Title: Bloody Mary Vol. 9
Author: Akaza Samamiya
Publisher: Viz Media
Language: English
Format: Paperback
Pages: 168
Genre: Fantasy, Yaoi
Publication Date: December 5, 2017
The Story
In Volume 9 of Bloody Mary, we finally learn what Bloody Eye’s true intentions are. Her plan was to use Yzak to draw out Bloody in order to capture him and transfer her weakened state into his body, thus being born anew and regaining her former power. Hydra plans to put a stop to that and goes on her way to seek out and kill Bloody Eye.
Meanwhile, Bloody is still on a rampage and Ichiro has an idea on how to save him, but it requires waking up Master Yzak, which they do. Yzak restores Ichiro’s power of exorcism as a result. With his power instated, Ichiro hunts down Bloody and ends up finding him, or more rather, Bloody finds Ichiro. Ichiro has Bloody drink his blood and this forces Bloody’s persona into submission, bringing Mary back out. Ichiro promises to fulfill his heart’s greatest wish of wanting to die, but on one condition… that he confronts Bloody within the confines of his mind. It takes Mary a bit, but he does call out to Bloody and their two personas meet.
Also, we get some more backstory on Aldila, Vespa and Cardinal and how they came to serve Bloody Eye. Vespa and Cardinal discover what Bloody Eye’s true intentions are and feels that Aldila’s loyalty to her and the fact that he lied to them this entire time showed his true colors, thus betraying them. This plays a role when Hydra discovers Bloody Eye’s location and attempts to kill her, but Aldila shows up and offers his blood to Bloody Eye. With Eye’s newfound strength, the final battle begins and this is where the second to last volume of Bloody Mary ends.
I felt that the story tied up a lot of loose ends here and did a great job of hyping up the final battle to come. Even this late in the series, there was still a great amount of information to be told and it kept the story interesting!
Characters
I didn’t think we would get a lot of character development this late into the series, but this volume of Bloody Mary was jam-packed with it.
First off, we now know why Ichiro’s power of exorcism was sealed away. It was a request by his father, saying that he didn’t want his son to grow up and follow the same path as him. Yusei was convinced that he would be the one to kill Yzak since he was immortal and didn’t foresee himself dying at that time. However, that didn’t exactly work out the way Yusei had planned and so Yzak restored Ichiro’s power of exorcism when Ichiro succeeded in waking him up.
We also received more conclusive backstory for Bloody/Mary. It explained how Bloody sought out Hydra in hopes to become a vampire. This was because Mary had sustained a grave injury and he felt that turning him into a vampire would be the only way to save him. Bloody and Hydra fell in love and it caused Bloody to become a vampire; however, in his quest to find a way to turn Mary into one, he overdid it and it caused Mary to meet an untimely end. Ever since then, “Mary” has lived on inside of Bloody as a split personality.
It was also nice to see some more backstory between Vespa, Cardinal and Aldila. They were kind of introduced and partially ignored for the longest time. We had bits and pieces of information, but now it seems that their whole backstory has been fleshed out. It covered how they came across Bloody Eye and how they became subservient to her. It also explained the relationship between Bloody Eye and Aldila and how Aldila kept Vespa and Cardinal in the dark about her true intentions. Makes you wonder if Vespa and Cardinal will show up and help Hydra defeat Eye. It’s, definitely, a strong possibility.
Final Thoughts
I felt that Samamiya-san has done a great job preparing us for the final battles ahead. While stopping Bloody Eye is of the utmost importance, we still have the internal struggle between Bloody and Mary that needs a conclusion. Although things have been telegraphed to end in a certain way, I’m still pretty hyped to see these conclusions.
It’s pretty obvious that Mary will say what he needs to and Bloody’s persona will either disappear, or Mary’s persona will disappear and Bloody’s will change drastically. Either way, whoever ends up winning will no longer wish to die and they will continue to live. Then again, I’ll probably end up being wrong and after they make peace with each other, Ichiro could tearfully fulfill their wish and kill them. The more obvious one is Vespa and Cardinal helping Hydra kill Bloody Eye. Since she was the reason behind everything in this series, it makes the most sense that she’s going to die next volume.
Whether my predictions come true or not, this has been a pretty good series and I can’t wait to see its conclusion in volume ten!
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This item was provided for review by Viz Media
