Black Bird 1
June 26, 2009
There were two things I didn’t realize about this manga: one was that it had won the Shogakukan Manga Award, and the other was that the author, Kanako Sakurakoji, was the same person who did Backstage Prince, a surprisingly cute 2-volume series about kabuki actors that came out a couple years ago. I would have had my eye on this a bit more if I had realized the connection prior to finishing this volume and reading the author bio.
So, the main character, Misao, is a rare girl that demons want to consume for various vitality reasons. She hasn’t had a boyfriend in all this time because she is haunted by childhood memories of a boy named Kyo, the only other person she met who could see spirits and who promised to come back for her ten years ago. Well, lo and behold, Kyo shows back up, and is apparently King of the Tengu and wants to wed Misao. She mistrusts him and assumes it’s for longevity (because wedding Misao affects the whole tribe positively), but Kyo may actually just love her. Plus he drives away all the nasty demons that hurt Misao all the time. And that’s the plot of the series.
Reading through the volume… there was really only one thing running through my mind. So, she’s all set to wed the king of the Tengu tribe, a good-looking man with black wings who protects her from demons and lesser spirits. She doesn’t want to, but he pursues her against her will, all the while telling her she will be his bride while she says she just doesn’t want to be the bride of a demon. This is almost a contemporary retelling of Bride of Deimos with a focus on plot and character relationships rather than the fantasy-oriented short story format. There are a lot of differences, but the nuts and bolts are very similar. With that in mind, there’s something wimpier about Black Bird when compared to Bride of Deimos I mean, without me even telling you the differences between the two, you might be able to guess who the cooler demon is between “Deimos” and “Kyo” based on their names alone. And you would be right, unless you picked Kyo because you’re a Fruits Basket fan or something.
This series is somehow vaguely erotic and horror-tinged without really being either. Kyo’s special ability is the power to lick Misao’s wounds to heal them, and this power gets used frequently since Misao is constantly being attacked by demons. She bleeds and is wounded a lot, as is Kyo. As you can imagine, the licking gets pretty steamy. But Sakurakoji mentions she’s not all that interested in horror, so I don’t think the manga will ever be anything more than bloody without gore, and judging by the other Betsucomi series I’ve read, I don’t think it will ever get too erotic, either.
The characters and story are a bit shallow as of the first volume (Misao is little more than a damsel in distress that does not want to be a bride, Kyo is the typical stoic protector that also sort of pushes Misao around), but I’m pretty confident that the series will probably do good things with the two of them and their situations, since I felt the same way about Backstage Prince at first.
In short, a wait-and-see situation, and the volume was only average, but I feel like good things will happen later.
This was a review copy provided by Viz.
June 26, 2009 at 10:29 am
“I mean, without me even telling you the differences between the two, you might be able to guess who the cooler demon is between “Deimos” and “Kyo” based on their names alone. And you would be right, unless you picked Kyo because you’re a Fruits Basket fan or something.”
This made me laugh.
June 26, 2009 at 1:07 pm
[...] Ellingwood on vol. 1 of Angelic Runes (Active Anime) Connie on vol. 1 of Black Bird (Slightly Biased Manga) Michelle Smith on vol. 27 of Bleach (Soliloquy in Blue) Wolfen Moondaughter [...]
June 26, 2009 at 7:35 pm
[...] Confession: I hated Backstage Prince but I really enjoyed the Shojo Beat preview of Black Bird (by the same manga-ka). However, Slightly Biased Manga suggests that maybe I should leave this series where I found it. [...]
June 29, 2009 at 2:58 am
I was trying to figure out why Kyo would be cooler, and that was the only reason I could come up with. I tried pretty hard for that joke.
October 20, 2009 at 2:09 pm
holy shit there’s website for shit like this!!!! hahaha lol