Comics / Manga

Demon Flowers: Kuruizaki no Hana: Volume 1

By Leroy Douresseaux
September 11, 2007 - 16:44

This prelim cover gives a good sense of the manga-ka's style.

Demon Flowers: Kuruizaki no Hana, Vol. 1, a manga from Mizuki Hakase, the creator of Ororon, comes with a lot of back story before the narrative even begins.  It seems that demons devoured the gods that once safeguarded Japan, and eating them allowed the demons to assimilate the gods’ powers.  However, before their destruction, the gods had descended to the human world and mated with mankind producing mixed offspring called “Kuruizaki no Hana” or “Flowers out of Season.”

These children inherited the supernatural powers of their divine parents, and the demons lust also after that power.  Thus, the demonic leadership sends assassins to kill these offspring and return their bodies to these dark rulers for consumption.  The best of these assassins is the sleek and sexy, Ushitora, but on one his assassination missions, he falls in love with Masato Hiradaira, the child of two “Flowers out of Season,” he killed.

Ushitora abandons his obligations and takes the then 4-year-old boy into hiding.  Later, Nao, a 12-year-old orphan girl, joins them on the run.  When he is 15, Masato starts having weird dreams about his past – a past that is stalking them…

THE LOWDOWN:  With his slick expressionistic art, Mizuki Hakase comics are reminiscent of the late 80’s/early 90’s work of Dave McKean (Cages), Bill Sienkiewicz (Stray Toasters), and Kent Williams (Blood: A Tale), although Demon Flowers is published in black and white.  Hakase is also able to present such highly-stylized art, but make it work as a visual narrative.

With its emphasis on consumption, Demon Flowers is something of a vampire tale, and Hakase’s visual presentation portrays these (mostly) supernatural characters in a manner similar to such tales of dilettante vampire as Interview with a Vampire and Underworld.  Some of the sequences in this first volume seem like story padding, but Demon Flowers is engaging and the rest of this story could be quite interesting.

POSSIBLE AUDIENCE:  Fans of goth-inspired comics may like Demon Flowers.

B

 

Last Updated: August 31, 2023 - 08:12