Vampire Princess Miyu: Nature

吸血姫 美夕 [Vampire Miyu] #5

by Narumi Kakinouchi, Toshiki Hirano

Vampire Yui reappears in Miyu's life, but all is not well with young Yui. Then the ice spirit Reiha's interference causes more problems than it solves. In truth, Reiha cannot stay out of Miyu's business, intruding time and again, much to Miyu's growing anger... How long with this go on?

Genres: Manga, Horror, Paranormal, Graphic Novels

216 pages, Paperback

First published August 20, 1999

About the author

Narumi Kakinouchi (垣野内成美) is a female Japanese manga artist, animator, director, character designer, and an animation director. Some of her work has appeared in the adult manga magazine Lemon People.

After graduating from high school, she began working at Studio Beebo under the direction of Tomonori Kogawa, then moving on to Studio Io, Artland, AIC and other studios where she was an animator, designer, and animation director on many TV series and OVAs. She made her manga and character designer debut with Vampire Princess Miyu. Due to her magnificent artwork, she became very popular even outside the anime and manga scene, doing illustrations and character designs for many other projects.

Kakinouchi made her key animation debut with her work on the 1980 series Space Runaway Ideon. She then garnered great attention as the character designer, storyboard artist, and animation director for the Vampire Princess Miyu OVAs in 1988, and in March of that same year she co-authored the first Vampire Princess Miyu manga, serialized in the mystery/horror monthly manga magazine Susperia.

She made her directorial debut with Ryokunohara Labyrinth in 1990, in addition to being the character designer, scenario creator, storyboard artis, and animation director for the OVA.

Kakinouchi is married to anime director Toshiki Hirano.

Reviews

[Bibliothecat]

Review for complete series



Miyu, guardian of the lost shinma, banishes the demons to their darkness and prevents their contact with humans. But not all humans want to be apart from the shinma – and not all shinma are evil. With that, Miyu does not only face the lost shinma of this world, but also threats of revenge from both sides. Yet it seems there is an eternity left before her task is won.

Vampire Princess Miyu is one of the most confusing manga I have come across and that is mainly due to its clumsy start. You are tossed into the story without much explanation of what shinma are, what Miyu is (other than a vampire but it is obvious that she is not your traditional vampire) or what exactly happens to the people whose blood she takes. After reading a volume or two (and with the help of a little research) I got the gist of it and was able to follow the story for the most of it. It is still rather confusing and the beginning is very episodic – that also makes it more difficult to get into.

As mentioned, Miyu is a vampire. But she is certainly not your traditional vampire. One could describe her as a combination of Western vampires and Japanese lore. What Miyu has in common with Western vampires is her need for blood, her immortality and cold and pale skin. However, she can move freely in daylight and does not take any harm by things such as crosses or holy water. She is not a vampire because she herself was bitten once; she is a vampire because she is half human and half demon.

With her half-blood, she became immortal during her mid-teens and stopped ageing physically. She makes a rather intriguing character because she is neither good nor evil. She hunts the demons called shinma and sends them back into the darkness because it is her duty. She hardly ever lets her emotions get in the way of that. Because of that, she leaves a trail of angry people who come to seek revenge. On top of that, it often seems as though there are two different personalities within her. One of her former life as a human, and one of the immortal demon guardian. Sometimes she will be childlike and has a rather cheeky and playful side to her. But then she can be a competent and serious opponent when her duty calls.

Her whole of being a vampire and needing blood seems vastly secondary; when she drinks someone’s blood, she also gives them their eternal dream. It seems these people either die or continue living in a kind of trance in which their soul lives on in their most desperate dream. In most cases, it is shown as her doing these people a favour. She is giving them their dearest dreams rather than letting them suffer on and grow old in a cruel world. I heard someone say they think Miyu is shallow because she only chooses “beautiful” victims. I would have to disagree with that, though; my interpretation is that she chooses victims with beautiful souls (not that that rules out a beautiful appearance). She has also given it to those who she believes deserve that happiness.

Despite Miyu’s neutrality throughout most of the series – she has let one or the other shinma slip away who eventually became her friends and allies. Most notably, her partner Larva. He was a shinma who was sent to kill her before she became immortal. Instead, he was there when she awoke as a guardian and has been her loyal friend and servant ever since.

Miyu sometimes appears to sway between acceptance of her immortal life and longing and sad memories of her childhood. She questions the loneliness that comes with immortality and feels as though she has failed her mother by not staying human. This gives the series an overall melancholic feeling. While it is tagged as horror, I would not classify it as such. It is a rather dark story with many tragic fates. It is not the type of book you would want to read to make yourself feel good.

So after putting some thought into what exactly Vampire Princess Miyu is about, I am not sure whether to say that this is a good or bad manga (which is always subjective anyway). I have to confess that I found it somewhat dull – it had quite a few boring moments and, as mentioned before, it is confusing and hard to get into. However, there is a uniqueness to it that makes it interesting in its own right and one does start to get drawn into the story once one spends time with the characters. Somewhere halfway through the series, it becomes less episodic and has a few longer arcs and plot points that make it look like an actual story.

However, the one biggest plus for Vampire Princess Miyu is the art. I do not think the covers represent the art very well as they do not show off the beauty of what is found inside. Kakinouchi Narumi has one of the most beautiful art styles out there. She draws the characters with such grace – the textiles and hair in particular. Not to mention the hands; she draws some of the most beautiful hands ever. It is worth flipping through one of her books just for the sake of looking that those hands!

[✨Sky✨ ♏]

3,5 stars

[Starbubbles]

honestly, the stories were fabulous. but sadly, it's been long time since i've read a translation this sloppy. repeat words, misspellings, inproper words, frankly a good chunk of sentences didn't make much sense. i shouldn't have to sit there and try to figure out which word was suppose to be there. i am not the author, so how would i know the intent of the sentence? that's right, i wouldn't. i would say that this is inexcusable for a manga near the higher end of the price range, but this was released when manga wasn't easily accessable. so, that's what the price reflects.

all that aside, i really liked the stories. yes, despite the odd laughing miyu does almost every other page, i still enjoyed it

[Mizuki]

4.5 stars. Well written stories, elegantly drawn characters, a light touch of horror, hopeless longing and sadness.

[Harumichi Mizuki]

Hmm...