The Crimson Spell

I've loved Yamane's work for years, but just discovered this one -- and thank goodness it's available in English! Great story, with an intriguing mystery; great characterization, with the arrogant-but-vulnerable Hagi and proud-but-kind Vald; great art (possibly the best I've ever seen from Yamane); and holy crap the sex is hot. I can't wait for future installments.

My only complaint (and the reason I deducted a star) is with the translation, which is pretty rancid. The dialogue style keeps switching back and forth between "high fantasy" language and anachronistic modern slangs, with no logical pattern or reason. The translations are awkward and many lines of dialogue make little sense -- to the point that I actually had to go look up some fan translations online to figure out what the characters meant to say. Couldn't the publisher do a better job than this?

However, the translation is tolerable enough to get the gist of what's happening, so I'd still recommend buying this book (and its sequel, which is out as of this writing, and is just as good). Maybe if they make enough of a profit from the first two volumes, they'll be able to afford a better translator for books 3+.

this is definetly one of the best yaoi mangas ive ever read! though it was a bit short but it does have a second volume so it doesnt really bother me. the "scenes" are amazing and they have lots of detail, anyone who perfers soft yaoi i would reccomend looking somewhere else though because this is definetly NOT soft. xD its a great book to my collection.

When demons attack his kingdom, Prince Vald has to resort to a cursed sword to defeat them. The sword turns him into an uncontrollable, unthinking beast at night. He goes on a quest to find Halvir, a magician, who may be able to break the curse. Halvir requires the Prince's help to find a magical item before he will try to remove the curse. At night, Halvir is curious about the curse and discovers that he can control the beast's rage by replenishing his own magical powers through... sex, of course! Vald remains innocent of what the beast and Halvir, literally, get up to at night as they go off on their adventure to gain the item and then to seek out a solution to the curse. But Halvir is secretly falling for the beast, and for Vald; and Vald is still clueless.

The story is a good one. Nice complications with the two characters and the beast. There is some nice back-history involved with the mysterious Halvir. And there is a super-cute "bunny" familiar who can take human form. And SO important, the artwork is just fantastic. Vald is gorgeously handsome. Halvir is even more gorgeously handsome--tall and long-haired and mysterious. And their fashion sense is impeccable!

The sex scenes are fairly graphic (you know what's going where, but there are areas left out to keep things from becoming too clinical and detailed. It's all handled very well and adds a good bit of spice to the yaoi element of the story. This is definitely for Adults!

With great characters and story and fabulous art with sexy hotness, this is an unbeatable combination for those looking for all these things in a manga. I happen to love fantasy tales more than anything, so that's a huge plus, too.

Well I gave it a try after reading all the reviews here in Amazon.I had my share of boring BL manga .I prefer it with strong characters and plot . The fantasy genre gives this one an interesting story for the mangaka to work on .A lot of imagination and creating is working and I like that.
The drawing style is pretty but I do prefer Prince Vald not to look feminine and he does have feminine gestures,
The other thing that bothers me is the translation.I hope they Keep the translation true to the characters.

Okay. This series is an absolute must have for any yaoi lover. Really. This is not an exaggeration. Yamane Ayano's bishies are always seriously beautiful but I think she out did herself with Havi and Val. The sex scenes are really hot. Havi only touchs Val when he is in his demon form to "subdue the savage beast" but then Havi starts longing for Val in more than a physical sense and Havi's unrequited love and for the naive Val really gets me. Its awesome... The story is also really cool. Val saves his country from a demon using a cursed sword, leaves home and journeys with Havi to break the curse. Not your typical yaoi storyline.