Title: Bloody Mary Vol. 3
Author: Akaza Samamiya
Publisher: VIZ Media
Language: English
Format: Paperback
Page Count: 168
Genre: Boys Love, Horror, Supernatural
Publication Date: June 7, 2016
The Story
The beginning of volume 3 of Bloody Mary caught me off guard because when volume 2 ended, Bloody had been captured by Yzak and was in the process of teasing us with uncovering Bloody’s memories, but here we see Yzak and his past. Yzak is revealed to be of the Di Maria bloodline and a priest who can wield the power of exorcism. He was living in England when one day a girl stops by and asks him to come to Japan to help exterminate vampires. Yzak refuses at first, but falls in love with this girl who is aptly named Yui Sakuraba. Yzak agrees to go to Japan and Yui eventually gets older, gets sick and passes away.
On the flip side, Maria and Hydra look to retrieve Bloody from Yzak, but when they go to rescue him, Bloody seems like a completely different person! Now we have to deal with a triangle of a conundrum. Yzak wants Bloody to kill him, but Maria needs Yzak to awaken his exorcism, but if Bloody kills Yzak then Maria will never get the exorcism powers and Bloody can’t have his wish granted of dying!
Okay, so I ventured a bit into spoiler territory, but I had to otherwise this would be the most mundane review ever. So unless you wanted me to say “This was about Yzak’s past, how he made it into the Sakuraba family and then stuff happens,” then I had to spoil a little bit, but there’s a lot I kept hidden in case you are persuaded to read this volume. The story itself moved forward, but I don’t think it really went anywhere. It was one and a half volumes dealing with the Sakuraba mansion and Yzak and we’re still left with a question half answered when it’s all said and done, but what did get accomplished BIG TIME was the character development, so I guess it’ll be a little more prudent to talk about that aspect of this volume.
The Characters
Okay, so to summarize this up, Maria learned who killed his father, the question about Bloody’s memories got answered and we now know pretty much everything there is to know about Yzak. Hydra didn’t really get much development outside of the fact that she is an ally of Maria… for now at least, but I wonder what will become of her once her issue with Bloody gets resolved?
So first up, Bloody gets the least amount, but most impactful development. I’ll just come out and say it that Bloody doesn’t have amnesia like we once thought, but rather, he has a split personality
that buried deep within his psyche. Yzak was able to bring it out of him and when it does, things became a bit clearer surrounding Bloody. I, personally, love the fact that Samamiya-san didn’t go the tried and true amnesia route because that has been so overdone. The split personality angle isn’t unique either, but it is certainly used far less than the amnesia angle and I appreciated the change of pace. This adds a new dynamic to Bloody’s character and it makes me want to see more of it. We still don’t know how his alternate personality was triggered, though. We know Yzak fed him some blood, but is it just Yzak’s blood? Was it done by invoking his lost memories? It wasn’t really clear, but if Maria can figure out how to replicate that reaction, we’ll get all the answers that we need!
Maria’s development came second. We discovered who his father’s murderer is, what Yzak has to do with Maria and why he can’t use the powers of exorcism. Maria is on the precipice of tying everything together, but Bloody’s alternate personality is the last piece of the puzzle he needs despite the fact that after this volume’s events, he has a pretty good understanding of just what’s going on.
Finally, Yzak himself was portrayed in such a way where you actually feel sorry for him. We know that Yzak is a priest and thanks to the blood of the Di Maria lineage, he became an immortal. Every time I’ve come across a character that has been immortal for hundreds or thousands of years, they just get tired of living and want to die, especially when the person they loved has already passed on. That is the case with Yzak and even though it’s a fairly cliché angle to go with, it’s one that justifies everything that he is doing. Yzak isn’t really a bad person, he’s just desperate to join the afterlife, much like the current personality of Bloody. Right now, the obvious solution is to find one that will make everyone happy, but given the way things are playing out, that is a very difficult option to go with.
Final Word
I really enjoyed this volume as the events that transpired generated a lot of interested and made this the most thrilling volume I’ve read so far. We finally got answers to questions we’ve been asking and now were in a mode where we need to just sit back, let everything play out and see what happens. The only thing this volume didn’t touch upon were the vampires themselves. They made mention at one point that they would start coming out due to the rain clouds gathering, but outside of that, we didn’t have any encounters with them. This leads me to believe that next volume, something is going to happen involving them that will detour us from going any further after these major revelations. I can’t see this series doing a huge info dump like this only to continue on without pressing the brakes just a bit. I guess we’ll have to wait and see.
*This item was purchased for review
