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Japanese title
BLOOD ALONE
Manga-ka/Author
高野真之 Masayuki Takano
Genre
romance, mystery, supernatural
Volumes: 4+
Distributor: Infinity Studios
Classification: 15
Originally serialised in
月刊コミック電撃大王
Monthly Comic Dengeki Daioh
Rating
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Blood Alone centres upon the lives of Misaki (a little girl of indeterminate age)
and her guardian Kuroe. At first glance, they seem like an ordinary pair, but
with one important difference - Misaki is a vampire. The story follows their
daily (or rather, nightly) lives as Kuroe looks after Misaki the best way he
can.
Misaki and Kuroe live in an apartment above the top floor of a tall apartment building,
and Kuroe has an office there where he works as a writer. Both have painful pasts which
have brought them together - Misaki has nightmares and visions of the vampire who bit her
(which happened not long before the beginning of the manga) and Kuroe is haunted by the
memory of his sister's death (or disappearance?) and searching for the one who killed her.
As a result of the struggle between him and his sister's attacker, Kuroe was wounded and
splashed in the eyes with vampire blood. This means his eyes are invulnerable to hypnosis,
and he has an uncanny knack for seeing what others can't see - Adivuarat Kurai. This
trait means he is often called upon to help in unusual murder investigations by his friend
Sainome, a Forensics expert with a talent for reading the memories of dead people.
But while Kuroe is helping Sainome solve murders, Misaki is left in the background, waiting
for him to return. How does she really feel about her human companion, and what other dark
secrets is Misaki hiding?
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I must admit, I bought
Blood Alone impulsively because it looked interesting. The popularity of
gothic and supernatural titles like Blood Alone is rising (xxxHOLiC
and Bizenghast for example), and although I don't often buy this type of
manga, this one fascinates me.
First of all, there's the elegant and sophisticated drawing style (which reminds
me of Yoshitoshi ABe's work) and unique page layouts, and then there's the great
attention to detail poured into the lavish backgrounds. Finally, there's the story,
which is unique, mysterious and compelling, if on the dark side. The content is a
little mature in places (in terms of violence and death), but this is more of a
mystery than a horror series.
A lot is left a mystery in the first volume, and this is an indication that the
manga-ka is a very gifted storyteller. A very promising series.
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Manga
The first volume of Blood Alone
is available in bookshops, and you can get the second and third volumes
online.
Anime
This is a new series, so
unfortunately there is no anime yet.
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