Honey Blood Vol. #01 Manga Review

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Creative Staff:
Story/Art: Miko Mitsuki
Translation: pinkie-chan
Adaptation: Ysabet Reinhardt MacFarlane

What They Say:
When a girl at Hinata Sorazono’s school is attacked by what seems to be a bloodsucking vampire, everyone is on edge and wonders who’s next. Hinata refuses to believe that vampires even exist, but then she meets her new neighbor, Junya Tokinaga, the author of an incredibly popular vampire romance novel. Dressed in a kimono with an old-world air about him, Junya has a taste of Hinata’s blood and tells her it’s sweet…Hinata can’t help but be drawn to Junya, but could it be that he’s actually a vampire—and worse yet, the culprit behind the attacks?!

Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
The year is 2009 and we’re arguably at the height of the Twilight craze with the final book and first movie just out in 2008 and the New Moon movie just a few months away. From it, we get Honey Blood, which is as blatant a reference to Twilight as I’ve ever seen. Fortunately, it stands above Twilight in originality, both in regards to character and vampire.

The vampires in Honey Blood appear to be immune to the instant death in sunlight that most vampires are. They don’t sparkle either, they just become very, very weak. Same with not drinking any blood for a long period of time. I don’t have as much of a problem with becoming weak in the sunlight as I do with sparkling because, well, sparkling is a little dumb (even with the extra color you apparently see upon becoming a vampire in Twilight) because it’s a little less overpowered in a vampire mythos. Though I’ll always be a traditionalist and say to follow the rules the Buffy vampires do. They can also heal super fast, but they appear to have no tougher skin than normal people.

The two main characters, Hinata and Junya Tokinaga, are a lot of steps above Edward and Bella. Some of the sexism remains, though. At one point he says, “You’re so uptight. The sort who’d never forgive infidelity…Your type is the most difficult for men.” The line itself is confusing, as is the character, because a lot of his actions tell that he isn’t a monster that would go around cheating on any girlfriend he got. His past says that he’s not the type to do that nor does his defensive nature over Hinata. Though that can be construed as possessive, I think it’s more genuine. The mythos added to vampire lore in the manga can easily make it seem possessive, but it’s not, it’s mutual. Junya’s own past speaks to that.

I’m most impressed with the love story actually seeming like a love story, despite the problems with his maybe apparent possessionist attitude and that he’s a vampire at all. I’m not exactly rooting for them to get together (as I often am in other shojo manga I read), but I wasn’t angered or disappointed when they kiss. It was a moment that the previous 190 pages allowed to build to rather than jump straight into it.

In Summary:
Like all shojo manga I read, this one has little notes from the author about his/her life or just random scribblings (do they do this in shonen manga?). The ones with her editor are pretty funny and the ones about marriage convinced me that this isn’t a manga about a man possessing a woman, but two people falling in love. There’s still that weird factor of he’s 100s of years old and she’s like 16 if that, but that’s the forbidden love of a vampire.

A note on Mitsuki’s artwork: It’s good in its own right, but damn if she can’t be pretty spectacular. Before chapter five, there’s a drawing of her former editor and her current editor (they got married!) for their wedding. It’s better than any of the title pages and certainly any of the pages in general. It’s sad how good these manga artists probably could draw if only given the time. Alas the deadlines loom.

Another note: There’s some of her sketches from her one shots that eventually became Honey Blood in the back of the book. They’re very reminiscent of Arina Tanemura and I’d bet she drew heavy influence from Tanemura at the time. Her art in this book seems to have become her own.

Content Grade: B
Art Grade: A-
Packaging Grade: B+
Text/Translation Grade: A

Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Viz Media
Release Date: October 7th, 2014
MSRP: $9.99