What is the mysterious "Amrita"?

Five years ago, the world recognized the existence of vampires. Now, out of the shadows, vampires can live among us and share the world... at least within the six sanctioned districts.

If a new society is to be born, it must first break a world. And for this transition to be orderly, there are humans and vampires ready to take care of any "irregularities"... with the power of rock & roll!

Kinryo Rock: Code:Amrita has a story by Bingo Morihashi and art by Manabu Akishige. Published by Alien Books. (April 7, 2026) Rated M.

Erica Friedman
Rating:

Vampires are a universally feared concept. Every culture is terrified of a human-shaped being that feeds on us as we do on other animals. There is a scene in the original Dracula where we see the Count for the first time, as a vampire. Best, as he crawls up an outside wall, his eyes glowing, his face distorted, and we are to understand that this is a very terrifying thing. Kinryo Rock: Code:Amrita, Volume 1 starts the story off with the more modern gentle vampire—they are just like us, they only want to be loved! (and drink human blood, but hey, they can't do that without consent.) They want fair housing and the lack of discrimination.

And also, there is a drug out there that is turning them into ravening beasts that even other vampires have a hard time killing, so…

This first volume comes at you fast with a large cast of human inspectors, the vampire rights organization ROV, a bunch of vampires, good, bad, horrific, and a human protagonist, but clearly has his own story. Called “zombie” Taiyo, our lead helpfully informs us he has no idea if he even exists. This first volume requires you to hold the plot loosely in your hands, as the grains slip away only to be collected up and dumped on you over and over, until all the information begins to take shape into a greater mystery behind the cracks of a broken society. Someone is experimenting on vampires, but to what end?

As I say, this is all presented rather messily, but the manga takes a moment to allow Taiyo and his rocker (good?) vampire friend Amane to save two young children, so we can feel for a moment that there is still good and right in this story. Whether or not that is actually true remains to be seen.