Black Bird 2
October 15, 2009
Kanoko Sakurakoji – Viz – 2009 – 8+ volumes
I remember thinking the first volume as being kind of lukewarm, but I started reading this… and I remembered it was ridiculously suited to my taste. Demons? Brides of demons? Silly plot devices involving licking wounds until they are healed? Childhood loves? A little smut? Oh, it has everything I want in a shoujo manga!
The story improved quite a bit in this volume. I think the biggest difference was that Misao is finally coming around to Kyo, and having the two of them together, treating each other relatively well, is pretty exciting, mostly because it opens the series up to silly smut possibilities. There’s lots of ridiculously romantic dialogue, followed by lots of making out. It’s also got surprisingly raunchy humor for a shoujo manga like this, everything from lines like “my little tengu is raising his head” to jokes about one of Kyo’s vassals having an STD… the levels of raunch are unprecedented. They talk about sex all the time, and there was a rather dangerous scene where one of the villains very nearly… er, “ravished” Misao, but sex doesn’t actually happen.
I wouldn’t say it’s one of the greatest works of shoujo manga ever, and I wouldn’t really compare it with my favorites. I often say that certain medicore manga series are excellent when they strike just the right fancies in the reader, and this may be a case of that for me, though I still think this might be slightly better than medicore even wthout all the extra fun stuff. It’s a little too cheesy and cliche, but it keeps a pretty tight reign on its hokeyness, and with all that other stuff for me to pay attention to, like the romance and the demons and the taking of the brides and whatnot, I am 100% satisfied with pretty much everything I got in this volume. And next volume promises to be just as good, since the cliffhanger is something along the lines of Misao worrying about being “spirited away” by the Tengu prince.
This was a review copy provided by Viz.
October 16, 2009 at 3:41 am
[...] Black Bird 2 « Slightly Biased Manga [...]
October 16, 2009 at 4:28 am
[...] Black Bird 2 « Slightly Biased Manga [...]
November 14, 2009 at 3:53 pm
wow, i feel the same. i really can’t wait for the thrid volume!
December 15, 2009 at 11:34 am
I think Black Bird is a great manga series.I really enjoy reading the manga,and i can’t wait for the next volume to come out too.
December 16, 2009 at 3:04 am
Yeah, I seem to be enjoying it a little more with every volume. It’s a pretty decent series. I had forgotten about it until you mentioned it just now, I think it’s about time for a new volume by now. Looking forward to it.
December 28, 2009 at 3:47 pm
I’m so obsessed with Black Bird! Recently I’ve ordered Volume 9, which came out on November 26 ^^ Can’t wait!!!!
It would be great if you visit my blog xD http://blackbirdmanga.blogspot.com
December 31, 2009 at 2:32 am
Nice! Lots of content there. I was happy to see a little bit about Backstage Prince, too. I really liked that series.