A Vampire Rescues A Lonely Man – Red Baryl ni Sayonara Volume 1 Review

At the time of writing, Red Baryl ni Sayonara has no database entry on sites like MyAnimeList, but it does on BakaUpdatesManga.

Tagged: Vampire, BL, Romance

Red Baryl ni Sayonara is a web manga series penned by Michinoku Atami. It appears as though she’s written quite a few BL series, some containing nudity and ‘steamy’ scenes and some not. This first volume of this series does not contain that.

We begin this series by seeing a man at a graveyard in the rain. There’s little to no information given, but it seems as though he’s grieving multiple people.

At home, we see Asahiko Kobayashi staying with the man earlier — Tsuda Kazushige, a vampire. As it turns out, Kazushige saved Kobayashi’s life by pushing him out of the way from a huge pile of steel pipes falling to the ground, and now Kobayashi feels indebted to him. Kobayashi has a bit of a neglected past, growing up without parents and feeling as if he is ‘unneeded’ or unnecessary to the world. Now that he feels indebted to Kazushige, this is his “reason for living” — Kobayashi was feeling suicidal prior to this — and thus will repay this debt through service to Kazushige of his own volition.

red beryl ni sayonara volume 1 review thumbnail — Tsuda Kazushige, our vampire protagonist

He does things like cleaning up rooms and cooking for Kazushige, even though Kazushige repeatedly tells him it’s unnecessary because he won’t die if he inhales dirty air or doesn’t eat. One time, through casual conversation, Kazushige says to “kill him” to Kobayashi if he wants to repay the debt. Kobayashi immediately declines, but notices that there’s probably a darker, more emotional side to Kazushige than the mellow, emotionless front he’s always showing.

ed baryl ni sayonora kazushige tsuda drink — Kazushige drinks his blood through these little packets

Things start getting more complicated for Kobayashi when he finds a book on vampires, and keeps imagining Kazushige sucking his blood. For some reason, Kobayashi can’t seem to get this image out of his mind, and his feelings for Kazushige begin to take a strange turn.

red beryl ni sayonara volume 1 kobayashi blush — Kobayashi blushing

Their relationship is complicated further when a man and a younger boy appear in the local town. One seemingly knows Kazushige.

We get a few additional small tidbits about Kazushige; that he doesn’t like drinking blood from humans because he doesn’t want to accidentally turn them into vampires, and that he greatly resents the person who turned him into a vampire to begin with. Details like this most likely set up the following volumes and will most likely be furthered explored later.

Volume 1 is short and sweet, consisting of only 4 chapters and an extra bonus half-chapter that’s non-sequential to the main storyline. This is typical of BL manga, who have anywhere from 4-6 chapters and usually include this little “extra” at the end filled with either a small side story or extra illustrations.

red baryl ni sayonora kazushige tsuda impale — Kazushige, rescuing Kobayashi when they first met

The artstyle is noticeably nice in this series. The designs of both Kazushige and Kobayashi are very nice and appealing to look at. However, the man who appears that knows Kazushige is very, very unsettling; and it appears he might be inappropriately involved with a young boy (who I guess is technically a vampire, but still, that’s really gross).

Overall I enjoyed this volume of this manga, I just hope we don’t spend too much time on that man and the boy, because I won’t be able to shake that creeped-out feeling.

Check out our coverage of some other BL series here on LAN:
A Drunk Father and a Debt – Fortune Favors a Smile Volume 1 Review
Cops in Love – Boku no Omawari-san Review
AbarenbouDarling Review – When a Homophobe is Actually Homosexual