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Chiyuki Matsuoka's given name translates literally to "thousand snow," embodying her parents' wish that she would witness the first snowfall of each year. This hope is especially poignant given Chiyuki's heart condition, which increases the likelihood of seizures and shortens her life expectancy. The doctor who delivered her had estimated she might live up to 15 years old.
At 17, Chiyuki meets Touya Kanou, an unusual vampire. Despite his nature, Touya dislikes drinking blood and does not seek a human partner to share his eternal life with. If he were to continuously drink from a partner, both could potentially live for a thousand years. Touya is 18 when they meet. When Chiyuki offers to be his partner, he harshly rejects her, only to learn about her poor health when she starts having spasms. After this incident, Touya becomes kinder to Chiyuki but continues to refuse to drink her blood. She begins to suspect there’s another reason behind his refusal, but will she live long enough to uncover the truth?
Included one-shot:
Volume 1: Isshunkan no Romance (A Romance of One Moment)
Sennen no Yuki went on hiatus after chapter 9 was released in the May 2002 issue of LaLa. A special chapter titled Chikai no Hi (誓いの日) was published in the July 2002 issue of LaLa DX and later included as chapter 10 in volume 3. The series resumed publication ten years later with chapter 11 in the January 2013 issue of LaLa DX.
The series was published in English as Millennium Snow by VIZ Media under the Shojo Beat imprint from April 3, 2007, to December 2, 2014. A 2-in-1 omnibus edition was also released from June 3, 2014, to May 5, 2015.
This manga offers a rather bumpy journey, but if you're a fan of Bisco Hatori, it's worth giving it a shot! I decided to read it because I'm currently rereading Ouran and was curious about her other works. This manga presents an intriguing insight into her creative process – Millennium Snow includes a couple of Hatori's older one-shots (one from the Love Egoist universe and another standalone), and the fact that she revived it after a 10-year hiatus is quite remarkable. In the final volume, she discusses her planning methods extensively, explaining how she had to adapt her approach when restarting this project since her more flexible style used in Ouran wasn't effective anymore, which I found fascinating. The storyline itself isn't particularly unique (it can be somewhat confusing, honestly), but I do find considerable charm in all the characters. Being a sucker for vampire tales might make me biased, though.
I wouldn't recommend going into this expecting deep character development or a thoroughly fleshed-out ending, but I enjoyed it as an opportunity to spend some extra time in the Bisco Hatori universe!
This tale genuinely showcases how something so repetitive can still be incredibly charming! While stories of this kind are plentiful, this one has a unique touch that I find delightful. The depth the male protagonist puts into his interactions with the female lead is impressive. It's a sweet and ship-worthy manga. If you're a girl who enjoys fluffy narratives, you'll adore this story! The only downside is its long hiatus, but there's word it will resume sometime in 2013.
Since I can only locate reviews from nearly a decade ago, I decided to offer a newer perspective on this manga series now that it has concluded. While I'm not a professional manga critic, I can confidently say this is one of the more enjoyable short manga series I've read in recent times.
Hatori did an outstanding job with the plot execution, and her character development was impressive given she had roughly 17 chapters to work with. Short stories don't need to be complex or unique to be good. Despite having basic premises and characters, Hatori managed to make the story thoroughly enjoyable.
During my reading, I noticed Hatori was aware of the cliché elements and cleverly addressed them through the direction of character development, allowing characters to act in unexpectedly lighthearted ways. For example, Touya being an anemic vampire and Chiyuki teasing him instead of being hopelessly infatuated showcases this approach.
This isn't a "masterpiece" in the traditional sense of manga genius as many might think. However, it highlights Hatori's skills in character development and her ability to add a realistic touch to a fantasy-based story, making readers feel it could actually happen. (She only adds a bit of fluff towards the end)
As a fan of Ouran High School Host Club, I appreciated reading another of Hatori's works and would highly recommend it to others who enjoyed both the Ouran manga and anime. I adore her drawing style <3
P.S. ~ If you've read all of this, you're really super mega cool because:
If you're a fan of vampires, werewolves, or simply a good story, this manga is for you! This is one of Bisco Hatori's first published works, the creator behind Ouran High School Host Club.
Story:
LOVE IT LOVE IT LOVE IT! The characters are great and the plot is fantastic, filled with twists and turns that keep you hooked, eager to see what happens next. The foreshadowing is beautifully constructed and well-placed. Unfortunately, Hatori had to abandon this project to continue working on Ouran High School Host Club. This means all that cleverly placed foreshadowing was never utilized. You can tell at the end of the second and final volume that it was an unfinished project. It ends on a "now that that's over, what will happen next?" note. Does that make sense? I wish I knew how to contact Hatori to ask if she plans to pick it up again after finishing Ouran.
Art:
If you've read the Ouran manga, you'll notice that this work was created during her early days as a mangaka. Therefore, her art isn't as refined compared to Ouran, but it's still VERY enjoyable to look at.
Character:
*fan-girl squee* I love them all! Chiyuki, Toya, Satsuki, and Yami-Maru are all amazing characters! They are well-rounded and deeply characterized; you feel like you truly know these characters. Sadly, due to the abrupt ending, you don't get as much backstory (especially on Yami-Maru and Toya) as anyone would want.
Enjoyment:
If that point isn't clear by now in this review, you aren't paying attention. X3
Overall:
Wonderful! Amazing! Beautiful! WHY DID IT STOP?!! I really do enjoy this manga from the bottom of my heart! I hope that you at least give it a try!
Well, first off, I can say that I cried. That's something that should be taken with a grain of salt, though, considering I've cried watching Winnie the Pooh before.
But I sure have a lot to say.
I usually never read any manga that doesn't have an anime (if I watch an anime and like it, I'll read the manga—usually an effective strategy because the manga is better so it doesn't ruin the anime for me). However, Millennium Snow doesn't have an anime, yet I found myself here.
I am a massive fan of Ouran High School Host Club. After watching the anime (and being quite depressed about the ending), I read the entire manga in three days, and since then, I've reread it countless times, each time crying my heart out because I just plain adore the series. This time, I couldn't bear to finish reading it, but I was still in an Ouran slump, so I decided to go see what Bisco Hatori has written other than Ouran. Because Hatori is one of my favorite authors of all time, I had obviously heard of Millennium Snow before, but I'd never gotten a chance to read it.
I got into it, and well, it was great. The storyline is pretty good, and there are many relationships you can see between the characters and the character designs that you can relate to Ouran if that's the connection you're seeking to find. Satsuki and Tamaki not only look similar (face, height) but have similar tendencies considering their flirtatiousness and the importance of their grandmas in both of their lives, albeit in different ways. Satsuki's grandmother also physically resembles Tamaki's. Touya's name is most similar to Kyoya's, while his appearance is a mix of Kyoya and Mori's appearance (albeit much shorter), while his personality is sort of a mix of the twins and the tsundere bad boy the club lacks.
Hatori also mentions her love of detail and twins, which I found amusing.
In terms of story, the love story wasn't developed too well, and I found Chiyuki to be slightly bland compared to other characters, as well as much too eager to become immortal. Everything moved a tad bit too fast, and in the last volume, I found myself lost by the new arc and the sudden end. I feel like for this style of story, it would have been much better if the story had been dragged out a bit so that we could see the character development instead of strange and random time skips.
The art greatly improved after the return from hiatus, but the art wasn't my favorite to begin with, just extremely better compared to the first volume. The characters were fine, but I found myself liking pretty much everyone except Chiyuki. There were many questions still left unanswered that I wish I knew the answers to, but I understand why they were never addressed—there simply wasn't enough time.
However, I enjoyed it a lot, even though I was greatly biased by the author and her other works. Hopefully, you will too!
The story featured an intriguing plot and had a somewhat Halloween-esque vibe, reminiscent of a manga, yet it still incorporated light-hearted romance.
A fantastic manga to dive into, though you might feel slightly unsatisfied with the ending as it doesn't truly conclude. This is because Hatori decided to concentrate her efforts on her other manga, "Ouran High School Host Club." That said, this lack of a definitive ending is the only downside to this otherwise excellent work. I'm confident that fans of shoujo will find it utterly charming.
I truly adore this manga! C:
The opening really grabbed my attention, and I'm totally into the vampires. The characters are incredibly endearing. Before diving into Millennium Snow, I was also reading Ouran High School Host Club at the same time. So whenever I saw Touya, Kyoya immediately came to mind... But that's okay since Kyoya has always been my favorite! C:
Bisco Hatori never fails to impress with her stunning artwork.
There is a downside though—the series isn't finished because Bisco chose to focus entirely on OHSHC. As a result, this manga only has two volumes... You'll definitely get hooked by the storyline, but it's disappointing that there isn't more (yet)!