Manga Review: Black Rose Alice, Volume 6, by Setona Mizushiro

Rating (Out of 5): ~3.5-4

Publisher: Shojo Beat (VIZ Media)

Release Date: November 2015

Volumes: 6 (Hiatus)

Spoilers?: No.

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

Volume: 1. 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.

Review:

In this volume, we get to see what happened to the twins in the past. And it’s pretty bad.

After that, Dimitri comes back, and he brings with him a girl from his past. It’s a learning experience for him and Alice. But mostly it draws closer to the conclusion at the end of the volume, where Alice possibly actually chooses who she wants. Her choice has been pretty obvious from the beginning, to me, but it’s not fully clear whether she goes through with it in this volume or not. It’s possible she didn’t and is waiting for something.

This volumes leaves us hanging, as now the series is on hiatus and who knows when it will be continued. I do appreciate that it ends well, with a somewhat conclusion, with a decision and not many questions. But in the comic at the end, it’s hinting that this is just part one, and that makes me wonder what she plans for part two.

At this point, though, I’m pretty happy with it pausing here.

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.

Manga Review: Black Rose Alice, Volume 3, by Setona Mizushiro

Rating (Out of 5): ~3.5-4

Publisher: Shojo Beat (VIZ Media)

Release Date: February 2015

Volumes: 6 (Hiatus)

Spoilers?: No.

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

Volume: 1. 2. 4.

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. Alice is serious about fulfilling her role, but she needs a little time to adjust before she commits herself to propagating. But vampires aren’t as immortal as myth paints them. Will her hesitation cost Alice her chosen mate?

Review:

This volume contained sad for Leo. It’s revealed why he was acting the way he was, the poor guy. I liked him, and it’s sad what happened. It’s especially hard for Alice, who didn’t know until later, and Dimitri, who was especially close for him.

They grieve, but they have to move on, do something with themselves. So Alice goes out with the twins, and the competition continues.

Alice and Dimitri continue to grow closer, though, as Alice pushes him to talk to her, to get to know each other. I like the twins, too, though, and am intrigued to know them better.

This is such an odd, unique series. It’s horrifying and intriguing. I’m interested, I’m disgusted, I’m curious, I’m sad. If you want unique, new, read this series.

I know this is on hiatus in Japan, but I’m interested to see how far the story goes until we’re caught up.

Manga Review: Black Rose Alice, Volume 2, by Setona Mizushiro

Rating (Out of 5): ~3.5

Publisher: Shojo Beat (VIZ Media)

Release Date: November 4, 2014

Volumes: 6 (Hiatus)

Spoilers?: No.

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

Volume: 1. 3.

Goodreads Synopsis:

Dimitri Lewandoski 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 agrees to sacrifice herself as the next breeding ground for the vampire group in exchange for Dimitri healing her fatally wounded young boyfriend. But now that the deal is struck, Azusa finds herself in a strange house and a strange body, surrounded by the men she must choose from for her deadly embrace

Review:

After the first volume, I was thoroughly intrigued, but also a little wary of this volume. I just wasn’t too sure what I was getting into. Where this was going next.

And, honestly, I will never get over the spider scenes. Those are just utterly gross and horrible and I cringe just thinking about them. Thankfully there was only one this volume.

Other than that, the Alice plot line has taken an interesting turn.

The woman previously known as Azusa, now in Agnieszka’s body, has decided to go by Alice. She is forced to get past her previous life, and now has to choose a mate among the vampires she lives with. As apparently that’s how they reproduce, with a human female, and then they both die. So she has to choose which one she believes deserves the honor (and it is considered an honor, not sarcasm). Weirdly enough, though, Dimitri believes he’s not fit for it.

This is going in a very odd direction. But at least this lets us get to know the vampires better. I like the twins, and there were some normal moments as Alice gets to know them, and takes charge of some things in the house.

I have no idea what Dimitri is up to, and the ending has me confused and curious, and with still little idea what is going on.

And I look forward to reading the next one, even more than before.

Manga Review: Black Rose Alice, Volume 1, by Setona Mizushiro

Rating (Out of 5): ~3.5

Publisher: Shojo Beat (VIZ Media)

Release Date: August 5, 2014

Volumes: 6 (Hiatus)

Spoilers?: No.

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

Volume: 2.

Wishlist Thursday.

Goodreads Synopsis:

The young tenor singer Dimitri miraculously escaped with his life after a severe accident. But soon after that, strange cases of group-suicides started to happen all around him… A vampire-romanesque tale of love and survival!

Review:

This volume kind of… surprised and horrified me. I’m not going to spoil anything, because this should be surprising, and also because you can’t really be prepared for it. I was prepared for unique and very-different vampires, but I still wasn’t prepared for this. Which is how it should be.

So the book starts pretty good. It’s the early 1900’s, in Vienna, and there’s a singer, who possibly sleeps around for money, and a woman he loves who’s marrying someone he knows. Um, and then he gets in an accident. And then some people die. And then something happens to him involving vampires (and insects, oh gross). And saying anything more would spoil too much.

I don’t think I was expecting all the killing, and definitely not the insects, which had me freaking out. Because gross, and the spiders, and yuck I just don’t even want to think about it. I was not expecting what happened with the woman, and am still a little horrified by it. I only skimmed the synopsis, so the time skip surprised me, and I’m still confused by what the characters did during that time. Like, why did it take so long?

Despite all the surprises and horrifying parts, the characters’ stories were pretty engrossing. We meet two characters in the second half, and their emotions and situation, unrelated to the larger plot, had me really interested. As did the character plot at the beginning of the book. Those parts were done really well.

I’m still a little horrified and grossed out, but I’m more so intrigued. There’s a lot left open, a lot of questions, and I’m interested to see what happens next. And I will say that if you’re even a little interested, if you like books that are unique and surprising, then I would suggest picking up a copy.

A review copy was provided by the publisher, VIZ Media, and Erik Jansen from MediaLab PR. Thank you so, so much!