Bloody Mary
Bloody Mary is a vampire who has spent the last 100 years looking for someone who has the “blood of Maria”. Unlike most vampires Bloody Mary can walk in the sun freely with little to no side effects. He encounters Di, a priest who has inherited the Blood of Maria. Di is targeted by other vampires and Bloody Mary promises to protect him until Di can find a way to kill the immortal Bloody Mary. The manga is about their adventures.
Mary has a death wish he wants to die because he is tired of being a vampire. He was a normal human child until he got bit by another vampire so now he wants Di to kill him. Di wants to live and wants Bloody Mary around to protect him from the other vampires. The characters in the story are very interesting and not commonly seen in shonen manga.
Di is a priest and when he was a high school student, he inherited the Blood of Maria from his grandfather. Di uses a magical staff that requires a percentage of blood to scare vampires away but he has only so much blood.
Bloody Mary and DI have great chemistry and get on really well. Mary has the appearance of a teenager but is actually 400 years old and Di is 17 years old and still in high school. Mary is a very moody and very emotionally driven character. He is very reluctant to drink blood as this prolongs the life of a vampire and he does not wish to hurt his friends. Di gives him consent to drink blood but Bloody Mary takes no pleasure from it.
Unusual for vampires Bloody Mary doesn’t have much ill will towards Catholics and can easily enter churches and also unlike the majority of vampires he's a red head. Both Bloody Mary and Di have amnesia and don’t really have much memories of their pasts.
The story is set in Yokohama in modern times. While the action is good, like many Shonen, it is predictable but the way the characters plan and scheme is what makes the manga interesting. It’s a fairly long story and utilises the length to tell a complete tale. Almost everything is fully explored and there is always an interesting character interaction or scene that helps keep the story going. You’ll see important plot twists developing but other than that, you’ll have to keep reading in order to find out what happens next. It can be easy at times to figure out what is going to happen next since it is a Shonen
In terms of pacing things can go by pretty fast without even knowing what is going on. There is often a lot of jumping back to forth with many different characters and because some of the characters have similar names to one another, it is not always easy to tell who is who. Because of how fast paced at times the story can get, some of the plot points and art style can be messy.
There are elements of romance between Mary and Di but it is not overly excessive. The story does not rely on Shonen manga tropes and most of it felt quite unique. The plot of the story implies a great deal of complexity but it doesn’t go further than that. The lore is not fully developed like the vampires’ backgrounds. There is a good amount of Yaoi fanservice and some fans will certainly appreciate it.
Comedy in this story did worked and it brought levity to the serious situation. There are comedic elements and much of the humor comes from Bloody Mary’s death wish. The character models were nicely drawn and the overall art style was excellent.
It is a nicely written and superbly drawn manga.
It gets 4 stars out of 5.
A full anime adaptation of this manga could work.