Bloody Kiss, Volume 1 by Kazuko Furumiya

Kiyo Katsuragi is a poor young schoolgirl who has inherited an estate from her grandmother. This felt like a blessing to her because she could sell it and use the money to finance her schooling. But the lawyer who escorts her to the estate deep within the woods tells her that the place is rumored to be haunted, with blood-streaked walls and screams emanating from it late at night.

Unbeknownst to her, her grandmother also had a pair of guests inside the house, two vampires, a young lord named Kuroboshi and his silver-haired servant, Alchu. Her grandmother knew what they were, but apparently didn't care, and when she got ill, left the estate to Kiyo. Both vampires are actually pretty nice, but weak, because they lack a dedicated source of blood, a girl known as a Bride. Without human blood, vampires are weak, living like invalids, but with a source of blood, they become the strong creatures of legend they are known to be.

When Kiyo shows up, both Kuroboshi and Alchu show an interest in her, but while Kiyo isn't about to kick either of them off the estate, she doesn't have any interest in being a Bride, either. She spends her time taking care of the house and trying to cook while also attending school, and finds herself regretting it when Kuroboshi and Alchu show up at school and charm all the other girls without even trying.

But when he needs to protect her, Kuroboshi takes her as his bride and uses the blood he drank from her to keep her safe. But as a special dance is announced at the school, and Kiyo finds herself joining the committee and is tasked to make paper flowers for all the people at school, what will happen when mean girls decide to ruin the flowers she and another girl have spent so much time making. Can Kiyo and Kuroboshi come up with a way to give the school flowers after all?

The book ends with a separate story called "Angel Love Song", when a girl finds an angel fallen from heaven especially for her, can she finally find the help she needs to enter the new band contest and win so she can get her boyfriend back? She may have to overcome more obstacles to find true happiness than she thinks!

I found Bloody Kiss almost too cute. The character designs are cute, with lots of chibi silliness, but in the end, it just wasn't enough. It felt like I'd read this story a hundred times before and knew it by heart, and the repetition did nothing to improve the story or make it interesting. I felt that most of the story elements had been rehashed out of a hundred other different manga, from Peach Girl to Vampire Doll Guilt-Na-Zan, but with nothing really new to lift the story up out of the doldrums and give it a place of its own.

In short, this story feels like the worst sort of re-hash to me. I was actually bored reading it. The only saving grace is that the story is complete in only two volumes, another sign of a paucity of original ideas. I would have preferred to read more of the "Angel Love Song" story than any more of this. And when a book has to tell you "Ooh, the second volume is wonderful!" on the first, it doesn't seem very promising, does it?

Another sign of bad stuff to come is that a major plot point was completely dropped. Originally, Kiyo wants to sell the house, but changes her mind when she discovers the vampires living there. TThe Lawyer, unbeknownst to anyone living in the house, laughs about this because he has already sold the house. This is then dropped completely, although if this turns out to be the "shocking ending" to the series in the second book, my eyes will roll so hard that they will roll right out of my head.

There is nothing to commend this series to a reader of manga. It's all been done before, and done better, an interminable joke with no punch line that bores you as you read it. The only impulse to read the next one is to see if I'm right about the ending, and you wouldn't catch me spending money on this. Not recommended at all.