23 replies to this topic

[BakeNeko-Chan]

The new manga by Mochizuki Jun, writer/artist of Pandora Hearts.

 

 

Summary:

 

N​oe is on a mission to go to Paris and find the Book of Vanitas, a cursed book supposedly created by Vanitas, a vampire hated by all. However, the existence of the Book is unknown. On his journey to Paris, Noe meets a vampire doctor who carries a book that fits the description of the Book of Vanitas.

 

​An​ English translation of the first chapter can be found here:​https://drive.google...MUk&usp=sharing

 

 

I will share my thoughts after I get to read the chapter tonight. Remember to use spoiler tags appropriately.

[Mixer]

Urgh, I love her art so much

 

But I think I'll read this when there are more chapters (since it's a monthly) 

[Hanabi]

Urgh, I love her art so much

 

But I think I'll read this when there are more chapters (since it's a monthly) 

same

[Phantom_999]

I may give this a shot It has a very good premise and If Pandora Hearts is anything to go by it will be a SOUND QUALITY work

[CloudMountainJuror]

I read the first chapter a bit ago when it first came out. I'll just paste my thoughts from Tumblr here.

 

Chapter 1

Overall, I’m kinda conflicted about VnC’s first chapter.

 

I like Noe well enough so far, and the setting is interesting. The art is fantastic, of course. So far, the way Mochijun is incorporating vampires is engaging and fresh enough (though the “true name” mechanic desperately needs some elaboration pretty soon to make much sense).

 

The action sequence was neat, though one particular part wasn’t as clear as it probably should have been (What did Noe do after he threw Ameila in the air? It looks like he flipped backward, but Vanitas wasn’t in front of him when he did. And then in the next panel, he’s right in front of Vanitas punching him? Huh? How?). I wonder if that’ll be touched up for the final release or not.

 

What mainly concerns me, though, are some major possible inconsistencies which need to be addressed for the chapter to make any sense:

1. Vampires and their eye color
   So, vampires apparently have red eyes. If this is a distinct feature of vampires in this world, then how did Noe not immediately recognize Amelia was a vampire? Surely those red eyes would jump out at him as soon as he sees her face, especially if he’s a vampire himself. I’ll forgive Vanitas not immediately recognizing Noe, since he’d only seen him from a distance and even commented on his mistake afterward, but Noe not noticing Amelia’s red eyes upon first few glances is dumb. This needs elaboration, badly.
    
2. Vampires can be affected by fellow vampires’ bites
   Noe is bitten by Amelia and not only bleeds profusely, but also observes how his strength is being drained. It’s important to note that this is not the poison; he only later realizes she had poisoned him. This is the bite itself affecting him, draining his strength. So, vampires are affected by other vampires’ bites in this world? And they bleed excessively, too? Is this an intentional departure from the norm, or a slip-up in the writing? Or is this a completely normal detail in the vampire mythos, and I’m just ignorant of its existence?
    
3. Vanitas
   Vanitas claims he is a regular human being. Let’s just ignore the obvious fangs he has in this series which has vampires in it. The real question is: if he’s just human, how did he survive that massive fall from the air transport? Not to mention that he fell head-first. If he is just a regular human being like he claims, then that makes a negative amount of sense, and is a glaring problem.

I really, really hope the next few chapters clear these up, or at least address them in some way.

Edited by CloudMountainJuror, 08 January 2016 - 02:13 PM.

[Gaara's hair]

I read the first chapter a bit ago when it first came out. I'll just paste my thoughts from Tumblr here.
 

Chapter 1

Overall, Im kinda conflicted about VnCs first chapter.
 
I like Noe well enough so far, and the setting is interesting. The art is fantastic, of course. So far, the way Mochijun is incorporating vampires is engaging and fresh enough (though the true name mechanic desperately needs some elaboration pretty soon to make much sense).
 
The action sequence was neat, though one particular part wasnt as clear as it probably should have been (What did Noe do after he threw Ameila in the air? It looks like he flipped backward, but Vanitas wasnt in front of him when he did. And then in the next panel, hes right in front of Vanitas punching him? Huh? How?). I wonder if thatll be touched up for the final release or not.
 
What mainly concerns me, though, are some major possible inconsistencies which need to be addressed for the chapter to make any sense:

• Vampires and their eye color
  So, vampires apparently have red eyes. If this is a distinct feature of vampires in this world, then how did Noe not immediately recognize Amelia was a vampire? Surely those red eyes would jump out at him as soon as he sees her face, especially if hes a vampire himself. Ill forgive Vanitas not immediately recognizing Noe, since hed only seen him from a distance and even commented on his mistake afterward, but Noe not noticing Amelias red eyes upon first few glances is dumb. This needs elaboration, badly.
   
• Vampires can be affected by fellow vampires bites
  Noe is bitten by Amelia and not only bleeds profusely, but also observes how his strength is being drained. Its important to note that this is not the poison; he only later realizes she had poisoned him. This is the bite itself affecting him, draining his strength. So, vampires are affected by other vampires bites in this world? And they bleed excessively, too? Is this an intentional departure from the norm, or a slip-up in the writing? Or is this a completely normal detail in the vampire mythos, and Im just ignorant of its existence?
   
• Vanitas
  Vanitas claims he is a regular human being. Lets just ignore the obvious fangs he has in this series which has vampires in it. The real question is: if hes just human, how did he survive that massive fall from the air transport? Not to mention that he fell head-first. If he is just a regular human being like he claims, then that makes a negative amount of sense, and is a glaring problem.

I really, really hope the next few chapters clear these up, or at least address them in some way.

S

The lamp shatters and the room goes dark. And Noe says red eyes that shine in the darkness. I don't think it's just red eyes.

Edited by Gaara's hair, 08 January 2016 - 07:24 PM.

[CloudMountainJuror]

@Gaara's hair

 

First: I'd recommend spoiler tagging that, just in case.

 

Second:

Fair point that it is only after they shine in the dark that he calls attention to it, but then there's still the issue of her having red eyes in the first place. Which is still potentially an issue on its own. Unless there's a decent chunk of the human population in this world who have red eyes (which would need to be explicitly addressed in some way, considering humans don't normally have naturally red eyes), then the fact Amelia had red eyes in the first place should have been an immediate red flag (no pun intended) that she was a vampire, whether they shine in the dark or not.

Edited by CloudMountainJuror, 08 January 2016 - 07:12 PM.

[Gaara's hair]

@Gaara's hair

 

First: I'd recommend spoiler tagging that, just in case.

 

Second:

Fair point that it is only after they shine in the dark that he calls attention to it, but then there's still the issue of her having red eyes in the first place. Which is still potentially an issue on its own. Unless there's a decent chunk of the human population in this world who have red eyes (which would need to be explicitly addressed in some way, considering humans don't normally have naturally red eyes), then the fact Amelia had red eyes in the first place should have been an immediate red flag (no pun intended) that she was a vampire, whether they shine in the dark or not.

I feel the pun was intended...

 

S

Well yeah, but seeing how it's a manga I think it's okay to have an unnatural eye color. Unless it's an author that doesn't like unnatural eye or hair color which I don't know if Jun is. Though just, because someone has red eyes you can't just call someone a vampire.

 

"Are you a vampire?"

 

"Ugh, just, because I look this way doesn't make me a vampire!"

 

But this is chapter one and I don't know what's going to happen so

[trang95]

Oh, I'll definitely check out the first chapter later!

[Gaara's hair]

Oh, I'll definitely check out the first chapter later!

I see a mermaid everywhere in otaku square...

[trang95]

I see a mermaid everywhere in otaku square...

I see a stalker...

[Gaara's hair]

I see a stalker...

You should report him. Stalkers are dangerous :(

[BakeNeko-Chan]

I meant to post my thoughts on the chapter days ago, but my internet is stupid so I'm several days late.

 

Chapter One

Overall, I enjoyed the first chapter. The art is of course gorgeous, the setting is engaging, and I like the characters that have been shown so far. Not a perfect chapter, but a decent introduction to the series, I think.

 

 

I read the first chapter a bit ago when it first came out. I'll just paste my thoughts from Tumblr here.

 

Chapter 1

 

The action sequence was neat, though one particular part wasn’t as clear as it probably should have been (What did Noe do after he threw Ameila in the air? It looks like he flipped backward, but Vanitas wasn’t in front of him when he did. And then in the next panel, he’s right in front of Vanitas punching him? Huh? How?). I wonder if that’ll be touched up for the final release or not.

 

What mainly concerns me, though, are some major possible inconsistencies which need to be addressed for the chapter to make any sense:

1. Vampires and their eye color
   So, vampires apparently have red eyes. If this is a distinct feature of vampires in this world, then how did Noe not immediately recognize Amelia was a vampire? Surely those red eyes would jump out at him as soon as he sees her face, especially if he’s a vampire himself. I’ll forgive Vanitas not immediately recognizing Noe, since he’d only seen him from a distance and even commented on his mistake afterward, but Noe not noticing Amelia’s red eyes upon first few glances is dumb. This needs elaboration, badly.
    
2. Vampires can be affected by fellow vampires’ bites
   Noe is bitten by Amelia and not only bleeds profusely, but also observes how his strength is being drained. It’s important to note that this is not the poison; he only later realizes she had poisoned him. This is the bite itself affecting him, draining his strength. So, vampires are affected by other vampires’ bites in this world? And they bleed excessively, too? Is this an intentional departure from the norm, or a slip-up in the writing? Or is this a completely normal detail in the vampire mythos, and I’m just ignorant of its existence?
    
3. Vanitas
   Vanitas claims he is a regular human being. Let’s just ignore the obvious fangs he has in this series which has vampires in it. The real question is: if he’s just human, how did he survive that massive fall from the air transport? Not to mention that he fell head-first. If he is just a regular human being like he claims, then that makes a negative amount of sense, and is a glaring problem.

I really, really hope the next few chapters clear these up, or at least address them in some way.

 

spoiler

It looked to me like Noe did a complete 360 backflip in the air so he landed facing Vanitas, then punched him. But it is hard to tell clearly and I'm not positive so don't take my word for it to mean too much.

 

1. That part had me scratching my head too. If red eyes are a distinctive feature of vampires, how could Noe not notice right away, especially when he is also a vampire? Unless red eyes are something common or not unusual to non-vampires is this universe as well, which I suppose is possible but probably not likely. Or is there some other explanation that for some reason Amelia's eyes did not show up red until seen in the dark? This definitely needs to be addressed to explain how Noe could miss something that should have been obvious at first close glance.

 

2. Your guess is as good as mine on that. I don't know if it's something common to vampire lore or not, so I'm just going to wait and see what MochiJun intends to do with this one

 

 

3. Vanitas does say after the fall, "We alive? That makes no sense." And it obviously doesn't, if he is a normal human like he says, which I'm not convinced he is anyway. Since we didn't see how they reached the ground, it could be something that wasn't shown in this chapter will later explain how they -- especially Vanitas -- were able to survive the fall.

 

Regardless, since it's the first chapter I will give it a chance to amend its more confusing, apparent inconsistencies in the next few chapters. Hopefully it will, because there's definitely some interesting potential here.

 

Edited by BakeNeko-Chan, 12 January 2016 - 05:46 PM.

[trang95]

Hmm, I'm gonna wait until the chapter is uploaded on a website. I read a few pages, but I'm a bit annoyed buy the small size (I know I can increase the size, but still...).

[CloudMountainJuror]

Hmm, I'm gonna wait until the chapter is uploaded on a website. I read a few pages, but I'm a bit annoyed buy the small size (I know I can increase the size, but still...).

 

Unfortunately, that might not happen. Fallen Syndicate, the group who scanlated Pandora Hearts, were planning on scanlating VnC, but they were shot down by Hachette Book Group (the company Yen Press belongs to).

 

Link: http://fallensyndica...te-final-update

I meant to post my thoughts on the chapter days ago, but my internet is stupid so I'm several days late.

 

Chapter One

Overall, I enjoyed the first chapter. The art is of course gorgeous, the setting is engaging, and I like the characters that have been shown so far. Not a perfect chapter, but a decent introduction to the series, I think.

 

 

 

spoiler

It looked to me like Noe did a complete 360 backflip in the air so he landed facing Vanitas, then punched him. But it is hard to tell clearly and I'm not positive so don't take my word for it to mean too much.

 

1. That part had me scratching my head too. If red eyes are a distinctive feature of vampires, how could Noe not notice right away, especially when he is also a vampire? Unless red eyes are something common or not unusual to non-vampires is this universe as well, which I suppose is possible but probably not likely. Or is there some other explanation that for some reason Amelia's eyes did not show up red until seen in the dark? This definitely needs to be addressed to explain how Noe could miss something that should have been obvious at first close glance.

 

2. Your guess is as good as mine on that. I don't know if it's something common to vampire lore or not, so I'm just going to wait and see what MochiJun intends to do with this one

 

 

3. Vanitas does say after the fall, "We alive? That makes no sense." And it obviously doesn't, if he is a normal human like he says, which I'm not convinced he is anyway. Since we didn't see how they reached the ground, it could be something that wasn't shown in this chapter will later explain how they -- especially Vanitas -- were able to survive the fall.

 

Regardless, since it's the first chapter I will give it a chance to amend its more confusing, apparent inconsistencies in the next few chapters. Hopefully it will, because there's definitely some interesting potential here.

 

 

Spoiler

I agree that there is definitely potential in the story, and I hope it lives up to it. It's very possible that all of the concerns I listed are going to be addressed and will make perfect sense in retrospect - especially since this is Mochijun we're dealing with - but the uncertainty makes me a bit uncomfortable.

 

Good news is, the second chapter is coming out pretty soon. Hopefully that will help, at least a little.

[trang95]

 
Unfortunately, that might not happen. Fallen Syndicate, the group who scanlated Pandora Hearts, were planning on scanlating VnC, but they were shot down by Hachette Book Group (the company Yen Press belongs to).
 
Link: http://fallensyndica...te-final-update
 

Spoiler

I agree that there is definitely potential in the story, and I hope it lives up to it. It's very possible that all of the concerns I listed are going to be addressed and will make perfect sense in retrospect - especially since this is Mochijun we're dealing with - but the uncertainty makes me a bit uncomfortable.
 
Good news is, the second chapter is coming out pretty soon. Hopefully that will help, at least a little.

Really? Well, I guess I have to satisfy myself with this then.

[CloudMountainJuror]

Really? Well, I guess I have to satisfy myself with this then.

 

If you have the money available, you could shell out $3 a month to get high quality digital translations of the new chapters from Yen Press on the same day they release in Japan. Potentially expensive in the long run, but it's an option. I'm probably going to spend the money each month myself while I can, at least for the first few chapters.

Edited by CloudMountainJuror, 14 January 2016 - 01:01 AM.

[trang95]

 

If you have the money available, you could shell out $3 a month to get high quality digital translations of the new chapters from Yen Press on the same day they release in Japan. Potentially expensive in the long run, but it's an option. I'm probably going to spend the money each month myself while I can, at least for the first few chapters.

Hmm, I'll think about it. At least the art is worth it!

[BakeNeko-Chan]

Here's an English scan for the second chapter: https://vk.com/album...08268_227096953

[CloudMountainJuror]

Finally got around to reading the second chapter.

 

I feel a lot better now

Not all of my questions were answered quite yet, but through Noe asking Vanitas what he is and the interesting world-building, they were addressed in some way, and the story's world feels a lot tighter now.

 

Vanitas' and Noe's interactions are great; I loved the moment where Noe told Vanitas that Vanitas was helping him and not the other way around.

 

I feel a lot safer with the series now, and eagerly await the next chapter.

Edited by CloudMountainJuror, 14 February 2016 - 12:58 AM.