First impressions review: Happiness, by Shuzo Oshimi

‘Seraph of the End’ left me thirsty for more vampire stories. Alas, I haven’t been able to track down an English translation of ‘Seraph of the End: The story of vampire Mikaela’, which supposedly not only covers Mika’s missing years as a newborn vampire but delves deeper into the history of the vampire lore and history of that universe. But a search on Goodreads turned up – among some other intriguing suggestions - this manga. I found a translation here.  It is a very different story from ‘Seraph’, but really good in its own way, both horrifying and strangely sweet.

While biking at night, a first-year high school student named Makoto Okazaki is bitten by a vampire girl who seemingly drops out of the sky. She asks him (note: read right to left):

He wakes in the hospital with a terrible thirst and an aversion to bright lights. Things seem almost normal for a while, except that he finds himself punching Yuki, the taller classmate who’s been pushing him around a bit and pouncing on a girl named Yukiko Gosho. She’s a bit quiet and odd herself, and the two strike up a friendship. They start getting friendlier with the chastened Yuki and his girlfriend Nao as well. But then they encounter a third vampire who bites Yuki, turning him and splashing some of his blood into Okazaki’s mouth. The thirst only gets stronger after that, and Okazaki seeks out Nora, the girl who turned him, to figure out what to do. Yuki, unfortunately for Nao and others, is a much less well-behaved vampire. And in trying to help Okazaki and Yuki, Gosho runs into something even worse: a human who thinks vampires are gods.

 

            The artwork in this book is gorgeous, with relatively standard manga-style panels alternating with those featuring influences from a wide range of styles, from the softly colored image at the top that looks like something out of a gothy children’s book, to the Picasso-esqe hallucinations Okazaki suffers when captured and drugged by some shadowy agency (above), to the Van Gogh-like vampire-vision view of the night sky (below). There are more pictures than words, making this a very quick read. I really want to find a physical copy of this to buy, both to support the artist and to be able to look at these images more closely.

Be warned, though: There is a lot of explicit gore in this book - the dialogue panels above are one of the milder versions of this - and some sexual content as well. Although the characters are relatively young (or young-looking, anyway) this is definitely a vampire comic for grown-ups! The story gets pretty dark in the middle, and the title seems for a long time like it might be purely ironic, or just a reference to the vampire cult that calls itself ‘the blood of happiness’. I got really nervous when Gosho met a nice young man named Sudo at work, because I almost immediately liked him and didn’t want him to die! However, the book actually has an unexpectedly nice ending – a bit bittersweet, but most of the characters find a happy ending that works for them.

 

Overall recommendation: This book has a bit of a similar vibe to Swedish vampire tale ‘Let the Right One In’. If you liked that, or the creative artwork catches your eye – and you don’t mind mixing the pretty and the gross elements – check this out!

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