aikaterini

Inspired by the lovely Shaolina’s sporks of the terrible manga “Haou Airen,” I’ve decided to start sporking a few manga themselves. I posted a review of “Code: Breaker” a while back and now I’ve decided to review a few other manga. One thing to consider is that, being manga, they’re not likely to have been finished yet. This will probably cause fans of the series to accuse me of being unfair because “it gets better later on.” Even if that is the case, a satisfactory end to the series still doesn’t exempt the first half from being awful, in my opinion.

I shall review up to the point where I’ve stopped reading and if the manga is updated, I’ll see whether or not I can continue my review. So, without further ado, let us begin!

My goodness, that image is huge..

The manga that I plan to cover is called “Black Bird” by Kanoko Sakurakoji. Like “Code: Breaker,” I had high hopes for this manga. It directly involved Japanese mythology (after all, the male lead is a tengu, a mythological creature) and the heroine was able to see all kinds of yokai and other spirits. The romance was a little promising, too. I know that some people don’t like the “we knew each other since we were little” romantic trope, but I personally think it’s cute. I do like stories when friends grow to love each other romantically and I certainly think that it’s more romantic than people falling in love after only knowing each other for five seconds. However, this cute romance angle was ultimately ruined by what transpired in the manga and, like “Code:Breaker,” I grew increasingly disappointed by what I read.

The so-called heroine of the manga is a teenage girl named Misao. Like I mentioned earlier, she is gifted with the ability to see yokai, whereas other humans are blind to them. However, this ability proves to be more of a curse than a gift, as she is constantly attacked and tormented by them while in school. For some reason, none of the other students suffer attacks by invisible spirits, only Misao. Now, when I was still hopeful and optimistic, I hoped that Misao would be a sort of Japanese Buffy. Realizing the potential of her gift, Misao would research ways on how to defend herself against demons and then defend the rest of humanity against them. I imagined her going to the library to read books on the various weaknesses of these spirits, going online to research them, or asking Shinto priests (if there was a temple in her neighborhood) for protection and advice on how to deal with them.

Little did I know that Misao would do absolutely nothing of the sort. This girl has apparently been able to see spirits since she was little and yet she handles them as if it were her first day seeing them. She makes absolutely no effort to learn how to protect herself against them, and all she does is grit her teeth and bear it when they torment her in school. Oh, and she cries. Believe me; she does a lot of crying in this manga.

Our Heroine, ladies and gentlemen. A passive, weepy punching bag who sits back and puts up with abuse, rather than being proactive by trying to find ways to stop the beings that are hurting her. I don't think I need to tell you how ominous that statement is…

And I haven’t even gotten to her love interest yet.

Stay tuned!