Kekkai no Noah
Noah of the Blood Sea

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Wow… this was… a lot heavier than I expected. I’ve been on a horror binge the past few weeks and so finally picked this up and it was so much different than what I’d expected.

I expected some build up and then maybe some big climactic thing with an immediate end, but it started off hard and didn’t let up. It was far more emotional than I expected and I feel maintained that emotion throughout the whole thing without feeling forced. It’s very clear from the start what the main story is about but as it goes it kept surprising me.

As someone who doesn’t really ever ... write reviews, I finished it up and had to immediately come write this after all the less than enjoyable horror I’ve been reading lately and need to say: I definitely recommend picking this up if you’re in the mood for horror.

5 volumes that are easy to digest but never feel too fast or like a certain point was drawn out too much. I kept expecting one thing to happen and then something entirely different would happen but never in a way that felt like it was thrown in there just for shock factor like can be common in horror series. I think the only thing I wished for was maybe a bit of an elaboration on the final chapter, but I feel that would have honestly risked ruining it all too.

I definitely see myself thinking about this for a while. Maybe it isn’t necessarily a 10/10 for everyone, but the more I’m digesting as I write this, it’s definitely elevated itself in my mind and I plan to continue to recommend it to people. I just definitely want to note: make sure you’re ready for something emotionally heavy. The horror is palpable through the story and you’re left constantly sitting there wondering what would happen next and trying to hold out hope for one scenario or another. But that hope is what makes certain moments hit harder emotionally than I’m used to actually feeling in stories like these.

story: 6
art: 8
character: 5
enjoyment: 8
overall: 7

chapters read: 19

noah of the blood sea could have been so much better in my opinion. it starts off interesting and good but everything after is just so generic and predictable. i think that's the main reason why no ones really talks about it or why so many people dropped it.

story is as i said very generic. some pieces of the story make no sense to me at all. too fast paced too - when most of the side characters died i didn't feel anything because their deaths were soon and the story ... mainly revolved around seeing the passengers attend events on the cruise. thus is why we don't get to see any bonding moments with the side characters.

characters were kind of bland and generic too. the only things i probably liked about the manga were kakeru and the artstyle. most of the side characters acted clueless or just stupid in genereal.

i still enjoyed reading it because of the artstyle. recommend reading noah of the blood sea once you're bored or don't have anything else to read, it's only 26 chapters.

tl;dr: A horror manga about vampires that's just okay in every regard.

Noah of the Blood Sea is a manga about vampires that touches on some interesting concepts but it doesn’t really flesh them out well enough. There’re pretty much all the standard vampire tropes, such as the whole predator vs prey dynamic, making a show of treating humans as livestock, and angst when going through a human to vampire transition. However, it gives each a bit of a unique spin, which is enough to make them a bit interesting. Emphasis on the word ‘bit’, because while the unique spin does help a bit, the writing ... isn’t strong enough to really make use of them. Rather, it feels like it’s rushing through things while throwing in various elements without any plans on actually using them effectively. And the end doesn’t even try to wrap things up, being the type of ending that just keeps adding plot thread despite it obviously not having any chance to further pursue them.

Character wise, the manga doesn’t really have a protagonist or protagonists. Despite the manga being only 5 volumes long there’s a pretty large cast, and thus no one really gets focused on enough to get invested in. Especially as it’s jumping around so much. Despite that, the writing is constantly leaning in to trying to hit emotional beats that require investment in characters, which as expected simply don’t land. Still, even with that, the ending was still annoying. Having one final twist is pretty typical in horror fiction but how it was carried out here failed to be horrific, but rather was just malicious without any shred of terror, and thus just felt kind of irritating.

In terms of tone and atmosphere, it does a pretty decent job early on when it’s trying to be mysterious and mainly from the point of view of humans who don’t truly understand the situation, they’re in. However, as the story progresses and things come to light, it shifts to being just as much if not more so from the perspective of vampires. At that point it becomes clear that while the vampires are monsters, they’re also pretty lame, and thus they’re not anywhere near as horrific. It’s a more typical thriller at this point, but the plot and twists aren’t well written enough to make it a good one. The covers have pretty nice art in terms of style and execution, but everything on the inside was pretty mediocre. I don’t think it really hurt things, but it didn’t help at all either.