Blood Alone Volume 1: A Vampire is Fine Too

by eternal on February 10, 2009

blood-alone

Blood Alone is an obscure manga about a loli vampire living with a young male novelist, with an air of mystery and intrigue woven into the densely implicit romance. That’s it, in a nutshell: a random purchase made on my last Amazon shopping spree because the cover art looked nice. Was I disappointed? Not in the least. Read on to hear more about this little gem of a series that I hadn’t so much as heard of until a month ago.

To be frank, the first sentence of this post says it all, and if that synopsis didn’t intrigue you, then you probably won’t care much for the series. Very little happens in the first volume: like with many stories, the beginning simply serves to introduce the characters and set the tone for the future developments. The mystery and fantasy elements are quite prevalent at times, especially since there appears to be a mystery hiding in the characters’ pasts (as always), and about half of the book was dedicated to a Gyakuten Saiban-style murder mystery story.

However, while the plot might sound very unoriginal – moe-moe vampire lives with cool senpai, stuff happens, other stuff happens, confession of love under the moonlit sky – the fact remains that it’s a fun read. It was reminiscent of May Sky in the sense that it wasn’t so much the story that attracted me as it was the atmosphere. Subtly healing, both fantasy fulfilling and painfully real, with just enough implications to get your heart pounding yet not so much to make it feel like an episode of Shuffle; it’s a tricky balance, but it does it well.

And that’s the one point I really want to hit with this post: the atmosphere. I’m not sure how one would go about creating an atmosphere this alluring, but we’ve all seen it before in countless forms of anime and manga. Somewhat like the chaste MariMite setting where everything is implied yet nothing is directly stated, or the beginning of a Key story where everything is surreal and mysterious – it’s tough to explain, but it’s something you should feel the moment you start reading. Maybe that’s just the otaku side of me talking, but the moe and romance and fantasy is all woven together in such a sublime way that even though I feel as if the plot is as cookie-cutter as it can get, I still want to read more.

And at the moment, I still want to read more. I finished the first volume about twenty minutes ago, yet I already want to see more of Misaki’s adorable antics, more of Kuroe’s fatherly protection, more of the love that will surely bloom between them. It’s about as fake as a story can get, the very antithesis to shows like KimiKiss, but maybe that’s just what I like about it: it’s a masterful juxtaposition of fantasy and reality, and it’s alluring enough to warrant a purchase of the rest of the volumes.

~ ETERNAL
つづく

{ 10 comments… read them below or add one }

digitalboy February 10, 2009 at 5:05 pm

I got interested when people were comparing it to Gunslinger Girl, and the comparison is not unwarranted. I loved the first 2 chapters, but I hate scanslations, so I am plannign to buy the manga. Which is taking forever since they don’t have it in stores and I’m too lazy to buy online.

digitalboys last blog post..AMV Highlight: Kiyomaro’s Judgement

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rangerroh February 10, 2009 at 5:22 pm

hmmm…. the openning paragraph got me hooked. I have never heard or seen this manga before. Is it a new release? I just might go pick up a few volumes and see how it goes. Thanks for bring light to a new manga which I might of passed on if I didnt read your post. ^^

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jayce February 10, 2009 at 6:47 pm

Blood Alone began as a doujin, as a self published work, before being serialized. It’s mostly some Kuroe and Misaki moments and some of them were included in the manga with a few changes. Most of his doujin works deals with theme of the relationship of caretakers and the girls that they look after.

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Kona February 11, 2009 at 12:56 am

Ooh, I might try this after reading this review. I heard of it about 2 years back (or so) but never really took the next step in purchasing the manga because I didn’t know how good it was. Plus, the only version I could buy was the expensive English translated one. The art was also what made me interested in the manga; simple yet it portrays the story well (I read the synopsis. ^^).
Atmosphere…can’t wait to feel what this manga has to offer when I read it. ^_^
Thank you for writing this post. :3

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ETERNAL February 13, 2009 at 5:16 pm

@ digitalboy: I hate scans as well, but unfortunately they’re a necessity more often than not. Luckily the licensed releases are about 4 or 5 volumes in.

@ rangerroh: Looks like the first volume came out here in 2006, and they’ve been showing up slowly but surely ever since. The fact that it’s so obscure is the main reason why I wrote this post :P

@ jayce: Ah, that explains it. I noticed that there was a doujin listed on MAL but I wasn’t sure what it was and for some reason I didn’t think to click on it. Thanks for the info!

@ Kona: I was immediately drawn to the art as well; like you said, it’s simple yet effective. I hope you enjoy it!

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Shin February 14, 2009 at 8:44 am

Ditched this when I found out there wasn’t going to be any loli raep.

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M12 February 14, 2009 at 4:37 pm

Hm, looks like it could be interesting. Unfortunately, I’m short on cash right now XD.

M12s last blog post..Character Design: Adelphine

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Fang-tan February 14, 2009 at 9:31 pm

The description sounds like Tsukuyomi -Moon Phase-. Which is pretty bad I guess to say because this seems anything but. Anyways I have a thing for loli x older man romance so I’ll definitely be checking this out.

Fang-tans last blog post..Rozen Maiden Piano Sound Album Review

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Rakuen February 23, 2009 at 2:58 am

Reminds me of Lolita, but no.

I’d like to read that book, I’ve ran out of books to read at home so, yeah I’ll go check it out.

@Shin: You most certainly are DIRTY. Try tentacles instead.

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Misaki January 23, 2010 at 5:56 pm

my friend got the first and 2nd book of blood alone and its very interesting but i cant seem to find it online can someone help me find it online or tell me were its at on wat website

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