Vampire Cheerleaders
Vampire Cheerleaders is an OEL Manga created by Adam Arnold with art by Shiei (Volumes 1&2), and Michael Shelfer (Volume 3) and licensed by Seven Seas Entertainment.
As the name implies, its about vampires who happen to be cheerleaders at their local school and mostly follows their exploits as they go about their existence while trying to avoid suspicion and trouble from human and supernatural alike.
A preview has been set up on gomanga.com, showcasing the first volume which is also on sale. The manga now has its own webcomic page as part of ZOOM comics.
Note that some events in spoilers refer to things that are revealed in the print edition, but that the online version has yet to get to.
Now has a character page.
Vampire Cheerleaders provides the following tropes
- Abusive Parents: Heather's mother was implied to be one
- Adorkable: Leonard. Zoe goes so far as to call him "Hot Stuff."
- All Guys Want Cheerleaders: Jullian, the star kicker on the football team, takes full notice of Heather when she gets to be a varsity cheerleader.
- All Women Are Lustful: The Vampire Cheerleaders
- Alpha Bitches: The snooty cheerleading team the girls go up against. Not a few minutes into checking into the competition, they quickly start dissing the protagonists. The rivalry only worsens as the story arc goes on.
- Badass Longcoat: Leonard. The girls lampshade how utterly ridiculous this actually looks in real life in an ordinary setting.
- Barbie Doll Anatomy: When peekaboo can't cover everything.
- Bare Your Midriff: Part of the standard cheerleader's uniform for the current year.
- Belligerent Sexual Tension: Joked about In-Universe with Suki and Zoe
Heather: They're always like this, aren't they? |
- Chained to a Bed: Lori ends up like this after being paralyzed by the Gorgeous Gorgon.
- Compulsory School Age: Subverted. Lori has been returning to school every 20 years or so since at least 1892of her own volition, apparently in a quest for the perfect senior year.
- Crossover: With Paranormal Mystery Squad in the upcoming chapter.
- Even Evil Has Standards; The vampire cheerleaders themselves who follow a very strict set of rules in regards to feeding. And if you violate these standards then Lori will be very unhappy with you and will have to have a word with you.
- Exactly What It Says on the Tin
- Fan Service: Lets see, teenaged vampire cheerleaders who run around in their uniforms, bikini's and other outfits. Oh, and have a backup plan like Plan BC.
- Fan Disservice The way Lori got raped by Bianca is in a brutal detail
- Foregone Conclusion: Anyone who reads Paranormal Mystery Squad knows that The Girl Who Would be Lita mini-story isn't going to end well for Bianca's servant girl.
- Genre Savvy: Leonard knows enough about vampire mythology to be effective. Before he finally confronted the cheerleaders, he gorged himself on garlic and washes it down with listerine to make his blood downright abhorrent to vampires. When Lori tries biting him after stating his intentions to expose them his false surprise transitions into chuckling as his blood immediately makes her vomit.
- Gorgeous Gorgon: Bianca Harrow turns out to be a Gorgon
- Kick the Dog: A good portion of the fanbase agrees that Heather's treatment of Leonard after she becomes one of the Vampire Cheerleaders and the fact that's she's doing little to nothing to stick up for Leonard after Lori turned him into a thrall counts.
- Cressida Harrow killing Bianca's servant in the cruelest way possible is a much worst kick the dog moment.
- Kick the Son of a Bitch: Mackynzie moving Bakertown's presentation to 8 A.M to purposely mess up the Baker Town girls could be seen as this if one sees it as the Vampire Cheerleaders finally getting a comeuppance of sorts, but still counts as a Kick the Dog moment towards the B squad.
- Lesbian Vampire: Lori on this strip Or at least Bi the Way, given that she seemed to have no problem with exhausting Leonard.
- Neck Snap: How Lori kills Bianca this way. Anti-climatic perhaps, but satisfying.
- Noodle Incident: Word of God has no intention of explaining what Suki is talking about here.
- Oh Crap: When Lori realizes that Bianca has paralyzed her.
- It happens earlier to an ancient Roman vampire with the same woman as seen here.
- A comedic version at the beginning of the VC/PMS crossover when the sea monster Steph just speared swam off rapidly. "Oh Frak...!" Yank!
- Older Than They Look: Only Lori believe it or not as the other girls were apparently only changed after meeting her in their own high school years. Lori herself is 138 years old assuming she was 18 when she was bitten. The evidence being that her collection of high school graduation tassels has two '92s in them. One of them is obviously from 1992, but by having two means the second one must be from 1892. Don't let the page's status as a guest comic fool you. Shouri was given a list of specific elements that needed to be in the page.
- Our Vampires Are Different: They can get by with just two pints of blood a day meaning they don't have to fully drain their victim. They can also move around in the daylight though they admit its not good for their undead skin. And have to tan normally to keep up appearances. Hypnotizing someone is also called "Glamoring".
- Rape as Drama: How Bianca raped Lori
- Rapunzel Hair: Lori. It appears to be down to her ankles.
- Really Seven Hundred Years Old: A given in vampire fiction. Lori has been posing as her own daughter to return to high school every twenty years since at least 1892.
- Lampshaded here. It's even in the strip title.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: While it is black and white, close enough.
- Required Spinoff Cameo: While they are not quite spinoffs of each other, the girls of Paranormal Mystery Squad make a few cameos at different points, and the cast of VC shows up in the other book from time to time. We're getting a full crossover next chapter when Steph and crew jump over to the pages of VC.
- Elle from Aoi House appears in Volume 2 as a celebrity judge at the cheerleading competition. Though this might develope into more than a cameo depending on how the story progresses.
- Sassy Black Woman: Zoe seems to be off to a good start.
- Screw the Rules, I Have Connections: The rival teams does this to the Bats squad in retaliation for conning them out of their training area.
- Serious Business: See Compulsory School Age, above.
- Shared Universe: With Paranormal Mystery Squad and Aoi House.
- Shout-Out: A number of them on Leo's 'vampire' checklist.
- A football team named Bats.
- That last one may be unintentional though, as it seems more of a case of Irony; seeing how vampire cheerleaders attend a school with a bat as a mascot. And besides those other bats were Devil Bats.
- A football team named Bats.
- Theme Naming: Adam loves using DC (especially Batman) and other pop culture based names.
- Time for Plan B: Or should I say, 'Plan BC': Booty Call.
- Title Drop: Heather does it.
- Took a Level In Badass: Leonard was pretty clearly your factory standard geek, starting out. However the minute he realizes his best friend/prospective love interest has been turned into a vampire (which he actually realized was happening before she was Turned), he immediately levels up to Crazy Prepared Badass Longcoat Vampire Hunter.
- Badass Decay: Unfortunately when the girls turn their feminine wiles on him, he turns to putty in an instant. Come next arc, he following along like a puppy and doing their chores for them. Granted the girls are treating him nicely and all albeit in a Butt Monkey sort of way. Least Heather isn't too hard on him.
- Transhuman Treachery: What happens to Heather who is described as very sweet when she was a human.
- Might be subverted, as she seems to act like a vampire fangirl afterwards. And, her parents do reveal some hidden issues.
- Given her recent actions and what happened to the Bakertown football team it's more like this trope is being played mostly straight.
- Unsound Effect: RUSH
- Vampires are Sex Goddesses: Leonard probably thinks so at this point.
- Vanity Licence Plate: "BITEME" on Lori's car.
- Villain Protagonist: The eponymous vampire cheerleaders. Considerably less evil than others of their kind... but still Chaotic Neutral at best. Apart from anything else they're far too comfortable with brainwashing innocents for any other label.
- Hero Antagonist: Leonard shows signs of this.
- Or at least he did right up until the girls pulled out Plan BC and screwed him silly. He's cool with keeping their secret now.
- Hero Antagonist: Leonard shows signs of this.
- Viva Las Vegas: The setting of the second arc.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Lori's reaction to Heather draining the entire football team the night before the homecoming game is this trope on steroids.
- What Could Have Been: Word of God says one of the earliest concepts for Vampire Cheerleaders was more in line with your typical harem series, but with vampires.