Genki Japan Blog はじめまして。

Time for another Friday Review that was written on Saturday. I've changed the layout to make my thoughts flow a little better, and in fact, I may go back and do that will all my previous posts. Now you won't have to read through an entire essay just to check up on a certain something. Here goes. What happens when you try to revive this fantastic gothic horror story at the peak of mahou shoujo anime? You get Magical Vampire Pretty Miyu! No, it’s not that bad. It’s actually pretty good, but be warned that this isn’t a true sequel to the OAV. Think of it more as an alternate universe and you’ll feel much better. Plot Overview: Miyu’s back, and she’s still hunting those pesky Shinma. Unlike the OAV, the TV series’ focus is entirely on Miyu, with most episodes showing events through her point of view. Because of this, some alterations were necessary, but what the writers ended up doing is quite novel, or cliché, depending on your point of view. Miyu is attending an all-gi...

This is a very difficult anime to judge. Billed as a horror story, the anime (made in 1988) offers a whole lot more than that, and it’s probably one of the best vampire stories I’ve ever seen, period! I don’t like vampires (I’m a werewolf fan, myself), but Miyu’s story is enduring, tragic, and invokes a sense of awe. Himiko is a spiritualist who arrives in Kyoto in order to exorcise a girl whose parents believe to be possessed. Tied in with this odd case is a rumor of people whose bodies have been turning up completely drained of blood. While trying to solve the strange case, Himiko encounters Miyu, a vampire in the form of a young girl, probably aged thirteen or fourteen. She can survive in broad daylight, is immune to crosses and Holy Water, and even sports a reflection! Himiko learns from Miyu that the girl in question has invited in a Shinma, a supernatural, demon-like creature, into her soul, and that it’s Miyu’s fate to hunt down every last Shinma and seal it back in the Dark fro...