Blood Alone is a manga by Masayuki Takano. It was serialized from 2005 to 2014, starting its run in the shonen magazine Dengeki Daioh but later moving to the seinen magazine Evening.
Former vampire hunter Kuroe Kurose is leading a very different life these days. Despite vampires having killed his Hunter sister and accidentally granting him immunity to their glamour, he happened upon a young girl named Misaki who had been freshly turned into a vampire. Settling down and becoming a novelist and private investigator, he has adopted her and is trying to help her from succumbing to the Enemy Within.
This manga contains examples of:
- And I Must Scream: The body-snatcher is immobilized by being turned into a vampire with a permanent broken neck; then left in an abandoned basement.
- Arch-Enemy: Merlin had a rivalry with his mother Chloe for a millennia, though Chloe manages to beat him almost effortlessly when finally provoked.
- Arthurian Legend: Arthur, Merlin, Guinevere, Mordred and Lancelot are all lived to the present day and take most of the plot.
- Badass and Child Duo: Kuroe, a badass Vampire Hunter who has taken in tween Misaki, an unawakened vampire girl whose vampire hunter parents were killed by vampires who then turned her into one.
- Bed Trick: Higure ties up Misaki and dresses up in her clothes to try and trick Kuroe into making love to him. Fortunately, Kuroe is repulsed by the idea of Misaki coming onto him.
- Big Bad Ensemble: Kuroe hunts down the Adivuarat Kurai, Nagato, the elder vampire who took his sister and killed Misaki's father. The duo are also being targeted by Einseigrad Sparuda, a European vampire assassins guild led by Mordred, who wants to use Misaki's, or rather Guinevere's blood. Both don't really like each other, but they don't get in each other's way.
- Bodyguard Crush: Ever after becoming sort of foster father, Misaki tries not at all subtle moves to romance with Kuroe, though he's just doesn't feel that way to her or fails to notice her intentions entirely.
- Body Surf: Early on Kuroe and Misaki face a human who can steal bodies of those near him when he dies.
- Brother–Sister Incest: Kuroe wasn't quite to this level with his sister, but it was close.
- Child Soldiers: Maria, who was trained by vampires to be assassins.
- Clingy Jealous Girl: Considering Kuroe is the only person she has left, Misaki is really not okay with him interacting with other females, or even leaving home, and has nightmares of him leaving her alone.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Any time Kuroe is pushed far enough to actually use magic, his enemy is generally dead or beaten in a matter of seconds.
- Damsel in Distress: Misaki and sometimes other girls regularly get kidnapped by vampires, with Kuroe to the rescue.
- De-Power Zone: Mordred's Palace of Blood disables both Kuroe and his abilities, though Mordred is confident in his boxing skills.
- Empowered Badass Normal: Kuroe was already a competent, even if a newbie, Vampire Hunter with minor time manipulation skills. One wound from an elder gave him more supernatural skills, allowing him to go toe-to-toe with other elders.
- Enemy Within: A very common trait of vampires within the series. Though said person can have a nice personality it's an inevitable fact that the monster within them will surface, just depends how long it'll take.
- Everyone Has Standards: Even if Misaki frequently fantasizes about Age-Gap Romance, she's respectful of Kuroe's job and his circle of friends.
- Failure Knight: Kuroe is haunted by his failure to save his sister from vampires; Misaki reminds him very much of her.
- Famous Ancestor: Misaki's mother Misao is the descendant of Guinevere from the Arthurian Legend.
- Free-Range Children: Despite being frequently targeted, Misaki is free to roam around the city and at one point even steals Kuroe's detective case.
- Friendly Neighborhood Vampires: Misaki's "vampire self" hasn't even awoken yet, Sly was changed by Orphans (those without a clan) so hates them and helps Kuroe out, and while it's likely that Higure has Offstage Villainy; he has been nothing but helpful to Misaki.
- Gender-Blender Name: Kuroe's name is actually a romanization of 'Chloe', because he's inherited the powers of Chloe the magician. Vampires think they are the same person, but they are master and pupil.
- The Informant: Sly provides Kuroe information about nearby incidents, for a price. And also provides Misaki information about Kuroe so she wouldn't run around clueless looking for him.
- Lotus-Eater Machine: Merlin puts Misaki in a dream where Kuroe wishes her to turn him into a vampire. She wakes up deciding she likes him the way he is.
- Magical Eye: A scar left by an Adivuarat Kurai (Eyes That See the Truth) vampire gave Kuroe some extra abilities, such as Immune to Mind Control and True Sight.
- Morph Weapon: Kuroe's pen can turn into a katana.
- Mr. Fanservice: Kuroe "Tall dark and bishy" Kurose. Blood Alone is technically a Seinen manga but may actually have a higher female than male readership.
- Legacy Character: "Magician Chloe" is The Dreaded among the vampires and they aren't amused with Kuroe using that name. Unfortunately for them, he is trained by the real deal and just as good.
- Heroic RRoD: Misaki's Enemy Within surfacing a lot quicker the closer to true death she is. It (her vampire side) warns Kuroe of this after she was nearly killed by a body snatching murderer.
- Hot Witch: Chloe is an immortal wizard that gets more open appearance with each appearance.
- Lesbian Vampire: Gender flip. Higure is rather fond of his bishounen Renfields; nothing outright is stated; but he does like having them snuggle him. He also enjoys hitting on Kuroe; and while his being a vampire elder means he's dangerous, his being gay isn't demonized.
- Loophole Abuse: Misaki tells Higure that she'll get him anything he wants for his birthday. What he wants is a night of passion with Kuroe, so he ties up Misaki and poses as her to try and get Kuroe to have sex with him.
- The Mentor:
- Kuroe was taught to be a Kung-Fu Wizard by his Sensei; a mage dressed in a Victorian London style Black Funeral Gown who can Stealth Hi/Bye, and was apparently named Chloe. He refers to her as "The Lady" and other vampires call her "Sinistre Femme" or "The Woman With A Forbidden Name"
- Doubles as Sexy Mentor. Just see the beginning of Volume 6.
- Mistaken for Gay: Crossed with Mistaken For Straight as well. An Idol Singer named Kaoru eventually develops a crush on Misaki, and Misaki accidentally comes to believe the girl has a crush on Kuroe. So Kaoru unsuccessfully tries to hit on Misaki (thinking Misaki likes her back) while Misaki thinks Kaoru only has eyes for her mentor.
- Occult Detective: Since Police Are Useless and Higure is either deals only with specific cases or doesn't go easy on suspects, Kuroe takes any unnatural requests as his side-job.
- Ojou: Before being turned, Misaki came from an absurdly rich family and had a quite haughty personality when first met with Kuroe. In a few days she warmed up to him a lot.
- Older Than They Look: Naturally, when dealing with vampires, but Higure the local Vampire Elder looks like a child the same age as Misaki.
- Our Vampires Are Different: ...but apparently not that different. They are remarkably like the ones from Vampire: The Masquerade. Sunshine is actually a weakness, surprisingly. It is commented that they're mostly imported from Europe. One major difference is that it takes a while for the Enemy Within to kick in; it's accelerated should a vampire get injured.
- Papa Wolf: When Kuroe says he'll take care of Misaki he means it. If he senses she got herself in trouble, he'll throw away everything and go look for her. And don't even try to become "a better caretaker" for her without asking either of them.
- Reluctant Monster: Misaki is a complete innocent vampire girl.
- The Renfield:
- They are actually called "Renfields", servants to vampires who are given vampire blood. This generates a feeling of love and obedience.
- Maria gets adopted by Higure, and he's a perfect gentleman who simply tells her that she's now part of the family. He doesn't attempt to control her will at all. Of course, she's not really his taste...
- Sink or Swim Mentor: Lady Chloe would rather let Kuroe die than let the inheritor of her title to ask for her help. Fortunately, he finished the job.
- Slice of Life: Half of the manga focuses on Misaki growing up as a normal kid or Kuroe's friends having a romance story of their own.
- Supernatural Martial Arts: Kuroe and his sister know a form of "magic martial arts" that let's them fight vampires.
- Technical Pacifist: Kuroe prefers to talk it out with vampires, but if they push him too far, all gloves are off.
- Time Stands Still:
- "Chloe's Timeworld World" can evacuate civilians from a train and decapitate vampires before they blink. Kuroe learns this ability as well.
- Gwalchmei calls his version "Gwalchmei's Night", but states that the user actually becomes 30000 times faster to get this effect.
- Tsundere: Kuroe is sometimes on spot why Misaki acts in a certain (childish) way, only for her to get extremely defensive about it instead of admitting her feelings.
- Undead Child: Both Higure and Misaki so far have been friendly; Higure is competent; but he reveals that ultimately all undead turn into monsters. It's just a question of how many centuries it takes.
- Vampire Detective Series: It's not Kuroe who is the vampire, but it's definitely the genre.
- Vampire Hunter: Kuroe's old profession, these days he's more on the
True Neutral path, since having a peaceful co-existence with the local Vampire Elder is beneficial for Misaki. - Winds of Destiny, Change!: Nagato's Avalon can make "possibilities" occur, which is effectively a mid-range teleportation that negates Kuroe's World.
- The Worf Effect: Mordred challenges Kuroe to a "chivalrous duel" that disables both Kuroe's Time Stands Still and his Aruta. Somehow Mordred missed that Kuroe is a professional martial artist. One elbow to the jaw, one pen into the neck, and that's one Big Bad down.
- Yakuza: Higure runs a family of suited hitmen and takes care of any troubles in his territory if Kuroe isn't already on it. He's also a good friend with Misaki.
