The Dark Hunters, Volume 1
Synopsis:
Kyrian of Thrace is a vampire hunter with a dark past, a dark present and a dark future...
Amanda Devereaux is an Accountant with quite the strange family... one that always seems to drive the 'normal' boys away...
Suddenly the two of them find they are stuck together, and an unlikely bond forms.
Character Likability:
Kyrian is your typical machismo jerk in the beginning, He knows everything, he doesn't need any help... he's got it covered. The more vulnerable he becomes throughout the story, the more likable he is. He loses points for falling in love too fast though.
Character Likability:
Kyrian is your typical machismo jerk in the beginning, He knows everything, he doesn't need any help... he's got it covered. The more vulnerable he becomes throughout the story, the more likable he is. He loses points for falling in love too fast though.
Amanda is strong willed, and able to protect herself. Likable insofar as being a strong female... but she loses points with me for "falling" too fast, as well.
Quality of Writing:
I found this incredibly wordy, with a lot of info dropping for a Graphic Novel. The big blocks of text put me off in certain sections... but overall the story was ok, and it flowed nicely.
Ending:
Very nice cliffhanger ending for the first volume.
Plot:
The two main characters get stuck together through a case of mistaken identity... and Amanda is dragged into the freakish world of her family she's struggled so hard to avoid. The background of Kyrian has me interested, and his reason for being what he is also holds a lot of interest... but I see this story falling into a typical plot problem with Manga... by the end of the first volume, the characters seem to be in love... Kyrian is even pondering whether or not they're Soul Mates. Now... I can only hope in later volumes, "Soul Mate" means something different than "Omg the one I'm supposed to be with forever"... but the way it's going right now, it seems that, once again, with very little rhyme or reason, the two main characters are in love.
Quality of Illustration:
This manga was a bit of a conundrum for me. First, I'm not even sure I should be calling it a Manga. It's very obviously emulating the Japanese comic art style... and I was fairly impressed with the rendering of Kyrian... he hits the manga style pretty close.... but Amanda still has that creepy, "Non-Japanese person trying to emulate the look of Manga" look... and what bothers me is that she really waffles between having that look and not having it. I should probably dig up visuals to really explain this, but it's something about facial feature placement and line quality that is just off.
Quality of Writing:
I found this incredibly wordy, with a lot of info dropping for a Graphic Novel. The big blocks of text put me off in certain sections... but overall the story was ok, and it flowed nicely.
Ending:
Very nice cliffhanger ending for the first volume.
Plot:
The two main characters get stuck together through a case of mistaken identity... and Amanda is dragged into the freakish world of her family she's struggled so hard to avoid. The background of Kyrian has me interested, and his reason for being what he is also holds a lot of interest... but I see this story falling into a typical plot problem with Manga... by the end of the first volume, the characters seem to be in love... Kyrian is even pondering whether or not they're Soul Mates. Now... I can only hope in later volumes, "Soul Mate" means something different than "Omg the one I'm supposed to be with forever"... but the way it's going right now, it seems that, once again, with very little rhyme or reason, the two main characters are in love.
Quality of Illustration:
This manga was a bit of a conundrum for me. First, I'm not even sure I should be calling it a Manga. It's very obviously emulating the Japanese comic art style... and I was fairly impressed with the rendering of Kyrian... he hits the manga style pretty close.... but Amanda still has that creepy, "Non-Japanese person trying to emulate the look of Manga" look... and what bothers me is that she really waffles between having that look and not having it. I should probably dig up visuals to really explain this, but it's something about facial feature placement and line quality that is just off.
Now, admittedly, this is a well illustrated novel... and if that's not something that bothers you... and you like vampire hunter stories, pick this up. It's possibly one of the best non-Japanese manga I've read.
Overall Grade: B-
this looks like it would be interesting as manga. Sorry you didn't like the art that much though.
ReplyDeleteWell, that's my personal bias from years and years of reading manga. Honestly though, if the story sounds interesting to you, give it a try! It was by no means terrible!!
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