Bara to Juudan by Kayoru

Since its October, I'm doing a Halloween spectacular, though it probably won't be very spectacular, so I'm reading anything I can get my hands on that has to do with witches, demons, and magic. I'll look for some horror and psychological, too, even though I don't usually read those genres. I suppose, technically, it started with Heaven's Will but lets not argue that point and begin!

           

Bara to Juudan by Kayoru

            Genre: Shojo (14 and up)

            Length: One Volume - 6 Chapters

            The art is professional; clean and easy to look at, with clear lines and backgrounds and good body movements and proportions. The people have simple silhouettes so they don't much stand out on their own but since there's really only the two main characters in the story that doesn't matter much. The eyes could be more expressive.

Art and Story (c) Kayoru

            Mitsuki is a typical school girl, though, on the day of her 16th birthday she uncharacteristically over sleeps and has to rush to school or she’ll break her perfect attendance. Luckily, her neighbor and class mate gives her a ride on his scooter and she gets to discreetly hug her two-year crush. As the day progresses, she begins to feel strange, but ignores it and goes on an impromptu date with the same classmate. She has a wonderful time at the festival and even receives a present from her crush! On the way home, though, she begins to feel strange once more and blacks out. The next morning she wakes up at home still in her clothes with one shoe missing and the news report on television is claiming her shoe is connected to a woman who attacked a man on the street and sucked his blood!

            I liked how this one volume manga was set up, the mangaka clearly knew what they were doing with the amount of pages given them. The facts of the romance is quickly laid out in a short few flashback panels in a way that also gives you a feel for the male lead's personality, too. With that out of the way, the emotions can, and are, quickly played with. It could get to the good stuff a little quicker because you've already figured it out and its no fun to wait, but then when the interesting stuff happens its over to fast and then the story sort of stops. It is pretty typical and you can see how the story is going to generally go but you don't read a romance story for surprises. The action is fairly pretend, in fact what could be the most exciting part is skipped over, and it stays a lovey shojo from start to finish. It's like an afternoon day dream, with some bullet holes mixed in. If you’ve read Vampire Knight you’ll see a lot of similarities, though.

           

 3/5 Recommended for good vampire-y love fluff