Black Bird

Gonna make this review relatively short and to the point. The artwork is amazing and the basic synopsis is an intriguing one. A high school girl, Misao, who is able to see spirits is being coveted by demons because she is the "Senka". By partaking of her flesh or having sex with her a demon can become more powerful and bring prosperity and strength to his clan. A childhood friend and her first crush, Kyo, who is a demon tengu, returns after being away for 10 years and protects her. Sounds good so far. However, the actual story isn't that great and the two maincharacters are awful. Kyo is just about the worst kind of guy there is. He is possessive, manipulative, demanding, jealous, and violent. He pretty much does whatever he wants and continually forces his will on Misao. He blames her for having to do what he does. Misao is a weak, needy, indecisive, whiny girl who loves Kyo to a fault. It doesn't matter what he does to her or others she still loves him and goes along with everything he does. She can't live without him (or so she thinks). I can't really get into the story without spoiling some things (everything I've said so far you'll find out by reading the synopsis and the first few chapters). Suffice it to say that the entire story is all meant to test the love Kyo and Misao have for each other. Everything that happens is for this sole purpose. All the supporting character's roles, all the plot twists, all the bloodshed and mental anguish that happens. It's all meant to show you, the reader, that true love will last forever. About the only thing I personally felt towards these two and their relationship was contempt and disgust. If you want a dark, twisted romance with some violence, bloodshed, and a domineering main guy, I guess this is for you. But if you're looking for a real romance that's more pure and makes you feel all warm inside, look elsewhere.

Hmm what to say about Black Bird. Words fail me, but here I am. Black Bird is the type of story that normally I would enjoy (genre-wise), but somehow it just didn't work out with BB. It takes all the bad parts about shoujo stories and combines them into one. Somehow, I still wanted to finish it though, so I guess that says *something* about the manga, though I'm not sure what exactly that something is. Story (4): the story itself was kind of 'meh'. It's not the worst I've ever read, but there really wasn't a point. It was very predictable. After readingabout half the story, I already knew what was going to happen. Art (6): I thought the art was actually pretty nice. It's not amazing or particularly noteworthy, but it's clean and easy to understand. I didn't like how big Misao's eyes were, though. They took up half her face sometimes. I also didn't really like most of her outfits. The art is fine, but it isn't good enough to cover up for the poor story. Character (3): the characters were the weakest part of this story. Misao has NO agency. I don't think she ever decides to do anything on her own. I don't want to give away what happens, so pardon me for being vague, but the only time she ever really "decides" to do something for herself, it's not really even a decision, it's just accepting the inevitable. For most of the manga, all I could think about was how much easier everyone's lives would be if Misao just died. It's not that I wanted her to die...but I kind of did. It disturbed me how infantalized she was. She cried on every other page. who cries that often? It was excessive even by shoujo standards. I also could never understand why Misao and Kyou even loved each other. Misao didn't really have much of a personality, and Kyou spent most of his time maintaining a poker face. It was also annoying that all of the "Great 8" were male. In one of the omake about the mangaka's life, she mentioned that one of her editors suggested that one of the Great 8 be a female, but it was rejected. Why? I really don't understand. The only girls in this manga are Misao, Misao's mom, Misao's 2 friends, Kyou's cousin, Kyou's mom, and Shou's female sidekick (who just kind of disappears after she is no longer relevant to the plot), and the fox head's girlfriend (also disappears without explanation). There's also 1 girl in a side story (Zenki's sister), but she isn't a part of the main BB plot since she has her own story. There were many characters who were introduced, never developed, and then forgotten. They weren't even "put on a bus"; they just disappeared. In my opinion, the characters are the most important part of a story. If you don't care about the characters, why should you care about what happens to them? I did not care about the characters of BB, so the story wasn't very compelling. Enjoyment (5): I think that if you like Twilight, you will probably like this kind of story. It has a lot of similarities. Misao is JUST LIKE BELLA, in a very bad way. I read to the end because I wanted to see what would happen. It's like eating a box of chocolates, hoping that at least one of them will be good, and then feeling sick at the end because you ate allll that sugar, and none of them were good. I hoped that Misao would finally do something other than be rescued and hate herself, but it never happened. Honestly, I do not recommend this manga. I wanted it to be good, and I wanted to like it, but it was lacking in many ways. The notes left by the mangaka throughout each volume are heartwarming and it really seems like she tried hard, but in the end it was very disappointing.

I came across Black Bird after I finished reading Hana to Akuma. Being a fan of youkai(s) and stuff (because they are somewhat gorgeous lol), this manga caught my interest. Initially, I really love the plot of the story. The manga was good, it is entertaining. However, there are downsides to it as well. I somewhat find Misao kinda annoying the way she wails and stuff and that she always cries. I love how Kyo acts sometimes, though. The way he gives off that mysterious aura is a plus points for me. However, I did not like the ending of this manga because basically, howcan he even hate his own son. I mean, it's his own flesh and blood, and he acts so cold and like a jerk towards the kid. It was really annoying. Over all, it was worth a read, it may not be the best but it's worth it.

Story: 7 I really thought this manga was just a silly romance manga with little to no story that I would just read in order to pass time. Well honestly the story is actually pretty cool and unique. The supernatural aspect mixed with romance was well structured and captivating. Yes, it tends to be very sexual and kinda throws the topic of rape in their a lot, but they mix it in the story where it doesn't seem forced (plus if there's a guy and a girl in love, their most likely going to have sex and make out a lot and not just a fewtimes like in other romance manga). If the story was more of a shounen and built on more, it really would have been very engrossing even more so and more mature (mature not only in the sense of sex and stuff). Art: 9 The art was really nice and the artist rarely or ever got lazy in chapters. It was vibrant and detailed enough sort of like a shoujo and shounen manga's art put together if you know what I mean. Character: 8 I loved pretty much all of the characters in this manga, especially the main characters. Well the female protagonist, Misao, was very annoying and whinny and cried way to much, but she redeemed herself in many ways and its actually hard to completely hate her, because she's like a lovable puppy (kinda like Nana Komatsu). All the important characters were built on well and all had their own background stories shown (even if it was just briefly). Every character in this series has their own funny and/or honorable trait to them that it just makes it to hard to despise them. Enjoyment: 10 I do have complaints about this manga, but I really enjoyed it. It was a fun read that had quite unexpected plot twist that keeps you on edge. It's a manga I'm truly glad I read and has a special place on my future manga bookshelf.