The Masked Vampire King's Accidental Bride

Great Manga! I read it years ago and still recall how amazing it was!

Unlike Aihara's other work, Hot Gimmick, the drama and scenarios here are fairly believable and not exaggerated.  

Mimori is a much stronger character, and she becomes endearing right from her opening scene in the first volume. Her desires are so simple and relatable. She just wants to be pretty and wear the cutest uniform possible. Which girl can't relate to that? When I was Mimori's age, I definitely wanted to be pretty and wear cute clothes too.

Even the dramatic events that occur are relatively realistic. Sure, there are some things that might only happen in Japan or rarely occur in the US, but considering this manga was written in Japan, these situations feel real enough to avoid any potential cheesiness.  

Overall, an absolutely fantastic manga!

I'm really into complicated high school romances, and this one definitely delivers. It's a realistic high school series, and the kids' emotions and actions feel very authentic. Without spoiling the ending, I can say that it's the ideal conclusion for this story, given the characters, their ages, and their love stories.  

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<p>TL;DR: I absolutely wouldn't recommend this to anyone who doesn’t enjoy watching train wrecks (or who actually wants to see and learn from healthy behaviors and relationships), but I can wholeheartedly recommend it to those who do.

As a reader of the mangaka's other insane "shojo" manga, Hot Gimmick (in quotes because this one definitely isn't for teenage girls), I expected the worst coming into this one. While it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, I still got my fair share of unhealthy relationships being presented in a positive light, along with the enjoyment and amusement of seeing just how far it would go.

Setting/Art Style  
Unsurprisingly, the story takes place in high school. Can't really complain about that since it's the most relatable setting where the story can unfold, especially since this is written for teenage girls. While I'm at it, I can also mention that the art style is your typical shojo fare—pretty boys and girls with bubbly, cute backgrounds. However, many of them lack detail, focusing mostly on the characters with minimalistic background details. So while it’s passable, it lacks depth, shadows, and intricate designs, making it a rather bland art style overall.

Story  
It starts with an accident that is way too easily resolved given its severity (destroying a hard drive which could have won 2/3 of the main guys $1 million in a contest—couldn't confirm if yen or dollars). The two of them, along with her childhood friend, want revenge on her, though this plotline goes nowhere; it's mainly used to kickstart the story. Something milder would have worked just fine and might have been better, but good thing the mangaka enjoys setting up her stories this way, much like in Hot Gimmick, where the story begins with a presumed teenage pregnancy. From there, we can easily deduce just how unhinged the story will get. Soon after, some love interests form and they almost completely drive the narrative, the characters, and the dialogue.

The characters' motivations and feelings toward each other gradually feel more forced and hard to believe, which naturally affects the quality of the story. The three boys, the protagonist, and her "friend" (more on this later) are the only relevant characters, with only a few recurring and relatively important ones being the protagonist's parents and the parents of two of the three boys. The ending of this story, unsurprisingly, is exactly what you'd expect—it's a slap in the face to the audience regarding the development of the relationships between the characters. It seems like the author simply wishes for the audience to finish the story and imagine what happens next in their own minds. While I did find some enjoyment in reading the manga, the ending felt quite insulting, and that's not something I experience often with any story, so yeah, it's pretty bad from start to finish. If I were to say something positive about the story, it would be the subplot focused on the protagonist's family and how it portrayed their issues (it had its own problems, but this was fairly decent, at least). Oh, and about the story's themes, there pretty much aren't any, and I can only hope the title "Tokyo Boys and Girls" doesn't imply this was supposed to represent an average group of Tokyo teens, because that would be laughable, especially considering how everyone ends up by the end of the story. And if you've read this entire review, you can see why this also fails as a cute romance manga aimed at teenage girls.

Characters  
Wow, these characters are truly something else. We’ve got the innocent girly protagonist who goes along with whatever two or three of the main boys do, ending up nearly cheating on her boyfriend (or depending on your definition, she actually does cheat), then there's her "best friend," who, despite being portrayed as a hopeless romantic unable to move on from unrequited love, comes off as promiscuous and a fake friend to the protagonist. The male cast includes the protagonist's childhood friend, who, while flawed, becomes somewhat understandable since he's the only decent person in their group. Then there's probably the biggest cuck (or hopeless romantic) I've ever seen in a story, whose character arc and conclusion are downright atrocious. Lastly, we have the typical playboy who does whatever he pleases with whichever girl he wants, regardless of his friends' opinions (by the end, I questioned whether they were ever truly friends, as it didn't seem like they cared about each other's crushes and feelings, each competing for at least one of the main girls, which looked more like manipulation and seducing each other's partners). I should note that individually, I don't inherently have a problem with any of these characters. What bothers me is how their stories, emotions, behaviors, and relationships are portrayed positively when they shouldn't be, sending a poor message to the audience, especially since this story is marketed towards teenage girls. Now, I'll delve deeper into each character, so if you're not interested in spoilers about practically the entire story, skip ahead to the conclusion. If, however, you're like me and enjoy witnessing a train wreck or are curious about how bad a story/characters can get, read on.

SPOILERS AHEAD (UNTIL THE CONCLUSION)

Protagonist (Mimori) - While she's not the worst character in the series, she's still pretty bad. At her worst, she easily forgives her so-called "best friend" for acting like a jerk due to her insecurities without receiving a genuine apology and almost develops a romantic relationship with her friend's one-sided crush WHILE BEING IN A RELATIONSHIP, all because she feels sorry for him due to his current life circumstances. There's a vast difference between basic human decency and neglecting your boyfriend to help a male "friend" who clearly has romantic feelings for you. Aside from this, she's the typical cheerful, innocent, good girl, which is quite generic and predictable for a shojo manga.

Childhood Friend (Haruta) - Probably the most relatable character in the story (at least for guys), while he acts tough and even a bit like an asshole with his girlfriend (the protagonist), he's justified here since, unlike one couple from Hot Gimmick, he never physically or verbally abused her. The story tries to portray him as a tough but secretly sensitive guy, but it fails since he always gets angry with his girlfriend because she neglects him and spends time with another guy. On one hand, it's reasonable for him to feel this way, but on the other, he could communicate his feelings better, especially regarding his jealousy. His character is built as someone emotionally closed-off, but his relationship is constantly meddled with by his girlfriend, who is also his friend (kind of), preventing him from asking real questions or expressing his true thoughts. Every time the protagonist has a new secret, her male friend finds out first and rubs it in his face, causing conflicts between the protagonist and her boyfriend multiple times. Overall, he was done dirty by the author; what could have been a nice character arc of him becoming more emotionally vulnerable and fully repairing his relationship with his girlfriend ends up being cucked for most of their relationship. And let's not forget the open-ended conclusion regarding who the protagonist ends up with (even though they live together by the end), which was a perfect insult to his character since he's constantly mocked and neglected with no chance to redeem himself.

Playboy (Kazukita) - In the first half, he's presented as a total jerk who flirts with girls only to dump them once he's had his way. To solidify his status as a jerk, he uses the protagonist's girlfriend's unrequited feelings for him to manipulate her into doing whatever he wants, then tells her he's not interested in her at the end of the day (and this keeps happening throughout the story). In the second half, he develops feelings for the protagonist and is shown to be a miserable lonely person since he lives alone and his father doesn't care about him because he's too busy running a hospital. The author attempts to redeem him by developing his relationship with the protagonist, but it's pretty scummy to try to steal someone's girlfriend, especially since they know each other and are in the same class. This attempt at redemption falls flat, making him look like a selfish jerk. If the author wanted to redeem him, he should have AT LEAST left the two girls alone and tried to develop a real relationship with someone who is single and respects him, unlike what he does with these two. Additionally, he should have apologized to his friend (the cuck) for using the girl who likes him, repeatedly hurting her, even when the cuck asks him several times to leave her alone. By the end of the manga, it's implied that there's a possibility for him to end up with the protagonist, even though she's already in a relationship (which was the point of the story, their relationship development), she seems to pity him rather than like him, and her friend is also in love with him. So, if he was supposed to have a redemption story, it was horrendous.

The Cuck (Ran) - Where do I even begin with this guy? He likes the protagonist's friend, the girl who loves the playboy (who is also his friend). Occasionally, he tries to spend time with her, but usually, he gets cucked by his friend or rejected by her because she only has eyes for his friend. This goes on for about half the manga, then they have sex. Where did that come from? God knows. Probably because she's promiscuous. She gets rejected one too many times, becomes sad, he finds her, confesses, kisses her while saying he loves her, and she accepts his kiss while saying she doesn't love him back. Then she asks for a condom, and they do it—in the classroom (after hours, but there's still daylight). Later, we find out she gets pregnant from this encounter. So, he agrees to sleep with a girl who doesn't like him but is infatuated with his friend, taking advantage of her vulnerability to get laid (much like School Days, where the protagonist's friend engages in non-consensual sex with a broken girl, except School Days at least depicted such acts and relationships as unhealthy and morally wrong) and chooses to take responsibility for the child, even though she doesn't like him and would likely cheat on him in the future. He even asks HIS FRIEND to help make her feel better instead of doing it himself. The next step is probably letting his friend satisfy her in bed to complete his transformation into a full-blown cuck. That's pretty much all there is to him—a desperate man who becomes a cuck and uses a vulnerable girl just to get laid. If it weren't for this whole romance debacle, he'd be a decent person, quite light-hearted and seemingly a good guy, but this romance ruins his character beyond redemption. In the end, he ends up in a relationship with the promiscuous girl and wants to take accountability for the child, and she accepts this for some reason, even though she doesn't like him. While there's plenty to say about her part in all this, suffice it to say that keeping the child of a guy she doesn't like and ending up with him just so the kid will have a father (or because she wants the baby) is a tragic and screwed-up fate for a character. Good thing this is all painted in a lighthearted, positive, and heroic manner for him, am I right?

And now comes the character who motivated me the most to write this review: THE SLUT (Nana) - It hurts to even say her name, knowing she shares it with two of the best-written female characters I've ever seen/read (of course, the Nanas from Ai Yazawa's "Nana"). This dear little girl is everything an adolescent (regardless of gender) shouldn't be or look up to. She falls in love with a playboy who manipulates her and uses her one-sided love for his benefit, yet she still clings to him. While this is realistic—if, after all this, you still wish to be with someone, you should think more about yourself and your parents, because this sure as hell isn't healthy and shouldn't be glorified to teenage girls in a story meant for them. Moving on, her crush starts spending more and more time with her friend. Naturally, instead of blaming the assertive person she likes, she gets mad and stops talking to the innocent, defensive girl caught in the middle, despite the latter not wanting any of this to happen. While this happens in real life, it doesn't excuse this type of behavior driven by rage and a lack of rationality, nor does it make her less of a terrible person, especially considering all the things she does throughout the story. Then comes the heavy hitter. She sleeps with (or rather gets taken advantage of by) the aforementioned guy while in a vulnerable state, knowing she doesn't like him. While most of the fault lies with him, her giving in to temptation still isn't the right thing to do, even though it makes her appear more human. Unfortunately, this tragedy is depicted positively, as she becomes pregnant, decides to keep the baby, and lets him take responsibility for it, all while not liking him romantically and still being in high school. Nice way to ruin the lives of at least three people (including herself) with this decision. But before finding this out, she suddenly forgives her friend (though she did nothing wrong) and resumes speaking to her for selfless reasons, like spending more time with the guy she likes and having someone to eat lunch with. She doesn't even attempt to apologize for being a terrible friend and person who was in the wrong but moves on as if nothing happened in the next scene when they're seen together again. But oh well, all's well that ends well. Finally, the dialogue that broke me when it came to this character: while getting closer to the cuck to kiss him, she tells him she loves the other guy while simultaneously telling him to "love me above anyone else." Now that's a sick joke if I ever heard one. And this is how her character arc ends. In the end, she's a fake friend who doesn't care about her supposed best and only friend, loves an abusive guy while rubbing it in the face of the guy who impregnates her, and decides to keep his child and stay in a relationship with him despite not really liking him romantically, all while still in high school. This relationship and her child have a bright future ahead of them, ngl.

Something else worth mentioning about all these characters is that they repeatedly betray each other by failing to keep confidences between themselves, especially the protagonist and the playboy. There are also numerous dialogues, behaviors, and decisions that, while not crucial to remember, contribute to the many flaws these characters already possess.

Conclusion  
While I enjoyed every moment of this train wreck, I can't in good conscience give this manga more than a 4, with the enjoyment factored into the final score. Because if there's one thing a story shouldn't do, it's glorify unhealthy behaviors and relationships, especially when marketed to children or teenagers, who might mistakenly think this is anything close to what normal, healthy, and functional human beings should be like. The only type of person I’d recommend this to is someone who tolerates and has fun with questionable writing decisions and approaches this manga knowing it should be taken as a comedy, not a serious romance story, since it miserably fails at the latter.</p>

I assure you this is only the beginning, it gets way better ?

why are you doing this author

It was a good time-passer.... Not a complicated story, average plot and average comedy. Even though it was an average read, it was really a good time-passer while waiting your fav novel update coming, u can read this first... It was short but ok... For beginner reader, this system novel was a good start... Ok that's all from me...