Customer Reviews

Blood Honey

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The distant descendant of an illustrious line of vampires, all Akabane has left of his supernatural heritage is a taste for blood. He's happy as a clam working for a blood donor center, where he can smuggle home a pint or two for himself. Unfortunately, he has to deal with the donation-addicted teacher Mayuzumi, who's so desperate to unload the excess of "hot blood" that makes him grouchy and aggressive that he's trying to sneak in appointments under an assumed name. Fortunately, Akabane discovers that Mayuzumi's blood tastes deeee-licious, and they set up a private donation regime in Akabane's cozy apartment. So far, so good, storywise, but it doesn't last.

The next morsel of plot comes about by one of Mayuzumi's students, a pretty blond uke who seems determined to seduce him. Akabane's out of town, and so Mayuzumi's hot blood is building up, making it hard for him to resist... This is where things start to go wrong with the book; the resolution to this plot point is particularly silly, and seductive-teen (who turns out to be Akabane's nephew) has a huge forehead and domed skull that make him look deformed. (The art and character design are otherwise nice.)

The story now shifts to aformentioned nephew, Kurosu: Akabane and Mayuzumi want him out of the way so they can have some alone time, so they ship him off to a temple where he is put to work by a slavedriving young priest. Romance ensues, nach, plus the book's only really smutty sex scene, but I found this relationship weak compared to Mayuzumi and Akabane and would rather had more of the latter.

The book wraps up with an unrelated one-shot about two high-school students who regularly beat each other up, and then decide to have sex for no particular reason, and finally a short omake of Akabane and Mayuzumi being shmoopy.

I really wanted to like this book; the premise is stellar, Mayuzumi is great (especially when he's grouchy), and there's some nice funny bits. But the story goes off the rails when Kurosu shows up, and never really recovers. If you have a taste for bratty teenage sexpots with huge foreheads, you may find this book more appealing than I did.

One scene in this book totally inspired me. You know all those yaoi manga where the uke can't control how his body responds and is swept away by a "ahem" forceful seduction sort of thing? So this time an uke was trying to seduce thsi seme cram teacher right, and he was rubbing him and stuff. He said no 'cuz he didn't have feelings for him. The uke just kept touching and was like, but 'you're so already so hard.' Typical seme line, right? But now we know what happens when an uke tries to pull this on a seme! The teacher just punched him and said, 'I'm a MAN! I can't help how my body responds!' Then he stomped off! AH HA HA HA HA! That was epic.

I really like this one. The vampire is the uke and gets totally mesmerized by the seme's blood so the seme can do whatever he wants to him while he's licking his bloody finger. Also if the seme doesn't get bled regularly he turns into a horndog. Original concepts = WIN!

What do you do if you are a human being with vampire ancestors, have a need to to supplement your meals with fresh human blood, but don't have fangs? Meet the demonically good looking Yuki Akabane, who has this very dilemma. His solution? Work at a blood donation clinic where he can draw blood and indulge in the occasional snack taken from the collected vials, of course! Happily flying under the radar, everything goes swimmingly well until he gains a stalker at the clinic. Not that the guy seems dangerous or anything; he is meek sort of fellow who wears glasses, but trouble nonetheless. Osamu Mayuzumi has a strange fetish, you see. He likes to have his blood drawn. So much so, that he not only comes within the allowable number of times, and only when Akabane is scheduled to work, but resorts to falsifying his legal information to try to get his blood drawn more often.

This could spell real trouble for Yuki if this gets discovered, so Yuki decides to scold the man and get rid of the evidence. Downing the vial of blood, he makes a startling discovery. Mayuzumi's blood is incredibly delicious! He must have more! Perhaps the two can come to a private, mutual arrangement away from the centre. But is it just blood he wants, and why does it have to be Akabane drawing the blood for Mayuzumi? Just as the two come to grips with their matching peculiarities, more trouble looms as one of Akabane's supervising doctors relaises a blood vial is missing that Akabane drew, Mayuzumi shows the surprising reason he MUST have his blood drawn, and Akabane's delinquent nephew shows up. This typically horny teenager not only has fangs, but wants to use them and loves to satisfy both lusts at the same time. Mayuzumi finds himself at odds with his needs and emotions, and decides the solution lies with the boy's delinquent tendencies and brash behaviour getting sorted out. The person to do it? A former delinquent who is now a temple priest, and Mayuzumi's long time friend from high school of course! Will it work?

Blood Honey is a sweetly comedic book split up into chapters that focus on different aspects of the ongoing story. It is pleasant enough, but the characters lack any real depth. Akabane in particular seemed a little flat, and his story with Mayuzumi seemed to be a bit of a prop to introduce his nephew and the temple priest. The sex scenes were few, and while surprisingly graphic for the 16+ rating (page 127 to be precise), they seemed a bit rushed in execution. The art however is very nice; the bodies well proportioned, the faces attractive to look at, and expressive eyes. The panel work was well executed and easy to follow even with the occasional overlays. If one is looking for a pleasant piece off fantasy romance to while away an hour or two, this nicely fits the bill as the BL manga equivalent of a sitcom. Like a sitcom, it does occasionally stray into the realm of the slightly ridiculous, but in a non slapstick sort of way that is forgiveable. Altogether a light, fun, pleasant read.

I personaly dont like books with vampires or anything remotaly associated with that topic
But I loved this book!!!
I acctually looked to see if it was a volume.
Sadly no ='(
This is such a cute and well drawin manga it was well worth the money I put twords it and would love to see it continue! 5/5