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Reviewed by Ysabet Reinhardt MacFarlane The first volume of Black Bird can be conveniently summarized in just a couple of lines. Like so: "When Misao Harada's childhood friend (and first love), Kyo, moves back to town just before her sixteenth birthday, she learns that her lifelong ability to see supernatural beings springs from an innate power in her blood that makes demons want to either eat or marry her to get at it. Kyo, a tengu, wants to marry her. He's in the minority." I've given myself a day or two to mull this over, and the truth is that I'm not sure how I feel about this volume. It has both pros and cons: the premise is potentially interesting, but so far the execution mostly involves Misao being repeatedly attacked and Kyo (literally) licking her wounds. (This is usually presented more suggestively than I expected, but not enough so to warrant shrink-wrap.) I like that Misao doesn't take her fate, er, lying down by simply agreeing to marrying Kyo, even though she has genuine feelings for him. (It's a little unclear to me whether marrying someone or losing her virginity to them is the key thing at hand: at one point Kyo's main rival for Misao's affections indicates that he's still interested even if she's already slept with Kyo, but Kyo gives the impression that her sleeping with him will seal the deal. Maybe he's just interpreting it as a so-far-theoretical acceptance of his proposal.) Events cast her as a victim, but she doesn't fit tidily into that mold. She accepts the facts of her situation quickly, but isn't willing to take for granted that the only options available to her are becoming a bride or a meal. She's also believably conflicted about Kyo, since she has good memories of him from childhood but now has reason to believe that he's interested only in the power he can get from her if they marry. I'm less impressed by her apparent failure to even try to come up with a backup plan despite the evident truth of the demons' claims: if she doesn't marry a demon, other demons will keep wooing and attacking her. I'm not saying I have any idea what that backup plan should be, since she's clearly in a bad situation and none of the choices look good. But flatly refusing Kyo's protection even though she has no way of defending herself seems...a little short-sighted. One thing that intrigues me is Sakurakoji's note on Kyo: "He was supposed to be a very different character, but I was forced to cut pages and he turned out to be not a bad character at all." I wonder what her original plan was? I'm very unsure about what I think of Kyo so far; he's charismatic and seems to truly care about Misao, but the level of uninvited physical contact he basically forces on her is off-putting (memo to the authors of the world "...but she really likes it, so it's okay!" is never a good answer), although for the most part he genuinely is helping her. It's hard to decide what to make of that. I can work with it as a plot point, but visually it keeps being depicted as if he's assaulting her, which is...let's call it unfortunate, especially when it's clearly meant to come off only as risqué. As is often my complaint, there are too many assumptions and not enough conversations between the main characters, but this is only a first volume. While I dislike that pattern in general, I don't hold it against individual stories unless/until it goes on for a few volumes; just because I've been burned by stories that drag it out infinitely doesn't mean it's not understandable at the beginning of a relationship. Volume 1 of Black Bird includes one page of translation/cultural notes. Review copy provided by VIZ Media. Interested in writing for MangaLife? We're always looking for talented reviewers and columnists, so drop us a line! Charles Webb Editor-in-Chief, MangaLife.com |
1 September 2010
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