Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Black Bird manga


I've got to admit, I really opened the door wide for controversy with this one. I'm gonna lay it all out and be completely honest about it. I read a segment of it from the magazine Shojo Beat and ordered it because a student wanted me to. Hmmmm. Well of course I read the whole book when I got it in. And the first volume isn't that bad. When I say bad I mean racy. Here's the premise: Misao is the Senka Maiden, meaning that she can give a lot of power to demons if they: drink her blood, eat her flesh, or impregnate her. Now, her childhood friend Kyo is one such demon. She loved him, he left, and then came back to claim her just before her sixteenth birthday. On her birthday, the otherwise invisible demonic creatures she's always seen are increasing in number and even attacking. Kyo comes to her rescue and explains everything to her. And informs her that he intends to marry her! So, he stays near her and protects her by masquerading as one of her teachers while in secret they date and she questions his intentions- is he just wooing her so she'll have his child someday and he will never have to worry about losing his place as the most powerful clan leader. That's basically volume 1 in a nutshell. Various characters pop up and try to get in the way of their relationship.  The problem is that he's really comfortable with making her uncomfortable. Kyo loves to irritate her by turning into a pervert just when things start to get serious. To her credit, Misao socks him when he sticks his hand up her shirt. In later volumes (I've just finished 5), he is making his way around the bases, so to speak. Usually body parts are conveniently covered by either clothing or some body part. But not always. Since my book club wanted to read the series, I bought all five for the library. And now it appears the whole series really kinda centers around whether or not they will have sex. And then the other middle schools bought it, and oh, man, I'm afraid I'm gonna get in trouble!

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