Vampire Princess Miyu

Original Title: 吸血姫美夕
Romanized: Kyuuketsuki Miyu
Literal: Vampire [Princess] Miyu

Plot Synopsis

A quiet gothic horror story about a vampire girl, Miyu, who's destiny it is to hunt down murderous demons known as Shinma and return them to their land of origin, the Dark. Miyu is pursued by the Spiritualist Himiko, determined to find out who Miyu is and to stop her from sucking the life blood from helpless humans. Each of the four episodes chronicle one of Miyu's encounters with a Shinma and the humans that it is affecting, from the perspective of Himiko's pursuit of Miyu.

Quick Review

Rating: 5 / 5
Reviewer: Marc
Review Date: 2004-06-27

More unsettling than horrific, Vampire Princess Miyu is a refreshing take on the vampire horror genre, with the focus on creepy, surreal stories instead of angst, gore, and screaming. The art is sharp, the stories and characters deep and well developed despite the short length, and the acting impressive.

Though fans of more standard horror may be bored and disappointed, as a slow, unnerving ghost story with a strong traditional Japanese flavor, Vampire Princess Miyu is unmatched.

US DVD Review

AnimEigo split the series across two DVDs, which feature both languages, a subtitle track, and little else of note other than the AnimEigo-standard liner notes. At least the discs are relatively inexpensive.

Content Guide

Slow and possibly a little intense at times, but pretty much fine for most ages, probably fitting into the 10-up, or maybe 13-up range.

Violence: 2 - Several people die, but not usually on screen, and it is not graphic.

Nudity: 0 - Absolutely nothing.

Sex/Mature Themes: 1 - A bit of stylized romance at times.

Language: 1 - Not much objectionable.

Notes and Trivia

Based on a manga series of the same name by Kakinouchi Narumi, worth noting for its extremely unorthodox frame layout--the loosely drawn lines flow between borderless panels on most of the pages, giving it an unusual but attractive look. That series was followed by Vampire Princess Yui.

A note on the title: The characters used in the title can be pronounced "kyuuketsuki," which is the same as the Japanese word meaning "vampire." However, where "kyuuketsuki" is usually written with characters meaning "blood sucking demon", the final character in the title used for this series changes the meaning to "blood sucking princess", hence AnimEigo's choice of translation for the English title. When the title is written in English in the Japanese comics, however, simply "Vampire Miyu" is usually used.

Availability

Available in the US from Animeigo on two hybrid DVD volumes of two episodes each. Was also available on two subtitled or dubbed VHS volumes, and a set of two subtitled LDs, all now out of print.

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