Manga Review: Black Bird, Volume 13, by Kanoko Sakurakouji

Rating (Out of 5): ~4

Publisher: VIZ Media (Shojo Beat)

Volumes: 15+

Amazon Synopsis:

Reads R to L (Japanese Style), for audiences T+.
There is a world of myth and magic that intersects ours, and only a special few can see it. Misao Harada is one such person, and she wants nothing to do with magical realms. She just wants to have a normal high school life and maybe get a boyfriend. But she is the bride of demon prophecy, and her blood grants incredible powers, her flesh immortality. Now the demon realm is fighting over the right to her hand...or her life!
Sho’s plans to plunge the world into chaos continue as he targets the Eight Daitengu, hoping to strip his brother Kyo of all his protectors. And now Sho has Hoki, whose secret past makes him easy prey.
Can Hoki stand up to Sho, or will his efforts to aid Kyo backfire?

Review:

This one was really good, you guys. It's reaching (reached?) the climax of their problem, and it was really good and exciting and I want the next one.

The volume starts with a nice n' heavy make out scene between Misao and Kyo, in which she is thinking about what Sho is doing, and so he distracts her (I can't help myself: I just love the hot scenes between them). Then we see Hoki and Sho fighting, where Sho is mostly just playing tricks on Hoki. Kyo saves Hoki, and they make up. Then we see Zenki, who is upset and feels bad about what he did. The chapter ends when we find out that Sho's place also has a maze-making shield up, and it is apparently on the fritz, as Misao goes through a door and ends up with Sho.

Kyo is freaking out, as he doesn't know where she wound up, and everyone else is helping look for her. Some people are upset (read: Kaede) because of how he's reacting, and so he tells them that the only reason he's where he is now, and doing what he's doing, is so that he can have Misao. (Which is super sweet, yea, but also a little surprising, as I'd thought he was at least running the place how he was because he wanted to, not because he knew Misao would want him to.)

As Kyo is doing these things, Misao is talking with Sho. And feeling bad for him. She even cries because she feels bad for him. She's just too nice; I can almost not stand it. Sho is a terrible person, he's not even nice to her during this (he chokes her!), and, in a really intense and exciting moment, asks her to choose him over Kyo, and yet she feels bad for him and wants to help him, and even as he's dying, she gives him her blood. It is utterly ridiculous, and she should not have done it.

In the last chapter, Sho takes Misao to Kyo, who flinches from because she feels terrible (as she should). Then the two get ready to fight, I believe. There are some swords whipping around, and Sho makes a show of it (oh, pun not intended). And it ends as we see the horrified look on Misao's face, and someone bloody arm falls to the ground. I think it was a bystander, someone near Misao, but I'm not sure? I'm really looking forward to finding out in the next volume.

At the end of the book, for some cheering up, there are two short stories, one about the little daitengo are given presents, but aren't good at choosing what they want. And then another where Sho, Kyo, Hoki, and Zenki are modeling men's clothes. This is funny. They both are, really, and it's nice to have something lighthearted after all serious, tension filled drama of the rest of the volume, and will probably be in the next one.

I'm just really looking forward to it.

(Also, like with Kimi ni Todoke, are the releases going to be farther apart now? What with there only being two more volume released in Japan, and it still ongoing? I'm not looking forward to that...)