Bride of the Death God Volume 1 Review
A Death God has only one goal, to reap souls, and this particular Death God takes great pleasure in seeing his victims cry and beg for their lives before their death. But when he visits a girl named Aibi and, in order to get a rise from her, tells her she has seven days to live, she only smiles. Thrown off, the Death God comes back every day for a week to try to make her cry, but she only ever smiles, seeing him as a welcoming presence in the final days of her miserable life. When she finally succumbs to her unique Bouquet Disease however, the Death God cannot bring himself to reap her soul. This one action not only extends Aibi’s life a bit more, but also bonds the two forevermore. But what is this feeling that the Death God feels when he’s near Aibi? And why is he suddenly getting faint memories of his long forgotten human life?
Bride of the Death Note is a manga by Hako Ichiiro, who has been in the industry for about 10 years, having worked in novels, anthologies and even Disney Twisted Wonderland comics, but so far this is their only series translated into English. Their other popular series Brother for Rent has been translated into German and French, so if you’ve read that series, you might be familiar with their work. For the purposes of this series however, it’s currently 3 volumes long but still ongoing.
The series is notably all about contrast, the most obvious one being a male Death God with a (so far) living female human; then we have his ‘tsundere’ type personality with her being more of a sweet, ’good girl’ persona. The most visually striking contrast is the Death God’s very dark clothing and eerie scythe, set against the colourful, vibrant and living flowers that cover Aibi’s body, and it’s this visual that ends up driving a lot of the series. When Aibi nearly dies from her disease, her body is almost engulfed by the flowers and it creates a beautiful spectacle, but it’s the Death God sparing Aibi that ends up saving her, pushing the flowers into a remission of sorts. But in the last third of the book, when the life of a Death God (there’s a pun in there somewhere) is on the line, it’s her flowers that end up saving him. The living flowers give the Death God new life, and also help him slowly recover memories of his past life. We end on a cliffhanger of what his memories could mean, and why the flowers have worked, and it’s an interesting image and adds a really visual and metaphorical spectacle for the couple, and why they work well together.
It should be noted that the manga’s flower disease, known as Bouquet Disease, acts in a very similar way to the fanfiction favourite Hanahaki disease, a disease where a character suffering from unrequited love has flowers growing inside them. It might be a coincidence, but considering that Hanahaki disease is about ‘unrequited love’ and here it’s used as a metaphor for love blooming is interesting. Another interpretation is is related to Aibi’s dark backstory; she grew up in a verbally and emotionally abusive household, where she was expected to hold her father on a pedestal and obey all of his words, despite his never being at home. Aibi’s mother also verbally abused her, refusing to give love until Aibi ‘did as she was told’, but from the brief looks into her past, it seems to be there were very few times when Aibi’s work was considered good enough to earn her mother’s affection. This ‘unrequited love’ from a parent could be seen as the blossoming of the Bouquet disease; it led to Aibi being shut in her room by her mother, to die alone, only for Aibi to end up finding true love elsewhere instead. That’s another reading of it anyways. It’ll be interesting to see where the series takes the characters from here.
Outside of the pair, the final third is dedicated to Aibi’s new school life, and also a new ‘threat’ for the couple: hostile spirits. It seems that the Death God’s saving of Aibi’s life and constantly hanging around her wakes up the dark spirits, and we’re also introduced to a laid-back student Himeno, who happens to be from a family of mediums. I did enjoy his introduction and his relationship with Aibi and the Death God, so it’ll be interesting to see how this dynamic plays out and if they plan to tackle the dark spectres together or not.
The art for this series is very good, it’s consistently beautiful looking, the characters are really striking, and I like the style of the supernatural elements (such as the Death God’s scythe) and the ghosts in the last third of the book have this ‘misty’ almost see-through element to them. My only complaint is that there are a few instances where I felt lost on what action was going on and wish we had a few more panels to make things clearer. For example, early in the book, the Death God helps Aibi hide from her own mum, but it’s unclear where they went. (Under the blankets? Under the bed? Outside her room? The cupboard?) We just have a quick shot of fabric flying upwards, sound effects text, and the next panel just shows a dark background so it isn’t clear where they are. This error happens again in the fight scene towards the end of the volume, and I hope things improve in future volumes to make actions clearer.
Nicole Wilder has translated the book for us and it’s an easy read. There are no translation notes at the end but I did appreciate the details in-between each chapter: we’re given the symbolism and meanings for different flower types, which help with the emotional depth of the series.
Bride of the Death God is a dark romance story that tells a tale of love enduring despite death, and sets up interesting hooks for the future, such as hints of reincarnation, supernatural drama and more. It’s a series worth checking out, with the potential to bloom beautifully in future instalments.
Read a free preview of the manga here.
Our review copy from Square Enix Manga was supplied by Turnaround Comics (Turnaround Publisher Services)
© Square Enix CO. LTD/Hako Ichiiro
