Millennium Snow, Vol. 2

千年の雪 [Sennen no Yuki] #2

by Bisco Hatori

Seventeen-year-old Chiyuki Matsuoka was born with heart problems, and her doctors say she won't live to see the next snow. Toya is an 18-year-old vampire who hates blood and refuses to make the traditional partnership with a human, whose life-giving blood would keep them both alive for a thousand years.

Now that her bond with Toya has healed her heart, Chiyuki wants to live her life to the fullest. What she doesn't know is that Toya has refused to make the full partnership with her. He doesn't want to doom her to a thousand years of life. Chiyuki swore to Toya that she would never leave him alone, but is that a promise she'll be able to keep?

Genres: Manga, Romance, Vampires, Fantasy, Shojo, Graphic Novels, Young Adult

205 pages, Paperback

First published August 5, 2002

About the author

Name (in native language): 葉鳥ビスコ

Bisco Hatori is a Japanese manga artist. Bisco Hatori is a pseudonym; she states that the name has special meaning to her. She has worked for such magazines as LaLa. Her manga debut was A Moment of Romance in LaLa DX. Her first series was Millennium Snow. However, the comedy Ouran High School Host Club is her breakout hit.

Reviews

[XxTainaxX Curvy and Nerdy · Rating 3 out of 5]

The second installment introduces Keigo. A concerned childhood friend of Chiyuki who had also developed feelings for her and the situation takes kind of a weird turn. Nevertheless, Toya still remains my favorite of the characters. The frames tell the story well (even though the cultural differences are evident in the approach) and the commentary adds a humorous undertone. Without really dissecting the story, I can appreciate it for the art. However, it is easy to focus on the ridiculous so I suppose it's all about the mood you're in.

[Sesana · Rating 3 out of 5]

There are still things that I like about Millennium Snow. I like the three main characters themselves, and I like how the vampires work. I also liked the first story, even with the bizarre setup. (Toya doesn't like riding in buses, so let's walk through the snowy mountains! Because that makes total sense.) But the second story had a strange twist for a new character. I had a hard time believing that Keigo could so quickly turn from being a loving big brother substitute to... Well, I couldn't even begin to describe it. Sure, I buy him being concerned under the circumstances, but there's a step too far and then there's what Keigo does. Unfortunately, there's no ending for Millennium Snow, and there's unlikely to ever be one, so there's no telling what would have come of his storyline. I don't think I'd recommend the series as a whole, except to hardcore shojo fans, for just that reason.

[Starbubbles · Rating 5 out of 5]

2022: It took me a moment to get into the volume, but once I did, I loved it. I am so excited that this series has a conclusion. This is where it went on hiatus for Hatori to finish Ouran High School Host Club when I first read this.

[Steph · Rating 4 out of 5]

A cute and charming manga.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

I do kind of wish long-running shojo manga series didn't tend to rely on the trope of constantly adding new potential love interests for the heroine (two volumes in and we've got a werewolf and a childhood friend so far). I suppose it gets fans more hooked as they root for one or the other, but I find it kind of tedious, somehow.

That said, the action and romance are upped a bit in this one and so I did enjoy it.

[Lizzie RoseShine · Rating 2 out of 5]

This manga is pretty random, satsuki supposed to invite mc girl only but not just her - touya & his assistant yami-maru come in uninvited because they're worry about mc girl health . I was surprised that bat can transform into human even he change his master's form too. Satsuki save mc girl from dangerous attempt from the ghost girl who lives in her mansion n wanted them to get out of the mansion. There's kei who's taking care of his cousin(mcgirl) but things take too far - tying mcgirl n locked in the room n being overprotective person.

[bow down to our ace king victor vale · Rating 2 out of 5]

the characs aren’t the best but they’re kinda growing on me…..well except for kei 🤢

like DUDE her cousin is literally insane
😭😀 i rlly disliked his arc in this volume :/ ugh. i did like the first half when they were all staying in the mansion ^^ (tho both MLs need to know boundaries uff) all the situations in this series are so random lmao

[Belle Bookworm · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really hate the weird overprotective relative trope because it makes it seem like they’re trying to romanticize it 😔

I think I’ll keep reading though since I really just want the main characters to get together, they’re so cute

Also FYI Ik you’re probably thinking this is age gap since it has a vampire but it’s not, he’s newly turned and they’re the same age thank the lord 🙏

[Danica · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ooh Toya. Just admit there's no going back now. Can't wait to see what happens next. Also, I simply love all aspects of Yamimaru 😻

[penta · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ta akcja z kuzynem nadal jest weird af, I know Bisco is a lil bit freaky.

[Jasmine (bokugglor) · Rating 3 out of 5]

3,5!

[Hannah (Sakurahan or ForeverBooks18) · Rating 1 out of 5]

Popsugar 2020 Reading Challenge - A book on a subject I know nothing about - I'm taking that as not knowing what this was about before reading it!

I didn’t enjoy this volume unfortunately! I think I left too big of a gap between reading volumes 1&2. When I read it again in the future I’ll definitely read them together! I think the story will be more cohesive then! I just skim read it this time cause I wasn’t interested in the plot.

[.·:*¨ × Shannon♥Stelena&Bamon&Sydrian × ¨*: · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 Stars

Continuing on to volume 2, things take an bit darker turn when the trio and Yamimaru go on an snowy trip to Switzerland and later Chiyuki's older cousin pays an visit from America.

This volume definitely feels more serious as well as growing the beard. It does get an little unnerving like Toya being possessed by Isabel and Kei going to scary lengths of "protecting' Chiyuki from Toya, such as tying her up in her room Toya and Chiyuki's relationship grows stronger and Toya is really coming to terms with his feelings for Chiyuki, Sadly Satsuki takes an major backseat for the Kei drama to unfold though.

I actually had noticed that when Toya's feelings for her are questioned, she doesn't admit to anyone that he loves her. I'm thinking that Bisco-san is going the route of building it up until he tells Chiyuki to her face, Kinda like Beauty and the Beast.



Also this is not the conclusion as Millenium Snow is now off Hiatus and as been completed at 4 volumes. I'm eager to how Bisco-san complete it though I REALLY wish it was longer, like 7 volumes.

[Sunni · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it. Don't like the cousin they bring into the story though. He's a jerk.

[Yukino · Rating 3 out of 5]

SANGUE SULLA NEVE n. 2

Meglio del primo. Molto più romantico e divertente, anche se lo trovo banalotto. Ma si legge lo stesso con piacere. A me il prossimo^_^

[Crystal · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's so sad that the series ended here.

[Maddy · Rating 3 out of 5]

(This review is for both volumes 1 and 2 of this series and contains spoilers for both; fair warning).

I picked up these two volumes of manga from my local used book store because I recognized the author’s name. As other Anime/Manga fans might know, this short series is written by Bisco Hatori, the mangka who also brought us Ouran High School Host Club. Millennium Snow was a short paranormal romance/comedy that she wrote before her most popular series.

Essentially, this is a better written manga version of Twilight. There’s a vampire, Toya, who is a character who guards his emotions behind a temper and a werewolf, Satsuki, who is upbeat and popular among his human classmates who know nothing of his supernatural secret. Chiyuki is a pretty typical shojo heroine, but with serious health problems which threaten her life. There are also many comical elements in this manga which is very much Hatori’s style, reminiscent at points of Host Club (though this series is older, I read Host Club first).

One complaint that I saw on Goodreads and agreed with was that the pacing of the first volume is incredibly odd. It reads much more as the middle of a series rather than a beginning. I felt like I had skipped volume 1 and gone to volume 3 or 4 without any context. The main reason I felt this way was that, Chiyuki was already offering her blood to Toya despite the fact they just met and he is incredibly rude to her. Their relationship didn’t really make any sense to me until volume 2, honestly, since they had time to know each other.

Similar to when I read Twilight (in high school to see what the big deal was, since it was like the biggest thing then), I preferred the werewolf to the vampire; Edward seemed boring and Toya was a jerk vs. Jacob who seemed decent until the end (yikes) and Satsuki seems genuinely sweet, if not a little stupid (he got the most laughs out of me, to his credit, and I have reason to believe that he was an earlier version of Ouran‘s Tamaki since their personalities are somewhat similar in their ridiculousness). However, its obvious that Chiyuki is going to end up with Toya, since the whole theme of the story is about her wanting to live as long as she can so she can see as many winters’ snows as her health will allow. Toya is the only one who has the power to save her life; if he bites her, they’ll live 1,000 years together as vampires. So sorry, Satsuki, looks like you won’t likely win in this story either.

There is also a rather awkward story at the end of volume 2 where Toya has to save Chiyuki from her obsessive cousin, Kei who has had a crush on her since their childhood. Kei even went to America to become a heart doctor to fix Chiyuki’s condition. While those intentions are noble, he goes off the rails with jealousy when he sees Toya and Chiyuki together. Then he finds out that Toya is a vampire and he kidnaps Chiyuki “for her own good”. Fortunately, Toya is able to save her but I found that whole storyline really bizarre and just weird, not really funny. It also fell into the annoying shojo trope where all of the young male characters must find the heroine attractive and be in love with her even if it doesn’t make any sense at all. Toya and Satsuki are Chiyuki’s age, high school boys; their crushes on her make sense for the story, but Kei, who is introduced as an “older brother like” cousin shouldn’t have had a romance plot with Chiyuki- it was just entirely inappropriate.

My rating for these two books is 3.5 stars! Even with the Kei plot and the awkwardly paced beginning of the series, I found this series better than Twilight. Bisco Hatori is a true comedian and her unique style of comedy will delight readers. I would suggest this book for those who like manga, paranormal romance, vampires, werewolves, off-beat comedy, fans of Twilight or Ouran High School Host Club.

[Beckiezra · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sheesh, that was a slog to get through, if I didn’t already have the other two volumes I don’t think I’d bother continuing the series. The volume is just too random. Suddenly we start in SWITZERLAND?! No reason why (grandma won a trip at bingo and gave it to her teenage grandson to skip school with a girl he likes to travel half way around the world is apparently the only explanation the author felt was necessary), and just as suddenly they’re back at school and it’s summer. Then we get a new character thrown in who is a childhood friend that’s dedicated his life to curing Chiyuki but can’t see she’s healthy now and also is insane enough to tie a girl up in his apartment to stop her from seeing a classmate? Meanwhile Satsuki’s character has become a caricature, all those years of being normal thrown out the window for some dog jokes, and Yamimaru is not a bat but a giant of a man who pretty much looks exactly like Toya so I didn’t even realize it was a different character at first. Everything about this story is terrible, thinking about it more makes me want to lower it to one star, but the pictures are generally nice.

[Sydney · Rating 3 out of 5]

✨ 2.5 stars ✨

17th manga read for my 30 mangas in 30 days challenge

I am glad that I enjoyed this volume more than volume one. Although I still found the connection between the characters hard to believe and the plot pacing did not help. This volume read like independent episodes with reoccurring characters. Each couple of chapters had an overarching story goal and what the author wanted the characters to learn from their situations. This way of writing made the volume seem disjointed and felt like forced character growth that was not natural.

I also did not enjoy the introduction of Chiyuki's cousin Kei. He was way over-protective of Chiyuki and made some awful decisions that were hard to rationalize. If you want to know what happened, his decisions are marked as spoilers in the trigger warning section of my review.

tropes: vampires, chronic illness representation (heart problems), animal companion (the hero has a bat named Yamimaru), insta-love (heroine to hero), reluctant hero, werewolves, love triangle, overprotective family

trigger warnings: kidnapping, forced isolation from friends/love interest

[Christina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well to be frank: I loved volume 1 better than volume 2. Volume 2 felt like I missed a story somewhere in the fact of the way volume 1 ended and volume 2 began it was so abrupt and confusing. In addition, it was a lot more violent than the previous one with some triggers of potential sexual assault and physical assault. I know sometimes this happens with manga but it was just so unexpected from this series... the end also felt so strange in the instance that the leading female character felt totally ok with how everything went down etc. I do know this is an older series and this is probably not as prominent as it used to be in stories. Other than that aspect, I loved the characters especially the ones that continued from volume 1. (I'm not really a fan of the added character that was in this volume though.) And I am really curious to see how the other two volumes turn out so because of these points I have to give this a 3.5 out of 5 stars. If you enjoy paranormal shenanigans but do not mind some dark themes this series is for you.

[Lara · Rating 3 out of 5]

So, same review pretty much for all 4 volumes, since the series was read in its entirety. And most manga are such continuous stories that the series is really rated as a whole, isn't it? Anyway, I first read Vol 1 and 2 back when they came out years ago, so I am glad that she was able to finish Chiyuki and Toya's story.

It's definitely Bisco Hatori's work - there are laugh-out-loud moments, like in Ouran High School Host Club, though of course not as many. Where Ouran was a farce in a lot of ways and had many slap-stick and absurd moments, Millennium Snow is more somber in its themes - death and near-immortality and so on. The art definitely matures between the first two volumes and the last two - there was a 10 year (or so) gap between them after all. It can still get a little too busy or too "artsy" to follow easily, but overall, I enjoy her artwork.

The biggest problem for me, and why it's only 3 stars, is in the pacing. The first two volumes are definitely a bit rushed. The inexperience is a bit more evident. Volume 1 of course begins with the short story that grew into the series, and one-shots are often a bit rushed. So, yes, the pacing is the weirdest in Volume 1. But overall, the series just moves so very quickly in some parts, then drags on other scenes/story arcs almost too long. Hard to follow the flow of time in the story at points.

[Soobie is expired · Rating 2 out of 5]

Bah, questo secondo volume mi è sembrato un po' esagerato. Nel senso che porta determinati eventi all'esagerazione.

Il capitolo ambientato nelle montagne della Svizzera non è male, anche perché adoro i fantasmi. Ma l'arrivo di Kei... Non so, sembra una macchietta, non un personaggio con una personalità ben definita.

Peccato, la serie era partita bene. Vediamo se si riprende negli ultimi due volumi.

[Zian B. · Rating 3 out of 5]

This volume didn’t sit too well with me, despite it being a good continuation after the first volume. There were several questionable moments when the main characters were trapped in Isabel’s mansion. As well as Chiyuki’s cousin: Keigo giving me major creep energy. Something more positive is that, it was really interesting to see that Tayo’s bat assistant: Yamimaru can have 2 temporary human forms.

[Veronica Pappolla · Rating 4 out of 5]

Continua questa dolce storia. Riuscirà la nostra Chiyuki a farsi mordere da Toya?
Staremo a vedere, ma una serie di consapevolezze sbocciano in questo volume, mi piace molto il transfer della ragazza dalla sua figura paterna a colui che ama.

Aumentano gli elementi fantasy, tipo le continue cannonate con la palla da basket sulla testa della protagonista. Ma va bene così, non si sta leggendo una biografia.

PS: Perché nella copertina Chiyuki sembra la protagonista di sorriso d'argento? ahhaha

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

I just don't know about this series.... Kei is disturbing and the direction that was taken with his arc is rather unsettling. Some of the characters are pretty cute and have fun personality, but overall this story isn't what I expect when I hear Bisco Hatori.

[Jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really enjoying this series! I’m hoping that the last two volumes are just as good! I love seeing the growing relationship between Chiyuki and Toya as well as all of the comic relief between the serious parts. Definitely continuing on!

[Caitlan Meyer · Rating 4 out of 5]

This volume near the end felt all over the place and even though we got to meet someone from her past I ended up hating him for going so over board. But the beginning was cute so it wasn’t a huge deal. Overall I’d rather just deal with our main character and our three goofy boys.

[Khrystyna · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was just weird.

I felt like it jumped too quick. And everything just went by too fast.

The brother is weird. A bit creepy.

[Forthright . · Rating 4 out of 5]

A vampire love story must have its werewolf element, yes?

And ... Yamimaru!

[Amara · Rating 5 out of 5]

When they kissed I just got chills :o