A review by bookswithleigh
Rosen Blood, Vol. 1 by Kachiru Ishizue

Though I think this has already been published, I got a free copy from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. (Note: To Viz Media, your watermark on your ARCs are ridiculously large, and not quite transparent enough to read some of the smaller speech bubbles covered by them).

I don't usually review the manga I read. I think it's difficult to review an overarching plot if you go volume by volume, but GR lacks an option to review a series as a whole, so I tend to leave them both unrated and uncommented on. But Netgalley requires at least 100 words about them, so here goes:

I wasn't really sure what to expect when I picked up Rosen Blood. As I began reading, I felt like I was reading a mishmash of concepts that already existed rather than something original - the plot from that vampire otome mobile game (Ikemen, I think?), Vampire Knight, Diabolik Lovers, Bloody Kiss, to name a few...

What really shines with Rosen Blood is the artwork. The characters are drawn beautifully, and the fangs, when they're shown, are just *clenches fist* so good. Our heroine, however... I don't know. Amnesia as a plot device has never been my favorite, because like it is in this first volume, it's often relied on to handwave the fact that the one afflicted with it has no personality. Aside from reminding the main male love interest of a mysterious woman from his past, there seems to be very little reason for them allowing her to work for them. She's also blind to the danger she's in while living in the remote, isolated manor where three out of the four inhabitants have done their best to scare her and heavily imply how dangerous they are (and, in one case, attack her outright)....and yet, she brushes it all off and finds excuses to explain their behavior. I had hoped the heroine would have a stronger personality than that, but there seem to be many harem and harem-adjacent series where that's just not the case.

I'm hoping that a personality will begin to shine through as the series goes on, but right now, if I had to pick a vampire romance to recommend to someone, it wouldn't be this one ... it would probably be Vampire Knight or Millenium Snow.

I left this unrated because I came away from it just thinking "meh", but Netgalley requires a rating on their site, and I gave it 2 Stars there...if that's any indication for how unremarkable this was for me.