Time for some truth to finally be revealed- but will the truth set this group free or simply lead to an all new threat they can’t even dream of?
Creative Staff
Story/Art: Yuuki Kodoma
Translation/Adaptation: Melissa Tanaka
What They Say
Using Staz’s powerful magic, Braz has successfully resurrected his father, Richarz, former king of the Demon World. Staz is furious that his brother has swindled him yet again – with Staz’s blood and Braz’s efforts going toward resurrection research, Staz and Fuyumi are back to square one on restoring her human body. But more pressing than Fuyumi’s precarious state is that of the Demon World! When the dust settles, will a vampire or a werewolf be sitting on the throne?!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
It looks like Braz has finally accomplished his goal as his resurrected father Richarz is facing off against Wolf Daddy and this time Braz will work to make sure that the vampire family comes out on top. Unfortunately for Braz however history wasn’t anything like the betrayal of Richarz by Wolf Daddy that he imagined as the past is peeled away in front of him and Staz as well as the small motley crew they have come to travel with. This group is going to find out secrets that none but the king is allowed to know (which is ominous to each individual as well as they start fearing for their own lives now) and they are clued in to just how it is that Richarz died and his wife vanished and just why it is that the king’s palace has such an absurdly huge vault looking door in it.
In order to catch everyone (including the reader) up the tale is told both by Richarz and Wolf Daddy as well as a mystical tool that Richarz boy’s are stabbed with to the assembled cast. It is revealed that originally the magic that powers demon world residents flowed freely between the Demon world and that of humans as a coexisting circle as the dead from one realm would move to the other but as humans started to amass in numbers the amount of magic was also increasing to a point where the balance was threatened. In order to protect them from this massive increase of energy, the demon world created a dam to stop up much of the power that would flow in but the first king grew greedy and poked a hole in it to increase his power.
He failed to be able to control it though as the power and it overwhelmed him and then his body was dragged to the other side while the population built a giant door in the dam to try keep the power out again and as the years passed the body and power on the other side connected and became a greater monster and the job of the king turned in part to keeping that monster from coming out.
The previous hierarchy in the demon world changed when Richarz died trying to fight this monster as well as lost his wife and in his final act he turned the care of the kingdom over to Wolf Daddy who had fought valiantly by the king’s side and who was now kind of stuck with the burden of guarding the gate that came with the throne. In order to keep the secret of the horror behind the door hidden Wolf Daddy allowed the demon World to believe that he had murdered Richarz to seize the throne leaving Braz to have to cope with the knowledge that his vengeance had been misplaced all along as the demon he thought of as the monster who killed his father was in fact both continuing the former king’s mission but also protecting Richarz sons from having to pick up the burden of the enormous secret weight of the crown.
Just as the group re-assembles after hearing the tale the monster on the other side of the door makes its big push and the collected power attempts to rally against it Braz’s past mistakes return as Akim revels that his death had been a bit exaggerated and now he wants his heart back, and some of the magical energy it had been circulating as well in Richarz as interest. The situation goes from bad to worse when Akim strikes a bargain of sorts with the creature behind the door and manages to do what cost Richarz his life in the first place- absorb the creature’s power but this time for nefarious ends.
As hope is fading a newly enlightened Wolf appears along with Bell but his attempt to turn the tide single handedly also comes up short and the group gathered to fight against Akim are forced to retreat as the adults go into hiding while the children try to come up with a strategy to win. But when Staz decides that fiction in one world can mean reality in the other is his master plan of finding clues in manga going to win out or have the adults made a terrible mistake in betting on the youngsters?
The odds look to be favoring ‘terrible mistake.’
Blood Lad continues to cruise along as the story continues to grow in threat to its cast as a new world shaking power steps up to the plate and forces many of the characters who otherwise would be mostly fighting each other to concentrate together on this larger goal. While I like this idea in concept (yes I consume a lot of shonen fighting stories) I am not sure I am entirely sold on it in the here and now as the story seems to have shifted away from the quest of returning Fuyumi back to life and it only seems to remember that was even the initial task infrequently. I guess it bothers me that Fuyumi also vanishes during the early fight which makes sense on one level as she has no fighting skills but on the other it seems to make her a convenient plot device to be rolled out in order to play up either the comedy or the awkward romance moments but leaves her not standing much on her own most of the time- even when her feet haven’t vanished due to loss of magical energy.
On the other hand the story being comfortable in places downplaying Staz’s role actually worked well for me as it gave a chance for the other characters to be able to have their moments in the spotlight which helps to carry the story as it makes it feel less like ‘everyone fall in around Staz. It also does help play into some of the chaos of the book as there may actually be too many characters to intercut in moments without damaging the narrative at times leaving it hard for a sense of tension to be developed and matured.
Not that I am sold on the narrative either as the increasing escalation of everything often leaves me with a bit of a cold feeling as if the author is trying to top other stories they’ve read- or at least match them- at the expense of a richness in characters and situations that could be mined along the way and that certainly feels like something that is happening in Blood Lad. And these influences aren’t just seen in this escalation but they are also present in some homage artwork that appears as well as many references made by the cast as they read through Staz’s manga collection for ‘strategy’ which feels a little out of place frankly in light of the impending threat. While I like the series much more now than in the first two volumes (collected in 1 volume by Yen Press for US release) I can’t help feeling like the events and my interest are starting to be pulled apart again as I am not really harmonizing well with a number of the stories twists and turns.
Much of this honestly might simply be a clash of my taste with the story but reading through I can’t help but feeling like the tone and mechanisms of the first half of this two volume collection are so completely different from the second that they might as well be two completely different story lines. Perhaps this issue might have been different if I were reading the story in weekly chapters or even in two separate volumes but when combined together here they feel more like elements that are competing with rather than complimenting each other and I just couldn’t find the same groove with the material that I feel into in the two or three previous volumes. That isn’t to say it is bad, but it didn’t strike me as great and it was a bit of a letdown compared to what has come before.
In Summary
The truth of the former king Richarz’s death and Wolf Daddy’s rise to the throne is about to be revealed and it looks like none of the rumors or assumptions that many had about that act are going to be close to the truth. But any time Braz might have had to contemplate just how all his schemes had been built on falsities and the damage his actions have wrought his greatest creation is revealed to be his greatest mistake and it will now cost him- and the entire Demon World- more than he could ever have contemplated. As that mistake gains phenomenal power the adults who were trying to prevent tragedy retreat into a self enforced exile to try to keep some semblance of order in the Demon World while the youth will be forced to try to come up with a plan of action- and desperate times may call for ridiculous measures.
Content Grade: C+
Art Grade: B
Packaging Grade: A-
Text/Translation Grade: B+
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Yen Press
Release Date: July 22nd, 2014
MSRP: $20.00