Dracula’s on the Night Shift Review
Yura Toraki is a young man working the night shift at a local convenience shop, when he suddenly witnesses a helpless young girl being attacked by a vampire with minions who’s hoping to make her their snack. Yura, however, also happens to be a vampire himself, an old one at that, and he saves the young lady’s life. But it turns out that she is Iris, a member of an underground organisation called the Dark Cross Knight, agents trained to kill disorderly phantoms of all kinds – including vampires! She has been sent to Japan, as punishment for messing up in the main headquarters in England, and Iris says she’ll spare Yura if he agrees to help her. Can the unlikely pair figure out a way to work together without bloodshed?
Dracula’s on the Night Shift is a heavy tome, containing all three volumes of the manga adaptation, which is based upon the light novel series of the same name. However, the light novel hasn’t been licensed in English (at the time of writing) and it should be noted that the light novel sits at five volumes as of June 2022, but the manga only covers the first novel, with the book making it clear that no more volumes will be made. I feel it’s important to note this, as the manga ends like a first chapter of a long running series, it does not conclude in a satisfying way. If you go into it like you’re watching an anime series covering just a few volumes of the manga, with an open end to allow room for a second season (that will likely never come) then your expectations should be set. I didn’t know this going into the book, so I was a little saddened at the ending, but also hoping that if this book is successful enough, then we’ll get the light novels in the future, so I can maybe see how this series ends.
Despite the open-ended conclusion, what does this story have to offer? Well if you’re a fan of vampires, this book is a tasty snack. Although there’s no deep lore dive into the vampire mythology in this universe, and there’s other monsters at play in this book too (like werewolves) what we do get is interesting. Yura seems to have similar elements to your typical brooding vampire, like Angel from Buffy the Vampire Slayer or Bill from True Blood, as he normally keeps to himself and has a tragic backstory. But he’s not as dark as those characters can get; he’s more mellow and happy to help others in need, and has family bonds that keep him grounded and relatable to the audience. I also liked his relationships to the few human characters we see outside of the main conflict as this makes him feel like a well-rounded protagonist.
As for Yura’s vampiric powers, they’re varied and quite different. There are a few typical ones like fangs and hypnotic eyes, and like most vampires, he avoids going out in the sunlight. However, if he does and turns to ashes, he can revive once the sun goes down, some vampire-lore which I’ve not seen before. I also like his attack powers, like turning into dark mist, almost like a swarm of bats, to travel far and quickly, and drinking different types of blood from different animals has different effects, which again, is fun and unique to see. I assume there’s more in the light novels, but what’s here is visually and textually interesting. I also really like the world of ‘phantoms’ (as the series calls the various monsters across the book) as we get the aforementioned werewolves, which are of European descent, we get Ghouls with similar stories to the Yaobikuni, which is Japanese folklore, and we get some Romanian mythology in the climax of the book (which I won’t spoil but I was excited to see). Considering that the Dark Cross Knights deal with beasts from around the globe, it was really nice to see the series use elements from all over the place to make the world-building in this series feel more intricate and full.
Speaking of the Dark Cross Knights, we don’t get a full explanation of their organisation, as it’s hinted that the Japan branch is a lot quieter than other branches, but with their religious ties and titles like ‘Sister’, they made me think of the Order of Magdalene from Chrono Crusade. They’re not exactly the same (the uniform designs are less like nuns’ habits and more Catholic schoolgirl-style) but they do have their own quirks like silver bullets for guns, holy/blessed hammers and so on. The main representative of the organisation we follow is Iris, whose main ‘quirk’ is that she can’t talk to men: whether it’s someone hitting on her at the bar, or a simple deliveryman, she shrinks up completely, but she has no problems talking to the vampire Yura, which adds nice tension and subtext to their dynamic. Iris comes across as a bit air-headed and incompetent at times, but she grew on me as the series goes on and she shows more of her courage and intelligence.
I was less fond of her when she finds herself in a typical love triangle with Miharu Hiki, a descendant of the ancient Yaobikuni who’s very much in love with Yura. Whilst Miharu is an interesting character, a lot of her dialogue is mostly ‘tell not show’ when it comes to her affections for Yura. It’s clear they have a lot of history together but we never get a flashback and see how it started, so her behaviour just comes across as the attempts of a comedic possessive girlfriend. It doesn’t help that her introduction, midway through the series, is full of exposition dump: what her family does for Japan, their connection to the Dark Cross Knights, and Yura’s big motivation for the second half of the book. The long conversations drag the middle section of the manga down considerably, sadly.
Art is provided by Tsukumo Asakusa, with character designs by Aco Arisaka. The manga overall looks very nice: the characters all have good, striking designs and the various phantoms we get are really menacing. I especially liked the big reveal of the main villain of this book at the end, covering two pages to really make them look intimidating. My only criticism is the action; I found it hard to follow sometimes as some of the panels don’t focus on the right things to help make the battles flow and this makes for a confusing read.
Translation by Kevin Gifford is a good, easy read, with lots of translation notes at the back to help with some of the more nuanced features of Japanese daily life that occur in this book.
Dracula’s on the Night Shift is a fun read overall. I really like the world-building and characters, to the point that I was sad to find a lack of resolution at the end. Maybe we’ll get the full story one day via the light novel, but if you like all things vampire-related and are prepared for an open-ended conclusion, it’s worth a read.
Our review copy from Yen Press was supplied by Diamond Book Distributors UK.
