Blood Blade Volumes 2 and 3 Review

In the first volume of this dark horror fantasy adventure, we have so far been introduced to Vlad the Impaler, the fearsome warlord who has been resurrected as a cute-but-deadly vampire girl and has set out on a quest to find Monster Island and bring an ever-expanding entourage of monsters to this safe haven, where they can all live apart from humanity in peace.

However, Vlad is being hunted down by an old and deadly foe, known as the Justiciar, who wants to kill Vlad before they can amass an army of monsters that could potentially threaten his evil plans.

As we start Volume 2, we begin to see how these two plot threads are being played out together in a monster-of-the-week style format. There are multiple fights to get through in this volume, and so far the action feels like its main strength as it tries to pull you in on sheer spectacle. The opening fight against the mummy mercenaries, Princess Grace and Gramps, her doting attendant, tries to exploit Vlad’s traditional vampire weaknesses while making them look super cool, but you don’t really get a true threat until the battle against the Justiciar’s son, who has been resurrected and turned into a giant tentacle monster that fires deadly beams of deadly death!

Some of it can feel a bit silly and goofy, but it works just fine; the main problem is that there is so much action in this volume that it can feel a little too much. It’s a roller coaster ride with the pace moving at such a clip there isn’t any time for the story to breathe, and it feels like it really needed some downtime to flesh out the characters a bit more and show this ragtag band of monsters bonding together.

It’s just a shame it’s neglecting this because I think without really realising it, Oma Sei has written a pretty interesting set of characters. As I mentioned in my review of the first volume, they might not be completely original, but they are at least different spins on these classic monsters. Like Vlad is clearly inspired by Blood: The Last Vampire but subverts their bloodthirsty image by sparing the lives of their enemies.

I’d say that the nice ideas here are hampered by rough, inexperienced writing and that you can really feel this the most in this second volume. Chapter transitions are disjointed and it’s hard to get a sense of where the characters are in the world as it jumps from one event to another. It’s like playing distinct levels in a video game, like here’s the werewolf level, here’s the mummy level, and so on. There’s also a conversation that happens between Vlad and the Justiciar that just comes out of nowhere, and while it’s useful exposition, it just feels out of place in where it sits in the story.

Thankfully, things do improve as we move into Volume 3, where it not only fully embraces its goofy side, but it takes some time away from the fights to have some smaller, sweeter character moments. What we get is admittedly small, but it’s nice to see the cast just vibing together as we’re introduced to the three young werewolves, Hana and two unnamed kids, who are being protected by a nun who isn’t all she seems. Hana is key here as she injects some much-needed energy into the group and gives Vlad someone to really bounce back and forth with.

When we do get back to the action, it feels less consequential than the previous fight, but it’s a lot more fun and dynamic, as Vlad goes up against fellow vampire Claudia and actually has fun doing so. The reveal of who the nun is comes as a surprise and is really well done – let’s just say she’s really overpowered!

At this point, you can see that the elements of the story and the characters are starting to come together and it’s gradually fixing things that might not have worked in previous volumes, which is nice to see.

The one thing I can’t really get past though is the artwork itself. In Volume 1 I called it “interesting but awkward”, and while I’ve given it a chance to prove itself, I’ve just come to dislike it, as this awkward mash of 2D and 3D CG looks so ugly. The backgrounds in particular feel lacking, like they’ve just had store-bought assets pasted into the scene, while you’ll also see characters pulling the same poses quite frequently, like the same piece of art has just been copied and pasted into different panels. It all just feels like a mix of a lack of experience and a lack of effort to really bring out the best from the initial concept and it’s actively hurting the impact of the story.

Blood Blade is currently ongoing and is brought to us by Kodansha in both print and digital formats. These two volumes are translated by Ko Ransom and read well with no issues to note. Both volumes end with short omake stories that add a little additional colour to some of the other characters and are pretty funny to boot, letting each book end on a lighter note.

Overall, these two volumes of Blood Blade really show this to be a rather rough debut work that is going to need time to work out all its kinks. I think there’s enough in the plot here for a decent series with good action and both a clear goal and a visible final boss, but the rough writing and pacing can make specific volumes a slog to get through if you’re not completely sold by the action. The awkward art style can also make this a tough sell and isn’t doing the series any favours. For most people then I wouldn’t say this is a series to follow volume by volume, but readers interested in seeing the start of an artist’s career might get more out of it.

Our review copies from Kodansha were supplied by Diamond Book Distributors UK.