Mar 25, 2026
Every time my best friend goes into his local manga store, he checks the used section for the shittiest looking BL he can find to gift me. Most of the time we spend our time laughing at the bad writing and awkward art, but sometimes we find gold.
The Vampire and his Pleasant Companions is a funny one, because it began publishing in 2016 but looks more like 2006. That's what drew the bestie's eye to it, after all. However, do not be deterred. Part of this is because the art in the actual manga looks better than the covers, but also because even if it
...
didn't, it's actually extremely funny and sweet.
Already it starts off with a strong hook. A lot of modern vampire stories leave out the whole "turning into a bat" thing, but not only does The Vampire and his Pleasant Companions include that, it makes it a very large plot point. Opening the story with a vampire getting accidentally frozen in bat form with the meat he had been drinking the blood from, shipped all the way to Japan, and then arrested for public indecency once he becomes human again in a country he doesn't speak the language of is fucking hilarious.
And I'm pleased to report it actually stays hilarious throughout. I kept pausing my reading to show my best friend all of the funny jokes. Much of it is a comedy of errors, but in a way that doesn't give secondhand embarrassment (in my opinion, anyways), but the main characters play off each other well.
The grumpy x sunshine dynamic is a crowd pleaser for a reason, but making the vampire be the sunshine one and the human be the grumpy one is such a fun way to play with it. It's so heartwarming seeing Akira show how kind he is underneath his gruff exterior and slowly warm up to Albert's affection. At the heart of it, both of them have been very lonely for a long time, so becoming roommates is good for both of them. It kind of feels like it pulls from both Vanitas no Karte and Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid, but I like this better than both of those.
However, there's one thing about this that really made me appreciate it. Not only does it talk about sexuality and homophobia*, but one of the characters is asexual, and seemingly rather aromantic as well. Now, the words aromantic and asexual are never used, but I think it's pretty realistic, considering these characters are 30 year old men who don't seem to know much about it. I always appreciate seeing aspec characters, but it also seems to be showing off how it is, in fact, a spectrum. Akira doesn't seem to have any sexual or romantic desires at all, but it IS a BL, and we do see him warming up to Al, who is obviously good for him, so we can assume he's going to return Al's feelings eventually. It's a slow burn, where the focus is more on character development than it is on romance, and that's for very good reason. There are some people in this world who do not usually feel romantic or sexual attraction, but it can happen under the right circumstances, and I think this manga is a very good representation of that.
TLDR, The Vampire and his Pleasant Companions is actually kind of peak?
*it's fine if a BL or GL doesn't do that, but I always appreciate the realism when it does
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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