This whole volume just fell flat for me. From the foray into Levi's past, to the super cringey attempted rape/transformation scene (honestly not sure if which one or both was about to happen), I was not impressed. I don't care for any of the characters and honestly, I probably won't read any more of this if I don't get them from Netgalley.

WHICH IS SAD BECAUSE THE ART IS SOOO PRETTY. I just don't think anything about this one stands out of the other vampire mangas available.

This was much better than the first volume. I feel like now that everything is set up we can finally start exploring the world that the author set up in volume one. We did get a little bit more backstory on Levi which was interesting. I can't wait to read more and learn some background info on the other characters. I'm looking forward to the next volume!

Another excellent volume of this beautiful gothic manga. Nothing particularly ground breaking in this concept or series but I found myself invested in the mysterious house and it’s gorgeous inhabitants. All of the men are tantalisingly attractive and the costumes are breath taking! The whole visual style of this series is outstanding and I would enjoy reading more to continue discovering the motives and back stories of each of the men. The take on vampirism is intriguing and their unique Crystal food source made from blood is something I haven’t read before so wonder like to see how that will develop in later books.

We are continuing with Rosen Blood as Stella's situation continues to reveal more about her housemates. This book focused on Stella and learning more about Levi, who I liked in volume 1. I believe this series will be better as more volumes are added and we learn more about exactly who her housemates are. Again the art style is exquisite and adds an added interest for me. Still a good recommendation for vampire lore lovers and teens.

We’re back with the second volume of 'Rosen Blood'. Vol 1 left me wondering if I should continue and; now, as my misgivings were not squashed, I will not. The cliffhanger we were left with is taken onto a completely different turn than I was expecting. The plot is delving into the first round of secrets and emotions are running high. By the end, I’m left with more questions and confusion than before -especially when Freidrich takes the stage. It’s too rushed, like the mangaka didn’t have enough time to fully plot. Some of the art appeared unfinished and the switch between Levi’s rescue and Stella’s capture was very choppy. Sometimes confusion works for the plot, but not this time.
Fans of 'Diabolic Lovers' and other gothic lolita-esque stories should look forward to this.

Thank you to NetGalley and VIZ Media for this eARC. All opinions expressed are my own.

Do you read vampire manga for the sexy, sexy blood-sucking? Do you find forceful immortal men alluring? Is your preferred aesthetic "Victorian Gothic Pastoral?" If you answered yes to any of these questions, <i>Rosen Blood</i>'s second volume may be just the book you've been looking for. With the boys established vampire (or at least vampirish) creatures in the first volume, the second is free to jump in with both feet, and by that I mean "establish the tortured romance of Levi and Stella while also letting Friedrich get in on the action in the worst way possible." The melodrama reaches truly astounding heights and the emotional payoff isn't quite strong enough to make it all work. What really bumps this up to a three are two specific things: the glimpse into Levi's past and how it shaped him and the lush, elaborate art, which is filled with ornate details, proper late 19th century underthings (albeit not always in the right place), and pastoral glory. Seriously, the art is at least half the reason to read this...and if the melodrama can't manage to tone things down a bit so that it no longer eclipses the interesting mythology and world building, it could easily become the <i>only</i> reason to read the series...which isn't quite the bad thing it sounds like.

Rosen Blood Volume 2 is written and illustrated by mangaka Kachiru Ishizue, published and localized in English by VIZ Media’s shojo/josei imprint Shojo Beat. The English translation is provided by JN Productions, and Ysabet Reinhardt MacFarlane makes the English adaptation. Additionally, the volume features touch-up art and lettering by Joanna Estep, design by Alice Lewis, and is edited by Jennifer Sherman.

In the last volume, Stella Violetta was rescued from a tragic accident and woke up in a Gothic mansion surrounded by gorgeous young men. The manor’s residents let her stay as a maid, but as their hold on her became crushing, she realized that the handsome men aren’t humans after all, but vampires who feed on the tears, saliva, and blood of young maidens. But to preserve the young women, they become crystallized, frozen in time, and remnants of the vampires’ meals. No matter the danger, though, Stella found romance quickly with Levi. However, Stella’s love for Levi doesn’t shield her from Freidrich’s eyes in Rosen Blood Volume 2.

In Rosen Blood Volume 2, Stella has found a groove in her mansion duties, including cutting copious amounts of onions to provide tears for the vampires in the house. However, despite locking lips with Levi every chance she gets, he is still starving and beginning to change into a shell of who he was, locked in his own mind. You see, while her saliva should have constituted as nourishment apparently through some vampire magic (I have to assume because it isn’t explained), the kisses only went one way, with Levi never taking Stella’s saliva in. So, to save her vampire boyfriend, Stella has to enter his mind and confront his dark and murderous past.

While in Levi’s mind, Stella gets the chance to confront his past and be his savior. Although astonishingly enough, love with the vampire who crashed your carriage to feed on you and turn you into crystal overpowers the sins of the past. And by sins of the past, I mean the storage rooms filled with crystallized bodies of dead young women and men turned to stone to feed the vampire family’s hunger. Ultimately, after this story beat in Rosen Blood Volume 2, the story’s focus is lost on me.

Instead of handling the darkness and guilt, Ishizue instead shifts the focus to Freidrich’s lust for Stella, both when it comes to sex and blood. Bewitched by him, we see Stella enter an overtly sexual situation coerced by Freidrich’s blood. The art is gorgeous and steamy for sure, but the context makes the moment and Levi’s acts of jealousy which cross Stella’s boundaries, uncomfortable to read. Instead of just progressing the narrative to lead to a sexual relationship between Stella and Levi, Ishizue chooses to insert sexual assault and coercion elements that don’t serve the story.

Rosen Blood Volume 2 is unfocused. The mystery and guilt of the past become muddled with an obsessive lust in the present, leading Stella to become a piece to be moved instead of a character with agency. However, even if you remove the problems with the content regarding Freidrich, the two halves of the volume don’t feel connected, leading to confusion. While I was a fan of the first volume, even the gorgeous ar of Rosen Blood 2 can’t keep me engaged. While I’ll pick up Volume 3 to see where the series goes, I can’t help but think that the series has crossed into the problematic territory of some vampire romances.

This wasn't well-done at all, thanks to some incredibly confusing panels (way too many close-ups where I genuinely couldn't even tell what or whom I was looking at), a plot that isn't making a lot of sense so far, and what I suspect may have been a poorly crafted translation (some dialogue bits didn't make much sense or read very awkwardly). This is definitely a manga series that I suspect will eventually be mostly valued for its steamy content above all else, and there's nothing wrong with that, but the plot itself is rough and the characters are very self-contradicting for the most part. Levi makes some choices in this volume that didn't make sense to me based on everything he's said and done leading up to this point, and it didn't sit well with me at all! I was already hesitant to continue the series after volume 1, and I'm thinking at this point that I probably won't move on to the next installment.

✨ Content warnings for: violence, death, dub-con, assault, drugging without consent

Thank you so much to the publisher for providing me with this review copy in exchange for an honest review!

Rosen Blood Volume Two sees Stella begin to truly understand the situation that she finds herself in.

Rosen Blood Volume Two
Written by: Kachiru Ishizue
Publisher: Akita Publishing Co., Ltd.
English Publisher: VIZ Media
Release Date: March 1, 2022

Right at the end of Volume One, Stella learned that Levi and the others are nonhumans who subsist on crystals composed of blood and other fluids from young girls. She declares that she will make her bodily fluids (such as tears and saliva) available to feed on so they don’t have to kill innocent girls. Levi, one of the nonhumans, has developed feelings for Stella, and refuses to feed off of her. Unfortunately, this is causing him to become ill and threatens to transform him into a character like Gilbert (the violent character that was introduced in Volume One).

Stella has fallen in love in Levi and doesn’t want anything to happen to him. Friedrich convinces her that she can save Levi and gets her to say that she’s willing to do anything to help. He tricks her into taking some of his blood into her mouth so she can give to Levi in order to enter his dream and capture his soul.

Quite a bit of Volume Two focuses on Stella and Levi. She finds his soul quite easily, and he’s obviously younger in his dream. This section of the volume provides a lot of backstory for Levi, and it also reveals the identity of the woman that he painted for a portrait that Stella saw in Volume One. This leads up to a confrontation between Stella and the woman, who both argue over who knows what’s best for Levi. But in the end, Levi figures out for himself what he wants, and he also reveals how he feels about the other woman and the situation that involved her. As he makes this revelation, he also tells Stella that the other woman died a long time ago… so the admission from Levi seems to finally help this woman find peace in the next world.

When Stella returns to the real world, she finds herself in a different bed with different clothes on. She smells something nice and discovers that she can’t move. She discovers that she’s in Friedrich’s room, and that Friedrich has control over her actions and movements. It’s later revealed that her taking some of his blood made this possible. Levi catches Friedrich and Stella together and realizes what he’s done to her. Levi, of course, is pissed, and realizes that Friedrich is using him for his own amusement. And Friedrich later confirms this in a conversation with someone else.

When I finished reading this volume, I was left with some very mixed feelings about it. I enjoyed the section where Stella’s soul went into Levi’s dream, and we got some backstory for him. But once Stella returned to the real world, I was turned off by Friedrich and his control over Stella. With this new development, a love triangle has developed, although it’s a terrible one. Stella truly loves Levi, but thanks to Friedrich’s manipulation, she physically craves Friedrich. Near the end of the volume, Levi blurts out to Stella that he loves her, so it’s officially known by her how Levi feels. Friedrich, on the other hand, doesn’t love her at all and just sees Stella as a pawn.

While I admit that I’m not a big fan of vampire stories (which this basically is, even though the word vampire is never used to describe Levi and the others), I try to give them a chance. Unfortunately, by the time I finished Volume Two, I found myself being turned off by this one, thanks to Friedrich. While I wouldn’t be adverse to reading the next volume of Rosen Blood in order to see if this series continues down the road that I’m afraid it’s heading to, or if this section of Volume Two is just a minor bump in the road.

The art in Rosen Blood Volume Two is very much a “mixed bag.” I see that quite a few of the panels in this volume don’t include a lot of detail in them, like I noticed near the end of Volume One. But there is the occasional panel where Ishizue puts more emphasis on details, but there’s not enough of these panels to make up for the lack of detail in most of the panels in this volume.

After reading Volume Two, I can only truly recommend Rosen Blood to manga readers who have a strong appreciation for vampire stories.

While the romance is still quite fast paced which leaves me to wonder what can really happen with the other volumes as romance appears to be the main focus, this volume dives into Levi's past which was quite intriguing given he's a mysterious character. I do still find the crystallisation element to the story a nice spin on vampires to keep it fresh and make it stand out from the others of its kind.

In volume 2 of Rosen Blood, Stella learns more about the thirst that drives the residents of the manor as she dives into Levi's memories and experiences bits of his past.

Rosen Blood is a truly gothic tale with vampire-like creatures that live by consuming the crystalized forms of young women. The art is gorgeous and there is quite a bit of mystery involved - there is something about Stella herself that seems to counter-balance Levi and company - why they just didn't turn her immediately into a food source is still unknown. I look forward into. This series would be an excellent choice for fans of Kaori Yuki (Godchild, Angel Sanctuary, Fairy Cube).

I was hoping that Vol 2 of Rosen Blood would pull me in more than the first did, as it often is with manga, the later chapters tend to be better IMO, but this… once again, just fell flat. I didn’t feel any particular way about any of the characters, and I didn’t particular care what happened to them. As I mentioned in my review for the first ARC, I think there are better vampire series out there whether you’re looking for horror, romance, or a mix of the two—Rosen Blood isn’t really anything unique, even though the art style is very nice.

Thank you to NetGalley and Viz Media for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

The continuation of of this vampire series sees more developing subplots, more dancing around the fact that they are vampires, and more beautiful art.
It definitely became much more darker than the first one, enough to make me slightly uncomfortable about it all. But that's a personal preference. Still a solid option for the teen market.

After reading volume 1, I was really excited to get to read volume 2 so soon! I love Stella and each of her very different relationship developments with the other characters. I love the romance between Stella and Levi but was surprised at the turn of events involving Friedrich.

I was upset that there wasn't more with this volume, but hey that is what keeps me coming back for more each volume. I am hoping to see more development of character within the next few volumes, but was pleased with the reveal of Luchia and her story in Levi's past.

Can't wait to see what the next volume brings! I love the story so far.

2.5 stars

The best thing about this series is the art. It’s really gorgeous. As for the characters, to me they seem shallow and after two volumes, I haven’t formed an attachment to any of them.

I found the plot a little confusing and at times I really didn’t understand what was going on or the reasons behind it. In this volume Stella’s soul enters Levi’s body, where she meets him as a young boy. He’s in there with Lucia, and I really didn’t get any of this. I know Stella is trying to “save” Levi, but it didn’t really make sense to me.

I think if you’re a person who is really into gothic vampire stories, then you might enjoy this. For me to read on in this series, it would either need to be steamier, have better character development, or a more engaging and coherent plot.

Thank you to Net Galley and Viz Media for allowing me to read and review this title!

The art of this manga is really stunning and there’s so much to appreciate about that. The attention to detail and even the backgrounds are really well done.

Despite this being only volume two of this manga, it is still really hard to follow. The plot kind of goes all over the place and sprinkles in new details without really explaining it much. Volume one was fine, but I assumed this volume would give more background detail to the plot and explain what was happening. Yet this volume throws you into a weird situation immediately where the main character Stella has to go into Levi’s dreams and “wake him”. I was thoroughly confused as it all happened very quickly with no context.

Aside from plot holes, my biggest criticism of this manga is that the characters lack depth and personality. Stella is very boring and would be classified probably as an airhead and incredibly naive. I’ve come across naive characters before, but none quite as lost as she is. It’s upsetting to see a female lead portrayed so poorly and not given much thought.

Overall my favorite part is the art and I can appreciate it.

Rosen Blood is deliciously divine. Four hot guys in a reverse harem manga. Reminds me of Vampire Knight or Blood +. Fans are going to love this series.

Stella is a young maid on her way to her new master's house. She gets lost in the woods and is found by four hot, mysterious guys. Stella is sick and when she is better asks the master of the house, Levi, if she can work as a maid for him. Even though the men and the house seems weird, Stella just ignores everything. She is a hopeless optimist and a romantic. She ignores the warning signs that these men are not human and living with them could being her death. She forges forward trying to see the humanity and kindness in each of the four. Unfortunately, Gilbert loses his mind in volume 1 and is imprisoned. Sadistic Friedrich seems to be manipulating everyone. And little Yoel has some hidden darkness that we haven't quite seen yet.

Will Stella come out of the mansion alive? Fans of paranormal romance are going to be in love with this series.

I received an eARC of this title through NetGalley in return for an honest review.

The plot thickens in this volume. A lot is going on, with Levi and Stella getting together, sort of. Stella has to confront Levi's past in this volume, which she readily accepts because she says she loves him. Well, in this volume, it turns out that Friedrich has other plans. He wants to make Stella his bride just to mess with Levi. So this whole volume is basically to show that Stella is being used in their eternal game, at least Friedrich's game. Also, it appears he is not the only one involved.

So far, my only complaint is Stella seems a bit 2 dimensional as a character. There is no focus on her past at all other than short little snippets of what she mentions. It's almost like she's lost her memory while the other beings are trying to consume hers? I'm not really sure. I wish we knew more about the main character Stella. My hope is the next few volumes delve a bit more into that.

I want to see where this story goes. I feel like it could be really interesting depending on the next volume or two. Definitely deserves a place on your "to read" list if you like books with different types of vampire-esque lore.

This continues to be a steamy gothic romance. We get some backstory for Levi and, some romance of the good and not so good variety. I'm still waiting to see if it really grabs me, but it's not a bad series to spend some time with if you like sexy vampire stories!

Another interesting volume, with even more amazing art! I liked that we got some more development and insight into Levi, which I feel as a result will strengthen his relationship with our protagonist Stella. I'm honestly not the biggest fan of harems, and I found that in this volume it was really heavy in this regard - our girl can't seem to catch a break! I'm looking forward to seeing where this story goes, as the bigger conflicts of the series seem to already be unraveling.