Bloody Kiss Volume 2 by Kazuko Furumiya

Kiyo Katsuragi has been claimed as a blood bride by Kuroboshi, a vampire Prince. He and his mentor, Alshu, have been living in the same house that was once owned by Kiyo's grandmother, which she left to Kiyo. Now, not only does Kiyo have charge of the house, but also her grandmother's two guests.

Kuroboshi wants blood. Having taken Kiyo as his blood bride, he can only drink blood from her, and without blood, he is weak and lethargic. If Kiyo gets some of her blood, he can do many amazing and magical things with it, by Kiyo resists the idea of being his permanent bride. Alshu persuades Kuroboshi that if they begin going to Kiyo's school, she may get used to the idea, and so Kuroboshi enrolls, while Alshu becomes part of the faculty. Kiyo feels this only causes more worry for her- because if the students should get wind of the idea that Kuroboshi and Alshu are vampires, her life would become much more difficult.

But she's not the only one with reason to be angry. Another student, Fujiwara, doesn't want to share the spotlight with Kiyo and challenges Kiyo to a tennis match. If Kiyo loses, she must leave the school. But unbeknownst to Kiyo, Fujiwara is the daughter of the headmaster, and she plays to win. Does Kiyo even have a chance to beat the arrogant Fujiwara when Fujiwara is making sure that Kiyo can't get a fair or even break?

Then, a friend from Kiyo's past, the boy next door that she was best friends with, returns. Sou Mikami has been training as a monster hunter and evil killer, and both he and Kiyo have grown up a great deal since they parted. Now, he is expressing a romantic interest in Kiyo, and she, who has recently faced that she has romantic feelings for Kuroboshi, and now she must deal with someone who she thinks of as a friend wanting her as well. But when Sou finds out that Kuroboshi is romantically interested in Kiyo, will he be able to keep from killing the vampire, one of the creatures that Sou learned to hunt while he was away training? Can their be any hope of a happy ending when Suo seems to want Kuroboshi dead?

The backup story, Wishing on a Vampire concerns Miku Taira, who wants to be beautiful so desperately that she travels to a building that appears only at certain times to ask the man inside to make her beautiful. He agrees, for a price, some of her blood. She wants to be beautiful so that a boy who had agreed to go to the prom with her two years ago, would remember his promise and ask her.

But it seems that no one but the vampire wants her to succeed, and is she a shallow person to want the beauty only to find love with someone? As the time to the prom gets nearer and nearer, does she have the courage to ask the boy to dance with her, even though he's asked someone else to the prom? and will the vampire she's asked repudiate her for her shallow nature in asking for beauty?

I found this series, short as it is, to be a waste of my time. It's just another rehashed teen love manga of a girl falling for or being chased by an "unsuitable" boy. In this case, the unsuitability is his vampirism and constantly trying to get blood out of her. You know that they will eventually end up together- so every obstacle that turns up will eventually be overcome, even her old friend who views Kuroboshi as a threat to her. The real shock would have been if she ended up with Suo after all the conflict with Kuroboshi.

The art is nice, with nice, clean line art, but just... it's nothing I haven't seen before over and over and over again in manga. Just because the unsuitable boy who pines for you or who you fall in love with is a vampire, doesn't really bring anything different to the high school love story. Even less when the only sign of him being a vampire is drinking blood. He can still go out in the sunlight and attend day school with the girl he's bound to. It's like the whole "vampire" thing is just some strange code for a bad boy with dietary issues. For all his "vampireness" impinges on the thing, he might as well be a really strong vegan. Not convincing.

Given that I have seen all the tropes in this series elsewhere, and the whole "vampire quotient" is pretty much reduced to dietary needs, and there was nothing all that wonderful in the second volume made me feel cheated, but not too much because I wasn't expecting much, even when the first volume promised me that this one would be much better. In short, it's not. Just more re-hash, and another story like the first back-up story, where a girl relies on someone other than herself to try and get her dreams to come true. in neither case does the girl get what she thinks she wants, and she has to rethink her priorities to find a happy ending. Not recommended at all. Save your money. There is better stuff out there.