Bloody Kiss is a short shōjo supernatural romance series lasting just two volumes. Kiyo Katsuragi is a young student who inherited a mansion from her grandmother. Since she is poor, she accepts the mansion and goes to live there only to find two vampires living there, Kuroboshi and his servant Alshu. When Kuroboshi decides that Kiyo should become Alshu's “bride” things get even crazier. In volume 2 Alshu and Kuroboshi decide to attend school with Kiyo ― Kuroboshi as the school's nurse and Alshu as another student ― but have trouble when one of her classmates makes a challenge to her. Later, a childhood friend, Sou Mizukami, returns. Sou has trained in the mountains for years in order to repay a self-imposed childhood debt to protect Kiyo and has become a demon hunter, which also includes vampires. As if that weren't enough, Kiyo finds out that if she becomes Alshu's bride, she could become a vampire herself.
The manga contains a bonus short-story “Wishes on a Vampire”. It is about two main characters: Nagase, a male vampire; and Miku Tara, a high school student. Miku wants to become beautiful for the because of a promise one of the popular guys in school, Tsukamoto, told her she could through a vampire.
Highlights:
Being a manga about vampires I expected a lot darker manga than it ended up being. Vampires portrayed in the book bore only some elements to traditional vampires in the west or east. Basically vampires are essentially near-immortal beings from what I could tell who suck blood to gain power; it is unclear whether blood is actually vital to their survival or not nor whether non-human blood could suffice. Sunlight doesn't affect them (which in some of the older legends actually seems to have some basis), and they can still be slain; indeed special weapons are appear to be forged for such purposes. Similar to vampires in Ann Rice's The Vampire Chronicles, vampires in Bloody Kiss are attractive, emotional and sensual. Unlike her books and other legends, vampires in Bloody Kiss appear to mate for the life (of the human), at least when the male is a vampire (females can become vampires). It seems clear that with all these changes Kazuko Furumiya was using them primarly as a literary device to drive the story and character development of Kiyo as she transitioned from adolescence into a young adult.
While the story lasts less than 2 complete volumes, and does wrap things up, I cannot help but feel it was ended rather abruptly. I get the feeling several of the plot points once Sou returned were rushed in comparison with the previous chapter. As for the ending itself, it leaves the reader wondering what will happen because of some loose threads.
The manga's short-story makes it's clear Furumiya has improved her skills since she created it in both artwork and storytelling. The story, also vampire-themed, has similar roles for the two main characters although the circumstances are completely different. The short-story also has a much more conclusive ending than the actual manga. In addition when I compare the two endings, in spite of the more conclusive situation of the short-story, I find the ending for Bloody Kiss much more satisfying.
Overview:
While starting on volume 2 for such a short manga. I didn't miss much in some ways, but in others I felt after reading it I had missed too much. While it's not so bad as starting on the last few volumes of a long-running series like Chibi Vampire or Princess Resurrection might be, it's not the same as reading volume two of those same manga. What I mean is that I was able to understand enough about all the major characters, although Kuroboshi was a bit lacking. I did not feel as lost when I opened the book as I did by the time I finished reading it and felt as though I had missed some crucial developments, such as why the vampires were there to begin with, why Kuroboshi wanted her to become his Alshu's bride, etc. from the first volume. That did not, however, reduce my reading enjoyment of the manga.
Furumiya's artwork, while admittedly far better than her short-story added to the end, still varies in quality. Sometimes its great while other times not so much though overall it seems to have more quality work than not. In some of the comedic panels it is hard to tell whether she is just being lazy with the artwork or is going for a particular style. She clearly can do great artwork, especially males, as Alshu and Sou show. I'm not sure about Kiyo though in general as she seems not as well defined or detailed, except for her hair and eyes, the latter which stands out.
The addition of the short-story was a nice added bonus that fit the theme exactly. It may have even been the inspiration for the manga's story as there are many parallels. In addition to that I laughed at some of the side-panels about her most/least favorite body parts. While it defiantly did not really fit the theme of the series in any way, it was still entertaining.
As mentioned before, I feel the manga may have ended too abruptly. The two supporting characters, Kuroboshi and Sou, did not really get much development for characters of their weight in terms of their use in the story's narrative. Admittedly since I've yet to read volume 1, Kuroboshi might have a lot more there, but that's not true for Sou. In addition, Furumiya seemed to be finally developing some of the world architecture such as why vampires act like they do and how non-vampires deal with their existence. The ending is ambigous and while I'm personally satisfied with not knowing whether Kiyo will become a vampire herself and if she would how that will affect her relationship with Alshu. It would be nice, if, like at the back of the book mentions, the ending for Bloody Kiss is just “for now”.
Bloody Kiss volume 2 is a great manga to read even if you haven't picked up the first one yet. If you have, you'll enjoy it that much more.
ComicsOnline gives Bloody Kiss volume 2, 4 out of 5 sensual vampires.
