"Mingled among the sheep, there is a wolf. And by his own lonely fangs, he is bent..."
The expressions of the characters on the front cover is what you will have after you read this. The sadness you get from reading something emotional, something dreary. You'll have to read it to understand what I'm talking about.
Lament of the Lamb Volume 1: (by Kei Toume) Kazuna Takashiro is a high school student who has been aching lately, he feels something strange in his body. He learns about their family blood line and the disease that comes along with it. He has inherited the Takashiro blood, the blood of those who become monsters who drink fresh blood. His sister, Chizuna explains on how their family got the disease and also tells Kazuna that it is not curable. Later on, Chizuna sees a weakened Kazuna, craving for blood. She then cuts her forearm and let's the blood flow. Chizuna tells him that he can let go and let loose of the monster within him for he is not alone in the fall.
Thank me for not seeing a lot of stuff for the summary of the story. The first version was too long and had to many details that it will be much better if you read the whole volume that to write it out. Anyway, that's all you can get out of the story without ending up being spoiled.
Without reading anything, is this a guy, or a girl?
Art: Shounen in a very amateur-ish way. The mangaka's art looks like she was having a hard time dealing with a pen but that doesn't mean it's bad, it's good! Kei Toume's art is not detailed but because of this lack of detail, it enhances the dreariness. The cover art for each chapter are paintings of each character. It's like being inside an isolation box, where the sound of your heartbeat and your guts churning are audible enough to creep you. That's what I felt while I read this, the enormous amount of white space just gives me the chills.
The different faces of Kazuna.
The character designs sometimes suffer from same face and asymmetry. Chizuna and Yaegashi look like males some times but after trying to draw outlines and following it up with a permanent pen (which is ultimately, a mess) I can't put it up as an argument. Props to Kei Toume for making (probably) her mistakes into an artful meaning. No, really, the things I'm pointing at are probably her mistakes and she just went with them, just walking it out like a boss.
Yep, treating mistakes as art decisions and not as errors.
I can see this as being labeled as shoujo with the long dialogue about the characters' confusing relationship with each other and I can also see this as being shounen because of the art and the theme. If this were a novel instead of a manga, it would be in the "Teens/Young Adult Literature" section because of the setting and the confusing romance written in it but alas, it is not and therefore I will agree with the "Older Teen" rating that Tokyopop has given it.
Panels: It isn't like pink (manga review out now!) that has tons of white space where panels should go, but it's more like, it's part of the atmosphere. Kei Toume emphasized Kazuna's life by putting less detail and less color (screen tone) on backgrounds and just focusing on a character or an object. It's not a part of the story, but the art. It's more story telling than action so I don't expect a lot of motion going on except for major events.
What?
Story: Interesting, realistic, fantastic and mature. The disease as a reason for vampirism, yes! I think I've said this a lot of times already but the depiction of a vampire, modernized but still having that fictional sense to it, just gives this plot device, a big upgrade. The mature theme is seen at the end of the volume where Chizuna (kind of) confesses to Kazuna that he needs him. I'm not sure if this relationship will end as an incestuous one but that just rings the "18+ content, cannot be viewed by minors" alarm. All in all, I found the story to be interesting because of it's drama and not the "horror" thing going on with it.
She's definitely creepy.
Characters: Kazuna, he's the regular guy who gets bored with everyday life. He's definitely fit to be the main character in this series because he lives in reality and he's articulates what an average person's reaction to the bad news (Kazuna being inflicted with vampirism.) Chizuna is a nice complement to Kazuna's character, she gives him the reason to be the color gray. She's gray too, dull, lifeless and pale because of that cursed disease. Yaegashi is just there for an addition to the cast. She does play a role in Kazuna's life but it's so short lived. Development would probably start at volume 2, but as of now, we know about them and that's just it. We don't know about what's gonna happen between the two siblings, or what's gonna happen to Yaegashi, is she gonna get back together with Kazuna or what?
She can be pretty too, sometimes... Cover art for chapter 3
Bottomline: Read it. I definitely want my dear readers to give this a try. If you're up for something gloomy, pick this up. It's like an emo's paradise. C'est glauque. If you just want something like Twilight but a better story than Twilight, read this.
Addicting Level: 8/10
I can't really control myself (acting like Kazuna) from reading the next volumes, so I did. I currently am finished with volume 2 and I'm starting volume 3 next. It gets more interesting, but you have to wait for that. Mata ashita ne!
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