Love Bullet Volume 1 Review
In the world of Love Bullet, cupids are still around and solving problems of love, but not with bow and arrows, but guns! Koharu is a new cupid in the ranks, and has fellow cupids Kanna, Chiyo and Ena to help her learn the rules of being a cupid. But an early mission turns into a shoot-out when they can’t decide how to fix a love triangle between three high school students. Who will win?
Love Bullet is a highly anticipated yuri manga from Yen Press; a big deal considering this is inee’s only manga so far, and at one point, the manga was under threat of cancellation in Japan. But when the mangaka tweeted about it, the first volume eventually sold out in stores such as CDJapan; nice work! So far, there have only been two volumes released, with the series ongoing since 2023, so if you’re looking into investing time and money in a new series, the fact that there’s not a lot of material to sink your teeth into might put you off. However, I’d say give it a chance anyways because the first volume is very strong and entertaining.
The volume starts in media res, with the four cupids hovering over the three high schoolers, deciding who the centre, Hina, should fall for: her female best friend Aoi, or male best friend Daito. When the vote is split evenly, they decide the two teams will have a shoot-out and the winner gets to use their cupid magic to make Hina fall for their chosen potential partner. I loved the twisting of expectations at the start of the book; normally a love triangle is two girls fighting for one guy or vice versa, but here it’s one girl with a choice of boy or girl, and it’s treated completely seriously that she could end up with either. (No poly options thrown in there, sadly).
Then the fight between the cupids is not only fun but also an entertaining way to show off the cupids’ personalities and rules. The ‘shoot-out’ is treated more like an Airsoft game; from the outfits to the non-lethal means of taking out players. Yes, there are bullets and grenades (just like in Airsoft) but when they’re used on cupids, we learn that they have no effect, and they’re booted off the game for a limited amount of time. The fight is also well drawn and exciting, showing the damage caused in a comedic way (having random people in the fast food place falling in love) with great, detailed action shots to make the gun fight easy and fun to follow.
After the introductory chapter however, we go back in time to when Koharu was human, and the journey from her death to becoming a cupid, then to her first mission. The whole journey is a rollercoaster of emotions and well executed. We only get a brief look into Koharu’s human life, but it’s enough to learn about her personality and feel that her death is a tragedy, for both her and the witnesses. We learn that humans can be reborn as cupids in the Goddess of Love’s image if the human never got a chance to experience falling in love before death, so their rebirth is a new given life, to help others find love and eventually earn a new human life. It’s a simple but emotionally charged new take on cupids, that reminds me of the original version of The Little Mermaid, with the mermaid in question earning an immortal soul after serving as an earthbound spirit.
Koharu’s first cupid mission also tugs at the heartstrings and I almost got teary-eyed over it as she needs to help a former friend from her previous life to find love. The eventual build-up to Koharu’s chosen, to her letting her best friend go and accepting her new cupid position is very well done emotional drama, and I really look forward to seeing what inee has in store for this series going forward.
For those who like to read yuri with the hopes of having a couple or two to root for as the series goes on, you maybe disappointed here. There’s a big yuri tag on this series, and with good reason, but the female x female couples, so far, have all been side characters, the ones that cupids match up and then never seen after the mission is complete. It’s made very clear that cupids cannot fall in love, so if you were hoping for that angle, you might find the first volume lacking in that regard. Maybe I’m wrong and that will change in the future, but right now the yuri tag seems to be for the cupid missions, not for the cupids themselves.
The art by inee is very good; I love the Airsoft costume designs of the cupids and the guns are highly detailed as well. The wings and lack of flying of the cupids, reminded me of the angel designs in Haibane Renmei, but that might be a coincidence.
Masaaki Fukushima provides a fun translation with some handy translation notes at the back, alongside a bonus chapter too.
Love Bullet aims high and hits it targets for a highly entertaining and emotionally charged new Yuri series. Although the lack of main character yuri couples and the slow release of the series might not be appealing for some fans, it’s an excellent debut volume worth checking out.
Read a preview of the first volume of Yen Press’ website.
Our review copy was supplied by Yen Press.
