Book Review: Bloody Kiss by Kazuko Furumiya

Title: Bloody Kiss

Author: Kazuko Furumiya

Series: Bloody Kiss #1

Published: Published August 11th 2009 by TokyoPop

Length: 192 pages

Warnings: Teen for mild sexuality, mild violence, mild gore, mild fanservice (Tokyopop’s rating)

Other info: Volume 2 was also published by Tokyopop.

Summary : When Kiyo inherits her grandmother’s house, she gets a lot more than she bargained for. You see, also living in the home are two hot vamp1ires, Kuroboshi and his servant Alshu! Then things go from weird to bloody crazy when Kuroboshi decide’s to make Kiyo his “bride”-his only source of blood.

Review: it’s all centred around Kiyo, who inherits a house from her grandmother. She goes in and finds Kuroboshi and Alshu, a couple of vampires. Kuroboshi fake attempts to drink her blood, and gets knocked out. He then forces Kiyo to help him clean up, then things happen and she agrees to let them stay. And also Kuroboshi wants to make Kiyo his only blood source, which kind of makes her mad when she learns the term for this is “bride”. Yeah…its just a  really short comedy and I cant really go into much more detail than this or I might as well give you the book to read...

I like the plot. What there is of it. And actually theres quite a lot of it for the start of a series that spans two volumes.  Its fairly detailed, and while the majority of the book is comedy, both laugh out loud, and slightly perverted types, there are a few more serious notes in this.

The characters are easy to connect with and have strong personalities. Kiyo is a girl who is in no danger of being a Mary Sue, because of the way she talks back and tends to slap Kuroboshi. Kuroboshi and his way of taking half the things Kiyo says in a perverted way is slightly annoying, but funny anyway. Alshu doesn’t particularly do much, just really there to add comic relief.

The comedy is the strong point in this. Some of the jokes will not be appreciated by some people, but some will, such as Kiyo turning up with a cross, Kuroboshi telling her that they don’t hurt vampires, and Kiyo hitting him around the head with it.

I like the art in this. Its detailed and realistic, and the traditional shojo style of the drawings compliment the story. The little extras such as the rough sketches of  various scenes and the gender-bended Kiyo and Kuroboshi were a nice little touch.

Bloody Kiss only really takes up three quarters of the 200 pages.  The final quarter is one shot manga called Angel Love Song. I wont go into too much detail, but its a sweet little love story involving a singing contest and the typical  shojo character development and so on. 

Overall:  Strength 4 tea to this fun manga that fans of comedy, vampires and romance will like. Anyone looking for scary vampires should go elsewhere.