inee’s Love Bullet, Volume 1 (ラブ・バレット) is best known for being saved from cancellation by a social media campaign begun by lexie on X – which happened while I was on vacation and mostly offline, so all I could do is marvel at the response! ^_^ Of course, once I could get myself a copy. I did. And what I found honestly surprised me.
Cupids have gotten a modern upgrade since Ancient Greece. No longer using bows and arrows, cupids are armed with guns and artillery. But their mission is mostly the same – pairing people up in romantic relationships. We learn that cupids are people who died before their own love was able to blossom – and they can earn their way back to life by creating enough pairings, but of course there are conditions.
We meet our protagonist Koharu as she and three other cupids ponder the fate of a trio of young people in a fast-food restaurant. A battle breaks out as the cupids split on which pairing they prefer, Koharu takes a risk and solves the problem.
The story then moves backwards to show how Koharu became a cupid. We already know that the premise is a poignant take on love, and Koharu’s story continues in that vein. When her first mission turns out to be very personal, I noted to my wife that this series is quite original, but very sad. As I mulled it over, I found I would describe it as straight-up bitter, rather than even bittersweet. The art is fun, even as it is quite violent. Explosions and bullet impacts are heart-shaped, for instance. The combination of extreme action and Greek tragedy makes for a pretty unique work that is likely to appeal to completely different audiences for different reasons.
Ratings:
Art – 8
Story – A bitter, but well-conceived 9
Characters – 8
Service – Guns and fighting mostly
Yuri – 8
Overall – 8
In a world in which more Yuri means some stories will go under the radar (and, globally, publishers often don’t promote more original Yuri work in favor of school girl romances that offend no one and take no risks) Yuri fandom is making its voice heard more often – a topic I plan on writing about as soon as I have a moment. ^_^ In this case, inee’s series has been given a second chance at life, a fitting fate for a story that offers the same choice to its protagonist.
