Blood Sucker: Legend of Zipangu, Volume 1

夜刀の神つかい [Yato no Kami Tsukai] #1

by Saki Okuse (Story), Aki Shimizu (Illustrator)

江戸時代から蘇った吸血鬼・砌に奪われた少女を取り戻すため、日向夕介の戦いが始まる!

Genres: Manga, Horror, Vampires, Comics Manga, Seinen, Fiction, Graphic Novels

200 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2000

Reviews

[Cornerofmadness · Rating 4 out of 5]

In spite of the rather lame title, this was fairly decent. Found it at halfprice bookstore and it is an 8-year-old manga at this point (which means I probably won't find any more). This is not the romantic sort of vampires. These vampires are utter killers. The beginning is a mix of 300 years ago and today. 300 years ago the vampire Migiri pretty much owned Japan until someone beheaded him. Today, someone has resurrected Migiri and one of the people standing in his way is Yusuke Himukai who is maimed and hospitalized for two years and in the process lose Kikuri during his first meeting with Migiri (who Kikuri is we're not sure but probably a lover).

Two years later, the police have Yusuke sprung from the hospital by Maezono, a young woman who is more or less a dhampire or half vampire and cold as ice. In the two years of Yusuke's commitment, Migiri has spread the vampire plague over much of Japan. Yusuke has a connection to the warrior who killed Migiri 300 years ago but we don't know what yet. There is another warrior, nameless unless I missed it, who seems to be a better vampire hunter than Yusuke and we see snippets of his battles.

Honestly, the story line isn't too unique but it's well told. It's gritty. The art is realistic and this carries a rating of 18+. It earns it. It's gory and there is full frontal nudity and no end of violence. I wonder if I can turn up #2.

[Stacie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Something about this one really clicked for me. The art is gorgeous. The story is exciting. And the action is awesome. I was super happy that I found this one, even if it was a random pick.

(Picked up at AX 2019 Manga Lounge)

[SM Leong · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read the Chinese translation version, 12 volumes in total, interesting concept of vampire story. Once again, a very typical Japanese tragic drama with many gaps demanding readers to fill in... quite tiring.

[Anna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fumetto interessante, ma piuttosto caotico. Tuttavia, trama intrigante e disegni molto affascinanti tengono incollato il lettore nonché in attesa del proseguimento delle vicende.

[Lybbestré · Rating 2 out of 5]

The art is gorgeous but I’m so confused on the storyline

[Nicole Bunge · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ick. Art is nice, when you can figure out what is going on - but this is very much an 'action' manga- and one of those 'old school' type drawing ones( hard to describe, other than it's gritty, linear and very...male - not the pretty artistic fantasy-type art I like *shrug* It's subjective.)
But I don't like stories where you can't follow WTF is happening. It's one thing to throw a character into events and use that as perspective, but this is just all over the place. No real indication who's perspective it is, what time period or who anyone is. Very irritating.
This is getting dumped back on paperbackswap.
Oh well, you win some, you lose some.
(and NOTHING like "Battle Royal" like the back cover indicates - unless you account for a lot of senseless blood.)

[Leila Anani · Rating 2 out of 5]

Violent and confusing vampire manga. Evil vampire Migiri kidnaps a woman called Kikuri to be his bride. She happens to be the girlfriend? of Yusuke Himukai a man who is the descendant of the heroic ninja that defeated Miggiri 300 years go. Very fast pace, jumps all over the place, I had a job keeping up. The one thing I do like about this is the artwork - there's some nice hellsing-esque regeneration scenes, I also like the fangs and the look of the vamps. Very heavy on the fight sequences and light on character development - I hope that will build in subsequent volumes.

[Robin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't know what I think of this manga. I liked it at the end, but I was also a little confused. I'm still not completey sure what all is going on but I could still get most of the story even with my confusion. I think the story is a little weak because it isn't really explained enough. Also, the drawings are pretty detailed but several people look pretty similar and made it hard to keep track of things. I did finish the book looking for the next one though, so that's a plus.

[✟Roxanne✟(Death by Book Avalanche) ☠ · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was ok ... the art is very nice but the story is so confusing. I didn't really know what was going on and I'm pretty sure one of the books in this serious has a double page printed twice. Even the publishers had no idea what was going on...umm where does this page go? I dunno just stick it anywhere...

[A. E. S. · Rating 2 out of 5]

I like the premise although it's really confusing at first. Hoping the next volume has more to offer and I am excited to read it! Die-hard fan of vampires!

[Jenika Ioffreda · Rating 2 out of 5]

great drawings, packed with fights and actions (too many for my taste) and the story and characters failed to catch my attention.
Not going to continue the series.