Vampires and their wacky animal sidekicks

Two of the manga that I’ve read recently feature vampires and their crazy animal companions, although they differ in tone.

Millennium Snow by Bisco Hatori 3/5 stars (amazon.com)

Millennium Snow is by the author of Quran High School Host Club, and while it does feature the occasional bit of slapstick humor, it doesn’t begin to approach the zaniness of her other title.
Chiyuki is a 15 year old student with a congenital heart condition. She meets Toya, a mysterious boy who is accompanied by a Bat with a wacky accent. It turns out that Toya is a vampire, and if he partners up with Chiyuki and sucks her blood, she would live for a thousand years as his companion, and her sickness would be cured. Toya is a reluctant vampire though – he doesn’t want to get close to anyone because he doesn’t want to deal with their eventual death.
Chiyuki and Toya’s friendship grows, and he enrolls in her school. It is pretty clear that Yuki’s humanity and warmth will eventually melt Toya’s chilly vampire heart. The tone of the book doesn’t quite gel with me, as the more serious storylines dealing with the emotions of the two protagonists is mixed with humor and Yamimaru the bat offering running commentary. Hatori has a distinctly angular style for her character designs, and I expect either you’d not mind the art or really dislike it. Millennium Snow is only a 2 volume series, so if you want a quick dose of Vampire manga it isn’t much of a commitment

Canon by Chika Shiomi 4/5 stars(amazon.com)

I’ve read 3 volumes of Shiomi’s series from Go Comi, Night of the Beasts, so I was intrigued by this new manga. Canon is the sole survivor of a vampire attack in one of the classrooms at her school. She was turned into a vampire, but she spends her time trying to track down the vampire who originally attacked her, and saving humans who have been bitten before they become vampires. She’s dedicated to her mission and is helped by her sidekick, the crow Fui, a vampire bird who sticks around with the hope that he’ll eventually be able to drink her blood.
Canon is first introduced through the point of view of the brother of one of her deceased classmates. He provides a glimpse of what she was like before she became a vampire. In the next story she befriends a foreigner named Kenny, and prevents him from transforming into a vampire. The third story in the volume introduces what looks like an ongoing storyline. Canon meets a human vampire hybrid named Sakai who is also hunting the vampire who originally attacked her. They form an uneasy alliance which is made more shaky because Sakai keeps hitting on Canon.
Canon is an earlier series than Night of the Beasts, and it shows in the art which is slightly less polished. Still, this series featuring a dynamic heroine and intricate plot is my favorite out of all of the vampire manga (Trinity Blood, Vampire Knight, Millennium Snow) I’ve read recently.