• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Home
  • About Us
    • Privacy Policy
    • Comment Policy
    • Disclosures & Disclaimers
  • Resources
    • Links, Essays & Articles
    • Fandomology!
    • CLAMP Directory
    • BlogRoll
  • Features & Columns
    • 3 Things Thursday
    • Adventures in the Key of Shoujo
    • Bit & Blips (game reviews)
    • BL BOOKRACK
    • Bookshelf Briefs
    • Bringing the Drama
    • Comic Conversion
    • Fanservice Friday
    • Going Digital
    • It Came From the Sinosphere
    • License This!
    • Magazine no Mori
    • My Week in Manga
    • OFF THE SHELF
    • Not By Manga Alone
    • PICK OF THE WEEK
    • Subtitles & Sensibility
    • Weekly Shonen Jump Recaps
  • Manga Moveable Feast
    • MMF Full Archive
    • Yun Kouga
    • CLAMP
    • Shojo Beat
    • Osamu Tezuka
    • Sailor Moon
    • Fruits Basket
    • Takehiko Inoue
    • Wild Adapter
    • One Piece
    • After School Nightmare
    • Karakuri Odette
    • Paradise Kiss
    • The Color Trilogy
    • To Terra…
    • Sexy Voice & Robo
  • Browse by Author
    • Sean Gaffney
    • Anna Neatrour
    • Michelle Smith
    • Katherine Dacey
    • MJ
    • Brigid Alverson
    • Travis Anderson
    • Phillip Anthony
    • Derek Bown
    • Jaci Dahlvang
    • Angela Eastman
    • Erica Friedman
    • Sara K.
    • Megan Purdy
    • Emily Snodgrass
    • Nancy Thistlethwaite
    • Eva Volin
    • David Welsh
  • MB Blogs
    • A Case Suitable For Treatment
    • Experiments in Manga
    • MangaBlog
    • The Manga Critic
    • Manga Report
    • Soliloquy in Blue
    • Manga Curmudgeon (archive)

Manga Bookshelf

Discussion, Resources, Roundtables, & Reviews

May 23, 2009 by Katherine Dacey

Blood+ Adagio, Vol. 1

adagio1Forget what you know about the Russian Revolution. The real cause of the Romanov’s demise wasn’t growing unrest among the proletariat, the intelligentsia, or the military; nor the high cost of World War I; nor the famines of 1906 and 1911, but something far more sinister: vampires. At least, that’s the central thesis of Blood+ Adagio, a prequel to the popular anime/manga series about an immortal, vampire-slaying schoolgirl and her handsome, enigmatic handler. The first volume of Adagio transplants Saya and Hagi from the steamy jungles of present-day Okinawa and Vietnam — where they’ve battled US military forces and the myserious Cinq Flèches Group — to the chilly halls of Nicholas II’s Winter Palace in St. Petersburg — where they discover a nest of Chiropterans (a.k.a vampires who are more beast than bishie) as well as a host of schemers, sycophants, and crazy folk in the tsar’s orbit. Let the slayage begin!

Russophiles will balk at the liberties that artist/author Kumiko Suekane has taken with historical fact, such as transforming Rasputin from a bearded monstrosity into a clean-shaven hottie and introducing Sergei Shupukin, a fictional general who supposedly rose from peasant stock to become Nicholas II’s most trusted military advisor. (Note to Japanese manga-ka: peasants might have risen within their given station, e.g. becoming kulaks, or merchants whose clientele was other peasants, but they didn’t ascend to key leadership positions in government or the military.) As preposterous as some of these decisions may seem, however, they work surprisingly well, creating a delirious atmosphere that captures the Romanov’s desperate, semi-debauched state in 1916. One could almost — almost — believe that vampires prowled the halls of the Winter Palace under Rasputin’s protection.

What doesn’t work so well is the actual story. Few characters receive a proper introduction; we’re simply thrown into the action and left to our own devices to decide which ones are central to the drama and which ones are peripheral, a process unnecessarily complicated by some unfunny comic business in the opening pages. More frustrating is how poorly the historical elements are incorporated into the storyline, as two rooted-in-fact subplots — the tsarevich’s hemophilia and Rasputin’s cult following — receive only cursory treatment, never rising beyond the level of period window dressing.

Frustrating as the story may be, Kumiko Suekane’s artwork is clean and stylish, capturing the opulence of the Romanov lifestyle through elaborate costumes, hairstyles, and personal affects. Her character designs closely resemble Chizu Hashii’s originals, though they’re a little softer and more sensuous than the angular figures from the Blood+ anime — a good thing, in my opinion, as the characters’ faces are less mask-like and more expressive. Suekane stages the fight scenes competently, if not imaginatively, relying heavily on speedlines and close-ups of contorted faces to convey the intensity of the violence, sometimes obscuring where, exactly, her characters are standing in relation to one another.

Readers unfamiliar with the Blood+ series may find Adagio a confusing place to begin their journey, as the author presumes her audience is well-versed in the characters’ elaborate histories. Long-time fans, however, will find this an entertaining, if unevenly executed, story that should satisfy their urge to see Saya and Hagi’s slow-simmering romance continued.

BLOOD+ ADAGIO, VOL. 1 • STORY AND ART BY KUMIKO SUEKANE • DARK HORSE • 200 pp. • RATING: TEEN

Share this:

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Reddit
  • Tumblr
  • More
  • LinkedIn
  • Pinterest

Filed Under: Manga Critic Tagged With: Dark Horse, Seinen, Vampires

Reader Interactions

Trackbacks

  1. Cartoon and Manga articles news. » Archive » The Manga Critic » Blog Archive » Review: Blood+ Adagio, Vol. 1 says:
    May 23, 2009 at 2:51 pm

    […] The rest is here: The Manga Critic » Blog Archive » Review: Blood+ Adagio, Vol. 1 […]

  2. MangaBlog » Blog Archive » Jesus and Buddha take on the bad guys—of Mixi says:
    May 26, 2009 at 7:55 am

    […] Be sure to read Kate Dacey’s review of vol. 1 of Blood + Adagio at The Manga Critic. Kate knows her stuff when it comes to Russian history, but she’s willing […]

  3. The Manga Critic » Blog Archive » The Shipping News, 9/2/09 says:
    August 31, 2009 at 9:48 pm

    […] the latest volumes of Love*Com, NANA, Sand Chronicles, and We Were There; the second volumes of Blood+ Adagio (Dark Horse), Rasetsu (VIZ), and Yokai Doctor (Del Rey); and a passel of kid-friendly comics that […]

  4. The Manga Critic » Blog Archive » The Shipping News, 2/24/10 says:
    February 24, 2010 at 9:11 am

    […] newest addition to the Blood+ franchise, Kowloon Nights (Dark Horse). I wasn’t blown away by Blood+ Adagio — my inner Slavophile spent too much time cataloguing the gross historical errors to totally […]

  5. Manga Bookshelf | MMF: Horror Manga from A to Z says:
    October 28, 2011 at 10:54 am

    […] Alone, Vols. 1-3 (Seven Seas) Blood+, Vol. 1 (Dark Horse) Blood+ Adagio, Vol. 1 (Dark Horse) Butterfly, Vol. 1 (TOKYOPOP) Cage of Eden, Vol. 1 (Kodansha Comics) Canon, Vols. 1-4 […]

  6. MMF: Horror Manga from A to Z says:
    October 28, 2011 at 5:58 pm

    […] Alone, Vols. 1-3 (Seven Seas) Blood+, Vol. 1 (Dark Horse) Blood+ Adagio, Vol. 1 (Dark Horse) Butterfly, Vol. 1 (TOKYOPOP) Cage of Eden, Vol. 1 (Kodansha Comics) Canon, Vols. 1-4 […]

  7. The Manga Critic’s Guide to Vampires says:
    October 26, 2012 at 2:00 pm

    […] The Low-Down: “Russophiles will balk at the liberties that artist/author Kumiko Suekane has taken with historical fact, such as transforming Rasputin from a bearded monstrosity into a clean-shaven hottie and introducing Sergei Shupukin, a fictional general who supposedly rose from peasant stock to become Nicholas II’s most trusted military advisor… As preposterous as some of these decisions may seem, however, they work surprisingly well, creating a delirious atmosphere that captures the Romanov’s desperate, semi-debauched state in 1916. One could almost — almost — believe that vampires prowled the halls of the Winter Palace under Rasputin’s protection.” (Reviewed at The Manga Critic on 5/23/09.) […]



Before leaving a comment at Manga Bookshelf, please read our Comment Policy.

 | Log in
Copyright © 2010 Manga Bookshelf | Powered by WordPress & the Genesis Framework
loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.