Story:
The manga starts off with a pleasant introduction of the female protagonist, Kana Takachiho, a normal teenage girl leading her normal school and home lives. As predictable as it could get, her life was turned upside down when she was injured in an accident, saved by a pureblood vampire , Aki, (who was introduced as her childhood friend) and obtain immortality as a result of him sucking her blood. However in exchange of immortality, the female protagonist belongs to a “possession” of the pure blood vampire who sucks her blood every now and then.
In addition, a werewolf bishonen was introduced into the story and the trio sets off in an adventure in search of the 7 stigmas (also loosely referred to as the 7 sins/desires in the Christianity Bible) as part of a quest to revive another childhood friend (supposedly another attractive pure blood vampire) from his inexplicable comatose.
Then, just think Twilight – as expected, the pureblood vampire and werewolf fell in love with the female protagonist. While Kana (the female protagonist) is not as annoying as Bella of the Twilight fame, what made this manga intolerable was the subsequent weak development of the storyline and loose focus on irrelevant events.
While not entirely original, I always believe that even an unoriginal plot can prove to be an entertaining read if executed aptly. Although the first couple of chapters were engaging and made sense, with the passing of time, it seems as though the author has lost focus on what she was supposed to be doing and as a reader, I find myself going around in circles with the characters, pondering in puzzlement at the brow-frowning turn of events. While reading the subsequent chapters, my mind was often bombarded with tons of “WTHs” and “WTFs” and then I realized, it’s time to stop for a while.
Normally when I read manga, I don’t expect the heroes/heroines to be perfect. They can come with flaws but the important thing is that with each chapter there must be some sort of progress / development in the plot or the characters. Sadly, here, there has hardly been any substantial development after Volume 3. What’s the use of throwing in scenes of handsome-vampire-sucking-girl’s-blood from various positions when there is no point in doing that? (it seems like a deliberate act just to fulfil the raging hormones of fan girls).
Art:
Despite the weak development in the storyline, the art is fantastic, as expected of Aya Shouoto. Perhaps the only redeeming factor that kept me from dropping the manga (until now) is the artwork that is so handsomely executed.
Having read other works of Aya Shouoto, this manga gotta be one of her worst.
