
Posts: 113
Location: My own tweaked world....
PostPosted: Sat Feb 28, 2009 2:38 pm Reply with quote
Yeah, I picked this up obviously not expecting it to be any sort of high literature, but going off the cover art and the synopsis, I at least figured it would probably be pretty hot. Unfortunately, 'twas not so. A dull, rushed, unbelievable, chemisry-less romance paired with a shoddy gothic vampire tale and mediocre fanservice were definately not even enough to meet my already quite low expectations. Not to say that it was the worst story ever or anything, but it was definately a particularly disposable read.

So does anyone know of any GOOD vampire yaoi? I always hear how overdone blood sucking BL is, but I can never seem to find any...
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CCSYueh



Joined: 03 Jul 2004
Posts: 2707
Location: San Diego, CA
PostPosted: Sat Feb 28, 2009 6:36 pm Reply with quote
sunflower wrote:
There's no such thing as "real" vampires in fiction or myth. Vampirism is fluid in definition. Most cultures have had vampires of differing abilities and limitations, and those have changed throughout the centuries. Japan and its mangaka have decided, in the way of most storytellers, to take what they want of various myths and craft their own tales.


But there is the tried & true Western Folklore tradition which more often than not held a number of common mythologies. Actually Ann Rice undermined much of that.
Each culture has vampiric creatures, but the generally accepted folklore was the European vampire folklore. The various incarnations of Dracula. Barnabas Collins. Yes, verious authors have their spins (such as it's faith & not specifically the cross, thus a Star of David would work for one of the Jewish faith)

My issue with 99% of anime & manga is it often turns vampires more into the Japanese idea of demons--that one can bind them, etc.

THis one has nice art, but it's more Japanese Demon/god than Vampire.
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Eve|iina



Joined: 31 Aug 2008
Posts: 1
PostPosted: Sun Mar 01, 2009 11:17 am Reply with quote
Hmm... Ok, so BL novel, with vampires. Sounds nice, but after reading the review of this piece.. Well.. Maybe I'll save my money to better.
All thought it got me quite interested. But yeah, the timing of this is bad. All the Stephenie Meyer and twilight stuff going on (oh my gosh, edward is gorgeous) someone may think this, as some earlier said, a japanese trick to get attention.

Eveliina
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CCSYueh



Joined: 03 Jul 2004
Posts: 2707
Location: San Diego, CA
PostPosted: Sun Mar 01, 2009 8:26 pm Reply with quote
Eve|iina wrote:

All thought it got me quite interested. But yeah, the timing of this is bad. All the Stephenie Meyer and twilight stuff going on (oh my gosh, edward is gorgeous) someone may think this, as some earlier said, a japanese trick to get attention.

Eveliina


To be fair, not everything is inspired by Twilight.
Looking at Baka Manga, there's a faire share of manga titles starting with "Vampire" that pre-date Twilight.
Look at Vampire Princess Miyu. Although, again, that's not really a vampire in the western style. Even Alucard in Hellsing (which also pre-dates Twilight) is as much (or more) Japanese version of demon as Western Vampire lore.
I would think Vampire Knight a bigger influence in Japan
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poonk



Joined: 05 Jun 2008
Posts: 1490
Location: In the Library with Philip
PostPosted: Wed Mar 04, 2009 1:31 am Reply with quote
Hmmm, even though the review for this was less than stellar, I think I still might pick it up. The cover is definitely attractive, and if the art inside is as good it may be worth it for that alone. The symbolic use of blooddrinking (in lieu of sex scenes) doesn't bother me in and of itself, either-- I thought Vassalord did it rather well and managed to be sexier about it than a lot of the explicit titles I've gotten lately-- but if Vampire's Portrait does get juicier (okay, bad choice of words) in the following volume(s), all the better. But thanks, Casey, for the warning that this volume at least will not be as hot 'n' heavy as the cover would imply.

Edit: I did actually end up ordering this via Amazon in late March and found it to be an entertaining-enough first volume. If I hadn't read the review and didn't know that there was no "action" to speak of (in this volume at least) I might've been rather disappointed; but quite honestly, I'm viewing this first volume as an appetizer/investment in a (hopefully more fulfilling) 2nd volume to come...
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