In manga and anime:
Blood is beautiful.
Chins are pointy.
Villains become heroes while heroes do morally questionable things.
The men are slender (I want to say ‘svelte’ but that would be a $5 word and I don’t do that anymore ) and have amazing hair.
No one lives life with one hand tied behind their backs 😉
I binged a lot of manga and anime during the writing of Empire of Sand.
Black Butler, Death Note, Tokyo Ghoul, Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood, Blue Morning, Ten Count… all very influential and core inspo.
You do not need to be a manga/anime aficionado to enjoy this book, but if you are… this information just adds another layer. Because when I say Liam moves with the fluidity & deadly poetry of Sebastian Michaelis, you’ll know exactly what I mean.
And if I ever have the opportunity to turn the Golden Age of Monsters series into a manga, I *hands down* want the art style of #rihitotakarai and #yanatobaso. The scenes will inevitably get spicy, but we have censor blocks for that.
