Blood Lad honestly scared me at first. Not because of its violence or supernatural trappings, but because that first volume was rough to read through. I thought I was in for a LONG ride of a read, but thankfully by volume 3 it found more solid footing and rolled with it. It's not a *great* manga (definitely not a seinen, for one thing), but it has its pros in competent pacing for a solid plot, and engaging artwork.

[Story - 7]

Our story starts off simple - in a 'demon' world where every stereotypical supernatural being exists, a human girl stumbles into the 'territory' of a vampire. She gets killed after he tries to capture her for Blood Consumption, and he resolves to revive her to get said blood. The first several volumes follow Staz (the vampire) and the series of efforts he makes to just revive the girl, but it soon turns into another Save The World From The Ancient King story.

While I was initially critical of this change, I found that it was ultimately for the better as the latter is more intriguing than the former, despite its generic beats. The former had slow pacing in the first couple of volumes, and by the time it got to the 'plot twist and switch', it was moving along swimmingly. Naturally, the themes for the title are best suited for this pacing: the Powah of friendship/family/romance, along with some toying of how one's role in the world affects said world rather than the other way around. There's a ton of ecchi mixed in with the Ha Ha That's A Reference-type of comedy, but there /is/ actual comedy sometimes.

[Art - 8]

The artwork is what actually caught my eye, and convinced me to give it a crack. As multiple people have noted before me, it's very reminiscent of a shonen that I highly enjoy/admire (Soul Eater), but I feel as though it still stands out by itself. It has a very 'minimalistic' feel: While the setting + action has enough detail that you can tell what's going on, it also feels as though these are still unfinished sketches being sent off to serialization. It works, however, since the story and characterization are fairly lightweight.

Character design is very......hit-or-miss for me. Sometimes it works really well in having a memorable feel (Wolf's modern chic look, Bell's FLCL-esque gear, Akim's stitches and scars) but other times it just looks rather generic and bland (The Blood Brothers, the Blacklisted). This is probably me being nitpicky, but having most, if not all, of your prominent women possessing huge knockers is an immature and tacky look, especially in a title that's supposed to be a seinen.

[Character - 5]

Characterization is where I found the manga to be slacking the most, unfortunately. There are actual character arcs and dynamics here, but it just feels really......inferior compared to what could have been.

For starters, let's go with our protagonist, Staz. From the get-go, he's portrayed as a perpetually-lazy and selfish lord, but of course gradually matures into a much more responsible person. This isn't bad, per say, but considering how many times the idea of him being an 'anti-hero' is discussed in the title, it's rather disappointing. He definitely falls into the trap of suddenly becoming a Noble Hero, when his initial characterization + those discussions suggest otherwise. It would have been genuinely interesting to see Staz still indulge in his 'lesser' ideals and morals while on his quest to revive the girl and save his world.

Another character whose writing I found frustrating was the 'leading woman', Fuyumi. The 'leading woman' is marked as such because she's so severely underwritten that it almost got me to drop the title three times throughout the journey. While I didn't mind it in the first few volumes (but note that she's incredibly ditzy and objectified), having her stay essentially the same at the LAST FUCKING CHAPTER is ridiculous. This is made even more excruciating to read when her main arc of development is realizing that she loves Staz (big shock), and literally.....nothing else. That's her entire arc. I'm not kidding.

Other characters, while fun to read about, also feel really underused. Wolf, for example, doesn't have a huge arc outside of suddenly developing another power; Bell also has a similar arc to Fuyumi, along with the added bonus of Making Friends; and so on/so forth. This is frustrating because they ARE fun to read, especially with their group dynamics, but yet they're so much less than they could have been.

[Enjoyment/Overall - 6]

As I said at the beginning, this isn't a great manga by any means. It's definitely not meant to be in the same magazine as Erased and Bungou Stray Dogs, but makes a fun and light read nonetheless. I'd recommend this to anyone who just wants a title that's 'easy' on the mind in terms of characterization and story, but is packing a lot in action and ecchi. Otherwise, skip it over - there are better titles like this one out there.