Blood Lad

Blood Lad honestly scared me at first. Not because of its violence or supernatural trappings, but because that first volume was rough to read through. I thought I was in for a LONG ride of a read, but thankfully by volume 3 it found more solid footing and rolled with it. It's not a *great* manga (definitely not a seinen, for one thing), but it has its pros in competent pacing for a solid plot, and engaging artwork. [Story - 7] Our story starts off simple - in a 'demon' world where every stereotypical supernatural being exists, a human girl stumbles into the 'territory' of a vampire.She gets killed after he tries to capture her for Blood Consumption, and he resolves to revive her to get said blood. The first several volumes follow Staz (the vampire) and the series of efforts he makes to just revive the girl, but it soon turns into another Save The World From The Ancient King story. While I was initially critical of this change, I found that it was ultimately for the better as the latter is more intriguing than the former, despite its generic beats. The former had slow pacing in the first couple of volumes, and by the time it got to the 'plot twist and switch', it was moving along swimmingly. Naturally, the themes for the title are best suited for this pacing: the Powah of friendship/family/romance, along with some toying of how one's role in the world affects said world rather than the other way around. There's a ton of ecchi mixed in with the Ha Ha That's A Reference-type of comedy, but there /is/ actual comedy sometimes. [Art - 8] The artwork is what actually caught my eye, and convinced me to give it a crack. As multiple people have noted before me, it's very reminiscent of a shonen that I highly enjoy/admire (Soul Eater), but I feel as though it still stands out by itself. It has a very 'minimalistic' feel: While the setting + action has enough detail that you can tell what's going on, it also feels as though these are still unfinished sketches being sent off to serialization. It works, however, since the story and characterization are fairly lightweight. Character design is very......hit-or-miss for me. Sometimes it works really well in having a memorable feel (Wolf's modern chic look, Bell's FLCL-esque gear, Akim's stitches and scars) but other times it just looks rather generic and bland (The Blood Brothers, the Blacklisted). This is probably me being nitpicky, but having most, if not all, of your prominent women possessing huge knockers is an immature and tacky look, especially in a title that's supposed to be a seinen. [Character - 5] Characterization is where I found the manga to be slacking the most, unfortunately. There are actual character arcs and dynamics here, but it just feels really......inferior compared to what could have been. For starters, let's go with our protagonist, Staz. From the get-go, he's portrayed as a perpetually-lazy and selfish lord, but of course gradually matures into a much more responsible person. This isn't bad, per say, but considering how many times the idea of him being an 'anti-hero' is discussed in the title, it's rather disappointing. He definitely falls into the trap of suddenly becoming a Noble Hero, when his initial characterization + those discussions suggest otherwise. It would have been genuinely interesting to see Staz still indulge in his 'lesser' ideals and morals while on his quest to revive the girl and save his world. Another character whose writing I found frustrating was the 'leading woman', Fuyumi. The 'leading woman' is marked as such because she's so severely underwritten that it almost got me to drop the title three times throughout the journey. While I didn't mind it in the first few volumes (but note that she's incredibly ditzy and objectified), having her stay essentially the same at the LAST FUCKING CHAPTER is ridiculous. This is made even more excruciating to read when her main arc of development is realizing that she loves Staz (big shock), and literally.....nothing else. That's her entire arc. I'm not kidding. Other characters, while fun to read about, also feel really underused. Wolf, for example, doesn't have a huge arc outside of suddenly developing another power; Bell also has a similar arc to Fuyumi, along with the added bonus of Making Friends; and so on/so forth. This is frustrating because they ARE fun to read, especially with their group dynamics, but yet they're so much less than they could have been. [Enjoyment/Overall - 6] As I said at the beginning, this isn't a great manga by any means. It's definitely not meant to be in the same magazine as Erased and Bungou Stray Dogs, but makes a fun and light read nonetheless. I'd recommend this to anyone who just wants a title that's 'easy' on the mind in terms of characterization and story, but is packing a lot in action and ecchi. Otherwise, skip it over - there are better titles like this one out there.

Story: 7 The story is good. There are some plots that i though Yuuki Kodama could of focused on. For example, at the beginning it explains that there are bosses who control different regions & fight to keep control. After a few resolutions about it. Its not exerted further & moves on to different plots. Some of those plots are used the same way so its kind of a wasted potential. But other than that its reasonably good. Art: 8 The art is very good. Not as detailed but it has avery clean and vanilla feel to it. Everyone looks different enough to depict who is who. Character: 7 The cast is good. Personally my favorites being Staz & Braz. Staz displays more personality and is more reckless. While his brother shows more intellect and kinda has a deadpan manner of humor. The rest have a certain..genericness to them. Enjoyment: 9 The enjoyment is great! I had a lot of fun seeing the struggles & misunderstandings between the characters. The fights are well done. Overall: 8 I think Blood Lad is very good. There aren't many fun vampire/Demon World manga series like Blood Lad. I recommend it. 👍

Fact: Blood Lad is an underrated manga that could've become a legend if it had more than one anime season. After I read the 17 volumes, I felt the urge to write a review, and that's so weird of me. Must be a good reason. I'll make it as short as possible: PLOT: The story is about a human named Fuyumi that somehow ended up in the demon world, freaking died there, became a ghost, and an otaku vampire wants to revive her in order to suck her blood because she's japanese. That's all. I want to warn you that this isn't a dark manga at all. It hassome serious moments, but please do not expect this to be Berserk. It's more like Dorohedoro. CHARACTERS: The real soul of this work are the characters and their developement. Yuuki Kodama managed to create an ENTIRE WORLD full of interesting individuals with their own problems, contradictions and hopes (even for the ones that were introduced later in the story). This was the real reason why I could not help reading more than a volume each time I decided to read the manga. It's addictive to see what kind of wacky situations Kodama puts them in and how they react. You might feel identified with at least one of them, I'm 100% sure. They're pure gold. STORY: This is something truly interesting about Blood Lad. If you're familiar with monthly-released manga, you know perfectly that every single chapter always ends with a cliffhanger to keep you interested in reading the next issue, right? Well, BL (funny abbreviation, huh?) does the same, but here nothing ever feels gratuitous or out of nowhere. Every chapter, no matter what, is a step further in solving this big puzzle. Unlike the majority of shounen manga, BL has no real arcs where our main cast finishes off a villain and then takes a break until the new antagonist emerges. To me, it feels like an anecdote, something like "you'll never guess what happened to me yesterday" because the story is a non-stop sequence of action and lore, like a really long shot (in cinematic terms). Also, what I really appreciate about Kodama is that the conflict grows and grows because of the characters' decisions. Nothing happens "just because," but as a consequence of someone's actions. There is always a guilty party behind every plot twist. Using another analogy, BL is like watching the author play chess, where the same characters and conflicts transform depending on how they are combined. P.S. If you're doubtful about the "pop anime culture references" everyone is pointing out, don't worry. BL doesn't rely too much on them; they're just funny references that only the protagonist uses because it's part of his otaku personality. FINAL VERDICT: Blood Lad is a great manga, please give it a try.