Reviews

Jun 11, 2013
Mixed Feelings
Bloody Maiden is a survival horror manga that takes place on an island. Basically it's like Umineko no Naku Koro Ni except replace the people fighting over control of a fortune with an all-girls high school Naginata Club (like a spear with a curved end) trying to stay alive. The setup is pretty weak, and it isn't really all that creative and other things like "Another" do the high school survival horror genre much better and with less stupid, bad fanservice.

Story: 5/10

It's a cool setup even if it is overdone. The author takes a little too long to explain some details that probably should have been addressed at the start though.

Anyway, the plot is that a group of twelve high school girls in this club and their adult advisor go to an island for a training camp (though they only get in like one actual practice fight before things start to turn to survival horror instead). It seems like no one is on the island, even the man who invited them there who is the curator for the museum there (I think). The one teacher decides to go and try to get cell service on the island, but as soon as she finally does she gets killed by a mysterious "creature." The other girls eventually notice that she hasn't come back and they stupidly split up (even a bit after they begin to realize the situation). From there, people start dying like flies.

The ending is one of the things I really don't like. It's confusing and seems very rushed with too many plot twists in the matter of two or three chapters to even understand what is happening. Plus it gets confusing about whether it's really supernatural or not as it just kind of throws a few knew things in towards the end out of nowhere.

Art - 6/10

The art's not too bad. The fanservice is though, especially since most of the nude shots are those "cover only the nipple" kind of thing even though at time they just go ahead and show everything like the author didn't know which way he wanted to go with the fanserice at first. Plus most of the nudity is shown when people are dying or are dead or just want to strip down to their underwear or wear bikinis so they don't get their clothes wet or because it's hot. Still the character designs aren't bad and the girls are all unique at least to some degree (there are twelve girls so that's not the easiest thing to do).

Characters: 4/10

Twelve girls, their teacher, and a few other people are all crammed into these 11 chapters. The get no development and aside from the main character Makia (I think that's her name) and the club president, everyone else is either just death fodder or so unimportant that you forget about them after the one chapter they have where they do something before getting killed. Still the main character isn't horrible, as at least she isn't whiny and actually is brave enough to take action and try to fight back. However a lot of minor characters are not the same way and are fairly annoying. Pretty much everyone fits into some archetype though:
- Busty, calm leader with long hair and a weapon
- Main character who takes action through revenge
- Busty, motherly figure
- Small-breasted, easily-angered girl who wants to be the best
- History geek
- Yuri couple
- other people who are unimportant

Oddly enough there's no Rei Ayanami clone so there's that at least that differs from most things.

Enjoyment - 6/10

I still enjoyed it, but I'm glad it's only 11 chapters because even with more length it would not have been any better. The ending was bad and rushed, but some parts in the middle were enjoyable once you got to know what roles the characters fell into and kind of recognized a few people though not really by name. Still other things like "Another" have taken this concept and done much better with it (though the characters are still pretty forgettable in both). If you like horror or ecchi manga than maybe you'll like this but it's really just not very good.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
What did you think of this review?
Nice Nice0
Love it Love it0
Funny Funny0
Show all
It’s time to ditch the text file.
Keep track of your anime easily by creating your own list.
Sign Up Login