From Childhood Friends to Mates for Life, but Things Are Still Rocky
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Synopsis
Review
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Warning:
This review will contain spoilers for the manga and anime series Smoky Nectar Renew. While the manga may vary slightly from all other forms of media, it may have similar story elements and could be considered spoilers.
Content Warning: There may be references to blood, gossiping, mentions of death, self-deprecation, mentions of divorce (not between the main couple), corruption, overwork, violence, kidnapping, and human experimentation, as they do appear in the manga.
Synopsis:
Anna and Mitsuru are now Biter and Nectar – a bond between a vampire and a special human that means they can never feed or be fed on by anyone else. While both of them are more than happy that they are each other’s only forever, the larger Biter society is less than pleased. Nectars can breed with a Biter of the opposite sex to create another Biter, but because Anna and Mitsuru are both men, this is impossible. So, Anna’s prestigious Biter bloodline will end with him, and Mitsuru’s value as a Nectar is set to zero. Neither cares about any of this, so everything should be smooth sailing, right?
Well, not exactly.
As much as the two are happy that they are tied together forever, there is a fear growing between them. For Anna, he worries that he has forced Mitsuru into a relationship from which he can never escape without ending both their lives. And for Mitsuru, even as a Nectar, all he can do for Anna is provide his blood. He wants to be able to protect Anna as much as Anna has protected him. These fears and concerns are beginning to fester and strain their relationship, but things only get more complicated when, after a fight, Mitsuru is suddenly carried off in the middle of the night.
All they wanted was to be there for each other, but everything may end before they ever have a chance to work through their problems.
Review:
This is the sequel to Smoky Nectar, and it is highly encouraged that you read that title first before this one.
Once again, this is some of the cleanest manga art out there. The character faces are still inconsistent, but the overall style is so clean that it is hard to fault it. I will say, something I didn’t realize in the previous title of the series is that Mitsuru looks like Tanjiro from Demon Slayer. Honestly, the entire art style looks like someone took the Demon Slayer manga, cleaned it up, changed the demons into vampires (or “biters,” as they’re called), and made it BL. I couldn’t unsee it once I realized that, so hopefully that doesn’t ruin this for you. It didn’t for me, for what it’s worth. This is very pretty, and that is always a win for me.
Now, the Demon Slayer comparisons end with the art style. There is action, but compared to the title before this one, it is minimal, and I think that is to its benefit. The previous story was chaotic and almost senseless, but this time, the focus is much more on the characters’ internal struggles than external plots. Before, there were so many other things to focus on, like the mystery and the eventual battle, that Anna and Mitsuru were left in the dust. Add all the worldbuilding about the Biters squished into a single volume, and it just ended up feeling underbaked. Thankfully, with all of that left behind, this volume feels much more cohesive and gives our couple much more room to develop (and actually show smut, for my degenerates out there). Paring down the content made a huge difference in the pacing this time around, and I really appreciated it.
Unfortunately, many of the issues I had with the lack of clear rules and worldbuilding around the Biter society still stand, but there was a little bit of clarification, which I appreciate. Thankfully, they clarified that Mitsuru and Anna can’t have children, since they are both men, which means Anna’s family line ends with him, and Mitsuru’s breedability as a Nectar is pretty much null. This, of course, hurt me deeply since I am a huge mpreg fan, but I am glad that was clarified. The rest of my questions from the prior volume were largely ignored. Still, it was interesting to see more of the Biter council, their opinions, and even the humans and the research institute associated with them. I wish this had been the way information was given to us in the prior title, as it is just enough to understand what is going on without being so much that there isn’t enough time to explore it all.
My last complaint is just about the reintroduction of the big bad from the previous story, who has semi-redeemed himself by helping save Mitsuru. The bad guy’s human brother is running the Biter family in his stead, and that is heavily emphasized. Their role in all of this felt a bit needless to me, and the time spent on them could’ve been better served to elaborate on some of the information provided in the prior story. I know it is probably irritating that I keep bringing up the previous story, but this is a sequel, and a sequel’s worth, unless it is a separate spin-off entirely, is reliant on the foundation the first creates. The previous bad guy isn’t even seen until the very end, when it is revealed that he sent an email directing Anna to where Mitsuru was being kept. I truly didn’t care about the previous bad guy, so giving him redemption was just wholly unnecessary and wasted valuable space in this single-volume sequel.
Results:
This is definitely better than the previous volume. It has the beautiful art, thankfully, and though there are still unnecessary elements, it has been pared down to really focus on our main couple. Unlike before, these two feel much more connected, and the additional smut is a huge bonus. I have seen there are more sequels and spin-offs to this series, and I hope they get licensed and translated into English, because there is so much more of this world I want to explore. If you read the first title in this series, I think this is worth giving a shot.
Have you read Smoky Nectar Renew? If so, what do you think? Do you agree with my assessment? Do you not? Let me know, and comment below!
