The first volume of Momo the blood taker starts with a brutal double murder. The bodies are dismembered and arranged artfully on a table set for a romantic dinner, the blood largely drained from their bodies. The lead investigator, a Mikogami Keigo, is at first glance the sort of protagonist you see in hour-long network TV dramas. He's observant and remarkably insightful, but also a disorganized mess who can't get into the crime scene initially because he forgot where he left his identification.
Keigo doesn't dismiss the suggestion of the rookie on his team that this could, somehow, be vampires (still considered things of myth and scary stories here), because Keigo knows vampires do exist. One with two faces killed his wife in a similarly artful way a decade ago, but let Keigo live because his blood wasn't ready. He's spent his off-hours since then hunting that vampire, and figuring out how to kill them. He even gets the one responsible for the murders that start the volume (turns out it was the cop who wouldn't let him in the crime scene.) At which point, the one he's been after appears, and Keigo has his chance.
Yeah, no chance at all. Two Face (The manga refers to him as "The Man With Two Faces", but I'm not gonna keep typing that) there is the real deal, no demi-vamp ("moroi", he says) like the ones Keigo's killed. He's waiting until he thought Keigo's blood would have the right taste of despair, and what better way to season it than letting the guy burn a decade believing he was building himself into someone who could take revenge for his murdered love, only to learn he's still helpless? Even when Keigo tries to bite the vamp out of sheer determination, it turns out to be some shadow image.
I don't love this, because I generally dislike these characters that can somehow anticipate and manipulate every move and individual makes, especially if it's over a period of literal years. But I guess if Keigo hadn't unwittingly danced to the tune, the vamp would have just found someone else to satisfy its palate.
Anyway, Keigo's dying and a little girl (that'd be Momo) with a lance appears and runs the vamp through, then asks Keigo if he wants to live. And since Two Face somehow isn't dead (he seems able to transfer himself to other bodies), Keigo says yes. So now he's got a sire that's 200 years old, but she looks about 8 and when he wakes up she's wearing lingerie and, geeeeeeez. At least Keigo is as bothered by the whole situation as me and tries to hustle out of there. But it's not so simple to return to his past life, and there's going to be some complications in his finding his target.
The volume ends on a cliffhanger that could go a couple of different ways. There's at least one other mystery person watching all this, whose motives or affiliation I can't figure. We just see them in a couple of panels, making cryptic remarks. Which still makes them less annoying than Momo's familiar, a demon thing the size of a chihuahua, but with a cow skull for a head. It's very loud and obnoxious, but also is easily frightened by both Momo and Keigo, and responds by pissing itself. I was sick of it after 5 pages.
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