#first three

The Story

The story is about a young priest who meets an immortal vampire who wants to die.

The story is definitely original and very enjoyable. It isn't like the usual vampire stories written nowadays, it is taken very seriously and it keeps the original lore intact and it has very original spins on the vampire lore.

Some people maybe put off by some of the BL undertones of this series, it's very similar to 'The Betrayal Knows My Name', so if you've seen that and don't mind it that much, you will survive this no problem.

The Characters

We have only a few characters, but they have been given a lot of development in just three volumes. The character, Yzak, reminds me of Kaname Kuran from the later chapters of 'Vampire Knight'. So no problems here.

The Art

The art in this is really well done. I have only a couple of complaints. 1, some of the characters look to similar to each other, making it hard to tell who is who in each scene. 2, sometimes, the angles in a scene are a bit off, making it hard to tell what is going on in some scenes.

The Translation

I have never talked about a manga's translation before. I have read the original Japanese version of this manga and the English release is bad! The problems I have with the English version is that they butchered the translation very badly. It's very similar to the Fire Emblem:Fates translation where the changed most of the dialogue to make it more simpler and changed the characters personalities, with some of the dialogue sounding stupid.

Another problem I have with the English release is that the coloured pages in this series are in black and white. It wouldn't bother me usually, but another series (The Demon Prince of Momochi House) which runs in the exact same magazine and is also published by Shojo Beat, has coloured pages! Why doesn't Bloody Mary have coloured pages?

If you can read Japanese (Hiragana and Katakana), I strongly recommend that you buy the Japanese version from yesasia.com. It's much cheaper than getting the Japanese volumes from Amazon.

The only good thing that I can say about the English version is that the English volumes are definitely bigger than the Japanese volumes, but if you actually spill some milk onto the English version (like I did), there will be no dust cover to save it! (Luckily, it was spilt on the Japanese version and after drying the dust cover, it was absolutely fine and the manga volume itself made it out okay.)

Final Thoughts

Overall, this series has quickly become one of my favourites! If you enjoy series like Vampire Knight, The Betrayal Knows My Name and No.6, you will definitely want this series in your collection!

I will definitely continue the series, but I'm not sure I will be following the English releases though. But I will definitely be following the Japanese version!

The Story 5/5 The Characters 5/5 The Art 4/5 English Release 2/5 Japanese Release 5/5

Overall*

Japanese Version 4.5/5 English Version 4/5

[Closed]

(Part one) Meet Chaerin, Elrose, and Nana!

The Story

The story is about a young Victorian boy who has a demon butler. And that's pretty much it.

The story has a lot of opportunities to be great, but it falls flat with unfunny comedy that ruins the more emotional scenes, it is historically inaccurate (such as a wild bear being killed in an English forest, even though they became extinct in England in 1000AD, over 900 years before the events of Black Butler!) and they story goes nowhere!

The set up is very poorly explained, but the boy made a deal with the demon butler to avenge his parents, but they make no effort to find the killer and end up in comedic situations that aren't funny.

If it was trying to be a black comedy, it would be fine, but the comedy is too light hearted and takes itself to seriously (how does that happen?) for there to be any effective black comedy.

If you want a black comedy that is actually entertaining, go read the light novel series, 'Is it Wrong to Try to Pick-Up Girls in a dungeon?'*.

The Characters

None of the characters are interesting at all. The rich boy is a whiny brat who ends up damsel in distress, the butler is overpowered to have any good action scenes and is overall really boring, the side characters are all forgettable.

In fact, the only interesting character in this series is the grim reaper, who is actually a transgender women and the series handles it very well by giving us subtle hints without actually stating it out loud. The problem with I have with her is that she isn't in the manga very long (and she has a very anticlimactic end) and we don't see her again... LAME!

I know that some people don't like the grim reaper because she's a stereotype homosexual. I can see where they are coming from, but I don't think she is. She seems more like a crazy fangirl more than anything...

The Art

The art is alright, but sometimes it can really feel crowded and some of the comedic timing is off as well.

The character designs are not spectacular (though the clothing of that time is drawn well) and the backgrounds are sometimes none existent.

Final Thoughts

Overall, this manga is one of the biggest disappointments I have seen in a LONG time. The story goes nowhere, the characters are boring and the art is forgettable.

How this series became popular, I have no idea... And it was cheeky of Yen Press to raise the price of each volume from £7.99 to £9.99 (Even on the OLDER volumes!) Why do I have to spend more money on crap I'm not going to read again!?

The Story 1/5 The Characters 2/5 The Art 2.5/5

Overall 2/5

I was bitten

Must have been the devil

He was just paying me a little visit

Reminding me of his presence

And letting me know he's a-waiting

He's a-waiting oh, there

Yeah

If I had known then, what I know now

If I had known then, what I know now

If I had known then, what I know now

If I had known then, what I know now

Sure, that star can twinkle

And you’re watching it do

Boy, so hard, boy, so hard

But I know a girl twice as hard

And I’m sure, said I’m sure she’s watching it, too

Said no matter what tie she’s got in her right dresser tied

I know she’s watching that star

Gonna twinkle, gonna twinkle, gonna twinkle

And last time I knew she worked at an abbey in Iona

She said, “I killed a man, T, I’ve gotta stay hidden in this abbey”

But I can see that star when she twinkles, and she twinkles

'Cause I sure can

That means I sure can, that means I sure can