365 Days of Manga, Day 260: Red Angel

RED ANGEL • Makoto Tateno • DMP • 16+
Mika and Eru are a beautiful, mysterious brother and sister who live elegantly on the edges of society, like European nobility in the modern age. One of Mika’s classmates thinks she discovers their secret — they’re vampires! — but the secret turns out to be several layers deep, as Mika and Eru are two souls who share one body, one of them dwelling in a mirror while the other one walks the unsuspecting world. Beyond that, their origins are cloudy, except that they are two of the “associates” (a pretty poor choice of English rewrite), a catchall term for shapeshifters, vampires, bat-people, crow-people, fallen angels and all kinds of supernatural beings. Published in a vampire-themed anthology in Japan, Red Angel starts out as a gender-bending borderline vampire manga, but if soon goes into even more over-the-top Gothic territory. Like the old shojo manga Bride of Deimos, it’s set in an animistic world of darkness where anything can be disguised as anything else — animals, spirits, devils, people — and all kinds of mayhem takes place. After most of the twists are revealed in the climax of volume 1, volume 2 is much more straightforward and predictable, but still delivers pulpy thrills, with fights, angsty passion between immortals, and hordes of poorly-drawn vampires preying upon city crowds. One of Tateno’s better non-yaoi manga, the only real weakness is her stiff art, which barely manages to convey the big scenes she aims for in this story. The best praise is that it feels like Tateno had fun drawing it: as she herself says in her author’s notes, “In this story, I thankfully get to draw whatever I want.”
*** (three stars)
Today’s winner is Jackie D. of Tennessee! Congratulations, Jackie!