Black Bird

I remember that I got one of the manga's, after seeing it in store, and finding that the cover looked interesting. Unfortunately, I never got to it at first since I could not find the first book. I got back to it a few years later, and I do have to say it had an interesting concept. The story between two childhood friends, that see each other after a long time, is rather sweet, and interesting. But on the other hand, I feel like Misao was the typical female protagonist, that just seems weak and just tries to find comfort in Kyou. I was somewhat hoping that, there would be more to her character than there was. I mean, don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the overall storyline, and I think the art was unique, and gorgeous but there could have just been so much more to Misao's character. Overall, worth the read, due to the storyline, and great supporting characters, but it wouldn't be something that I would read again.

I loved it. I really did. I don't regret any part of it and I will surely read it again.

The plot is interesting. It's definitely a 10 for me. It had moments of highs and lows, fluff and tears but overall this is one of those mangas I won't forget. I'm not a great fan of fantasy and supernatural when it comes to romance mangas but I really loved this.

The characters were great too.They were funny and each person's personality contributed in making this piece wholesome. Just how much I love the lovey-doviness of the main characters. It's so beautiful.

So will I recommend it? 100% YES. Go for it. Give it a try and I hope you'll get to enjoy it the way i did.

Ok, I don't really read manga that often except when someone recommends the manga better than the actual anime. This particular manga was not animated so I had to read it. During the first 5 chapters I could only recall Vampire Knight and Twilight (Ugh). It's about Tengu's (are a type of legendary creature found in Japanese folk religion) however, not vampires. The dummy girl is desirable to these Tengu creatures and everyone's fighting over her. One extremely hot Gives-you-nose-bleeds Tengu (Part of the reason why I highly rated the Art) is in love with her and feels the urge to overly protect her. Oh, and has got his whole family of HOT tengu's protecting her. Hello Reverse Harem!! I hate her character, she's always weak and needs protection. Too much unnecessary kissing. Too much blood but the story isn't that deep. The mangaka seemed to just like the scene of blood although it wasn't a bloody anime. Not sure if it's for teenage girls or horny boys. Either way, I stopped at chapter 20 because : mind-f**k :D

Black Bird is one of my favorites manga. The art has a very clean and minimalist expressions that ties well with the course of the storyline. It gives the story a little naive and innocent expression, and it suits very well to the manga, without the art takes control over the storyline.

Black Bird is a supernatural shōjo manga written and illustrated by Kanoko Sakurakoji. The story is very typical drama and fits nicely if you're looking for something romantic and indvolves delicious men with supernatural faculties.

Hmm what to say about Black Bird. Words fail me, but here I am. Black Bird is the type of story that normally I would enjoy (genre-wise), but somehow it just didn't work out with BB. It takes all the bad parts about shoujo stories and combines them into one. Somehow, I still wanted to finish it though, so I guess that says *something* about the manga, though I'm not sure what exactly that something is.

Story (4): the story itself was kind of 'meh'. It's not the worst I've ever read, but there really wasn't a point. It was very predictable. After reading about half the story, I already knew what was going to happen.

Art (6): I thought the art was actually pretty nice. It's not amazing or particularly noteworthy, but it's clean and easy to understand. I didn't like how big Misao's eyes were, though. They took up half her face sometimes. I also didn't really like most of her outfits. The art is fine, but it isn't good enough to cover up for the poor story.

Character (3): the characters were the weakest part of this story. Misao has NO agency. I don't think she ever decides to do anything on her own. I don't want to give away what happens, so pardon me for being vague, but the only time she ever really "decides" to do something for herself, it's not really even a decision, it's just accepting the inevitable. For most of the manga, all I could think about was how much easier everyone's lives would be if Misao just died. It's not that I wanted her to die...but I kind of did. It disturbed me how infantalized she was. She cried on every other page. who cries that often? It was excessive even by shoujo standards. I also could never understand why Misao and Kyou even loved each other. Misao didn't really have much of a personality, and Kyou spent most of his time maintaining a poker face. It was also annoying that all of the "Great 8" were male. In one of the omake about the mangaka's life, she mentioned that one of her editors suggested that one of the Great 8 be a female, but it was rejected. Why? I really don't understand. The only girls in this manga are Misao, Misao's mom, Misao's 2 friends, Kyou's cousin, Kyou's mom, and Shou's female sidekick (who just kind of disappears after she is no longer relevant to the plot), and the fox head's girlfriend (also disappears without explanation). There's also 1 girl in a side story (Zenki's sister), but she isn't a part of the main BB plot since she has her own story. There were many characters who were introduced, never developed, and then forgotten. They weren't even "put on a bus"; they just disappeared.

In my opinion, the characters are the most important part of a story. If you don't care about the characters, why should you care about what happens to them? I did not care about the characters of BB, so the story wasn't very compelling.

Enjoyment (5): I think that if you like Twilight, you will probably like this kind of story. It has a lot of similarities. Misao is JUST LIKE BELLA, in a very bad way. I read to the end because I wanted to see what would happen. It's like eating a box of chocolates, hoping that at least one of them will be good, and then feeling sick at the end because you ate allll that sugar, and none of them were good. I hoped that Misao would finally do something other than be rescued and hate herself, but it never happened.

Honestly, I do not recommend this manga. I wanted it to be good, and I wanted to like it, but it was lacking in many ways. The notes left by the mangaka throughout each volume are heartwarming and it really seems like she tried hard, but in the end it was very disappointing.

This Manga is first and foremost an EPIC LOVE story. I would recommend it for mature readers due to the Sexual content but also because there are a lot of mature themes like death, betrayal and sacrifice that a mature audience may appreciate more.

I really enjoyed this Manga because it was really satisfying to watch the relationship between Kyo and Misao develop and their back story was very sweet. It's refreshing to see the their love being expressed with their actions and not just with words. If you really loved someone, would you not want to be with them all the time, touch them, kiss them and plan your future with them in the center of your mind? That is exactly what happens here and it is beautiful to read and feel their struggle through those thoughts.

Kyo is a man of few words but his actions speaks volumes as to how much he loves Misao. He can be a little childish and jealous but this kind of male character does not bother me because i think it's very realistic to be like that when you love someone THAT much. It was funny to see Kyo jealous and the lengths he went sometimes to make Misao jealous was hilarious. At no point does he hit her, try to rape her or bully her so I don't understand why he is often described as an ASS. He loves her and protects her! He teases her for fun and this adds to a lot of their banter throughout the manga. Again, it's very realistic for a couple to joke, tease and play around with each other.

Misao is not weak. Yes, she is protected by nearly all the male characters in the manga but SHE HAS NO POWERS! She has to be protected when she is attacked by demons. How can she fight back? She is a 16 year old HUMAN girl with no powers! But even then, there is a time in the story where she does fight back which is very admirable!

She is portrayed crying a lot but this is not because she is weak. She cries because she is scared (Wouldn't you be if there were demons trying to kill and eat you all the time) She cries because she is compassionate because she knows of the hardships that Kyo, her friends and even her enemies have gone through. She cries because she is AWARE of her own inability to help the people around her. The fact that she is AWARE of all this is refreshing to see. Also, she doesn't immediately fall in love with Kyo the minute he arrives (I hate stupid girls like that) and she helps him through some tough family and political issues in his village so she isn't always the damsel in distress.

Their struggle to be together is the main theme behind the progress of the story but there is also some decent action and interesting plot surrounding Kyo as the head of his clan. The last ARC is the most EPIC and heart wrenching but SOOO worth it. I could not stop reading and was on the edge of my seat till the very end.

There are also deep side characters with interesting back stories and even the bad guys are not just merely bad guys. There is a lot of depth in this anime which can make it hard to understand the first time around, but I have read it 3 times and every time i re-read it I am learning and seeing subtle hints about characters and the story that I missed before.

If you're ready for a truly satisfying love story that is more than saying I love you, holding hands and ending with a kiss then this is it!

It was unexpected that I found such amazing manga to read, and was my first manga that I needed to have it in book in my home.
It was adventure, romance, actions sad and happy. I was totally into book when I was reading. it was amazing emotions.
Art it is great, might could be better but I love it.
It is very rarely thing to find such amazing manga, specially when I have very high expectations. It is just sad that I finished reading so fast that I can't believed I done it so fast, all because when I found something interested my world is manga xx. Thanks

Black Bird is one of those manga that you love at one point but then hate when the chapters start going nowhere.

Story: 7
Black Bird is about teenage girl (Misao) who can see little spirits and things from the underworld. One day she comes across a demon man (Kyo). It turns out this man was the boy who once played with her when she was little. When they were children the man said he would marry her. Shortly after he disappeared. Now he's back and has come to claim what is his.

The story kicks off with your usual shoujo facotrs. Boy loves girl. Girl is creeped out by pervy boy. Boy pursues girl. Girl pushes him away. Boy shows true love (by means of protection, ect.) Girl starts falling for boy. I could go on and on.

When the main problem is solved of course other sub plots pop up. This is where the story either gets good or bad, depending on your opinion. At first it was okay. The girl would get attacked then the boy would save her. The girl was being chased and sexual harassed by other boys, and of course, the main boy would save her. This is all good and well if the author knows when to stop. It seems as if this is what happens in Black Bird with the boy and the girl dont have their lovey dovey moments. In my opinion I sometimes wish the author would just stop introducing more characters and focus on the main and supporting ones.

Art: 8
The art in this manga is very appealing. Kyo, Misao's love interest, is a very good looking man. His dark demeanor but also gentle face is a factor that gets most fangirls (such as myslef) squealing. The other boys/men in this manga are also good looking. Misao is very pretty, her round eyes give her an almost middle school innocent girl look.

Character: 7
The only reason I rated character a 7 is because the author is introducing way too many character in her sub plots. I can't keep up with all of them to be honest. The ones the she introduces end up not even being talked about in the next volume/chapter. This is another major flaw in Black Bird

Enjoyment: 8
I have to say I do love this manga. The romance and I guess cruel chivalry (if there is such a thing) of Kyo makes me squeal whenever he has a love scene with Misao. There are definitely some steamy parts in this manga, but nothing too graphic. I do not recommend this manga for people who are not used to seeing a lot of kissing, part nudity,sexual torture, and even blood at points.
If you're okay with all these factors then by all means, go for it!

When I saw the cover of the manga one day I thought I should check it out and see what is about.
Boy I get angry every time; even when I re-read it a second time and drop it at the end of the final chapter in the third volume like a rock at the bottom of the ocean and hoping it'll stay there.

In a few pages in; we see our main heroine Misao while she can see supernatural creatures and when her birthday coming up, her friends ask her what she wanted, she cheerily answer 'I want a boyfriend!' and you know where this is going and waited to see the cliches of the supernatural romances stories.

However as the story goes on, I wasn't very impress with it, Black Bird is the true manga counterpart of 'Twilight'.

Misao is really the most useless, weak and, HORRIBLE main Shojo girl; I ever seen, she is so stupid. She always cries; yes I know when you're scare or emotional stress you cry to release the emotion so you won't have a bit of break down later on, but she CRIES EVERY TIME!! and its really getting annoying, she gets kidnapped so many times, you question if she knows about Stranger danger, NOPE she just blindly follow someone/or goes somewhere else she knows/doesn't know into private area where no one is around, then someone tells something about like 'stay away'/'now your mine' she gets attack/almost killed/saved by Kyo or someone else and you know how or what she does from that experience?? NEVER LEARNS FROM IT and keeps putting herself in danger and never gets development.

Kyo is just eye-candy for the reader, he's not interesting and just the typical jerk-perv love interest/boyfriend who 'does love her' and by air-quotes I mean loves her and sexually harass her, I did once believe that he was a little to good for Misao in the chapters *I'm skim a few pages and won't spoil it*' however at the end of the final chapter, my opinion change of him, he does deserve her, The stupid and prick couple.

And later on it added more typical and negative cliches romance/soap opera sub-plots that make you want facepalm..hard in the face.

The art is really pretty, soft and sweet even thou the cover art I question at times and I know the mangaka is doing a good job.

The only thing you can enjoy is the smut and steamy parts in the manga thou it won't last long with some other cringe worthy type of subject in the manga.

Black bird is truly amazing. It has all the things I love. Deep romance, fighting, laughter and silly times, and just the heart warming part are great too. To be honest, this is the first manga I have read. I mainly watch anime, but this was a very cute story. I must say that the drawing and artwork are very well done even though I got confused during some parts. Overall, I think that this is a very good manga!

Gonna make this review relatively short and to the point. The artwork is amazing and the basic synopsis is an intriguing one. A high school girl, Misao, who is able to see spirits is being coveted by demons because she is the "Senka". By partaking of her flesh or having sex with her a demon can become more powerful and bring prosperity and strength to his clan. A childhood friend and her first crush, Kyo, who is a demon tengu, returns after being away for 10 years and protects her. Sounds good so far. However, the actual story isn't that great and the two main characters are awful.

Kyo is just about the worst kind of guy there is. He is possessive, manipulative, demanding, jealous, and violent. He pretty much does whatever he wants and continually forces his will on Misao. He blames her for having to do what he does. Misao is a weak, needy, indecisive, whiny girl who loves Kyo to a fault. It doesn't matter what he does to her or others she still loves him and goes along with everything he does. She can't live without him (or so she thinks).

I can't really get into the story without spoiling some things (everything I've said so far you'll find out by reading the synopsis and the first few chapters). Suffice it to say that the entire story is all meant to test the love Kyo and Misao have for each other. Everything that happens is for this sole purpose. All the supporting character's roles, all the plot twists, all the bloodshed and mental anguish that happens. It's all meant to show you, the reader, that true love will last forever. About the only thing I personally felt towards these two and their relationship was contempt and disgust.

If you want a dark, twisted romance with some violence, bloodshed, and a domineering main guy, I guess this is for you. But if you're looking for a real romance that's more pure and makes you feel all warm inside, look elsewhere.

I may have found this after i read Kamisama Hajimemashita. This one is pretty much the opposite end of the point of view. (the main 2 in kami were the fox and the human this one is the tengu and the human) .... I was kinda enjoying it at first but i didn't make it past chapter 20 before i got annoyed at what felt like backwards progress, considering i read kami first.


Lesson of the day Kamisama Hajimemashita or this one do not read both.
if you want to read both start with Black bird.


Also my opinion here but i like Tengu better than Youki/Kitsume >>
that's why i actually enjoyed the start of this better than kami.

Personally, I liked the manga at first but as I got along there wasn't a lot to the plot. I feel like the mangaka thought this would be a short manga and then was asked to do more and didn't really know what to go off from here.
Also didn't like how the manga added random ecchi parts. I felt like the mangaka wanted some ecchi in here but she put it in, in a weird way.
Overall it wasn't a bad manga, it just wasn't my favorite :/

This Manga's audience is for a more MATURE crowd. (With that being said- if you're expecting a lovey-dovey sweet innocent story please REFRAIN from reading this manga).

It is quite explicit & dark.

Black Bird is becoming a very interesting manga even though it started slow.

Black Bird’s beginning revolves around the sexual tension between Kyo and Misao (which leads to them eventually doing it). This is where the manga is denounced by reviewers because they say it’s too ‘explicit’ for shojo, etc. and that Kyo is a rapist (considering Misao’s only 16).

But I have to stand up for the Manga in the regard that Sakurakoji-san puts such explicitly between Misao and Kyo’s sexual relations because it symbolizes how much they long to be together even though they know it might eventually lead to death. This is pointed out when Tadanobu says, “If he (kyo) wants to spend the rest of his life with you, he can’t have sex with you… I wonder about a life where…you can’t know the joy of making love with the girl you cherish.” (Chapter 19).

Yes, Kyo can be mean at times- but everything he’s worked for (challenging his brother to become clan leader) was so that he can protect & be with Misao. If that’s not love- I don’t know what is.

Where the story finally starts to develop and pick up is the division in the Tengu Clan (Crow Demon Clan that Kyo is leader of).

The entire village is torn between following Kyo (protecting Misao) and Sho (Kyo’s older brother in using Misao to heal and give strength to villagers). In this division we find the cruel Sho show that what drives him to destroy Kyo is the unrequited love he so desires especially from Misao. “I’m not asking you to love me (Sho speaking to Misao)… Can’t I just have one person?! I only want you that’s enough…If you were to choose me…I will never be like kyo. Doing something that will kill you.” (Chapter 50).


This manga is blossoming into a dark and tragic love story that involves so many characters that you wish will end up happy. Sakurakoji-san does such an amazing job with the characters- you can’t even hate the bad guys- knowing their backgrounds; you can’t help but feel sympathetic for them. Especially those in Sho’s camp (except the village people who are super lame).

This manga is slightly UNDERRATED in my opinion because readers cringe at how dark it is. I say give it a try; you might end up enjoying it.

I honestly don’t read/watch a lot of shojo- but Black Bird is indeed an interesting read. Can’t wait for the next chapter!

What is Dysfunctional Love?

The definition of Dysfunctional Love is summed up throughout this manga, Black Bird. The love between Misao and Kyou, the heroine and hero.

To be honest, although the relationship between Misao and Kyou is (very) unhealthy, I still love the manga. Why? Because their love still made my heart jump a beat. Their love still made me think, "I really want to love someone that deeply. So deeply that it's considered dysfunctional."

I'm the type of person who adores self-destructive loves. The boy cannot live without the girl and the girl cannot live without the boy. I'm obsessed with seeing how their love can kill themselves. Of course, there were still some downs about the story.

--HUGE SPOILERS UP AHEAD--

I was okay with the disgustingly, beautiful love between them until the last few chapter. I wasn't a fan of Kyou during those few chapters. The Kyou that almost hit his child. The Kyou that forced Misao to preserve herself. That type of love didn't make my heart beat. I was purely shocked. If he loved Misao that much, he should've forgave his child. He shouldn't have taught him physically. After Misao's trauma, he became physically and mentally unstable. I actually got scared of him. After he almost hit his child, Misao forgave him easily? No, no, no. This type of love is even heavier than before. The traumatized Kyou did not make me jump in joy. Instead, he became more of a coward in the end...

Overall, it was only the end that made me cringe. But other than those parts, the manga was pretty good. A few parts where Misao made me want to slap her and a few parts where Kyou was being an ass.... Yep, it was okay.

Story: 5/10

Art: 6/10

Character: 6/10 (the Great Eight Tengus were actually the cutest!!!)

Enjoyment: 7/10

Overall: 7/10

I really loved Black Bird so much <3

I love love love the love they had between each other and yes, definitely a lot of Twilight vibes– but I didn't even notice this until someone mentioned it.

I thought the story and the characters were both well-developed, not like other mangas where it either went way to quickly and becomes too cheesy (although I love cheesy stories hehehehe), or it ends up leaving some characters behind. This manga divided the characters' importance equally throughout the whole manga and that just made it all the better ^^ I have been looking for more manga like Black Bird but even going through the recommendations and having read those, I have yet to come by one that I really enjoyed as much as this one.

Of course there are some negatives, it could definitely been said that the relationship Misao and Kyou was a bit emotionally abusive and it includes quite a lot of sexual harassment content but honestly it only made me feel for the characters more. Instead of it being random smutty scenes (some were), I really do think it played a role in both the character and the story development.

Overall this was still a 10/10 for me, hoping to find another manga that makes me fall in love with it as much as this one!

I wanted to like this manga, I really did. I had high expectations and because of it I had a hard time putting it down. Kyo had some very sweet moments but his abusive, controlling and down right creepy behavior completely ruined this manga for me.

Personally, I didn't enjoy this manga too much... yet I continued to read it.
The storyline is as original it's going to get for a common shoujo/supernatural manga, though at times I think it lacked depth and I was often confused about what was going on (but that might just be me...)

The heroine of the story, Misao, is your average teenage girl - apart from the fact that she can see 'monsters', who whilst yearning for a boyfriend, finds love in a man that isn't human.
She learns that he was her dear friend from the past and that he came back for her so that they could get married...

I don't want to spoil too much about what happens in case you end up reading it... but I found that from the very first chapter, the story was toooo quick to get started. I usually like it when a story doesn't take the first 5 or so chapters to actually get started, but with Black Bird I felt too many things were happening too soon and a lot of the plot is unravelled early... it just could have eased into the storyline a little better.

The characters themselves irritated me a little. Misao I wouldn't have minded if she wasn't constantly crying and blushing or having her whole life totally fixated on the man she's in love with (Kyo).
I also couldn't understand why she fell in love with Kyo in the first place. He's quite often harsh and abusive, and this doesn't just go for Kyo... throughout the manga Misao is being violated by few men and treated as an object. I'm totally against things like that so that let the story down quite a lot for me.

I don't mean to sound totally negative... I did get a little hooked at times, but I did get bored of the main couple sucking face on pretty much every page.
The art was alright and the story was okay... it just had a few letdowns. I would recommend it to those who don't mind total sappy-ness and can put up with all the sobbing and the sexist parts, but otherwise I wouldn't bother.

One of my (many) guilty pleasures is shojo manga, particularly those with cheeky demons. I know it's meant to be 14 year old school girls developing crushes on the lead characters in shojo manga but I hope there are some fellow British twentysomethings who have a soft spot for cocky raven-man hybrids. If this doesn't describe you, cringe and turn away now. If it does, read on.

The main thing this manga gets right is indulging its readers in the forbidden love aspect. Kyo is portrayed as a perverted, occasionally romantic, demon but with a very human protective side. He is shown through Misao's eyes who is enchanted by the Tengu world but yearns for her innocent schoolgirl days. Whilst one scene shows the two arguing over their enormous differences, the next will show them in a passionate embrace that could give VK's Yuuki and Zero a run for their money.

However, the downfall of Black Bird is that it isn't especially original. It has the typical supernatural shojo plot of feeble, cutesy girl is powerless to toying ways of handsome, wicked man with a dose of magic potions and battle scenes. The comedy moments, although a welcome break from the doom 'n' gloom love story, are also a little clichéd and the drawing of comedic expressions appears a tad half-hearted. Misao's character is on the wimpy side and feels underdeveloped, as do background characters, but fortunately Kyo has enough charisma to override this.

Having said that, I am hooked to Black Bird and I recommend reading Volume 1, if not for the collectibility of Kanoko's gorgeous cover artwork then for a half-hour break into a shojo manga that gives you a healthy dose of forbidden romance, cheesy comedy and pervy demons.

I, for one, am excited for the UK release of Volume 13 on 15th March!

Looking at the other reviews I decided to post my own. I absolutely LOVE LOVE LOVE this manga!!!!!! I spend most of my spare time reading, and with the unlimited amount of manga on the internet, I've never really wanted to reread one. However, Black Bird is my one exception.

The art is beautifully drawn. I base my initial interest on a manga by the art, and this one got my attention immediately.

The story is amazing. The love between Misao and Kyo grabs you right in the feels. It's not just another superficial "girl falls for hot guy" shoujo. The characters are all extremely deep and well detailed. A biggie for me is that the story all wraps up in the end and Black Bird definitely met that qualification. I would highly recommend this manga, as well as other works by Kanoko Sakurakouji.