Manga Review: Black Rose Alice, Volume 4, by Setona Mizushiro

Rating (Out of 5): ~3.5

Publisher: Shojo Beat (VIZ Media)

Release Date: May 2015

Volumes: 6 (Hiatus)

Spoilers?: No.

Buy it here: Amazon. Barnes and Noble. Book Depository. Powells. RightStuf.

Volume: 1. 3. 5.

Goodreads Synopsis:

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, Azusa Kikukawa has become Alice, resurrected in a century-old body to become the breeding ground for a group of vampires. But one of the vampires in her nest has died, and now Alice must mourn for her friend even as the precariousness of the vampires’ situation sinks in. Lost and confused, Alice finds the diary of a young woman who lived in the house a century ago, and whose story has eerie similarities to her own…

Review:

Firstly, I have to say that, after it being a while between volumes for me, seeing all the swallowing of insects again creeps me out. It makes me all squeamish, and gross. Ugh. Plus, it’s so detailed!

Aside from that, this was a great volume.

Alice finds a diary and learns about a person in a similar position to her from Dimitri’s past. It makes her thinks differently about him. And then we find out what Leo was really doing with Toko before he died, and it makes sense. It even makes me a little happy? Because he deserved that, and she was sick already, so I find it fitting.

While Alice gets to know Toko better, we also get to see more of the twins. And I like them. It’s clear who Alice has more of an attraction to, though.

This series is dark and disturbing at times. The morbid scenes are terribly well done, including Toko’s ending. It’s just surprisingly impressive, every time, honestly.