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Rosario + Vampire is a Japanese manga series originally serialized in Monthly Shōnen Jump, between August 2004 and June 2007; a single extra chapter was serialized in Weekly Shōnen Jump in September 2007. In November 2007, the manga began regular serialization again, now in Jump Square, and is ongoing. The first series is currently being published in North America by Viz Media. At the current rate of publication, this arc should be finished by the end of the year. The second series has yet to be confirmed as licensed.
An anime adaptation also titled Rosario + Vampire aired in Japan from January to March 2008. A second season, titled Rosario + Vampire Capu2, began airing on October 2, 2008 and ending on December 24, 2008, continuing the story of the first 13-episode series and introducing more characters from the manga, as well as new anime-exclusive characters.
The general plot is
Tsukune Aono is a painfully average high school freshman who is unable to get into any private school, due to his disappointing test scores. The only school he is finally accepted into turns out to be a secret school for supernatural monsters (youkai), who are disguised as humans. The first student he meets is the beautiful Moka Akashiya, who becomes his friend for an unusual reason; she is a vampire, and is attracted to the sweet taste of his human blood. Tsukune quickly realizes his admission into a monster school must have been a mistake and fears for his life.
Despite Moka's vampiric nature, she is a kind girl and Tsukune quickly falls for her. He decides to stay and be near her, despite the various dangers. He must hide his human identity from the faculty and other students, while trying to keep his grades up and avoiding conflicts with the various not-so-mythological monsters lurking around campus. Tsukune soon discovers that when he removes the "rosario" around Moka's neck, she transforms into a super-vampire, stronger and more powerful than almost any other creature at the school. However, in this state, she has an entirely different personality, often cold and merciless, so the rosario is only removed in dire emergencies. Tsukune is the only person who can physically remove it to transform Moka, and only in the case of an emergency (the rosario remains physically bound to Moka, while Tsukune attempts to willfully remove it in a moment immediately preceding, and sometimes interjecting - a malignant situation).
As the school year continues, Tsukune becomes involved with other students who start out as enemies but who are won over into becoming his friends: Kurumu Kurunu, a succubus who originally fixated on Tsukune as both a means of propogating her species and a weapon against Moka (whom she originally hated for attracting all the male students away from her); Yukari Sendo, an eleven-year-old witch who is the smartest student at the academy (but prejudiced against by the other students since witches are not truly considered monsters, but somewhere between monsters and humans) who developed a major crush on Moka after Moka defended her against a pack of bullies (and therefore thinks no mere boy is good enough for Moka!); Ginnei Morioka, a second-year student who is not only the head of the school Newspaper Club but also a werewolf and a confirmed skirt-chaser who can't understand why Moka is attracted to Tsukune and not to him; and Mizore Shirayuki, an Snow Demongirl who began by stalking Tsukune believing them to be soulmates. However, after Tsukune befriends each of the girls, they become friendly rivals along with Moka for Tsukune's affections and members of the school Newspaper Club with Tsukune and stand by him even after they learn that he is really a human.
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