A Vampire in the Bathhouse Review

Luka Edelmondt Finsternis is a handsome vampire from another realm, with everything he could ever want, including magic powers, servants and a castle of his own. However, after one night of hard drinking, he lacks the one thing he needs: a good hangover cure. A quick peek into the human world reveals the Full Moon Bathhouse, a place with warm baths and the perfect cure for his hangover. One trip to the bathhouse and he falls in love with it! The problem however, is that to remain in the human realm with his powers, he needs to form a pact with a human and drink their blood. Perhaps the son of the bathhouse owner, Sakura, could lend a hand?

A Vampire in the Bathhouse is (so far) Niko Izuki’s only published work. According to the author notes, it started as a one-off before they were given the opportunity to expand the idea. It’s not made clear if the story ran its course, or was forced to wrap up early, but either way it’s all available in this single volume. The title is marked as a comedy and slice-of-life series, which is true for the most part, but it also has supernatural elements (as expected, with vampires involved). There’s a mild flavour of Boys’ Love in the mix too, including neck-biting between the two men, Luka being forward with his emotions, and a few teasing moments all the way up to the end, but no confirmation of mutual feelings at the end, sadly.

There are also a few additional magical creatures and demons that come into the human world/bathhouse across the book, and they all fall for the bathhouse and befriend Sakura too. While reading this book, it reminded me (rather randomly) of Tenchi Muyo! as both series have hot baths (Tenchi Muyo! has hot springs  so, close enough) and both have a main male protagonist that seems to be a magnet for suitors from other realms (Tenchi draws in beautiful alien women from across space, Sakura attracts various handsome men from the demon world). It’s very surface level as comparisons go but it was enough to make me want to stop reading, and watch Tenchi Muyo! again, because I did not find this book a particularly enthralling read.

Perhaps it’s due to the length of the story not giving the author time to breathe or wrap up any plot threads, but the main issue is that nothing is resolved or thought through in a satisfying way. For example, Luka is a vampire, and it’s clear he’s from another realm, but there are no vampire rules or mythology set up in this book. He can go out into the sunshine and despite saying he needs blood to keep up his magic, if Sakura doesn’t provide it there are few consequences. I did like the ‘elf’ ear design and the way his ears increase or shrink depending on his magic use, however.

The demon world overall is also quite wishy-washy; there’s no sense of how big it is or what other races there could be, so when demons drop into the story, including a king at one point, the sense of importance is minimal because nothing has been set up to make it feel significant. It also doesn’t help that a few demons end up being dropped in and out of the story, just as unceremoniously. This is a shame as the few we do get could have been interesting recurring characters if given the space to develop.

Then there’s Sakura, the main human character, who at the start of the book is looking after the bathhouse, and at the end is told he would be good enough to run it by himself one day, but there’s no development in between. Sometimes a character doesn’t need a massive character arc to matter, but the manga does make a point of him being surprised at his own skills at the very end, like he came to a realisation, but the material beforehand doesn’t connect to it sadly. There are also missed opportunities, including one where Sakura is offered an opportunity to go to the demon realm, only for it to happen off-page! Luka does get a few good moments with Sakura’s little brother, cute lessons about finding your inner strength, I’ll give the author credit for that as well. This manga is very ‘slice-of-life’ from the tone to the story, so anything outside of that doesn’t seem to be what the mangaka was going for.

The art of the manga is very nice; the character designs for all the male characters are eye-catching, and the details of the bathhouse from the texture of water to the steam are well presented. There’s a bonus page at the end with the layout of the bathhouse, which is a nice detail. There’s also good use of comedy, such as using the bathwater splashing up to cover up the ‘naughty’ bits of the demons who show up in the bathhouse unexpectedly. I hope the mangaka uses these skills in another series some day.

The translation by Jacqueline Fung is also good; it’s an easy ready with nice translation notes at the end.

Read a preview of the manga on Kodansha’s website.

Our review copy from Kodansha was supplied by Diamond Book Distributors UK.

A Vampire in the Bathhouse© Niko Izuki/Kodansha Ltd.