Thanks to barnesandnoble.com for the image.

Rated “T+” for “Older Teen”

Fifteen-year-old Tsukune Aono, perhaps the world’s most average student, can’t gain admission into any high school, except Yokai Academy.  Soon after his arrival, Tsukune discovers that Yokai should be named “Monster High,” because every single student is a monster.  Tsukune is ready to quit until he meets the spunky and beautiful Moka Akashiya.  Moka is the cutest girl in school, but she’s also a vampire who loves to sink her teeth into Tsukune’s neck once in awhile and sip his delicious blood.

In Rosario+Vampire, Vol. 2, a new cast member joins.  Yukari Sendo is a pre-teen witch, smart enough for high school, but physically unable to defend herself – until she attaches herself to Moka.  Next, the new art teacher not only has Moka under her thrall, but practically every other female student.  Tsukune is suspicious, but does he need to be?

Finally, Tsukune and his friends at the Newspaper Club fun afoul of the Yokai Academy Protection Committee, a violent branch of the Student Council.  They claim to be about peace and order, but they may really be a Yakuza-style gang of bullies looking for protection money and bribes.  When the Newspaper Club strikes back, they end up ensnared in a deadly web.

THE LOWDOWN:  For whatever reason, Rosario+Vampire reminds me of those old Hanna-Barbera Saturday morning cartoons that I once watched.  [Maybe, it reminds me in some way of many of the Scooby-Doo” series].  Like other titles in VIZ Media’s “Shonen Jump Advanced” manga, this shounen (boys’ comics) title has lots of mild sexual innuendo, salty language (“slut” comes up a lot), chesty young women, and lots of groping of said chesty young women.

Creator Akihisa Ikeda’s manga looks, in terms of the art, and feels, in terms of the story’s tone, like Yasuhiro Kano’s Pretty Face, and like Pretty Face, this is fun to read.  Cartoon monsters, a cartoon macabre setting, and cartoon high school hijinks: it’s good light reading.

POSSIBLE AUDIENCE:  Fans of “Shonen Jump Advanced” titles will definitely want to try at least one volume of this sexy, supernatural, action-oriented series.

B+