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First Impressions: Bloody Mary – Akaza Samamiya

January 20, 2016

Bloody Mary volume 1

Summary from BookWalker: “Bloody” Mary is not your typical vampire. He can withstand sunlight, holds a reflection in mirrors, refuses to drink blood—and wants 17-year-old student and priest Maria to kill him. But to Mary’s dismay, Maria doesn’t know how to kill vampires. Desperate to die, Mary agrees to become Maria’s bodyguard until Maria can find a way to kill him at last.

Manga creator: Akaza Samamiya

Published by: Viz Media

Review: I stopped around 75 percent in the manga (and skimmed the rest) because this manga is painful. The overall tone of the manga, which bounced back and forth from serious to non-serious, was off-putting. I was expecting a dark vampire manga, but so far I got a weird mix of a wannabe, powerless priest using a suicidal vampire as a guard until they can solve the mystery of why said vampire can’t die (and how to kill the vampire). I’m also confused about the names. Apparently, the priest is Maria, and the vampire is Mary? On top of THAT, I was under the (mistaken) impression this is BL. Thankfully, it’s not because the vampire’s mentality is like a child and that would make this an awkward BL manga.

The pacing is pretty good, but I have a few questions that I hope are answered. So far, we have a vampire who can’t die. We have a powerless priest, who is special for some reason. We have another mysterious figure, Takumi. We have vampires who are after Maria. We have strange, potentially bad guys. We have Mary’s mysterious past. The manga has nice art and an interesting-sounding plot, but the execution (which is of utmost importance) fails. I wanted to like this manga, and perhaps in future volumes, it will get better.

What do I hope? Mary loses the childish personality. It doesn’t work for this manga. Some people may find him adorable. I don’t. I also hope the pacing keeps up, and some questions are answered (even if it brings up more questions). Nothing’s worse than reading something that never reveals vital knowledge for the sake of keeping the plot going. So far, the story is set up well enough that this may not happen. I also want the characters to become more interesting. Mary is the only one, so far, who has depth and history. I’m sure Maria does too, especially concerning his bloodline, but overall I find him a dull central character.

I can’t recommend this manga, so read at your own risk! Maybe you’ll connect with something I didn’t.