Anime & Manga Review
Plot
Karin Maaka is the middle child in a family of vampires who immigrated to Japan two centuries earlier. Unlike the rest of her family, Karin does not feed on blood, she produces it. As a result, she is forced to bite others to expel the extra blood, lest she suffer exaggerated nose-bleeds. She also exhibits no normal vampire traits, and instead lives her life just as an ordinary teenage girl would. She can go outside during the day, attends high school, and follows the sleep pattern of normal humans. However, the general peacefulness of her life is disrupted with the arrival of a new transfer student, Kenta Usui.
Any time she goes near him her blood increases. At first she tries to avoid him but they are in the same class and work in the same restaurant. Kenta begins to think that there is something fishy about Karin and eventually he learns her secret. Karin's elder brother Ren tries to erase his memory but Anju, Karin's younger sister, stops him from doing so. She convinces their parents Henry and Calera to make Kenta their ally, because he can help Karin during the daylight. Karin and Kenta become friends, and as they spend more time with on another, fall in love, though they are slow to admit their feelings to one another.
A new girl begins working in the same restaurant that Karin and Kenta work in who is later revealed to be a half-human/half-vampire hybrid.
Characters:
Main
=Vampire=
Karin Maaka
Karin is descended from a long line of purebred vampires; however, Karin instead of having to drink blood like normal vampires, Karin's body overproduces blood. Eventually, she reaches a point where she can no longer hold it, and she must bite someone to inject them with her blood, or she suffers from a massive nosebleed. Karin's blood taste is described in the original Japanese as fukō, which has been translated into English as "misfortune" in the manga and "unhappiness" in the anime. When she bites someone, they are injected with her blood and become more energetic and less unhappy. If Karin goes too long without injecting someone, she goes into a "berserker"-like state and aggressively seeks a target, attacking the first possible one she can find. Due to her unusual state, Karin can walk safely in sunlight and in many ways is more human than vampire. She is unable to summon familiars, erase human memory, or demonstrate any other vampire traits. This tends to separate her from the rest of her family, as she lives like a human during the day while they live normal vampire lives at night. Her condition worries her families, particularly in that her nosebleeds appear to physically endanger her.
Desperate to find answers to Karin's condition, her mother Calera journeys to her birthplace where her dying father reveals that Karin is a rare breed of vampire that is born when the vampire species is struggling, and that the blood she produces can bestow fertility in vampires. Because of the low birth rate and older vampires dying out, this makes her sought after by other vampires throughout Japan. Karin is later captured by other vampires who want to feed from her to rejuvenate their own lives, though it will kill Karin in the process.
As the series progresses, Karin falls in love with Kenta Usui. He returns her feelings, though Karin is initially troubled by the knowledge that if they marry, any children they have would be sterile.
In the anime adaptation, the blood-making issue and Karin's capture are not mentioned. Instead, Karin has the opportunity to become a full vampire, which she initially declines, but then pursues after Kenta encourages her. The transformation is interrupted and Karin goes berserk. Kenta comes to her rescue by volunteering to be bitten, ending the berserker rage, confirming their romantic relationship and simultaneously resolving Karin's issues with being a blood-maker. Voiced by Sayuri Yahagi (Japanese), Chelsea Curto (English).
=Human=
Kenta Usui
Kenta Usui is the first person to have found out Karin's secret. Under Anju's suggestion, the Maaka family make him an ally, telling him that if he kept their secret and looked after Karin, they wouldn't erase his memory. Kenta and his mother live in a one room apartment and do not have much money. Consequently Kenta can't afford three meals a day, which means he's often hungry during the middle of the day. Karin, realizing this, begins making him a bento every day.
Kenta works with Karin part-time at Julian's restaurant, and gets all the hours he can to support himself and his mother. He dreams of being a model citizen with a family and a good job. Initially, Kenta is considered scary by most people who meet him, since he has rather startling eyes. His benevolent nature and strong character tend to win people over if they get to know him.
In the end, Kenta falls in love with Karin and saves her from her own berserk rage, brought on by blood surplus. He has even offered his own neck to her anytime she feels the need. Voiced by Katsuyuki Konishi (Japanese), Yahav Rom (English)
Other Characters
=Vampires=
Anju Maaka
Karin Maaka's younger sister, Maaka Anju is a normal vampire who, for much of the series, has yet to reach the onset of her adulthood, and thus is not required to suck the blood of others. Due to her young age, Anju can travel outside when it is cloudy, during dusk, or when she is carrying her parasol to block out the sun. Despite her young age, Anju is quite proficient in the vampire art, and has a group of bat familiar spirits who are able to aid in her watch over Karin. Anju has a collection of many dolls in her room, but her favorite seems to be Boogie, which she carries around almost everywhere she goes.
As Karin is unable to erase human memory, Anju's aid is frequently required after Karin has bitten a human. However, Anju knows that when she matures, Karin will be alone when she is outside during the day, so she persuades Karin's parents to allow Kenta to know about Karin without having his memories erased so that he can look after her in Anju's stead. Anju may seem very emotionless at times, but she also seems to possess quite a temper; she can be very scary if anyone hurts or teases Karin. She is also hurt when Karin attempts to be cheerful over Anju's moving from the light to darkness as she matures.
In the manga, Anju's taste in blood is loneliness and her first victim is a classmate of hers who has a crush on her. In the anime adaptation, Anju's taste in blood is jealousy and her first victim is Karin's best friend Maki. She is voiced by Yuka Inokuchi in Japanese and Marian Elizabeth Spencer (English).
Boogie
Boogie is Anju's favorite doll and constant companion. Loud and rude, he often speaks up loudly to support Anju's interests. Boogie houses the soul of a serial killer (known as the Stripe Shirt Slasher) who killed 13 victims before his own death. The doll has a fabric knife in his hands, and when his soul escapes the doll, Boogie still attempts to kill people, though being a shadow can only scare them. In the anime adaptation, after Anju becomes a full vampire, Boogie appears to relapse into a normal doll. He is voiced by Hirofumi Nojima in Japanese and Paul John Pistore in English.
Ren Maaka
The older brother of Karin Maaka, Ren is the stereotypical example of a vampire; he seems to suck blood almost mercilessly to fulfill his thirst. Ren sees the act of biting as a metaphor for sexual intercourse, and often commits both acts simultaneously. Attracted to the stress inherent in the blood of women, Ren believes vampires to be superior to humans.
While Ren seems to be wise in the way of the modern vampire, he seems almost ignorant to the subtle humanities of his role. Ren seems to view Karin as a screw-up, not actually because of her blood increasing, but instead because of her lack of ability and willingness to use her vampiric abilities, and her attitude towards humans, which sees humans and vampires as equal. However, on two occasions he has shown feelings for Karin as an older brother, as he was the one who, after spending an evening in the High Street with her, realized that her blood increment was caused by unhappiness. He fights to keep her in episode 24, telling Kenta, 'I won't let you have my sister' although Winner takes the fight and Anju uses her familiars to take Kenta away from the situation and closer to the lake, where Karin is. When Victor appears at the lake, he also shows feelings towards his family as a whole.
Ren seems to be only under the jurisdiction of Henry Maaka, his father, if only because Henry is still stronger than he is. After seeing Fumio Usui a second time, and realizing that she meets his taste in blood for stress, Ren seeks to bite her; but Anju alerts their father of this, and Ren is effectively stopped.
Ren only fears his grandmother, Elda Marker, who almost loved him to death at the age of 4 and will flee at the mere mention or sight of her.
Because of an event that happened when he was 14 and enrolled in a boarding school by his parents as a final test of his vampire powers, Ren came to hate men, which grew to humans in general. The same incident has apparently instilled a deep resentment of anyone wielding authority over him (though this was in the anime). In the manga when Ren was becoming a full-fledged vampire, he neglected meeting with a girl who wanted to be his friend. It may be implied that she was the only girl he's ever cared for romantically and is also one of his few, if not only, regrets. In the anime, however, he had attended an all-boys boarding school where he was drawn to another boy (who looked like a girl), that was stressed. This was probably added for humor. Voiced by Junichi Suwabe(Japanese), Jerry Szombathy (English)
Henry Marker
Karin Maaka's father, Henry Marker is a vampire who is portrayed as surprisingly human; he seems to act in a way one might call 'silly.' Despite Karin's teenage status at age sixteen, Henry still views Karin as extremely young.
Despite Karin's anomalies and flaws, he still loves her dearly. This is exemplified when Karin first suffered a nosebleed at a human school; Henry braved the sunlight to rescue Karin from the hospital workers, who would have realized she was a vampire upon examination, and is severely burned in the process. Henry suffers normal paternal jealousy when the possibility of love between Karin and Kenta Usui arises.
Henry is often pushed about by his wife Calera Marker, but has a fierce side which he rarely allows the world to see. Like most other vampires, Henry has a bat as a familiar, who remains unnamed, but has glowing red eyes. Voiced by Hiroshi Matsumoto (Japanese), Paul John Pistore (English)
Calera Marker
Calera Marker is the wife of Henry Marker and the mother of Karin Maaka. Calera seems to have dominant control over the Maaka family; she is constantly 'correcting' their opinions with a slap across the face from a slipper. However, there are occasions on which she bows to the will of her husband Henry. Calera seems much more ashamed of Karin than her father and seems to prefer Anju as a daughter. Appearances notwithstanding, Calera truly cares for Karin and worries about her safety even if she is strange for a vampire. When Karin did not return home for a whole night, she got worried and later, while crying, asked Karin not to make her worry so. Additionally, when Karin was kidnapped and nearly raped in the first novel, Calera was the one who came to her rescue and even comforted her terrified daughter until she said hugging her so close was causing her dress to wrinkle.
Calera seems to despise her mother-in-law Elda Marker, whom she seals away for a long period of time in her coffin in the Maaka family basement. When Elda escapes the coffin, Calera frequently offers to get rid of Elda, much to the horror of her husband Henry. She is furious at Elda in the last episode because the ceremony that was supposed to turn Karin into a real vampire actually was to increase breast size. In one special chapter of the manga, she had a crush on James Marker. Her taste in blood is for liars. Voiced by Emi Shinohara (Japanese), Chio Su Ping (English)
Elda Marker
Elda Marker is the mother of Henry Marker and the paternal grandmother of Karin Maaka. Elda was born in Transylvania, where she fell in love with the human Alfred. After Alfred betrays her due to circumstances beyond their control, Elda curses humanity and moves to Japan, where she is imprisoned by Calera Marker in her coffin prior to the birth of Karin Maaka. Due to Alfred's betrayal, Elda does not show respect for humans and drinks blood as she sees fit, leading the other Maaka family members to perceive her as a monster. She is generally loathed by Calera, possibly based on the classic mother vs. daughter-in-law conflicts. Elda is the only person feared by Ren, whom she almost killed with affection when he was but four years old. She managed to get on Anju's bad side within five minutes after they were introduced - by hugging Karin and crushing her breasts. Only Henry and Karin seem to be concerned with Elda's well-being, although even they are taken aback by some of her actions.
Elda bears a striking resemblance to Karin, so much so, in fact, that Karin's close friends mistake her for Karin—the only noticeable physical difference is the eye color, hair color, hair length and bust size. Elda appears slightly envious of Karin's bust. Elda's bust itself bears an unusual scar, a relic of the betrayal of Alfred. Vampires are not supposed to sport scars because of their rapid regeneration. Probably the presence of the scar is due to Elda's wounded heart.
Like other normal vampires, she takes away the emotions of humans she bites. But unlike the other vampires mentioned in the story, Elda is a vampire who has a taste in blood some humans consider bad. When she bites a human, she takes away their love. After she was released from her coffin, she bit dozens of humans in a park and was spotted by Kenta Usui. She also bit some schoolmates of Karin and attempted to bite Kenta too, even though she was only trying to prevent Karin getting hurt like she did. In this occasion Elda ran into Winner and found out about Karin's condition. She leaves in search for a cure.
Elda appears to care deeply about Karin. She believes that love between humans and vampires will always end in tragedy and bring only heartache. Elda does not want Karin to suffer like she did.
Near the end of the anime, Elda comes to a startling discovery regarding her unhappy breakup with Alfred during a fight with his distant relative, Winner Sinclair's grandfather, Victor. The discovery seems to have brought Elda some peace of mind, although it brought her to tears.
In the manga, she has a husband named James Marker that was also in the Maaka basement alongside his wife. She went to the school festival to extract blood from many students in order to help resuscitate him. However, after returning home to find her son standing in front of the door, they find out that James dried up during their hibernation. Elda soon afterward went back to sleep under the pretense of being bored, but it's obvious she holds a deep sorrow for her deceased husband. Elda is voiced by Yuri Shiratori (Japanese) Monica Rial (English)
James Marker
James Marker is the father of Henry Marker and husband of Elda Marker. He and his wife originally moved eastward to escape vampire hunters, along with other vampire families. It is revealed that only his generation of Markers escaped from Europe. In volume 5 when Elda is awakened, it is revealed that he has dried up during the couple's hibernation. Elda, who cared for her husband, was deeply hurt and went back to sleep to ease her mind.
At the end of volume 5, when the Maaka elders go to a meeting with other vampires, it is revealed that their species is dying out, with several deaths that year and zero births. It seems that Calera may have something to do with the high birth rate of the Maaka family, as it was James that brought her into the family.
Toward the end of the manga, Anju summons his soul and places it within one of her stuffed bears in order to ask him questions.
Bridget Brownswick
A vampire from the manga, she wants a pushuke (a vampire that produces blood, not sucking it, such as Karin) so she will be stronger. She hates humans more than Elda Marker, but also hates half-breeds more than her as well. She does not care for Tachibana-san, even though Tachibana had helped her find Karin.
Yuriya Tachibana
Yuriya is a half-vampire who appears in the eighth volume of the series. She moves into Karin's town at the behest of her uncle to seek out the Maakas and study Karin. Because she is half-vampire, she can also walk in the sunshine and only has to feed once a month, however she is also sterile and will never be able to have children. When Karin befriends her, she initially lies to her uncle and tries to protect her. She is nearly killed by Elda Marker after she is discovered, and later betrays Karin, reluctantly helping her uncle capture her so Karin can be killed to aid the other vampires become fertile again.
=Humans=
Fumio Usui
Fumio is Kenta's mother. Fumio Usui is always harassed by men when working, which always ends up leaving her fired. Fumio is gloomy, and tends to worry about Kenta a lot. In the first volume, Karin injects her blood into her, leaving her cheery and energetic and free of all unhappiness, and capable of punching a man who harassed her in the face. Kenta's worry for her sudden change in disposition is what caused him to suspect Karin was a vampire.
Fumio is a young mother, having gotten pregnant at the age of sixteen to her high school boyfriend (She is now 32). The reason Kenta is so estranged from his father is that his grandmother, Fumio's mother, forbade him from coming near her or Kenta ever again. Fumio and Kenta ran, fleeing their relatives and starting a new life somewhere else. Fumio is full of compassion and empathy, shown by her helping a young girl in distress when she found out about her situation. She is stressed and unhappy, but finds time to worry about others before herself. She also holds a slight friendship with Karin. Voiced by Aya Hisakawa
Maki Tokitou
Maki is Karin's friend since childhood and classmate, the daughter of a family who runs a bookstore, Toki Books. She is energetic and kindhearted. Maki protected Karin from bullies after Karin's first blood discharge in public caused her to become an object of ridicule and continues to assist her wherever and whenever she may; Maki has set her mobile to play the opening movement of "Also sprach Zarathustra, Op.30" by Richard Strauss whenever Karin rings. The only time a rift threatens to form between the two friends is when Maki falls in love with Winner Sinclair, only to be faced time and time again with the fact that he doesn't consider her as anything else than "Karin-san's friend".
On Christmas Eve, Maki goes to look for Winner to give him a scarf she knitted herself as a present. She finds him on the way to the airport to meet his grandfather. Maki tries to confess her love and give him her present, but is asked 'Can such trivial matters be discussed later?'. After this, Maki falls into misery and jealousy of Karin, who she later sees arranging a date during the holidays with Kenta. While waiting for Karin just before her date, she sees Anju, who has gone for a walk. They talk about Karin, before Maki's jealousy takes over as she begins to unravel the scarf she made. At the same time, Anju's blood awakens and she discovers that her taste is jealousy. She feeds on Maki and relieves her, to Karin's horror.
Later she runs into Winner again, he is confused because his grandfather revealed that the one he fell in love with turned out to be a vampire. He explains everything to Maki, who answers that no matter what she is, Karin is Karin. She gives him the scarf and tells him to go and protect her, then kisses him.
At the end of the final episode she is briefly seen with Winner at Julian's. Winner tries to remember her name, combining her first and surname together. She drags him off and apologizes to Karin and Kenta for the disturbance. Voiced by Mikako Takahashi
Alfred Sinclair
Alfred Sinclair is a character created for the anime adaptation. He is the ancestor of Winner and Victor Sinclair. The Sinclair's family history has written him down as the man who was seduced by the vampire, Elda Marker. He was both a poet and a writer who wanted a world where humans and vampires could co-exist without fighting.
Alfred's father both disapproved of and feared Alfred's vampire lover Elda and forbid him to see her. After he'd locked away his son to stop the relationship and lied to Elda, saying Alfred had asked him to break up with her for him, Elda was driven to a mad feeding frenzy by her rage and feelings of abandonment, leading Alfred's father to take advantage of the situation and make a bid to rid the world of her presence. During the raid on her hiding place however, Alfred managed to free himself and find her before the others got to her.
In a stroke of misfortune, Elda's den was set alight, leaving the two inside to be burnt alive. To save his love, Alfred offered her his blood as she could gain strength to escape the fire, promising he would never forget he loved her. Things did not go as he thought it would and once Elda bit him, his love was gone so all that was left was hatred for her and all vampires. In a trance he stabbed her in the chest, leaving a scar between her breasts. Briefly after Elda had fled, cursing all humans, he snapped out of this trance-like state and to his horror realized what he had done. Voiced by Tomokazu Sugita
Winner Sinclair
Winner Sinclair is the descendant of Alfred Sinclair and a vampire hunter and appears in the anime and novel adaptation of the series. As a child he lacked the strength and confidence to achieve his grandfather's wishes and become a vampire hunter. Then one day after walking out to a pier on a lake, Karin appeared and bit him. He would forever be altered, now he had the strength and the confidence in himself to achieve his grandfather's desires.
He follows the role of the blonde bimbo in the story and almost always ends up making a fool of himself. He has great confidence in his ability to protect the man on the street and is usually seen in a happy mood - especially when flirting with Karin. As a vampire hunter in a modern day world, he is not taken seriously by most human characters and is considered a joke by the vampires in the story, who just think he is annoying. His vampire-hunting skills are ineffective and are sometimes more dangerous to himself and innocent bystanders, rather than to his quarry.
He does show considerable redeeming qualities however, as he is the first member of the Sinclair clan since Alfred to break free from the mutually destructive vendetta against the Marker clan. He is genuinely well-meaning and not afraid to risk himself or his own happiness for others, even going so far as to ally himself with Kenta Usui - his self-nominated nemesis - in order to rescue Karin. He even manages to temporarily overcome his raging hemophobia in an effort to save Karin after she collapses due to a blood discharge. On one occasion, Winner managed to hold his own in one-on-one combat against Ren. Another positive quality worth mentioning is that Winner doesn't care whether he is mocked or ridiculed; he has stated that he is happy so long as the people he has vowed to protect are safe and happy and just goes on trying to protect them. Voiced by Kouki Miyata
Victor Sinclair
Winner's grandfather and descendant of Alfred Sinclair. As with the other Sinclairs, he is an anime adaptation character. Victor is disgusted by his ancestors seduction, often blaming it for his family's exile from society. He has a grudge against all vampires and, unlike his grandson Winner, is both an expert hunter and a skilled fighter. Also unlike Winner, slaying vampires initially comes before protecting humans for him. It was his desire for Winner to become a Vampire hunter that led to pushing Winner to his limits as a child. It was not until Karin bit Winner that Winner achieved this goal. However, Victor has never forgotten that Karin bit Winner.
His goal is to rid the world of the entire Marker clan, and reclaim the grace lost when Alfred fell in love with Elda Marker. At the end of the anime it is shown in a very decisive manner, however, that this 'goal' is born of delusion and general unhappiness with his life and possibly his harsh perceived destiny. Once a creative solution is applied to Victor's inner problems, he displays a much kinder personality. Voiced by Katsumi Chou
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