Manga Review – Happiness Vol 1 by Shuo Oshimi (3/5 stars)
Reading Level: Older Teen
Genre: Manga/Horror
Length: 192 pages
Publisher: Kodansha Comics
Release Date: September 27, 2016
ISBN-13: 978-1632363633
Stand Alone or Series: 1st book in the Happiness series
Source: Bought
Rating: 3/5 stars
“Nothing interesting in happening in Makoto Ozaki’s first year of high school. HIs life is a serise of quiet humiliations: low-grade bullies, unreliable friends, and the constant frustration of his adolescent lust. But one night, a pale, thin girl knocks him to the ground in an alley and offers him a choice.
Now everything is different. Daylight is searingly bright. Food tastes awful. And worse than anything is the terrible, consuming thirst. The tiny shames of his old life have been replaced by two towering horrors: the truth of what will slake his awful craving, and high school itself.”
I got this through the Amazon Vine program to review. This was a pretty typical modern vampire story. Not a lot happens in this first volume. I thought it was okay but wasn’t really impressed by the story all that much. I know it can take awhile for some of these manga to get moving, but this one definitely didn’t grab me with the first volume.
The artwork is okay but not spectacular. It’s better than some manga I read but not as good as say Vinland Saga or Black Butler.
This volume mainly introduces us to Makoto; who undergoes some small amount of bullying at his school. When he is attacked by a vampire one night he notices that his temper and needs are slowly changing. Nothing really surprising or all that creative here. This is a pretty typical vampire story set in modern day Japan.
Overall this was okay but I wasn’t that impressed and probably won’t continue the series. I guess I would recommend to those who enjoy modern vampire manga set in a high school setting.
This book goes towards the following reading challenges:
– Mount TBR Reading Challenge
– You Read How Many Books? Reading Challenge
– Graphic Novel Reading Challenge
– Paranormal Reading Challenge
