Bride of Deimos, Vol. 1 [Paperback]

Etsuko Ikeda (Author), Yuho Ashibe (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 4, 2005 | Series: Bride of Deimos (Book 1)

Bride of Deimos Vol. 1:

Long ago, a brother and sister, lived happily on Mount Olympus until they fell in love. The gods were so angry about their forbidden love that they exiled them from the mountain, turned the brother into a demon, and imprisoned the sister in the deep ocean. As her body rotted under the waves, she asked her demon brother to find a girl that looked like her so that she could possess a new body. In the modern world, the demon finally finds the correct match: a high school girl who looks exactly like his beloved sister. Instead of offering her up for possession, however, the demon falls in love with her. Jealous, his sister sends Death and Onis (two Japanese ghosts) to take the girl's life! This popular manga series was the basis for an anime film directed by Rintaro, who recently won international acclaim for his direction of Metropolis.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Originally published in Japan in 1975, and now translated into English, this story retains all its power to chill. Ikeda's collection of eerie episodes is wrapped up in a larger story of forbidden love. Minako, a schoolgirl with flowing blond hair, is approached by a stranger who declares Minako is to be his bride. Suddenly he reveals himself as the devil and informs her there is no escape: all those whom she loves will be destroyed piecemeal until she agrees to be the Bride of Deimos. The rest of the book follows Minako as she attempts to continue her ordinary life, but things aren't the same. A new chum turns out to have killed his mother a few years ago; a favorite teacher ends up being a werewolf who rips out the throat of another of Minako's favorite instructors; and the very cement of the walls of local buildings turns out to be evil, having been mixed with the crushed bones of unfortunate factory workers. Ikeda's vision of love is grim; the book's happiest couple is a maimed race-car driver and his lover, who puts out her own eyes to prove her fidelity. Even they end up dying in a fiery inferno due to a momentary misunderstanding. By the time readers discover why Minako is the chosen one, they've been hung out to dry emotionally. Ashibe's drawings, a dizzying b&w whirl that splashes and curls across the page, use all manner of odd angles and perspective to convey Minako's off-kilter world as she travels a landscape that veers between ordinary and mystical.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

"Bride of Deimos is...the right balance between moody atmospherics and stuff actually happening." -- Jason Thompson, Animerica, Dec 2002

Product Details

• Paperback: 200 pages
• Publisher: ComicsOne (April 4, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1588991954
• ISBN-13: 978-1588991959
• Product Dimensions: 7 x 5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,426,494 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Nice to finally be able to properly read the pages!, September 9, 2003

By 

Ann E. Nichols (Sierra Vista, AZ United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Bride of Deimos, Vol. 1 (Paperback)

I was introduced to the first volume of DEIMOS NO HANAYOME [Bride of Deimos] in 1983. Since then I've acquired all the volumes through #17. I've got the video, the record [a mixture of drama and song], and I've read fan translations of some of the stories. Still, I was pleased to find out that there are English language volumes because my Japanese language skills have never been more than rudimentary. I could make out the basics of the stories, but it's nice to get the details.

This volume does have all the stories from volume one: 1. Minako meets her stalker, Deimos, and discovers he considers her to be his bride. 2. Deimos' chosen victim is Minako's own cousin. Is there anything that can be done to save Ryou? 3. This one opens up on a boy locking his mother in the basement. Now it's 5 years later and he's attracted to Minako. Deimos warns her away from Natsuhiko. Should she listen? 4. Deimos says there's a frightening truth behind a familiar Japanese legend. If this isn't one of his tricks, one of the teachers at Minako's school is in grave danger. 5. Why are people developing a shadow in the shape of the Devil Lily of Ghost Fire Island on their bodies? Now Minako is one of the victims and must seek the answer if she is ever to be cured. 6. This is Deimos' origin. It's not the same as the Greek/Roman myths, as you can tell from the back of the book. Venus is tired of waiting to take over Minako's body. She wants that body *now*! 7. In this we meet a crying Noh mask. Why does it cry? Yes, it's another tragic love story. 8. The disfigured racer and his blind beloved are the subject of the last tale and it shows what Deimos is willing to do to prove his point.

The copyright date is 1975. Those fans familiar with Ms.Ashibe's art in "Crystal Dragon" will find this earlier work more "cartoony", but it's still quite effective.

That should be "Ms.", not "Mr." Tsukiko's Secret for the title of the third story. [In the original, it's Tsukiko Sensei, "Sensei" being a suffix used with the surnames of teachers, doctors, scholars, etc. My old grammar notes text says it implies more respect than "san". Also, the kanji used for her name are "moon" (tsuki) and "child" (ko).

For the curious, I'll provide the meanings for the kanji in the little ovals on p. 177 are [starting from the tree and moving closer to elderly Mr. Kogorou]. I looked most of them up in my little READING AND WRITING JAPANESE book. The others I had to find in my Nelson's JAPANESE-ENGLISH CHARACTER DICTIONARY: "E - To depend on", "Han - generally; to carry, to turn; to enjoy", "Nya - if" (I know the hiragana are "ni ya," but Nelson's "nya"), "Ha - wave [as in sea or ocean]", "Ra - silk gauze, thin silk", "Mitsu [not just "mi", according to my Nelson's] - secrecy; denseness (of population); minuteness, carefulness, fineness", "Ta - many, much, abundant", "Ko - old, former times; reason", "Toku - virtue, power of comanding love and respect", "A - flatter, fawn upon".

Personally, I think they should have used "terror", the other meaning of Deimos, because it's more frightening than "fear".

The pictorial cover is actually from volume 14. The original dustjacket shows Minako from the hips up. She's wearing a pink plouse with a frill around the collar and cuffs, and a red jumper (in the American sense of the word). She's looking to the left and seems more puzzled than distressed. The background is black except for a couple of bare, grey tree branches, and Deimos' face (colored a pale blue) and part of one of his horns (white).
His eyes are green in this picture. They're blue in later dustjackets. The back of my dustjacket has a gold oval with the face and hair of Venus (blue eyes, strawberry blond hair) and four versions of her butterfly form coming toward her, the last partially in front of her hair. I'm pretty sure that the image on the back of this cover is on my record, but I'd have to finish moving some boxes that I have in front of the record player at the moment to get to it.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting Horror Romance, September 12, 2009

By 

Myra Schjelderup "Ignolopi" (Salt Lake City, Utah, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: Bride of Deimos, Vol. 1 (Paperback)

I didn't actually like this series, only made it through 2 books, though I found the basic plot interesting.
An otherwise normal schoolgirl gets visited by Deimos, the devil, and told she's his bride. She tries to get him to leave her alone, but every time she's rude to him he does something horrible. She winds up in the middle of all these sad situations.
It's very creepy. It's kind of a romance, I suppose, like that might be where it's going in the end, but I view it as a horror. More like a collection of short stories, because though the girl is in each plot, trying to help the unfortunate hurt/evil person, she can never really do anything and doesn't seem to learn much from the experiences (she keeps trying to ignore Deimos).

So I recommend reading the 1st volume, anyway, because it's not a normal manga, and some of the stories make you think (mostly they're just creepy though).

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I really like this series, May 27, 2011

By 

lovelyduckie - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bride of Deimos, Vol. 1 (Paperback)

I used to be skeptical on if I would be alright with the older style of shoujo art, but after reading Glass Mask I realized I didn't mind it so much. Bride of Deimos is a horror/romance series that I enjoy a lot, and it's a shame that this series is still incomplete in the United States. I love stories like this where each chapter tells a complete short tale where there's usually a sad dark twist by the end. I recommend this series but only with the warning that the prospects of getting the last 7 volumes of this series translated into English is looking grim.