Diabolik Lovers: Bloody Bouquet

Diabolik Lovers: Bloody Bouquet

Disclaimer: I have no prior knowledge about this series though I tried to listen to their 'introduction' volumes, it didn't really got me interested. Reasons because I'm not too impressed with sadistic-type guys and their misogynistic pet names. However I found that I can stomach this particular release of the series because it has less about the guys being abusive and forceful, and more about the romance & the drama with the MC.

Disclaimer 2: I'm skipping the Tsukinami brothers because... It's a personal preference thing. I can't really express why. Maybe one day I'll give them another chance and update this.

About: The bases of each stories are the same. 1) A mysterious bouquet of black roses was sent to their homes, 2) the girl got her finger pricked and the blood dripped down the seemingly blank card that was with the bouquet, 3) her blood revealed a hidden message saying she is now cursed to die slowly unless someone she loved (i.e. the vampires) would suck enough blood, and finally 4) curse was lifted and they ended with a proposal of marriage.


Warning: Mentions of intention to suicide/double suicide, and unpleasant sounds of gagging, coughing and something close to vomiting.

Volume 1 - Sakamaki Ayato (CV: Midorikawa Hikaru)
Ayato, I suppose the main character for the whole series. I like his character the least of all the Sakamakis and Mukamis (and even the Tsukinamis). It's fairly personal. I don't really do well with arrogant males and this guy is the definition of arrogance. The girl I think got pretty tired, or her reasoning was disturbed by the stress that she was poisoned and was going to die, she threatened to jump down the balcony if Ayato didn't want to admit his feelings for her. He saved her by breaking her fall and only then he finally say the words and married her. His pet name for the girlfriend is Flat Chest.

Volume 2 - Mukami Ruki (CV: Sakurai Takahiro)
The eldest of the Mukami brothers, Ruki is a bit of a stoic type, and gives an elder brother feel to how he treats the girlfriend. His character didn't realized when she got her fingers pricked by the black rose bouquet and only learned about it when she disappeared from their home and saw the bloodied card in the trash can. The girlfriend however, was determined to put a distance between them so he would not see her die I assume, walked off into the forest. He followed her and after confronting with her reason to be in the forest, he pulled out a silver knife and asked her to kill him first. After convincing her he'd save her any way that he can, he drank as much as her poisoned blood as he can and in the end lifted the curse. He proposed to her and they got married. His nickname to the girl is literally Livestock, as in, she is a convenient living stock of his need of blood.

Volume 4 - Sakamaki Shuu (CV: Toriumi Kousuke)
Shuu mentioned in the intro that he is now somewhat the leader(?) of the Sakamaki family. His character I'd define as older friend who is sometimes a bit strict with the girl, and can be a bit of a bully. It was mentioned that they now live within the realm of the otherworldly(?) and would have spirits(?) come and go to ask for his help, with the girlfriend insisted that he would. He came back one day seeing the girlfriend already collapsed in the living room. He at first didn't believe the bloodied card's message but after getting violently ill after sucking her blood, he tried his best to relieve her of the poison. The girlfriend tried to ask him to let her die but he changed her mind when he said he'd let it be a double suicide instead. The curse was lifted in the end and he asked her to marry him.

Volume 5 - Mukami Kou (CV: Kimura Ryouhei)
Kou is one of my favorite of the guys in this series because the intimacy he shared with the girlfriend felt more pleasant. His character is a mix of a doting and clingy younger boyfriend type. He also has a day job as an singing idol. When they found the black rose bouquet and the curse was learned, he didn't waste much time to immediately try to save her. Kou blacked out from the poison and woke up to find the girlfriend not in their room. He found her carrying a knife and told him she wanted to take her own life because she couldn't bear witness the agony she had to put him through. Kou instead suggested to kill her himself and he will follow suit... but threw the knife away. He begged her to believe in him as he would do anything to save her life. After the curse was lifted, the girlfriend was still very guilty for her previous actions but Kou explained he knew how she felt. He told her she was his blue sky, his favorite thing, and would keep by her side forever. He proposed and the volume ended with him giving her an engagement ring after wrapping up a media coverage of his marriage. Kou's nickname to the girl is "M-neko" which wikipedia explained it to be short for Masochistic Kitty. It's the second least offensive pet names of all the other offensive pet names in this series.

Volume 6 - Sakamaki Reiji (CV: Konishi Katsuyuki)
Reiji's story started out with him already in effect of drinking poisoned blood of his girlfriend but hides the fact that it's eating him from the inside from her knowledge. He intended to let the girlfriend to be completely unaware of the curse (her symptom lessened if he drank enough of her blood) and carry the ill effect of the poison by himself. She eventually found out but he got a bit angry when she asked his reasons why he would hide his suffering from her. Reiji, instead of telling her why he did what he did, wanted her to think by herself carefully of his reasons (I think because he loved her so much he'd do absolute anything for her sake?). After relieved of the curse, they had a heart-to-heart talk and resulted with him proposing her for a marriage.

Volume 8 - Mukami Yuuma (CV: Suzuki Tatsuhisa)
Yuuma I assume has a thing with gardening I think. Like Ruki, he gives off an older brother type of guy but with less seriousness. He was the only one of the vampire guys who wanted to keep the rose because he said that black roses are very rare. Yuuma didn't see the message on the card like every other guys in this series but instead he knows of it telekinetic-ly(?). He assumed the girlfriend collapsed because he hand been drinking her blood a bit too much for the day. He tried to save her afterwards but he got violently ill from the poison, making the girlfriend, incapable to see him like that, ran away from him and locked herself in another room. He begged her to keep on fighting for her life for their sake from the other side of the door. I really like Yuuma... except he called the girlfriend with a very misogynistic pet name. The worst in this series.

Volume 9 - Sakamaki Kanato (CV: Kaji Yuuki)
Oh my god this character... He... screams. A LOT! And it's giving me a hard time to understand half of what he was saying. All I can pick out is that he was insecure of how deep his relationship with the girlfriend was and how to make it to another level. Girlfriend suggested him to marry her but he was not convinced. Kanato is the only one initially got excited when the girlfriend got poisoned because he felt like this way she had no choice but to rely on him to live, i.e. another level in their relationship, in his understanding. His terrified screams when the poison made him blind and deaf was very emotional and gets a bit too hard to listen through. When the curse was lifted, he was glad that the girlfriend had been hugging him close while he was in his violent hysteria, and finally he agreed to marry her.

Volume 10 - Sakamaki Laito (CV: Hirakawa Daisuke)
Similar to Yuuma, I like this character but his pet name to the girlfriend is literally Little Bitch. Laito, aside from being openly perverse, has a bit of a ego in him that he would not admit that the girl's blood is now poisonous or that the bloodied card was telling the truth, and kept drinking her blood like it was nothing. When the girl confronted him and said she was worried, he grew angry and told her to be reminded of her position and just obey his words. He explained later that he is aware that he couldn't be honest with his own feelings; he just wanted to monopoly the worry about the MC but never wanted her to worry about him. Laito is also extra dramatic with the dying speech as he tried to suck the poisoned out, it made me laugh a bit when the curse was lifted and he was back being the normal Laito.

Volume 11 - Mukami Azusa (CV: Kishio Daisuke)
Azusa is the youngest I think of the Mukamis and he speaks slowly. I read from the wiki he has both Extreme Sadism and Extreme Masochism, meaning he enjoyed inflicting pain to others as well as being inflicted of pain. He used to self-harm and named the scars like they're his friends but after settling with the girl he called Eve, he stopped doing that and focused on being happy together. When the girlfriend was cursed, like in Kou's story, confessed that she could not let him go through the agony for her sake and wanted to take her own life. Azusa at first understands how she felt and offered to be the one to do it, but he had a change of heart and begged her to keep faith. He said he cherished the happiness they had so far and wanted to live longer to experience more of it. 

Volume 12 - Sakamaki Subaru (CV: Kondo Takashi)
This guy is bit of a tsundere at times, and an oresama in other times. He's like a childhood friend that just can't be honest with his feelings. Subaru would get into trivial argument with the girl, left her alone, then he saw a blooming white rose that reminded him of her and took it to give it to her later. The girl found the black rose bouquet by the time he came back and he took it away from her forcibly that made her fall to the ground. It's a bit annoying when he knows he should at least apologize but he didn't and claimed it was her own fault. When the curse was placed on her, he didn't believe the message at first. He checked up on her when she didn't wake up the next morning like she used to and saw her already collapsed due the poison in her blood. He tried to help but blacked out and couldn't find her anywhere in the house when he regained consciousness. He found her by the nearby lake and confronted her reason to be there. She didn't admit but he guessed she was there to drown herself. Subaru then took out a silver knife and said he'd kill her himself, but before that he went on a long confession of his feelings and his guilt for always making her life miserable. Before they could do anything, the curse was lifted and he finally could ask her to marry him.

Final say: I think if you didn't enjoy these sadistic vampires but still interested with the characters and the story, this drama CD series is recommendable. Though I have to say that I'm not satisfied with none of the mystery of the black rose was explained in any way. Where did it came from? Who gave them? Why the curse? Also, obviously it's not the blood sucking that saved the girl, but instead the guys admitting their feelings for her, that lifted the curse. This is very obvious in Subaru's volume especially. Maybe some explanation is in the game? IDK.