Creative Staff
Story/Art: Setona Mizushiro
Translation/Adaptation: John Werry
What They Say
Dimitri Lewandowski is a celebrated tenor in early 1900s Vienna. When he is killed in an accident, his corpse is colonized by the seeds of a vampire master. At first, Dimitri denies that anything has changed, but as the people around him start dying, he is forced to accept the ghastly truth.
Flash-forward to 2008. In Tokyo, Alice thinks she has fully adapted to her role in Dimitri’s nest and is carefully considering which vampire to propagate with. But when the man she loved when she was Azusa shows up one day, her carefully constructed acceptance starts to crumble…
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Azusa’s soul entered the body of Dimitri’s lost love, Agnieszka. She changed her name to Alice, and in her new identity, she exists to choose one of the vampires with whom she has agreed to propagate. Volume 5 finds Alice playing the piano in the cafe. In her past life, she was a teacher in her late 20s who had a relationship with her high school age student, Koya. It was to save his life that she entered the contract with Dimitri and offered to give herself to the vampire procreation.
Interrupting her song, Koya walks off the street and into the cafe. In a strange behavior, he immediately begins to ask her to play like Azusa. Stunned at the interaction, the vampires step in to divert Koya’s attention. Still, he seems drawn to her, and when she sees he wears glasses, she asks him the extraordinary question if his eyesight is bad, both to continue the connection and find out if Dimitri had fully healed him.
So begins an unraveling of the mask from Alice’s new identity. After the initial meeting, Koya returns and Alice interacts with him in a demanding way. She tries to connect with him on some level while remaining distant. Dimitri and the others look on, concerned, but they don’t interfere. In an act of betrayal reminiscent of Agnieszka’s behavior that led to Dimitri’s death, Alice and Koya meet on the street. What begins as another nagging interaction progresses to them sleeping together. Alice broods over her actions, and tries to break it off with Koya, but upon returning home, the nest begins to fall apart as everyone confronts their pasts, their selfishness, and their bleak lives.
Poor decisions and selfish behavior saturate this manga. Characters exist in their supernatural malaise based on emotionally destructive acts and an inability to understand the effects their actions have on others. Alice betrays her commitment to the vampires, forcing everyone to confront their inner demons. Kai admits to Alice that even he has acted selfishly, and selfish behavior is a natural part of everyone. Reiji, who doesn’t remember anything about his death, has a sudden memory of a violent act, and he feels betrayed by Kai. Dimitri realizes his own weaknesses and contemplates whether to stay or leave. Koya insults Alice in front of the vampires, and the vampires lament that she might be attracted to abusive men.
Alice remains lost in her own thoughts, and the fog of her shifting identities. Does she feel the tug of a past love or only the guilt of seeing him suffer? Why did she betray the vampires for a night of sex that had no value for anyone? Even during the two years since she died, she has no tendency to commitment. Instead she pretends to be whatever girl she thinks each man wants.
In Summary
Outside of the drama, our heroine remains stuck in a cycle of trying to find her identity, unable to determine whether to please others or herself. All the characters in the manga are having a similar struggle, and because they cannot find balance within, they hurt those around them. I look forward to seeing whether Volume 6 offers any characters a moment of self-awareness or whether they are doomed to remain forever lost to themselves.
Content Grade: B+
Art Grade: A
Packaging Grade: B+
Text/Translation Grade: A
Age Rating: Older Teen
Released By: VIZ Media
Release Date: August 4th, 2015
MSRP: $9.99