Content warning: depictions of gun violence in a fantasy context; death and grief
Synopsis
People who die without falling in love may be rescued by the Goddess of Love and reborn as cupids. While their gear has been upgraded from the traditional bow and arrow to modern weapons like guns and grenades, the cupids’ job is the same as it was in the days of myth: to spark romance between humans by shooting them through the heart. If a cupid gains enough karma, they can return to their mortal life. But between complicated love triangles and cupid in-fighting, it’s not going to be easy.
Love is a battlefield
I knew very little about Love Bullet going in, save for its status as a publication success story. The series was pulled from the brink of cancellation by an outpouring of fandom effort, and Yen Press rolled out the red carpet for its English release with exclusive variant covers and an enthusiastic marketing campaign. I’m happy to report that this first volume lives up to the hype and makes for a compelling beginning to an imaginative story.
Firstly, it has to be said how fun the premise is. The familiar concept of Cupid is plucked from classical mythology (and all of its pop culture interpretations over the years) and reinvented through the lens of bombastic action. Gone are the cherubs and arrows: Love Bullet stars snarky young women wielding machine guns, pistols, and bombs that make heart-shaped explosions. They also can’t be perceived by humans, which leads to some entertaining action sequences, with the bickering warriors of love hosting a wild gunfight while the mortals around them continue to eat their lunch in blissful ignorance.
That’s the most mythological thing about this story: the machinations of squabbling divine beings are always going on around us, unbeknownst to us silly mortals. We could get caught in the crossfire at any point, and gods help us if we do…
But Love Bullet isn’t just riffing on mythic ideas for the fun of it. While we don’t have all the lore details yet (for example, who exactly hands out the cupids’ assignments? How do they keep track of their karma level?), there is some thought-out and creative worldbuilding going on as well as a heartfelt streak that shines through. This comes through the most in newly-reborn cupid Koharu, who was a class matchmaker in life and takes her immortal matchmaking duties earnestly. For example, while her fellow soldiers argue about who should “win” a teen love triangle between a girl and her two best childhood friends (one a boy and the other a girl, both treated as equally viable options in a lovely show of casual bisexual representation), Koharu considers the girl’s complicated feelings and thinks outside the box to find a solution. She knows that love is not something to be taken lightly, and through her, the series’ true ethos becomes clear.
Shot through the heart
I expected the action and explosions from the premise. What I didn’t expect was for this series to cause me some real heartache. Across the first volume, we learn about Koharu’s life, death, and rebirth as a cupid, including a bittersweet storyline about her relationship with the female friend who loved her (another example of the series’ wonderful casual queerness). The circumstances of Koharu’s accidental death—a massive piece of construction work falling on her—may seem over-the-top, even a little cartoonish, but the art and storytelling keeps things grounded and makes the whole situation genuinely frightening and sad.
Being reborn as a cupid isn’t as simple as jumping back up and grabbing a gun. Koharu is given the space to mourn her own death and the opportunities she missed by dying—falling in love among them, of course—and this plot beat is given an emotional weight I found satisfying. There are many anime, manga, and light novels about magical reincarnation, and they surprisingly don’t often address the grief and disorientation that would surely come with dying and being reborn.
The efficiency of storytelling is very impressive here, as the reader follows Koharu through a full emotional arc about grief, love, and letting go across only a few short chapters. Somehow it never feels rushed, the characters feel fleshed out, and every bittersweet gut punch lands with precision. This volume has plenty of levity and the aforementioned bombastic fantasy fight scenes, but it’s heartening to know that all this is underpinned by a strong and deeply sympathetic emotional core.
The Verdict
Appropriately enough, this first volume made me fall in love at first sight. This is an extremely strong start to a series, hitting the ground running and inviting the reader into its strange and chaotic world. There’s real pathos in Koharu’s story that grounds the series in real, complex human feelings, even with its lofty concepts like magic-induced true love and warring cupids. That said, the larger-than-life aspects like love-heart explosions and invisible fight scenes are also heaps of fun. Love Bullet balances its fantasy action and character work with real precision; I’m curious to know where the story will go next, and what it has in store for Koharu now that she’s learned the ropes.
You can purchase Love Bullet Volume 1 from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Bookshop, or your local comic store; and the special edition from Kinokuniya.
Credits
Story and art: inee
Translation: Masaaki Fukushima
Lettering: Aila Nagamine
English edition published by Yen Press
Thank you to Yen Press for providing an advanced review copy of this manga. Receiving an advanced copy had no impact on the reviewer’s opinions.
Article edited by: Adam Wescott
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