blood blade vol 1 by Oma sei

In a hamlet in Europe, The Count, who is a young girl with a samurai sword, looks over the people and keeps them safe from monsters. One day, another girl stumbles into the forest around the village being chased by a monster-hunter. In saving her, the Count intends to study her or make her into her next meal, for the Count is actually a vampire! Clara awakens and tells Count Vlad of a group of monster hunters on their way to take them both out, and she pleads with her to come back to Monster Island where they can both be safe. Count Vlad tells Clara of her past - that she's actually the reincarnation of Vlad the Impaler, so she has nothing to fear from these monster hunters.

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First off, the summary keeps saying Count Vlad Dracula, and I'm wondering if I missed something or if this is some sort of spoiler. The first volume set up our main character as a incarnation of Vlad the Impaler but didn't mention Dracula at all that I can recall, so either I skipped something or the main girl is a cross between Vlad the Impaler and Dracula. That aside, Sei has a problem with drawing two eyeballs at once, and constantly wants to have something covering the other eye, whether it's the Vlad's hair or something else obscuring. Not sure what was behind that choice, but it just became sort of a campy choice that pulled me away from the narrative after a while. Like, spot the contorted way Vlad was going to be positioned so that she didn't have two eyeballs exposed again.

There is a bit of violence and there are a few folks shown impaled on pikes when Vlad talks about her passed life, so this might be better for readers who have had a chance to study the Middle Ages and may have some historical context on Vlad the Impaler.

Sara's Rating: 6/10
Suitability Level: Grades 8-12

Publisher: Kodansha 
Publication Date: February 20, 2024 
ISBN: 9781646519927 (Paperback)

​Tags: Rating: 6/10, Suitability: Middle School, Suitability: High School, Manga, Horror, Historical Fiction, Kodansha