ISBN-13: 9781569702079
Language: English
Direction: Right to Left
Pages: 72
by: Nao Yazawa
Publisher: Digital Manga Publishing
Type: Series
Genre: Comedy, Fantasy, ShojoSynopsis:
Sayaka is in for quite a surprise. Sitting at the family breakfast table one morning is a handsome stranger, a boy named Kai. And he has come to stay, at least, temporarily. Though she’s never met him before, the aloof and ill-humored boy is supposed to be a friend of her father’s. Having him at home is one thing, but to have Kai show up at her school too, well, it’s turning out to be more than what Sayaka can handle. With her interests piqued, Sayaka begins to wonder exactly what it is that links Kai to her family, and where does he disappear to every night? Plus, there’s the matter of the mysterious cat… Nao Yazawa, of Wedding Peach fame, tackles paranormal romance in Moon and Blood. Prepare to be mesmerized!
Due to the shortness of this volume I’m not doing this in my usual format.
I emailed Yoko over at DMP to find out why it was being released in the way it is, but I’ve not had a reply as of yet.
Okay, first thing you’ll notice is that the volume is titchy. It actually feels and looks smaller than usual manga, but it isn’t, it is considerably slimmer though, since it’s only 72pages.
The story, so far, seems to be a sort of day in the life with a vampiric twist. Kai is a newbie vampire wanting to live a normal human life. So, Ai, the vampire that made him, uses her abilities to get him into a family. Commence love and hate.
The characters in the volume are okay, Sayaka is the love interest, the daughter of the family. She’s your typical shojo girl, and in fact reminds me of Kotoko from Itazura na Kiss. The way she reacts, the way she interacts with those around her is like Kotoko. Hell I could swear Sayaka was really Kotoko playing as Sayaka as a part time job hehe. Kai is essentially Naoki as well, aloof, perfect at sports and studies etc etc. These similarities hit me extra hard because I’d only recently just read the Itazura na Kiss volumes.
This volume doesn’t really tell us anything major though, it lays out the current situation, as well as Kai’s past; which I have to admit is interesting. The ending of the volume was interesting, and I liked the tactful placement of Vampire Hunter D manga.
The art is okay, and I do like the character designs. Ai isn’t the best looking character, but it does fit her personality, and her kitty persona is just cute to the max. The other character designs are pretty much bog standard, though there’s nothing wrong with them there’s nothing special about them either.
The downside is it’s only 72pages long. You just start to get into things when you’re at the end of the volume, then you have to wait ages for the next volume. The only way I can see this sort of release working is if it’s released every 2 weeks, or at the latest every month. Waiting three months just to get the next chapter isn’t something I want to do, mainly because I’ll lose interest.
I’ll be interested to see how this style of releasing works. It’ll be another two volumes before I can make an real sense out of this, since that will bring it to one normal manga volume
