<b>Review of Servamp #3 by Sarah</b>
Mahiru and his Servamp/servant-vampire Kuro (who’d much rather laze around in his cute black cat form, being fed tidbits by Mahiru’s friends) are helping with the local Summer Festival when a briefcase is handed to them as lost property. So when they come across a young man, Tetsu, searching for something, Mahiru assumes that he’s found the briefcase’s owner. But it turns out that Tetsu is looking for a black coffin... and before that strangeness can be explained, a blast nearby sends people running in panic, crying out that a briefcase has just exploded. Mahiru realizes in horror that he’s been targeted by Tsubaki’s vampires; how can he dispose safely of the suspect lost property without being blown to smithereens?
Tetsu is, it turns out, another Eve and the inhabitant of the coffin is the Servamp of Pride, Hugh the Dark Aljornon* (why not Algernon, Seven Seas?) III. So now four of the seven Servamps and their masters have appeared: Sloth, Lust, Pride and Envy. Just when Mahiru believes he’s about to learn more, he and Kuro are kidnapped by the mysterious organization C3, who seem to know a great deal about the Servamps and their nemesis, Tsubaki. Mahiru also experiences for the first time the very real danger of being kept apart from his Servamp for too long. C3’s methods are unorthodox – but are they potential foes, or allies? And, worst of all, can Mahiru survive being separated from Kuro?
One of the biggest problems faced by mangaka when embarking on a longer story is keeping the balance right when introducing new characters and new complications; too few and the story can drag, if not handled with skill, too many and the whole enterprise loses focus and collapses under the weight. By Volume 3, Strike Tanaka is in some danger of overloading <em>Servamp</em> with way too many characters before we’ve had a good chance to get to know those she’s already introduced. In fact it’s a challenge faced by any genre mangaka who creates a story involving groups, especially with the number seven involved (here it’s seven + 1 Servamps, seven Eves/masters, several antagonists and now C3 and its operatives).
The tendency (seen in earlier chapters) to have things happen between one frame and the next reappears here, sometimes making the storyline difficult to follow. Chapter 16 is an example of muddled storytelling where events occur but not necessarily in the right order and the reader is told vital pieces of information in a haphazard way. This is where the Jin (Djinn in the French version) make their first appearance, but the explanation as to what they are and why they’re such a threat comes out in a rather offhand way, as if the mangaka was trying too hard to ‘Show’ not ‘Tell’.
All that said, I still find <em>Servamp</em> refreshingly different enough to want to keep reading. Strike Tanaka’s attractive character designs are very easy on the eye and she can pull off a stunning action panel (Mahiru and Kuro making a high-speed exit on the ‘broom&rsquo
with the best of the shounen mangaka. She also has a nicely quirky gift for throwaway putdowns (Kuro’s speciality) and Mahiru’s earnest, good-hearted desire to do the right thing is endearingly portrayed. The bickering amongst the Servamps is amping up and entertaining to read as are the little 4-koma strips at the end. And the arrival of yet another new character at the end – Misono’s father – sets the tone for the next volume. The preview page asks, ‘Is the Servamp War about to begin?’
<b>Final score: 7 out of 10</b>
Mahiru and his Servamp/servant-vampire Kuro (who’d much rather laze around in his cute black cat form, being fed tidbits by Mahiru’s friends) are helping with the local Summer Festival when a briefcase is handed to them as lost property. So when they come across a young man, Tetsu, searching for something, Mahiru assumes that he’s found the briefcase’s owner. But it turns out that Tetsu is looking for a black coffin... and before that strangeness can be explained, a blast nearby sends people running in panic, crying out that a briefcase has just exploded. Mahiru realizes in horror that he’s been targeted by Tsubaki’s vampires; how can he dispose safely of the suspect lost property without being blown to smithereens?
Tetsu is, it turns out, another Eve and the inhabitant of the coffin is the Servamp of Pride, Hugh the Dark Aljornon* (why not Algernon, Seven Seas?) III. So now four of the seven Servamps and their masters have appeared: Sloth, Lust, Pride and Envy. Just when Mahiru believes he’s about to learn more, he and Kuro are kidnapped by the mysterious organization C3, who seem to know a great deal about the Servamps and their nemesis, Tsubaki. Mahiru also experiences for the first time the very real danger of being kept apart from his Servamp for too long. C3’s methods are unorthodox – but are they potential foes, or allies? And, worst of all, can Mahiru survive being separated from Kuro?
One of the biggest problems faced by mangaka when embarking on a longer story is keeping the balance right when introducing new characters and new complications; too few and the story can drag, if not handled with skill, too many and the whole enterprise loses focus and collapses under the weight. By Volume 3, Strike Tanaka is in some danger of overloading <em>Servamp</em> with way too many characters before we’ve had a good chance to get to know those she’s already introduced. In fact it’s a challenge faced by any genre mangaka who creates a story involving groups, especially with the number seven involved (here it’s seven + 1 Servamps, seven Eves/masters, several antagonists and now C3 and its operatives).
The tendency (seen in earlier chapters) to have things happen between one frame and the next reappears here, sometimes making the storyline difficult to follow. Chapter 16 is an example of muddled storytelling where events occur but not necessarily in the right order and the reader is told vital pieces of information in a haphazard way. This is where the Jin (Djinn in the French version) make their first appearance, but the explanation as to what they are and why they’re such a threat comes out in a rather offhand way, as if the mangaka was trying too hard to ‘Show’ not ‘Tell’.
All that said, I still find <em>Servamp</em> refreshingly different enough to want to keep reading. Strike Tanaka’s attractive character designs are very easy on the eye and she can pull off a stunning action panel (Mahiru and Kuro making a high-speed exit on the ‘broom&rsquo
with the best of the shounen mangaka. She also has a nicely quirky gift for throwaway putdowns (Kuro’s speciality) and Mahiru’s earnest, good-hearted desire to do the right thing is endearingly portrayed. The bickering amongst the Servamps is amping up and entertaining to read as are the little 4-koma strips at the end. And the arrival of yet another new character at the end – Misono’s father – sets the tone for the next volume. The preview page asks, ‘Is the Servamp War about to begin?’ <b>Final score: 7 out of 10</b>