Millennium Snow, Volume 1 Book

This book is bad.

I'm really not picky with my manga - I'll read just about anything. I just love manga. My obsession began with Fushigi Yugi and is branching out into many different directions, one of which is the more macabre world of vampires and the supernatural. So I thought that I would try Millennium Snow.

I was very disappointed. The art is beautiful, if a bit disproportional at times. However, the book gives you no time to invest in the characters emotionally. From the first time that Chiyuki talks to Toya she's offering her blood to him, to form a partnership for a thousand years - and did I mention that was on page fourteen?

I understand that the character is supposed to have a heart condition, but I just find the interaction between Chiyuki and Toya to be complete implausible. I don't believe, even if she were dying, that a woman would offer to help anyone that was as offensive and rude to her as Toya is. Perhaps that is naive of me.

The entire book is set at a breakneck pace, as if the author knew where she was going and was trying to get there as fast as humanly possible. As a result, the story suffered. The book would have been a lot better if we had been given the opportunity to get to know Chiyuki better before she met Toya, if she hadn't 'almost died' on page 36 prompting Toya (for some unknown reason) to give her blood to heal her, if somehow Chiyuki hadn't magically enrolled Toya in school on page 46...