Mito is one lucky son daughter of a gun when it comes to hiding her gender. Let’s recap all the ways she should have been exposed:
- In an outdoor bath
- Being carried on Ren’s back
- Trying on a dress at a dress shop
- Wearing only a dress shirt as pajamas
I probably forgot a few (not to mention Ruka bites her neck to eat), but while most stories involving keeping someone’s real gender a secret have close calls, she’s not doing a good job of avoiding these close calls in the first place. Or avoiding them at all, really.
Mito’s male form is causing a lot of confusion among herself, Ruka, and Ren. Mito feels inferior to regular girls and worries she’ll be abandoned by Ruka. Komori reveals to readers why Ruka must be careful in his search for his destined partner. Ren, who hasn’t had any friends before, tries to be supportive of Mito even as his own background comes into the picture.
If I were to write down typical traits of the two male love interests in a shoujo manga, there wouldn’t be too many guys in the center of the Venn diagram. But both Ren and Ruka would. Ruka is the cheerful, encouraging one (and is a nerd), but he’s essentially vampire royalty. Ren, who is rougher around the edges and is just as lonely as Mito, is not the main love interest. I really can’t stress how important it is that neither one is going to be the type to draw out negative feelings in readers. You don’t often see a male character telling another that they love them, which would balance out the “guys don’t cry” stereotypes this series brings up. However, since readers know the truth about Mito, Ruka’s declaration is hollower than it should be.
The first volume didn’t spend a lot of time at school, but this one is even less. Volume 2 finishes up the trip, there are events like a shopping excursion and a group date, each with their own doses of gender-bender humor. At least so far, the manga avoids the dorm hijinks you’d expect like in Hana-Kimi or Girl Got Game. It also avoids Mito getting in trouble just for Ruka to show up and show off his vampire powers even though it focuses on the heart-beating moments.
Which Vampire Dormitory does in spades. Mito’s words and expressions make Ren and Ruka flustered, and the manga can be quite sensual with the bite sequences and the heated gazes. This manga isn’t aimed at a very mature audience, but it has enough excitement to feel risque.
However, it’s what Komori says about vampires that set off story alarms in my head, and I can’t help but suspect that he’ll be a bigger player in volumes to come. With Ruka and Mito’s attraction to each other growing rapidly, we’ll have to see if Ruka’s vampire heritage will pose a problem for the two of them rather than being the reason they’re drawn to each other. That might be a bigger issue than Mito’s hidden identity, since she’s putting very low-key effort into hiding it.