Black Rose Alice

Black Rose Alice
Cover of volume 1.
黒薔薇アリス (Kuro Bara Alice)
Genre	Fantasy, romance
Manga
Written by	Setona Mizushiro
Published by	Akita Shoten
English publisher	Viz Media
Demographic	Shōjo
Magazine	Princess
Original run	2008 – on hold
Volumes	6

Black Rose Alice (黒薔薇アリス, Kuro Bara Alice) is a Japanese vampire fantasy romance shōjo manga series written and illustrated by Setona Mizushiro.^[1][2] It began serialization in 2008 on Princess manga magazine and six tankōbon volumes were published^[2] until it was put on hold.^[3] It is published in English by Viz Media,^[4] in French by Kazé,^[1] and in German by Carlsen Comics.^[5]

Plot

Dimitri is a famous singer is Vienna in 1906 he is killed and becomes a Vampire. In 2008 the story jumps to Azuza Kikukawa who is in the hospital after a car accident with her boyfriend Kouya. Dimitri approaches her and tells her he will heal Kouya so long as she sacrifices herself to him. She agrees and her soul in implanted into the body of a young girl, Dimitri's childhood friend and love Agnieszka. She is told that the men in the house are Vampires and she has been brought to choose the best male to become her mate to give birth to that Vampire's seed. She is renamed Alice, as she accepts her role and begins to get closer to them in order to chose.

Characters

• Dimitri Lewandowski^[6] grew up in Vienna in 1906. Dimitri was the child of an aristocrat and a gypsy woman, born with a talent for singing he was sold to an aristocrat, the father of Theodore, who raised him and sent him to school. He met and fell in love with Agnieszka, who was the fiance of Theodore, who first saw him as an angel when she heard him sing. He fell in love with her beauty and her innocence. After Agnieszka's sixteenth birthday he is killed by a horse and later wakes up perfectly fine but that evening after a singing performance everyone who attended mysteriously commits suicide. He is found my Maximilian who tells him that he is now a Vampire and has received the seed of his master, who had a power to control others to sacrifice themselves to him. Maximilian also informs him that Vampires will die after they breed, which will then become seeds for future vampires. Dimitri does not believe this at first but after using his voice to test it he finds it is true. After a fight with Theodore, where he asks for Agnieszka he uses his voice to kill Theodore and in a fit of guilt he attempts to rape Agnieszka in order to end his life (as he will die after), she stabs herself to prevent the rape and he brings her dying body to Maximilian who then uses a special rod to keep her body alive and her life tied to Dimitri. Later Dimitri becomes the head of a small clan of Vampires and find the school teacher Azuza who had been in a car accident. He saves the life of her boyfriend in exchange for her soul. She agrees and he takes her soul and implants it into the body of Agnieszka, whose soul has long since left her body. He tells her to choose one of the Vampires to become her breeding partner. When he and Maximilian come to Japan in the twelfth year of Taishou, and met the father of Akiko who took them in and later adopted Dimitri as he was dying.
• Theodore^[6] is the adopted brother of Dimitri and his closest friend. He saved Dimitri from being raped by Dimitri's singing instructor and forces him to give the leading role to Dimitri, making Dimitri famous. He had been engaged to Agnieszka since they were small children but does not have feelings for her beyond a sibling like love. Despite this he plans to marry her and sleeps with her after her sixteenth birthday party, causing a rift between him and Dimitri who was in love with her and felt that Theodore had corrupted her purity. Dimitri is further upset by Theodore's continuing affairs and later asks for him to give her to Dimitri. Despite knowing their feelings for each other he tells Dimitri that their difference in social standings, due to the nature of his birth, would mean that they could never have a future together. This causes Dimitri to use his power to kill Theodore. Dimitri immediately regrets this, remembering his love for Theodore and what he had done for Dimitri, so he decides to end his life by forcefully sleeping with Agnieszka.
• Agnieszka^[6] is an aristocrat and the fiance of Theodore since they were small children. She was beautiful and innocent and falls in love with Dimitri after hearing him sing. On her birthday she is given a necklace with a hidden knife which she uses to stab herself when Dimitri tries to rape her. Her soul leaves her body but her body is later preserved.
• Azusa Kikukawa/ Alice^[6] begins the story as a high school teacher who is dating her student Kouya. Azuza attmepts to end her relationship with him because she feels that their age difference will cause him to change his mind about her later. He follows her into a cab as she tries to leave but they are him by a semi-truck. She is then visited by Dimitri who tells her that Kouya is dying but can be saved in exchange for her life. She agrees to anything so long as Kouya is saved. Dimitri saves Kouya with his familiars and takes her soul, implanting it into the body of Agnieszka. They explain to her that she is to pick the best one of them to become her mate in order to breed. As she comes to term with this, and to being in the body of a sixteen year old girl, she asks them to rename her in order for her to start her new life. They name her Alice, in reference to the book Alice in wonderland (as her cats name was Cheshire). She gets close to Leo, and they bond, but she cannot bring herself to choose him. His death greatly affects her and she becomes hesitant in getting closer to others, despite her growing attraction to Dimitri who keeps her at arm’s length. She later runs into Kouya again, who has become depressed after her death. After interacting a few times he starts to realize that Alice, despite the new body, is Azuza. She sleeps with him but after realizes that she has made a mistake, and that while he has not moved on from his feelings for her, she has and that she is no longer the same person. She also begins to develop feelings for Dimitri, becoming upset after reading the diary of Akiko, the daughter of the man who took him in when he first came to Japan.
• Kouya Ishikuma^[6] is the student who was dating Azuza. She sacrifices herself in order for Dimitri to save Kouya. Kouya later becomes depressed as he later comes across Azuza/Alice again. He eventually recognizes her and hopes to begin their relationship again.
• Reiji is Kai's twin brother. Originally he did not remember his past but eventually begins to remember. He was sickly and was often tended to by his brother and his girlfriend Akane. After Akane was raped by Kai he shoots her.
• Kai is Reiji's twin brother. Kai tries to hide his feelings for Alice, pushing for her to choose Reiji, despite his own love for her. When Alice first wakes up, while dreaming about Kouya, she kisses Kai. While Reiji does not remember his past, it is shown that Kai does and feels guilty over their past. Kai was always in love with Reiji's girlfriend Akane. She comes to check on Reiji during a storm and Kai confesses his feelings and that Reiji is not getting better. When she tries to leave he forces himself on her. Reiji comes in after and sees her crying, assuming that they had been having an affair. She tells them that she wants to die and Reiji shoots her. As Reiji begins to remember Kai confesses that Akane had never betrayed him, that it was only Kai.
• Leo/Taichirou Kusonose becomes the main companion to Alice and the most aggressive in competing for her affection. He received the seed of Maximilian. He was a model before his death where he received the nickname Leo. He tries to get closer to Alice and to persuade her to pick him but in the end she is unable to decide. He refuses to tell her that he is dying and sleeps with Akari instead, prolonging her life long enough for her to finish her book and leaving a message for Alice and Dimitri.
• Maximillian fell in love with the girl who was found to be his maters mate. He offered his beloved to his mater and later began the search for their seeds. Finding Dimitri he swears loyalty, saving the body of Agnieszka and helping Dimitri as they relocated to Japan. As he nears the end of his lifespan he tries to find a mate that loves Dimitri, as he is worried that the part of him that hates Dimitri (for being the one that took the life of his beloved) will spread into his seeds. He asks Akiko, who was in love with Dimitri, to become his mate. She agrees telling Maximilian that she also loves him because of his honesty and sincerity.
• Akari is an author who is already dying when she meets Leo. He explains that he can prolong her life briefly but the woman who becomes the mate of a Vampire will die once she birth the seeds. She accepts, since she is already dying and it will allow for her to finish her work. Her death later greatly affects Alice. Alice also becomes jealous of her receiving sap from Dimitri (bodily fluids that she needs to sustain her life and the seeds, obtained through kissing).

Volumes

• 1 (November 14, 2008)^[7]
• 2 (May 15, 2009)^[8]
• 3 (December 16, 2009)^[9]
• 4 (September 16, 2010)^[10]
• 5 (January 14, 2011)^[11]
• 6 (October 14, 2011)^[12]

Reception

At Anime News Network, Rebecca Silverman gave volume 1 an overall grade of A-.^[6] The staff at manga-news.com gave the series a grade of 16.67 out of 20 ^[1] and three of the staff at Manga Sanctuary gave it a 7.67 out of 10.^[13]

References

External links

• Black Rose Alice (manga) at Anime News Network's encyclopedia