VAMPIRE DOLL will challenge readers who have narrow visions of what stories about such characters should be about.  Erika Kari’s manga, currently in release from TOKYOPOP, is cute, funny and even actually not very scary as horror manga goes.  It has dark elements to it, but they live in the shadows where they belong, and serve merely as a backdrop for the comic action that dominates the story.  A winning work in many ways, VAMPIRE DOLL is very PG friendly as vampire stories go. 

Set in modern Japan, the vampire doll of the title is none other than Guilt-na-Zan, a once fearsome vampire lord, sealed into a cross by Kyoeisai Yotobari in the late 19th century, where he remained dormant until recently when a descendant, Kyoji, resurrected his spirit and cast it into the wax body of a beautiful doll he made as a way of healing his fragile and lovely sister Tonae.  Guilt-na-Zan, now a girl in Goth-loli clothes, lives as the maid for the Yotobaris, becoming embroiled in the life of this 21st century exorcist and the problems he is facing with his brother Kyoichi.  Only able to revert to his original male demon form if he sucks blood from Tonae, Guilt-na-Zan must endure the humiliation of his current status and try to avoid detection by those who would happily see him destroyed. 

There is a rich, and growing supporting cast in VAMPIRE DOLL.  Vincent, Guilt-na-Zan’s closest friend from the previous life, (once a bat, now a human), remains a devoted but dimwitted servant to his master in his/her new form.  In previous volumes, we met some characters like Yugo Mariya, the man who taught Kyoji how to make dolls like the one in which our hero is currently living.  Also, we met Dante, regarded as Mariya’s greatest creation, who is a kind of mangafied Edward Scissorhands when he is on the hunt for his wandering master, the demon Dune and the school president Shizuka, who have ways to make Guilt-na-Zan’s life a little more complicated.  In Volume Three the cast of characters grows as crazed stylists arrive to give Guilt-na-Zan a makeover, and when he/she shrinks one day to the size of a chibi, we have a chance to dive deep into the past to meet some people who had a profound impact on this vampire’s life.

This volume has more of the fun and mayhem associated with the series so far. However, the key story involving Guilt-na-Zan’s past is an intriguing business, as it involves a visit to a small village with a curse, a beautiful girl with a pure heart and no fear of the undead, and a priest who is surprisingly empathetic towards Guilt-na-Zan in an hour of need.  This is not what one might expect in a vampire story.  It is certainly a change of pace for readers in VAMPIRE DOLL.  What impact this event in his life had is still to be determined, but what impact it may have on Guilt-na-Zan now, over a hundred years since the event, is an open question. 

VAMPIRE DOLL remains stylish, with richly drawn backgrounds, beautifully conceived characters and a refined sense of frame design and page layout. There is still much wit in the stories, but there is also now a deeper element with the back-story added to the plot.   Extras in this story, as in the second volume, include an abundance of short four panel comic strips after the main stories, making up stories in themselves.  There are also cut chibi drawings of the characters after each chapter and another short manga featuring the creator herself, explaining some of the aspects to the creation of this very funny book. 

IN SUMMARY:
VAMPIRE DOLL GUILT-NA-ZAN Volume Three is a comic romp that will exorcise you of any bad blood and leave you with a smile on your face.  Demon lords were never so much fun to be around as they are in this fresh, light hearted teen comedy from TOKYOPOP.