Title: Seraph of The End (Owari no Serafu)
Genre: Fantasy
Publisher: Shueisha (JP), Viz Media (US)
Story/Artist: Takaya Kagami, Yamoto Yamamoto
Serialized in: Jump Square
Translation: Adrienne Beck
Original Release Date: June 3, 2014
I think Seraph of The End is incapable of sustaining my long term interest due to it being incredibly cliche, riddled with predictable elements, and hey, look, more vampires for us to cry and moan about in a fictional work! For a first volume, it does a decent job of setting its world up in a manner that at least provides some energy, and has a character that’s impulsive set in a world where that type of personality can get you killed. But it’s going to be up to your general tolerance of shounen manga cliches that’ll determine whether you’ll like this or not.
Set in a world where vampires arrive, Seraph of the End tells the tale of a virus that kills everyone over 13 and abducted most of the children and sent them to the vampire world. Yuichiro Hyakaka (or Yu) desires to overpower the vampires and go back to his home with his “family,” or kids that he met after he was sent to an orphanage as a kid. As his good friend Mikaela points out however, the vampires are stronger than he is, and could kill him at only a pittance of their strength. With little idea of what to do, Yu continues to study up on ways to defeat vampires. That’s when eventually Mikaela reveals he’s been having his blood sucked by high ranking progenitor Ferid Bathory, but after months of letting this happen, he’s found a map (and steals a gun) that shows where the exit to the human world is. With this map, they, along with their family, set out to escape the area.
Not surprisingly, Ferid had already guessed that this would happen and appears before them to snuff them all out. He easily kills Yu and Mikaeka’s family, and then kills Mikaela, before getting himself shot in the head by Yu. With Mikaela’s last words encouraging him to run, Yu escapes into the human world, and realizes that there’s no apocalypse, and there are humans that have lived after turning 13 — it was all a lie by the vampires. That is when he runs into a defense force tasked with killing vampires. Yu, with no hesitation, joins up.
And in this first volume of Seraph of The End, the style is apparent. From having an abrasive, unfriendly character (Yu), completely different worlds (human and vampire world), and to lively, detailed art, it’s not like, aside from making sure this fits with a shounen audience, there would be too many changes from their original style. This style at least catches some interest, as there’s a good amount to explore here: who are actually the good guys in this story? What exactly is the defense force’s secrets? What are the vampires really after, aside from sucking up blood, since they lied through their teeth to trick a bunch of kids? There are questions, and answers would be cool.
The problem I have with Seraph of The End is that I pretty much guessed everything that was going to happen almost step by step. The group attempts to escape the vampire world and gets caught by a powerful vampire? Yeah, I guessed that. Yu would eventually find a friend who seems unlikely to be a fighter? Well, too easy. His old friend that was supposedly killed is actually alive and apparently is on the side of the demons? If anything, that hand was tipped too early when Mikaela didn’t actually “die” like the rest of the family. Sure, predictability in a shounen manga is standard, but did we really need a teaser at the end showing what the vampires and Mikaela were up to? And couldn’t a better job been done with introducing Yu’s past? The timing just feels off, and with that you get a volume that feels like you’ve read it before.
You combine that with its general story idea (hey vampires!), this manga is pretty ordinary. Not to say it’s not good ordinary. It’s certainly a quick read, with an intriguing main character, a system of curiosity set up to find out what’s in the world’s going on, and nice artwork. But unless the next volume or two shows its hand and stamps this as a work to keep an eye on, I can only recommend those used to shounen manga to consider reading this series. Everyone else will just have to sit tight.
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Justin
Justin is the founder of Organization Anti-Social Geniuses. Anime & manga fan that likes to blog about anime and manga, is addicted to sports, and weak to crossovers. You can follow Justin on Twitter @Kami_nomi.
Latest posts by Justin (see all)
- Seraph of The End Vol 1 Review - August 13, 2014
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