Manga Review: Black Bird, Volume 15, by Kanoko Sakurakouji

Rating (Out of 5): ~4-4.5

Publisher: VIZ Media (Shojo Beat)

Volumes: 17

Spoilers?: Yes, majorly.

Goodreads Synopsis:

  

He loves her blood, but does her love her?!Reads R to L (Japanese Style).

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 death should have meant a return to peace for Misao and Kyo, once they came to terms with their guilt. But instead Misao finds herself displaying strange new powers she can't quite control. Is this just the next stage for her as the Senka Maiden, or is something more sinister going on…?

Available on Amazon.

Review:

This series is almost over, you guys. There are only two volumes left, and probably six months between those two volumes’ release dates (ugh). I could tell, with this volume, that there are only a couple volumes left, and while it will probably be sad to see the series end, I’m looking forward to seeing how it happens.

Oh, this review is going to have some major spoilers, just to let you know.

For the first, maybe, two volumes, the story is pretty light-hearted, aside from some worrying about what’s going on with Misao. They find out that she is killing the creatures that come up to attack her, and they’re assuming that she’s doing it herself, and has somehow gotten powers. But, at the same time, she’s also been feeling a little under the weather, always tired and having weird eating habits.

At the same time, she’s also thinking about what she wants to do with her life. Everyone around her is deciding, but she has no idea. All she’s ever wanted, and all she still wants, is to be with Kyo, and she cant think of anything else. And then she decides, and talks to Kyo about how, she wants to be his bride. There’s a lot entailed in being a house wife, and that’s what she wants to do. He’s at first a bit hesitant, wanting to make sure that she’s sure that’s what she wants, but he accepts. Now, I understand that this is what she wants to do, and that it is all some people want to do, but I have a hard time being happy about it. I mean, she should aspire to something bigger. But I can accept it, I guess.

And then she realizes that it’s been a while since her last period.

Now, I wasn’t expecting this turn of events, not particularly up to the point she found out but that the story was heading in that direction from the start of the volume, but I wasn’t all that surprised. It makes some sense.

Anyway, she talks to Kyo immediately (which, good, she didn’t take forever thinking about it first), and he’s very supportive to whatever she decides (also very good. This, along with the making sure she knows what she wants, and giving her time, and taking such good care of her, have enforced my feelings for him. He's a great boyfriend). Of course, she’s very worried, but decides she wants to keep it, and everyone is very excited. Then they talk to her parents, and that goes over rather well; they even mention telling her parents that Kyo’s a demon sometime in the future, which should be interesting.

From then until the last chapter things are going rather well; they’re happy, teasing, making out, going to the beach, including a very cute scene where Misao falls and Kyo catches her, and Kyo and Misao talking with Misao's friends. And then there’s an attack on Kyo’s house. It doesn’t go very well, but they capture someone, and it's what he tells them that ruins all their happiness.

I’m not going to ruin what is revealed to them (gotta keep some secrets), but it’s not good, and you can probably guess.

I kind of love this series, and I’m really excited to find out what happens, to see what they do about it, how the series ends. I’m sure it’ll have a happy ending, but I’m looking forward to seeing how it happens. The wait is going to be horrible, but not much I can do about that.