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Vampire Princess Miyu: Volume 1
by Shawna James  
Vampire Princess Miyu box
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synopsis
Episode 1: "Unearthly Kyoto"

Good and evil forces swirl through the modern world as half-god/half-demon shinma monsters prey on humans. Self described spiritualist, Se Himiko, comes face to face with these creatures, thought only to exist in tales, as she tries to save a young girl from what the doctors describe as an irreversible coma. But one shinma in particular, the vampire princess Miyu, ambivalently captures her interest and fuels her hate. Miyu claims to save human souls by giving them eternal happiness but rendering them virtual zombies. Himiko eventually reasons that life's adversity and the freedom of action outweigh the kind of interminable joy that Miyu could offer and vows to hunt down the vampire princess.

Episode 2: "A Banquet of Marionettes"

Children from a local school start disappearing mysteriously. The headmaster calls in Himiko to help with the situation once his daughter, who he believes was turned into a doll, vanishes. As Himiko investigates the situation, she once again crosses paths with Miyu, who has transferred into this school as a student. But Miyu is in no mood to deal with the spiritualist, she's contesting with another shinma for a handsome, young boy named Kay. But when Kay refuses Miyu's offer of immortality she sends him and her competitor for his affection into darkness from whence they will never return.

review
With endings ironic enough to rival the "Twilight Zone," "Vampire Princess Miyu" deftly explores human desires, and the ethics behind them. Though "Miyu's" style indulges the bizarre and occult, the integration of detective fiction and supernatural elements grounds the piece in a fascinating and suspenseful story.

The hard-nosed, no nonsense cop common to detective stories takes the form of a hard-nosed, no nonsense female investigator, Se Himiko, who specializes in spiritual phenomenon - as a cop might probe increasingly deeper levels of corruption, Himiko probes increasingly deeper levels of evil.

When she first meets Miyu, Himiko is sure that evil stems from the vampire princess. But when Himiko later discovers that Miyu's mission is to capture and contain other half-god/half-demon shinma creatures, it forces her to re-define how she perceives evil and opens the story to ethical questions about essential societal elements, such as happiness and love. As Himiko follows clue after clue on her quest to find and destroy Miyu, she re-evaluates concepts that are no longer rooted in fundamental truths. Miyu and Himiko remain on opposite sides, and do not represent total goodness or total evil, but rather complex individuals working for separate goals-goals that may be as shady as the characters from which they derive.

Thematically, the shades of gray inherent in human issues burrow into the script as different characters choose how to deal with the "gifts" these shinma offer - and as Miyu's struggles with her own motivations for helping certain people. A boy chooses to live in happiness forever; Miyu grants that wish, rendering the youth a vegetable. Both parties get something out of the deal, yet the anime raises the question of whether the boy's final state of being is worth eternal happiness. Even if Miyu supposedly grants the wishes of humans, ethical questions remain about whether or not granting those wishes aids humanity. Ultimately, "Vampire Princess Miyu" is about human frailty.

"Miyu's" visual style is just as unique as its premise. Director Hirano Toshihiro contrasts the naturalism of the terrestrial world with a stylized demon world hued in blacks and reds, an abstraction of evil. And Kawai Kenji's ominous music chills - a creepy composition reminiscent of David Lynch films. In fact, the quirky attention paid to "Miyu's" sensuous style comes to feel like an independent film - as Toshihiro's twisted structure for "Miyu" sometimes confuses, that confusion manifests as the artistic flair that ultimately makes "Miyu" so fun to watch.



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