▪	RELEASED BY:		VIZ MEDIA
		▪	AUTHOR / ART:		KANOKO SAKURAKOJI
		▪	FORMAT:		JAPANESE / B&W
		▪	PAGES:		190
		▪	RATING:		T+
		▪	RELEASE DATE:		08/04/2009
		▪	REVIEW DATE:		07/08/2009
		▪	REVIEWED BY:		HOLLY ELLINGWOOD

Misao is a girl with the gift of true Sight. She can see the spirits and demons all around us that we cannot. It has cursed her all her life, causing a gloomy childhood and a deep longing for an ordinary life, with an ordinary boyfriend and to be an ordinary girl. However, on the eve before her sixteenth birthday, all of those wishes will be dashed to dust.  She is attacked by a demon and told that her blood will grant them longevity, that eating her flesh will provide eternal youth, or to marry her would bring a Demon Clan prosperity. She screams for help and one comes to her call, a dark prince rescues her, but is the handsome Ryo her savior or her damnation?

So begins a wonderfully spellbinding supernatural romance series. Ryo is the childhood friend who has returned after a ten year absence. He too has the Sight and she is relieved to see him, but that is a brief bit of peace. When he drinks her blood, she learns he is a black winged tengu and he wants her – as his bride! With her sixteenth birthday all demons will feel the call of her blood and she has very few options. She must either marry a strong demon for protection, or become a victim and die at the hands of one of them! It isn’t much of a choice and Misao at first deals with it with a certain amount of understandable denial. She tries to have her regular life but that is quickly shattered by repeated attacks from various demons trying to drink her blood and consume her. At every turn, Ryo saves her, he even becomes the new math teacher at her school to keep a closer eye on her. However, Misao has to wonder, does he truly love her, or is this simply all a ploy to have his clan prosper should he seduce her?

The darker fantasy elements are lifted in intensity by a good dose of comedy. Ryo could seem dashing and mysterious but he also proves himself to be something of a letch. He often tries to cop a feel off of Misao to which she’ll react violently. He lives next door to her so all sorts of comical boy-girl misunderstandings ensue.  A romantic rival also appears when the fox demon Shuhei arrives. He’s not as nice as he seems. He wants her to marry him and he doesn’t mind playing dirty to win her. He plants seeds of doubt within her mind about Kyo’s feelings, and finally uses an attack against her to badly wound Kyo. However those same wounds open the door to her true feelings. She still questions his, but more and more she is beginning to wonder if maybe Kyo doesn’t feel the same. Either way, time is running out for her. Soon all of demon kind will be after her and she’ll have to choose to make love with Kyo or allow herself to die horribly at the hands of some other demon.

The art style is quintessential shojo with big eyes, wispy hair and soft penciled illustrations. The various demons from Japanese folklore are reinterpreted for the manga series and are fascinating. The men will certainly appeal to bishonen fans. There is a lot of blood in the book as it is a main part of the story. Whenever Kyo drinks from her, the illustrations portray erotic overtones to scenes, like in vampire tales, linking the drinking of blood to a sexual act. There are some images that are quite erotically charged and she comes close to falling into his arms and his bed at one point.  It will be interesting to see how much longer she can fight off his advances and her own feelings towards him.

IN SUMMARY:
Black Bird is a spicy supernatural romance that xxxHolic and Vampire Knight fans will want to check out.