So, Blood Lad was one of the fist anime I watched where, afterwards, I told myself I needed to read the manga. I've finally done it.

Alright, so I think the art in this manga is absolutely gorgeous. Okay, well, it isn't as breathtaking as a couple other manga I've read, but the imagery is still astounding. The two-page spreads in Blood Lad are always really good at giving you a sense of grandeur and fantasy.

The story itself did get better after the anime (obviously), though I will say I kind of got jaded of it somewhere after chapter 50. The story kept getting bigger and bigger and bigger, and it didn't all level out into a nice plot until close to the end. At least, in my opinion, but maybe that was just because I sped through it. All in all, the pacing was really well-done. The unique humor this manga has kept it from getting too bogged down in places, so it was used well.

But the characters. The characters are electric. That's the absolute best part of this manga. Give me a crap story any day, because if the characters are on point, I'll indulge myself until I can't anymore. Staz, especially, had *such* remarkable character development throughout this series. It's kind of amazing to see how smoothly he transitioned from who he was at the beginning of the manga to who he was at the end. It's believable, and honestly, I feel like a lot of narratives don't know how to get their characters to take that last hurdle at the end to change who they are, but Staz's hurdle was done so beautifully.

I kind of suck at reviewing manga, but I guess to summarize, Blood Lad was really fun to read. The characters' relationships to each other, the characters themselves, the humor, and the romance made up for any dips in the story. This manga really does have some of the best characters I've seen in any work of fiction. So, for that fact alone, I'd really recommend this manga to anyone who is interested or loved the anime. I'm happy I got to see where these characters ended up (finally).