A few cute short stories to end a nice little shojo vampire series.
Creative Staff:
Story/Art: Miko Mitsuki
Adaptation: Ysabet Reinhrdt MacFarlane
Translation: pinkie-chan
What They Say:
Fifteen-year-old Hinata Sorazono has a new neighbor—Junya Tokinaga, the author of an incredibly popular vampire romance series! Hinata quickly falls for Junya, and he’s definitely attracted to her…but what will Hinata do once she realizes Junya is actually a vampire and that a seemingly simple kiss on the lips means his life will be in her hands?
Honey Blood Tale 0 is where Hinata and Junya’s love story originally began. In addition to the one-shot chapters that predate the Honey Blood series, this volume contains two bonus short stories from the author!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
They call this tale zero, but only because some of the stories precede the manga’s original publication. In truth, two of these stories arguably take place after the events of volume two and actually might have been published after the fact. There are five chapters within this, three from Honey Blood and two one shots from Mitsuki’s earlier and later career.
The three Honey Blood chapters are entitled “My Boyfriend is a…?!”, “Until Dawn Comes”, and “Until the End of Time”. The first chapter is a rehash of the two volumes, just hella sped up and cuts to the chase. It loses a lot of the nuance of the volumes’ content and is weaker for it, but you can see where the foundations for the comic lie.
The two latter stories are epilogues to the story proper and they’re entertaining as I recall the main story being. It shows a sweet side of love and it shows a terrifyingly predatory nature of it. Vampire stories are of forbidden love, so there’s always going to be that factor. From an outside perspective, it’s a guy who’s hundreds of years old tempting a 15-year-old girl into a relationship for the rest of her life. From his point of view, it’s the final true love he’s ever going to be able to experience and it’s the escape from the tendrils of eternity.
But he looks about 20 because it can’t be too creepy. It actually works fairly well as just a straight up shojo romance series. It’s never too terrible and any hold ups I have with it can be tied directly to vampire mythology. The added mythos of kissing someone to seal an eternal pact adds an air of love and connection to the two lovebirds.
The next story is “A Bouquet of Love for the Princess”, which I think was her earlier one shot. (The later one mentions she hadn’t written one in a while?? It doesn’t give dates.) This was pretty typical shojo with really cute artwork and a girl who’s spunkier than ever. In other words, it hit all my buttons and I loved it to death. It’s simply about a girl who falls in love with a guy and wants to impress him by looking cute instead of…well, like a boy. She’s basically Kashima from Nozaki-kun, if Kashima were a little rougher. And her suitor is an aspiring makeup artist. She has three older brothers, he has three older sisters—all makeup artists. It’s a match made in heaven and it’s cute as hell.
The final story is “First Love, Meeting in the Night.” Mitsuki says in the afterward that this story was about missing feelings and how irritating that can be and that’s absolutely correct. It’s unfortunate that readers apparently didn’t connect to that idea, also stated in the afterward. It’s clear as day that these two kids love each other and it takes a lot for them to realize that. They have to be willing to take a leap of faith—rather, have that leap literally taken for them as their bus falls off a cliff during a bad storm. I think trepidation at putting all your feelings out there is a real fear and this chapter takes it to a next level. Perhaps looking in a mirror is too harsh for the kids reading it.
In Summary:
Honey Blood was never a great series, but it was always a fun read. The art is pretty typical shojo, but still very cute. Having it end after two volumes is a little unsatisfying, and this third doesn’t really do much to taper that feeling, but it is a nice addition. I just wish Mitsuki could have a few more chapters to wrap it up a little nicer.
Content Grade: B-, A-, and B respectively
Art Grade: B, B+, and B-
Packaging Grade: B
Text/Translation Grade: A-
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Viz Media
Release Date: February 3rd, 2015
MSRP: $9.99
