Blood+ Adagio, manga review
Jun. 25th, 2011 11:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
labingiReview: Blood+: Adagio, Vol. 2 (manga) by Kumiko Suekane
(I guess there's a vol. 1, but this story doesn't seem to need it.) This is a Blood+ spinoff manga, a standalone adventure designed to complement the anime and the manga commissioned to the anime. It's a good story. And thanks tosixish for presenting it to me as a lovely birthday present!
Summary
Blood+ is a series about slaying vampires ("chiropterans"), who can come in either monstrous, mindless forms or in extremely powerful, mentally human humanoid forms. It focuses mainly on the angst and character conflict involved in this.
Spoilers follow:
Saya is a vampire queen (my wording), who, Buffy-like, has unique fighting abilities and is sworn to use them to defeat her sister, Diva, another vampire queen but emotionally scared and mentally childish. (Saya and Diva have blood that is poison to each other and to the chiropterans the other creates.) Saya's chief ally is her "chevalier" (someone turned into a chiropteran by one of these queens), Hagi (pronounced "Haji").
This standalone focuses on Saya and Hagi's adventures as they battle Diva in revolutionary Russia, events alluded to in the anime. It plays like an episode or mini-arc of the anime; the art style also corresponds very closely to the anime's. The quality of the story, too, is about on par with the anime, that is to say, good, interesting, with some solid character moments and a nice dose of complexity to the villains. It's not deep or unusually well developed.
The Good
* More background on Saya and Hagi following Saya's awakening from her first 30-year hibernation. We can see a fairly early stage the transformation of Saya from entitled, slightly frivolous rich girl to the sadder, wiser warrior worn down by a life of battles. It seems to fit well on the timeline. Hagi shows less dramatic transformation, but he too is midway between the more forthright partner/lover of their early days and the almost silent, almost invisible servant figure he becomes by the 21st century.
* Some poignant depiction of the genuine, childlike affection between Diva and Prince Alexei, whom she makes into a chevalier.
* The art: quite good.
The Less Good
* I just wish there had been more character development, particularly in the dynamics of Saya and Hagi's relationship, which seems always a little shrouded in mystery. How do they define it to themselves? (How much) are they aware of its shifting over the years? How have they coped with the first of several instances in which Hagi lives 30 years alone while Saya sleeps?
* Rasputin... I don't know. He is drawn as a very feminine young man, which is interesting but I'm not sure what it's in aid of. As an (almost) one-shot villain, he functions pretty well, but I can't help but feel it's a little gimmicky, as invoking Rasputin probably always is.
On the whole, I recommend it to Blood+ fans. It's a quite, enjoyable read. It won't make much sense without prior knowledge of the series.
(I guess there's a vol. 1, but this story doesn't seem to need it.) This is a Blood+ spinoff manga, a standalone adventure designed to complement the anime and the manga commissioned to the anime. It's a good story. And thanks to
sixish for presenting it to me as a lovely birthday present!Summary
Blood+ is a series about slaying vampires ("chiropterans"), who can come in either monstrous, mindless forms or in extremely powerful, mentally human humanoid forms. It focuses mainly on the angst and character conflict involved in this.
Spoilers follow:
Saya is a vampire queen (my wording), who, Buffy-like, has unique fighting abilities and is sworn to use them to defeat her sister, Diva, another vampire queen but emotionally scared and mentally childish. (Saya and Diva have blood that is poison to each other and to the chiropterans the other creates.) Saya's chief ally is her "chevalier" (someone turned into a chiropteran by one of these queens), Hagi (pronounced "Haji").
This standalone focuses on Saya and Hagi's adventures as they battle Diva in revolutionary Russia, events alluded to in the anime. It plays like an episode or mini-arc of the anime; the art style also corresponds very closely to the anime's. The quality of the story, too, is about on par with the anime, that is to say, good, interesting, with some solid character moments and a nice dose of complexity to the villains. It's not deep or unusually well developed.
The Good
* More background on Saya and Hagi following Saya's awakening from her first 30-year hibernation. We can see a fairly early stage the transformation of Saya from entitled, slightly frivolous rich girl to the sadder, wiser warrior worn down by a life of battles. It seems to fit well on the timeline. Hagi shows less dramatic transformation, but he too is midway between the more forthright partner/lover of their early days and the almost silent, almost invisible servant figure he becomes by the 21st century.
* Some poignant depiction of the genuine, childlike affection between Diva and Prince Alexei, whom she makes into a chevalier.
* The art: quite good.
The Less Good
* I just wish there had been more character development, particularly in the dynamics of Saya and Hagi's relationship, which seems always a little shrouded in mystery. How do they define it to themselves? (How much) are they aware of its shifting over the years? How have they coped with the first of several instances in which Hagi lives 30 years alone while Saya sleeps?
* Rasputin... I don't know. He is drawn as a very feminine young man, which is interesting but I'm not sure what it's in aid of. As an (almost) one-shot villain, he functions pretty well, but I can't help but feel it's a little gimmicky, as invoking Rasputin probably always is.
On the whole, I recommend it to Blood+ fans. It's a quite, enjoyable read. It won't make much sense without prior knowledge of the series.
