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.
