Blood Lad


Blood Lad is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Yuuki Kodama and serialized in Young Ace. It follows Staz, a vampire from the surreal Demon World, who meets Fuyumi Yanagi, an ordinary Japanese high school girl who accidentally wanders into the Demon World through a portal. Shortly after their meeting Fuyumi is killed by a carnivorous plant and turned into a ghost, causing Staz to take responsibility and pledge to help bring her back to life. An anime adaptation aired between July and September 2013
In North America, the manga has been licensed for an English language release by Yen Press. The anime series has been licensed by Viz Media for streaming on their website VizAnime and home video distribution in 2014. Neon Alley also acquired the series for streaming on their web service.

Plot

Staz is a powerful vampire boss of a territory in the Demon World. Unlike his vampire ancestors, he prefers not to prey on humans, and would rather indulge in their Japanese otaku lifestyle of reading manga, watching anime, and playing video games. One day, he becomes excited when Fuyumi Yanagi, an ordinary Japanese high school girl, accidentally wanders into the Demon World through a portal. The two's first meeting is cut short by the attack of a demon who challenges his territory. When Staz goes to stop the demon, Fuyumi is killed by a carnivorous plant and turned into a ghost. Staz takes responsibility and pledges to help bring her back to life. When they take the portal, they learn that Fuyumi needs to drink Staz's blood in order to not fade away. They meet Hydra Bell, a treasure hunter who reveals her ability to open and close the portal was stolen, and that in order to restore Fuyumi they need the Book of Resurrection.
After challenging his friend Wolf, who is the boss of Demon World West, he learns that Bell has the Book, but that Staz needs to get his big brother Braz to interpret it for him. Braz agrees to interpret the book provided that Staz stops Papradon Akim, a creature who tears his fallen enemies apart and uses their body parts to improve himself and his abilities. Meanwhile, Wolf and scientist Franken Stein try to find a substitute to keep Fuyumi from fading. After Wolf fights Akim and Staz defeats Akim, Braz recruits Franken Stein to secretly work on another creature.
Fuyumi is taken by Bell's brother Knell and delivered to their mother Neyn, who reveals that she is the fusion of the mother of Bell and the mother of Fuyumi, making the two girls sisters. Neyn asks Staz whether he is going to care for Fuyumi, which Staz agrees, so she releases him, only to later send a team of assassins called Team Fearless to hunt down Staz. Meanwhile, the Demon World Acropolis police officers Beros and Goyle arrest Braz for conspiring to overthrow the king of the demon world, Wolf Daddy. Braz escapes but agrees to deliver to Wolf Daddy a challenger to the throne. He places Akim's heart in the body of his late father and former king Richarz and revives him. However Richarz is no mood to fight Wolf Daddy.
Braz and Staz learn that Richarz and Wolf Daddy had sealed up the essence of the demon king Herrschaft Grimm behind a door, but that it is too powerful. Akim manages to revive and recover his heart, killing Richarz and then absorbing Grimm's essence to become the new king of the Demon World. Wolf Daddy and the gang are forced to escape, while Braz stays on as a servant to Akim. Staz and Wolf want to take the throne back from Akim, so they start training under one of Wolf Daddy's old friends White Step. Akim creates a team of minions to harvest more body parts to grow stronger. To minimize this expansion, Wolf Daddy offers to Akim to fight a group of demons on the black list, a list of criminals who were so powerful they were hidden away and their existence erased from record. Akim agrees, and Wolf Daddy arranges for the blacklisted demons to come and train themselves.

Characters

Main characters

;
;

Supporting characters

Demon World East

Demon World West

;Kiji
;Tobi

Demon World Acropolis

;
;
; Kelly and Burgundy
; Amber

Dimensional Highway

The Dimensional Highway is one of the seven wonders of the demon world. It is described as a labyrinth of countless doors.

Other characters

; Yanagi
; Katy
; White Step
; Pati
; Blacklist demons

Manga

The manga was written and drawn by Yuuki Kodama and serialized in Young Ace from September 4, 2009 to September 3, 2016 and compiled in 17 volumes. The series was later licensed for distribution in English by Yen Press, alongside its spinoff Bloody Brat. and released as an omnibus edition where each volume contains two of the Japanese volumes of the series, except for the final omnibus edition which contains the final manga volume.

Volumes

''Bloody Brat''

Anime

The anime is produced by Brain's Base and directed by Shigeyuki Miya, with series composition by Takeshi Konuta, character designs by Kenji Fujisaki, art direction by Masaki Mayuzumi and Toshiyuki Sakae and sound direction by Satoki Iida. The 10 episode series began airing on July 7, 2013 on tvk and were later aired on Tokyo MX, Sun TV and BS11. The series has been licensed in North America by Viz Media for streaming on their online service Viz Anime, which was revealed at Anime Expo 2013 along with streaming by Neon Alley and home video release in 2014. The opening theme is "ViViD" by May'n whilst the ending theme is "Bloody Holic" by Yuuka Nanri.

Reception

The manga had sold over 1.8 million copies as of March 2015. Spick Mich from Spickmich reviewed the German version of Blood Lad, stating that the manga's art style occasionally reminded him of Soul Eater and that fans of action and horror would like the series. Bamboo Dong from Anime News Network praised the anime adaptation, finding its humor appealing as well as the portrayal of the main character Staz.

Works cited