The Vampire Dahlia: Death Is A Kiss [Paperback]

Narumi Kakinouchi (Author, Artist), Toshihiro Hirano (Author, Artist)

Product Details

• Paperback: 200 pages
• Publisher: Studio Ironcat (June 17, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1929090250
• ISBN-13: 978-1929090259
• Product Dimensions: 7.3 x 5.1 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,765,300 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Melancholy, small, volume, August 12, 2003

By 

Peejo "NorbJunior" (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Vampire Dahlia: Death Is A Kiss (Paperback)

Contains posible spoilers. You're warned.

True...this volume is small...in pages and in size. Next to my Miyu and Yui volumes, this thing is a dwarf.
However, it is still a great book and an awesome read for Naruki Kakinochi fans! I'm only giving it four stars b/c I thought it would have been (and hsould have been) longer, and the artwork sometimes is cut off..like the text, too. But it looks fabulous on a shelf with some japanese, and the cover art is very sleek.

Content: Vampire Dahlia is in no way a story with a start and an end. It follows the Vampire Princess Miyu manga format, kind of introducing the vmapire, and then following random adventrues. There are common threads through the story...but it doesn't end. Which I actually like, as I reflect on reading this. It really gives you the feeling of eternal despair that the vampires feel. Excellent, Narumi. As for the gore...it's nothing as bad as X/1999 or Parasyte...its actually very elegant (?!). Its not really gore...its just blood...but Kakinochi makes it very beautiful, and it fits with the stroy very well.

The first two arcs are very similar (read it twice...you get confused the first time) but the third arc (China Blue) was like "WHAT?!". Its more of an independant story, but good all the same...just a tad out of place.

I'm glad this is only one volume four a couple reasons: don't want to pay for more than one..IC books cost a lot; and also I think further adventrues of Dahlia would ruin the mood.

Closing: I'm giving it 4 stars for unexpected size (demensions and length of story) and the cut-off artowrk...both of these are nothing to worry about (artwork is a very minor thing...only happens every so often) and I highly recommend this book to Kakinochi fans. If you are not a big fan of her artwork...go get Miyu, its more mainstream...and I think some miyu manhga is required to notice the sophistication in Dahlia that Miyu is just too young for.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars "Blood smells sweet... This is love.", June 30, 2004

By 

Marc Ruby™ "The Noh Hare™" (Warren, MI USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

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This review is from: The Vampire Dahlia: Death Is A Kiss (Paperback)

Ranan, a handsome vampire flees his nest. Wounded and tired he comes upon young Dahlia and the find love. For a time they live as Ranan paints her repeatedly. But revenge among vampires never dies, and eventually he is found and sentenced to grow old. Now Dahlia, a vampire whose spirit is trapped in her lovers painting waits forever, waits until her lover is reborn and returns to her.

Narumi Kakinuchi, who is the artist behind Vampire Yui, and co-creator of Vampire Princess Miyu (with Toshihiro Hirano) returns to the genre to spin a tale of a quest that, like an ill wind, seems to blow no one any good. Dahlia is back in Japan, living alone and attending a high school where she has met someone who bears an uncanny resemblance to Ranan. Unlike Miyu, Dahlia has no compunction about killing and the story plays in parallel with Salome - the school play for this year. In the next story arc, Dahlia enters a conflict with another vampire one which no one can win.

From a human standpoint Dahlia is morally ambiguous, both a killer and a desperately lonely woman who searches for her lover. She is the quintessential vampire, whose nature is never to change, locked in a pattern. And if truth be told, she has no desire to be anything else. She is still who she was at the moment she was changed. Only Kanan's reappearance can break the cycle.

The story is told in asides and flashbacks, following a zigzag path through time that can be perplexing, especially since Kakinouchi's style is also prone to wonder around the page. This is not one of those orderly, frame-by-frame manga. There is also an element of sloppiness due to the way Iron Cat entertainment decided to squeeze the pages into this format.

This is not, at present, a multi-volume series, but the compilation of a six issue special run. Whether that will change remains to be seen, but treat is as something unique for now. I found it quite interesting, very much a deviation from the mainstream of Miyu and Yui. The change in atmosphere and the focus on the interior life of the vampire make it worth reading.