Killing Me! Vol 1 Review

I was completely onboard for the premise of this manga, which features a yuri romance between a vampire and a vampire hunter. I mean, that sounds super fun, right? Unfortunately, the end result is something of a letdown…

Synopsis:

Saki Fujimiya is a graceful and accomplished honor student by day and a deadly vampire hunter by night. She has a mission: to eliminate Miyoko Kujou, a mischievous and flirtatious vampire who is also her classmate. Despite Saki’s best efforts, the crafty Miyoko always manages to maintain the upper hand and seems to regard their fights as a game, rather than a serious threat. However, when one of Saki’s fellow hunters shows up and decides to take Miyoko out herself, things get a bit more dangerous and Saki is confronted with the possibility that she might not want Miyoko dead after all.

Review:

If I was to pick the thing that I liked the most about Killing Me!, it would be its adorable art. Everyone in this manga looks super pretty and Miyoko’s cat-like pupils and the glimpses of her fangs we see when she smiles make her appear at once other-worldly and cute.

If I was pick what I most disliked about this manga, it would be how dull and uninspired the story feels. The first 6 chapters follow a pretty predictable formula: Saki comes up with a plan to kill Miyuki, but the vampire easily turns the tables and ends up teasing her or sucking a bit of her blood instead. In more deft hands this battle of wits could have been exciting, but Saki’s plans are all pretty simple and her most successful scheme just involved catching Miyuki by surprise because she used a different weapon than usual. The mangaka clearly was aiming more for comedy than thrilling action or drama, but most of the jokes failed to get much of a laugh out of me. The chapters are also pretty short and I didn’t feel like we really got to know either of our leading ladies very well. Not a lot of time is spent developing their characters, exploring their feeling or on anything that would have given this story some depth. It would have been nice to have learned more about Saki’s upbringing and the training process to become a vampire hunter or maybe to get some insight into why Miyuki likes Saki so much. The other vampire hunter showing up in the last couple of chapters is the closest this manga gets to having a plot and, while these chapters are more dramatic, they still aren’t as engaging as they could have been if I cared more about these characters or their relationship.

Killing Me! is ultimately more boring than it is bad and normally I might have been tempted to rate this manga slightly higher. Maybe I’d even pick up the second volume to see if it improved before deciding whether to drop it or not. But it doesn’t look like there’s going to be a second volume. As of this writing, the manga has been discontinued in Japan, so this appears to be all she wrote. This volume doesn’t end on a cliffhanger or anything, so you could certainly consider the story to be complete as is, but I didn’t find the conclusion to be particularly satisfying, so I would recommend giving this title a pass.

Final Score: 5.5 out of 10.

For more information on Killing Me! visit Yen Press’ website: https://yenpress.com/9781975357245/killing-me-vol-1/

Be sure to let me know what you thought of this manga in the comments. You can also check out more of my yuri manga reviews:

• Cocoon Entwined Vol 1 Review
• I Married My Best Friend to Shut My Parents Up Review
• Our Wonderful Days Vol 1 Review
• A Tropical Fish Yearns for Snow Vol 1 Review
• Still Sick Vol 1 Review
• Scarlet Vol 1 Review