[Categories: Manga Reviews]
Lament of the Lamb Chapters 1-6: The beginning of an interesting vampire tale
I’m not a very prolific manga reader (as you might have guessed from the number of entries in this category) but I have a soft spot for vampire stories. For this reason Lament of the Lamb seemed to be a logical choice to add to my modest manga collection.
There are quite a few vampire tales in anime and manga, such as Hellsing, Vampire Hunter D and Blood: The Last Vampire. However, while the action-orientated ones are good in their own way I’ve always been more interested in the emotional drama rather than blood-soaked action. Arcueid from Tsukihime and the iconic D are good examples of vampires who have human emotions and show the condition of being an immortal from the inside; while this is often downbeat and tragic it is often the most interesting. This is where Lament of the Lamb comes in.
Kazuna Takashiro leads a normal life but has a mysterious past. His mother is dead, he has lost touch with his father and has been brought up by Shin and his wife Natsuko, old friends of his father. He has a fateful chance encounter with a strange girl when he visits his old home after being plagued by strange dreams; the girl turns out to be his long-forgotten elder sister Chizuna. She tells him the truth about his early life and the terrible secret of his family: they are both descended from a family of vampires!
The idea of vampirism being some sort of genetic or medical condition is hardly new, but Lament of the Lamb focuses more on the effect that it has on Kazuna’s life and relationships with those around him; it has more in common with Tsukihime and Ann Rice’s Vampire Chronicles novels than more action-packed horror fare. Upon discovering that he has not been spared from the family curse Kazuna has to come to terms with losing his normal life with the devoted Natsuko and Shin, with a life of blood-lust and suffering ahead of him. He finds himself pushing his friends away, particularly classmate and potential love interest Yaegashi.
Kazuna is a likeable enough character: initially the typical laid-back teen with no clear idea of his future before the sickness takes hold. His sister Chizuna is an interesting individual, showing coldness towards her classmates that is in great contrast with the fact that she is very protective of the brother she hardly knows. Her condition is more advanced than Kazuna’s, and requires medical help from Minase, a doctor and an old friend of her father’s - ultimately though, the condition is terminal. Because of this her attitude towards their fate is very matter-of-fact and she is deliberately quiet and distant.
The artwork conveys the feelings of foreboding and unease with slightly sketchy-looking characters (reminiscent of Otomo’s Akira manga) that steer clear of ‘cute’ or stylised designs to heighten the dark and mature themes. While there are no exaggerated gestures or movements the characters are very expressive and convey deep emotion and meaning - after all, this story is very character-driven and action scenes are nonexistent. My only criticism here is that it is hard to work out who is speaking and when: for a story as reliant on dialogue as this it would be helpful to have clearer labelling for the speech bubbles.
In summary I’ll certainly be picking up the next volume of Lament of the Lamb: even at this early stage it comes across as intriguing, bleak and atmospheric with an interesting cast of central characters. The artwork is hardly pretty, but that is precisely the point: the world that Chizuna and now Kazuna inhabits is a pitiless and lonely one but it is no less compelling for it. Crucially it approaches its subject matter in an unusual fashion that more than makes up for the slow pacing, which is fine by me.
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