Killing Me!: Unedited Audio and Recording Notes

Manga Details

• Author: Enma Akiyama

  • Notable people they had as assistants

    • Hikari Komaru (adult comic artist)

  • Other works

    • Killer in Love (2020-2022, 5 volumes, MangaONE/Ura Sunday)

      • A chance connection made between college students escalates into murder, violence and intimidation. How far will a man sink for love?

    • Noa is My Senior, and My Friend (2023-present, 2+ volumes, Weekly Young Jump)

      • An exceptionally normal guy, Rihito, forms a close friendship with a senior at his game company, the buxom human train wreck Noa, who maintains a cool appearance at work but is in reality a huge dweeb prone to embarrassment and tears. A very cute and funny series personally recommended to all listeners by Maxy Bee.

• Publishing

  • Magazine:

    • Comic Cune (said like kyoon)

      • a seinen magazine mostly known for 4-koma, and a good bit of yuri.

  • Run Dates: 

    • September 27, 2017 to May 26, 2018

  • Series it replaced

• Choco Basket by Kasu Komeshiro

• Series that replaced it

  • Shouan to Hibi. by Asa Kuwayoshi (not a planned replacement, just a coincidence of timing)

• Series that started at the same time as it (well, one month before):

  • Bento Yabaiyo Minase-san by Dark

  • God-chans by Yukiwo

  • It’s Tough Being Neeko by Alde Hyde

• Chapters/Volumes: 

  • 10 chapters/1 volume

About the Manga

• Plot

  • Saki is your average vampire hunter school girl whose classmate Miyoko is in love with her. Just one problem tho: Miyoko is a vampire oh nooooo! Saki and Miyoko regularly fight, with Saki using her special vampire fighting weapon: a gun, to fail to hit her while Miyoko just drinks Saki’s blood. Saki catches Miyoko trying to suck the blood from another girl and gets insanely jealous, tearing her away. 

  • Miyoko says some creepy shit about how she only likes young girls and Saki will eventually stop having tasty blood. Saki gets mad at her for being “selfish” which like, yeah I guess that’s one thing wrong with it. Saki is convinced that her inability to kill Miyoko is because she’s being controlled by the vampire. Miyoko however says she doesn’t have that power. Damn I wonder what it is then? A Vampire Hunter named Chiharu who knows Saki shows up to kill Miyoko and is horrified and confused when Saki saves her. 

  • She then attacks them at school, attempting to stab Miyoko, but Saki steps in front of her and blocks the knife with her forearm. She tells Chiharu that Miyoko is HER prey and only SHE gets to kill her. Miyoko kisses Saki and tells her that she hopes she keeps trying to kill her for a long time. Then in some extra stories Saki bites Miyoko’s neck which makes her blush and fly away, and Miyoko discovers after looking through some pictures that she actually met Saki years ago when Saki was much younger and helped her find her parents.

• Characters

  •  Saki

    • Tall lady

    • Has a gun

    • Perfect honor student

    • Vampire hunter

    • Actually wants to kill Kujou

  • Kujou Miyoko

    • Aggressive lesbian fampire

    • Bullies saki for being a newbie

  • Chiharu

    • Actual vampire hunter

    • But a newbie so kawaii

Why it Failed - VB

• Nothing really happens so it kinda just gets boring

• This progressed way too fast so it just all felt very frantic

• There really isn’t anything of value reading this

• I feel plot got kind of bland, like there’s more vampire jokes they could make like they don’t dive into invitations, photographs (the challenge of taking a selfie with your vampire GF), counting etc

What it Did Well - Jordan

• Art is cute

• It is just cute and fun, lmao the vampire wears sunscreen

• I like the bat form

• The realization of feelings was a cute moment when she realizes she isn’t hypnotized

Where it Could Have Gone - VB 

• We coulda not know she was a vampire for a while maybe! C’mon! A little intrigue!

• I kinda like Saki being the biggest tsundere ever, have her legit want to kill Kujou and Kujou being smug as fuck the entire time

• Introduce some more horror elements maybe they have a werewolf/catgirl girlfriend or something or a succubus who just can’t find love

• This needed some actual background to explain things and make the world seem more fleshed out

Misc Thoughts

• Is everyone tsundere?

• How did Kujou not have a vampire-proof house? And wait don’t vampires need permission?

• Funny enough a bonus comic is by Tamamusi who did cheerful amnesia which I’ve read

• Maxy Bee thoughts:

  • Enma Akiyama is very online, so I’m including a lit link to all of their socials and pixiv and stuff. It’s here, it’s this whole sentence. 

  • The intention of the title is to be like “you’re killing me” in English, which Akiyama interpreted as being like “I love you to death”. English is not Akiyama’s strong suit, but I kind of get it. 

  • Chapter ten, which is not a part of volume 1 (which had already come out), is only six pages, and is immediately followed by a cancellation notice. 

    • This cancellation is described as being at the author’s convenience, and in a long-since deleted tweet Akiyama explains that it had become difficult to continue due to their circumstances, and apologizes to readers. No further explanation has ever been given. 

  • Despite its cancellation, volume 1 was picked up by Yen Press, and available in both digital and physical forms.

  • Vampirism and lesbianism have a long history, from Carmilla to Dracula’s Daughter to Hammer Horror to (ugh) Lesbian Vampire Killers, and manga is no exception to this. Vampeerz, The Vexations of a shut-in Vampire Princess, Kiss the Scars of the Girls, I Won’t Let Mistress Suck My Blood, loadsa stuff out there.

Final Verdict

• Six Word summary

  • Community

    • Tucker: Sucking the excitement from queer romance

    • Maxybee: Cancellation? More like lesbian ‘read’ death.

    • AuraPaladin: Good luck writing the plot summary!

    • Chickenwarlord: It's all bite and no bark | Only succeeded in killing my interest

    • duderocks the earthchild stan: The authors barely disguised biting fetish

    • Glornak Ironspawn: I was late to the party and yall got all the good ones. | A better love story than Twilight.

    • GreyPotter 👑 King of Questions: Vampire Hunter unfortunately into being bitten

    • MaxyBee: About the same level as Twilight

    • Portal man: ask for consent before drinking blood | why saki sucks at vampire hunting

    • Quack.: Vampire Yuri's never been this boring

    • Redblade: Actually worse love story than twilight |  Is this consensual non consent roleplay?

    • Resident Warhammer Nerd: This Vampire Series Sucks, No Bite

    • Sbubby: Doesn't suck - It Scrapes and Licks!

    • Spike: The Fetishist Dream Is Killing Me

    • The Wolf The Wood The Trafalgar: My vampire lesbian experience with loneliness | Manga was killing me with boredom

  • David: The gay vampire agenda wins again | It’s Vampire Hunter with Lady D

  • Jordan: n-no don’t suck my blood blush

  • Guest: I wish this was Tokyo Ghoul???