Customer Reviews

Bride of Deimos, Vol. 1

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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.

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).

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.

I loved this series back in the day... they started me on a huge love of manga that lasted for years. I loved the dark, devilish figure of Deimos... I still like the art, even the more cartoony earlier issues. The stories seemed like an excuse to commit murder and mayhem, but as they ARE horror tales, that's all well and good. But I was looking at them in Japanese originally, and lacking any ability to read the language, it was a handicap... although I thought I wasn't missing much.

Turns out that the stories are what I observed while pouring through the Japanese versions--but getting the added details and nuances of the dialogue and text boxes adds more than I thought! Not that the tales of jealousy and temptation lost and selling one's soul--and generally all that is dark in human nature--are that profound. But I do find myself more drawn to the stories than I did before... and there are tidbits about Deimos's and Minako's situations that add to the interest.

Twenty-odd some years later, I'm actually drawn back in to these books more than ever!