Vamp!

Vamp! is the first volume in the eponymous Vamp! light novel series.

Synopsis
To be added.

Chapters
All chapter translations are 'unofficial'.

Author's Afterword
Click "Expand" to read a summary of Narita's Afterword.

Ryohgo Narita thanks the reader for reading Vamp!, and shares the backstory behind Vamp!'s name: The editor-in-chief's original suggestion "Vamp Heaven" had to be rejected because a comic of the same name already exists. After taking Narita's own suggestions into consideration ("Blood?!" | "It's Blood!" | "Bloodfoam~!" | "Vracula!") - or rather, not taking them into consideration - the editors came up with "Vamp!".

Narita adds that he asked a "certain Bokusatsu author" (presumably Masaki Okayu) for suggestions, and that his colleague suggested "sometime like 'Vamvamvam!' or 'Sluuurp!'." Narita jokes that it seems exclamation marks are used for all his works, and that maybe he took a wrong turn after writing for Dengeki.

Potential Spoilers
Returning to Vamp!, Narita introduces it as a vampire story, part of a very mainstream, popular genre. He urges the reader not to misunderstand him as greedy - ever since his first work, Baccano!, he has always aimed to write a popular mainstream work. He adds that he only ever writes things he wants to write, and Vamp! was one of them.

Narita explains that he is a fan of manzai (a style of Japanese comedy where a funny man and a straight man exchange jokes at a blistering pace) and is always itching to use characters who would normally be sideline characters as main characters. He cuts himself off before he can accidentally give anything away about Vamp!'s main character, for fear of the publisher's and bookstores' wrath.

Narita says that when he came up with Vamp!'s plot, there was already a Dengeki-published vampire story out called Kyūketsuki no Oshigoto (by Suzu Suzuki). He read up to Volume Six of the work, its afterword stating that Volume Seven would be the final volume. Having heard that Suzuki planned to release a novel in March, Narita assumed the novel was the final vampire story volume and decided to write Vamp! for a May release.

Suzuki informed him in person that his March release was a new work, causing Narita to flounder in a panic. He was reassured by the editor-in-chief Suzuki and Wada that no reader would possibly think that Narita's novels were in the same genre as Suzuki's vampire story. Not knowing whether to laugh or cry, Narita pointed out that Ueo's Akuma no Mikata had begun a vampire arc and said he wasn't sure if "someone like him" could butt in on the market. Wada said that those other stories still don't overlap with Narita's modus operandi. The editor-in-chief wanted to know if Vamp! was really a vampire story.

Narita tells the reader that he loves vampire fiction in all mediums, and has watched so much of it that he is afraid of overlapping with others' stories. He figures that the vampire genre is deep enough to be bottomless, always full of potential. Admiring cinema's power in cementing the idea of a vampire into people's minds, Narita hopes to improve his own writing to the point where he can achieve something similar.

To the readers who are wondering why Val's identity remained a mystery in Vamp!, Narita confides that Val's true form was actually revealed in great detail somewhere in the novel. He adds that either Val or the mayor might be the main character for the next novel, but notes that whether the next novel actually happens depends on how well Vamp! sells. He concludes the afterword with thanks to multiple people, and signs off with: "March 2004, at home. With lips trembling from watching Sasaki Hirohisa's Chi o Sū Uchū, Narita Ryohgo."

Trivia

 * By Autumn 2006, the publishing company Seven Seas Entertainment had licensed Vamp! and announced plans to publish the series in English for Western markets, with Vamp! projected for April 2007 and Vamp! II for 2010. Its license ultimately fell through, and no Anglophone-market publishing company has since picked up the series.