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Giancarlo
is hundreds of year old. He has money, a servant, is wealthy, and lives
in a beautiful mansion. One night, he helps out a girl who is being
mugged. Her name is Jenny and he offers to take her to his place so she
can get cleaned up. Blue, Giancarlo's driver, drives them home, starts a
fire to help dry Jenny's clothes, and cooks dinner for them. One thing
leads to another and Giancarlo and Jenny end up spending the night
together. Detective Frost is a young police officer who becomes
interested in a string of murders. The seventh victim of the Vampire
Killings has just been found. All victims have been street walkers, have
two puncture marks on their throats, and all of their blood has been
drained. Detective Frost badly wants this case. When the lieutenant does
finally assign Frost to the case, the first person Frost thinks of is
Giancarlo. Finding circumstantial evidence that Giancarlo might be a
vampire, Frost tries to convince Jenny not to see the Giancarlo anymore.
Meanwhile, Giancarlo has been doing some investigating himself. Although
he is a vampire, he has not been killing the women. Giancarlo is no
longer interested in being part of the Dark World. He confronts Urso,
the demon that has been killing the prostitutes. But, Giancarlo is too
weak to succeed. Later, when Giancarlo tries to tell Jenny a little
about himself, she freaks out when she thinks that he has been murdering
her friends. Soon, she comes to realize that Giancarlo is fighting his
own demons as he wants to be on the side of the good, not the bad.
Finally, Jenny makes a decision to be with Giancarlo, but is it too
late? Urso has his eyes on Jenny and will stop at nothing to kill her.
The
Reformed is a
manga book written by Christopher Hart and drawn by Anzu. This book was
Lettered by Michaelis / Carpelis Design. There is
also some special extras in the following sections: A) Afterward by
Christopher Hart, B) Afterward by Anzu,
and C) Illustration Gallery. This manga book is intended for
readers ages 16 and up.
The
Reformed is a gothic tale about a
vampire with a conscious. He decides that he no longer wants to live the
life of a vampire. I had a little problem with this. Vampires are the
undead. They do not have a soul, which is why they can kill humans so
easily. they feel no remorse. They cannot fall in love. Yet, Giancarlo
does, which is why he wants to change. I was reading the Afterward by
Christopher Hart and he talks about how he had an idea breeze past his
brain to have a vampire with a conscious and how this idea intrigued
him. I had to laugh out loud. In 1997, Buffy the Vampire Slayer
aired on television and ran for seven years. One of the main characters
was Angelus "Angel", a vampire who had gotten his soul back because of a
gypsy curse. On his spinoff show Angel, David Boreanaz continued
playing Angelus and he would hunt down other demons and kill them while
helping out humans. Hmmm...Giancarlo sounds strangely familiar. Other
than this obvious parallel, I quite enjoyed The Reformed. The
storytelling was quite good and the artwork was good. I felt that the
manga, although it was very detailed, seemed a little primitive, like
Anzu is a new artist and hasn't quite got it all down yet. At least,
that is what I felt. It may not be true. Still, even with all these
minor things, I really enjoyed the book. I read it all in one sitting
and was a little bummed that it is a one-shot. I did like all of the
characters and the book ends with an interesting twist. Overall, The
Reformed is a great manga book and I highly recommend it to anyone
that loves books about vampires.
I rated
this book an 8½ out of 10. |
