I thought I had reviewed the first two volumes of this high octane manga about a religious order who fight vampires, but apparently not. It is sexy and little perverted, it’s over-the-top, there are girls in love, girls in rivalries, and knights who use she/they pronouns. The series is fun and irreverent with really fun fights and so many ulterior motives among people supposedly working together.

Content warnings: Explicit sexual content, dubiously consensual medical experimentation, sexual harassment, sadism, masochism, torture, blood, consumption of blood, body horror, gore, death, violence, vehicular manslaughter, gun violence

In Volume 1, we’re introduced to the half-vampire Maria who falls under the care of papal heiress Dolores. They’re both out for revenge against the pureblood vampires who took the women closest to them. Maria’s sister has been kidnapped while the vampires killed Dolores’ sister. Volume 2 introduces the first real antagonist of the series, a purebred vampire who makes deadly chimeras, and we get to see more of life in the convent plus the complexity of Shannon and Dolores’ relationship. This gets further expanded on in Volume 3, which focuses mostly on Shannon. Plus, we meet a new character Kiki who’s a werewolf, who seems to be on a side against the vampires.

This series is one about women who love and, as importantly, want to fuck other women. There’s a whole lot of camaraderie, but also a whole lot of aggressive yearning. Beneath hard, horny exteriors are girls in a lot of emotional pain. The intrigue introduced makes their quests for revenge much less straight-forward than the high energy will want you to believe.

The rad world-build juxtaposes a modern world against supernatural creatures. There are swords, guns, motorcycles, blood drinking, and more, among other aesthetics that make this world feel lived-in, fun, and nods to tropes of monster hunting, urban fantasy, and vampire media. I’m invested in the church’s protection of their people but also in the characters resolving their own griefs and trauma. The way the main trio care about each in their own different ways also adds a bunch of development to them. The way sexuality plays into it as more than just a humor gag and makes nods to icons like Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune also makes this a compelling read for me, and I cannot wait for volumes 4 and beyond.