Vampire Princess Miyu: Volume 1 (1988) – DVD Review

Vampire Princess Miyu, or Kyûketsuki Miyu, is an interesting tale about well, a vampire. The movie broken up into four “episodes” over two DVDs, so we’ll be breaking up our review the same way. This interesting little anime has a nice twist on the vampire sub-genre and really plays more in drama than in horror (which is definitely not a bad thing). Director Toshihiro Hirano (Devil Lady) does an excellent job bringing a fresh look into the tired vampire genre. Note: This review is for the first two episodes in the series.

Rating:

Episode 1: “Unearthly Kyoto” – In the first episode, Himiko Se (Stephanie Denise Griffin) travels to the capital of Japan on a mission to exorcise a young girl, who all the best doctors have written off as she has fallen into a coma. Some speak of vampire attacks that have taken five victims (before she arrives) and, being a psychically endowed woman, she has to find out what’s going on. Himiko runs into Miyu (Annemarie Zola), a vampire who happens to look like a child, but is beyond even Himiko’s years in knowledge. The two play mind games with one another, never giving anything to the other as Himiko tries to figure out if Miyu is behind the deaths in the area.

Episode 2: “A Banquet of Marionettes” – The second episode brings back our two leading ladies. This time, Himiko is brought in to find out about several disappearances around a local school. Strange dolls are left at the site where each student went missing. Miyu returns as well, but it seems that the young vampire (who can walk around in the daylight) is an enrolled student at the school as well, leading Himiko to jump to her own conclusions early on. Miyu meets a young man, who she falls for, but there may be another in the school who hopes to claim the young man .

Vampire Princess Miyu starts off rather slowly, and it’s too bad I can’t do a review based on each episode (they wouldn’t be long enough). Even though “Unearthly Kyoto” starts off incredibly slowly, it builds quite nicely and things start to pick up after the first ten minutes. It’s got a great little ending and actually had me excited for the second of the four-part film. Sadly, “A Banquet of Marionettes” while rather twisted, was too slow. It only picked up any speed when Miyu was on screen, and by the end of that episode I was really just hoping the credits would roll. That’s too bad, because the concept is definitely a nice little screwed up thought.

The animation, while dated by today’s standards, is nowhere near as bad as some anime I’ve watched. There are some scenes where action lines form around the characters, but for the most part the movements of the characters are rather fluid and believable (as much as vampires and demons can be). I would have to say that when the first episode started, there was more than one time I found myself being reminded of other anime series (Yu-Yu Hakusho comes to mind immediately), but if you like that sort of animation, and I do, then you’ll probably enjoy the visions here as well.

Now, you’re all probably wondering about the action. After all, this is a vampire flick. Well, there’s really not much to speak about at all. Each episode has short bursts of quick movements, stabbing, magical powers and a little neck sucking, but you’re not going to get action in the form of Ninja Scroll or Sword of a Stranger. I thought it was interesting how when the vampire attacked it would land on the victim and instantly have drained their blood, sometimes leaving them still standing even though they were dead. This also kept much blood from ever showing up on screen. The only blood that really stood out, to me, was in the second episode towards the end (which is part of the really cool twisted sequence I mentioned earlier).

The characters’ motivations seem to be a bit muddled, but I’m sure that’ll be explained in the third and fourth episodes. Himiko seems believable enough. She’s got a job to do, and it doesn’t help that a fiend is killing people left and right. So, she does what any logical psychically endowed woman would do, she include Miyu in her hunt. However, I’m a bit confused by Miyu. She says that she only kills people that ask her to, and gives them their human desires, but it just seemed a little weak. Even her explanation as to why she fights the Shinma (demons) is a bit vague. Like I said, hopefully I’ll get some more back-story on her over the next two episodes.

As it stands, Vampire Princess Miyu is a pretty damn good anime. Don’t go into it looking for nonstop blood sucking action; it’s more of a slow-burning drama that just happens to have a vampire as an antagonist. With some interesting lead characters, and the potential for some really screwed up enemies, I’m very excited to see how the entire thing wraps up, but for now, if you’re a fan of anime, I recommend checking this one out.

Extras:

Trailers: Tons of trailers for other anime can be found here. My only gripe is the first video is a music video for the series Bubblegum Crisis (which looks really cool), but over the course of the music video you’re taken through most of the storyline, and I think, I’m not sure, you see the very end. That really doesn’t make me want to check out the series if I already know the payoff. Other than that, each of the trailers moves quickly and some really did a great job making me want to check them out (even Vampire Princess Miyu had a really snazzy trailer).