Season 2 of the manga centers more around the introduction of an organization of monsters called Fairy Tale. They basically want monsters to take over the human world and slaughter humans. We also get a look at Mizore's hometown. However, the crux of season 2 centers around the importance of Moka's "rosario seal", her family, and the fate of her mother who Moka hadn't seen since she was a child. Its some fun stuff all around if a bit fast paced when the manga gets to it a couple volumes before the end.
Before talking about the characters, I want to talk about the manga's genre and how it handles a few of its tropes for a bit. Its bit of a weird mix for me. While its a shounen fighting manga that focuses on monsters slugging it out, it also has a harem aspect, and a bit of romance. The harem aspect feels a bit weird to me since well, the both manga and Tsukune pretty much admit that he only has eyes for Moka. The manga also doesn't take the harem aspect too seriously so it avoids some annoying tropes and they all come off as feeling like really good friends so it works well in that regard. I find it really interesting that despite being the protagonist of a shounen manga, Tsukune isn't actually able to do much himself for a chunk of the manga. Usually its Moka or a member of the female cast dealing the finishing blow. Tsukune gains a ghoul form thanks to Moka infusing him with a her blood to save his life after what would be mortal injuries a lot, then he becomes half-vampire, and only gains full on vampire powers in the final battle in season two of the manga. It feels like a nice natural, incremental power escalation which is weird for me to see in a shounen manga as he constantly has to adapt to things even when he gains enough power to stand on his own as he is usually out-classed even by his friends. The restrained power trope is actually applied to Moka for the most part. Her rosario basically sealed off her vampire powers allowing her to be raised in the human world.
Now for the characters, I like them. Tsukune is a neat protagonist. At first he freaks out a bit when he enrolls in the school but after meeting Moka and forming a group of friends, he starts wanting to create a world where humans and monsters can coexist. There are two Moka's thanks to her rosario seal: Inner Moka and Outer Moka. Outer Moka is the more bubbly and outgoing side of Moka's personality with occasional confidence issues. Inner Moka is her more powerful and confident side and she is the side of Moka that can access her vampiric strength. Kurumu is a succubus but she is rather naive about things and is focused purely on who she sees are her true love (Tsukune). Its a rather heartbreaking outcome for her as when she comes to the realize that Tsukune likely won't return her feelings, she has a breakdown and it actually affects her fighting ability for a bit. In the end, she sort of comes to peace with it but still vows not to give up trying to win his heart. Yukari is a young witch who I don't honestly view as being in love with Tsukune and I see it as a crush than anything. Mostly because a lot of times, she tries to help the others get closer to Tsukune (and attempts to help Tsukune get closer to Moka) as opposed to going after him herself. On top of that when Feng Feng gets introduced in season 2 of the manga, she has a lot more chemistry with him and the epilogue comic strip after the main epilogue sort of implies that they get together in the future. Mizore is a snow fairy and she is honestly my favorite character in the manga. Its mostly due to her motivation regarding how she feels about Tsukune. She loves Tsukune and wants to be with him as much as Kurumu does but she outright admits that even if he doesn't choose her, she just wants him to be happy and that will be enough for her. Something about her being willing to sacrifice her own happiness so he could be happy just stuck with me.
I'm splitting this section here because I consider these characters to be more secondary members of Tsukune's group of friends. These characters are Gin, Ruby, Koko, and Feng Feng. Gin is a werewolf with a rather pervy side to him. Pervy characters don't annoy me that much and Gin does have some redeeming qualities to him as he is rather loyal to his friends. Thats about all I can say for him as he gets one big moment in season 1 of the manga. After that, he kinda moves into the background and even disappears for a good chunk of the manga and I have no idea why, maybe Tsukune's group just got too big for the writer to know what to do with Gin. Ruby's introduction is fine. She was a witch taken in by another witch in the human world who hated humans for various reasons. After her introduction, she appears sporadically throughout the rest of season 1 of the manga. With that being said, the comedy around Ruby makes me cringe a bit. Its usually a joke about how she is a masochist and likes being hit. There is an entire chapter where she is training Tsukune where she keeps bringing that up and it kinda messes up the flow imo. With that being said, I do like how its used when she actually fights a member of Fairy Tale. It causes him to freak out because he is raining down lightning bolts on her and her only response is screams of ecstasy. Koko shows up in season 2 is Moka's younger sister with a chip on her shoulder as you'd expect since she views herself as being the weakest in her family. Mostly she is the weakest because after a certain age a vampire's powers and fighting ability increase exponentially and Koko hasn't hit that age yet. When she is introduced, she has a sort of obsession regards to wanting to beat Moka in a fight. That stops around the time Fairy Tale shows up and they have to focus on defeating them. Feng Feng shows up in season 2, shortly before the Fairy Tale stuff pops off. The dude is a yaksha but not a powerful one at the moment and he is the soon-to-be head of a chinese monster mafia family. The family's power has been waning lately so at first he tries to strong arm Tsukune into joining by telling the girls that the members of his family are allowed to have multiple wives. He has a few confidence issues regarding his abilities and I like the guy as a character. He also has some really good interactions with Yukari so I'm all for them ending up together in the future.
The ending is...perfectly fine for what it is. Its satisfying enough but it kinda leaves things open so it feels a bit incomplete. Before going on to an epilogue it legitimately says "But thats a story for another time" once massive shake-ups have happened as a result of the final battle. I dunno, it feels like a season 3 was supposed to happen but for whatever reason, the writer chose to end the manga there.
The manga includes little bite-sized encyclopedia entries every time a character transforms for the first time. These basically give you information such as what mythology that monster comes from and what basic powers they have. The artist also loved sneaking in little references here and there. Off the top of my head: The Pillar Men's stone mask from Jojo shows up for a sight gag, one of the background students' monster form is a Saibaman, and a guy dressed as Luffy shows up in he background of a beach shot. There are a lot more that I've forgotten to mention. The covers for the manga are really good and some of them have this almost painting like quality to them.
Overall, I enjoyed the manga. Unfortunately, I don't consider it good enough to be a must-read but I do recommend reading at least the 1st two volumes to see if its your kind of thing. With that said, its also out of print now so its going to be slightly more expensive. For me tho, I'm glad I took a gamble and started reading this manga so long ago. The characters are all like-able and the fight scenes are fun due to the variety of monsters they go up against so it doesn't get stale. It was worth my time.
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