Vassalord: Indescribably Delicious
Written: Jan 18 '09
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Funny, engaging, appealing graphics, wonderful characters.
Cons: Visual density sometimes overwhelming, abrupt transitions.
The Bottom Line: Vassalord has its flaws, but I'm giving it a 4.5 anyway -- sharp, funny, sexy, campy, outrageous yaoi.
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| rmthunter's Full Review: Nanae Chrono - Vassalord |
Nanae Chrono's Vassalord is another one recommended by the Manga Queen. Brace yourself: this one is totally outrageous -- action-packed, erotic, sexy, campy and funny.
Johnny Rayflo is a four-hundred-something-year-old vampire. Charles J. Chrishunds (whom Johnny calls "Cherry," much to his disgust) is his vassal, also a vampire, and a cyborg. They are also involved in a relationship that seems to be composed of equal parts love, hatred, and need, at least on Charley's part. It's hard to know what Johnny's thinking. You see, Charley somewhere along the line got religion, and his most cherished dream is to become a priest. (And, considering that, you can probably make a pretty good guess as to why Johnny calls him "Cherry.") Charley has also become a vampire hunter -- one of the most successful in the world, as it happens. But he will only feed from Johnny, since he feels that drinking human blood would take him farther away from God.
The two are involved in a series of adventures, the first two of which take place in this volume. First, Charley and Johnny are confronted with a vampire princess who commands Johnny to kill Charley and join her as her vassal. Charley, not unreasonably, objects: he's not ready to die, and, something that we only come to realize as the story progresses, Johnny is his and he's not giving him up. And we begin to get hints that Johnny has an agenda, but he's not letting on in any way what it might be.
The second assignment involves a strange offshoot of the Unitarian Universalist Church, a pastor who may or may not be on the up-and-up, a private investigator with her own set or priorities, and a very, very old vampire.
The third chapter is a flashback to when Johnny and Charley met. Johnny was living in a ruined church in a war zone -- we're not sure which war, but we do get a scene with horse-mounted cavalry -- when he is found by a small boy, dirty and starving. One clue that establishes that this is indeed Charley -- and gives us some insight into Charley's feelings toward Johnny -- is that the boy gets a haircut, the same haircut that Charley still wears. It's a delightful piece, genuinely heartwarming, building some real depth into both Johnny's and Charley's characters and revealing the strong foundation to their relationship.
It's hard to know where to start with this one. Maybe with "action-packed." The story starts with Charley trying to kill Johnny, who shrugs it off, even though Charley decimates his cyborg house staff. There are several sequences of equal intensity in this volume, and it's only fair to warn you that they can be close to completely incoherent visually. Partly that's a result of Chrono's penchant for using frames with fragmentary images, and partly due to the density of the graphics themselves: the reader has to take a lot on trust here.
Now, about the "erotic, sexy, campy and funny" part. That's mostly Johnny's personality -- he's just a big ol' queen (in the best possible way), with a completely admirable zest for life and joy in its surprises. He's totally outrageous -- playful, tricky, over-the-top enthusiastic, and always operating on more than one level. However, it doesn't take much in the way of guessing to figure out there's a lot more to Johnny underneath that. Charley is the perfect straight man: he's devoted to the Church, he's terribly stern, almost rigid, although he does show flashes of a healthy sense of humor -- a necessity in dealing with Johnny, and probably a facet of his strong sense of self-preservation. Johnny's repeated assaults on Charley's virginity are an ongoing element of the story, and in themselves provide a constantly updated picture of a constantly shifting relationship. There are also amazingly few scenes in which Johnny is fully dressed -- he seems to have an aversion to shirts, in particular -- and Chrono has opted for lean but meaty body types. There are no sex scenes -- at least, not yet -- but that doesn't keep Johnny and Charley from generating a lot of excitement.
The general attitude is an in-your-face realism -- or cynicism, if you prefer -- that seems basic to the whole concept. It shows up in most of the characters and just about every situation.
A couple of warnings: Chrono has a tendency to make abrupt transitions without warning or explanation, which can make the story a little hard to follow, and some of the action sequences are indecipherable because of the density of the graphics -- which otherwise are superb. The dialogue is sharp, almost an updated version of a Noel Coward play, but edgier. I'm prepared to forgive a lot on this one, though, just because it's so delightful.
There is a second volume, which I may review: the main story is short, there's a side story that's pretty dismal, and it's really just more of the same, although the development of the relationship is worth following.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
rmthunter
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Member: Robert Tilendis
Location: Close to the lake
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I've gotten pretty demanding, but it's worth it.
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