It’s not hard to understand why Vampires are considered sexy by so many people. Power, as they say, is an aphrodisiac. And Vampires have power over us puny mortals. (My brain is sighing “Oh, gawd…” as I type that. I just want you to know. lol) Vampires were originally seen as very traditional European royalty, but somehow in the last couple of decades have morphed into poser Gothlings. A sad fate for Vampires, I say. But today we come not to eulogize Dracula, but to completely, totally ignore him, and speak instead of Miyu, a young girl with a mission that makes her a “Vampire” only in the broadest possible sense.

Miyu is completely inhuman, which of course makes her instantly attractive to those puny mortals that even notice she exists. As we discussed in regards to the Miyu OAV, to know her is to obsess about her. :-) Her powers include sucking the memories out of people along with their blood, hence the vampire thing.

In Volume 1 of Vampire Princess Miyu, we are introduced to this iteration of Miyu, and her position as guardian and hunter, fated to walk through our human world to snare random escapee spirits, cage ’em and send them home – kind of like the Animal Cops, only with inhuman spirity things instead of stray dogs.

The general tone of Volume 1 is, well, creepy. Depressing and creepy. With extra creepy on top. That alone makes this a great volume – but you might find that the double helping of irony at the end of the first three episodes has a bitter taste.

Miyu, in between stoping Shinma and sending them back to their dimension, pretends to be a schoolgirl so she can…wear a uniform? Pass as a human, although why that’s important now, isn’t really delved in to. We meet Miyu’s faithful bishie in Volume 1, Lava, so the straight girls have something to watch, too. (For the record – I totally approve of lavender hair on bishies.)

In Volume 2, we get the addition of Reiha, a snow spirit with a tragic backstory, an obsessive grudge against Miyu, and a doll with a rude mouth. Both Reiha and her doll Matsukaze are voiced by my beloved Ogata Megumi. It’s a little-known fact that the characters were specifically written for her and that she recorded them in real-time, switching back and forth between Reiha’s Keigo-speaking girly voice and Matsukaze’s boyish crude tone without pause. Listening to them talk makes me adore MO even more than usual.

Yuri in these early episodes is implication only. Reiha, like Himiko in the OVA, seems to have trouble thinking about things that are not Miyu. And while nothing explicit has yet begun to occur, there’s a vibe with Miyu’s classmates that reads Yuri to those of us who are motivated to read it that way. Again, like the OAV, these volumes are totally Nioi-ke. Sure, we’re making it up, mostly, but it works for us, so who cares? :-) Be patient – there is more to come. Promise.

A meal of Miyu makes a nice change of pace in my school-girl heavy diet, and it’s always good to interject a little creepy into one’s life from time to time, so one does not begin to take happy for granted. Above all – how nice to see girls who look like girls, women who look like women, boys who looks like boys and supernatural lavender-haired bishies who look like…ah, you get my point.

Ratings for Volume 1 and 2:

Art – 8
Story – 7
Characters – 7
Irony – 7
Yuri – 2
Service – 2

Overall – 8

Personally, I totally favor the arrogantly sexy, tuxedo-clad silver-haired gentleman Vampire to the leather and velvet-clad pouty-faced twenty-something set.

Thanks to Ziggr for sponsering today’s review of Red Garden, Volume 3!

In this third volume of Red Garden, the four girls struggle not with life in general, but with specific relationships – with the men in their lives.

Rachel is having serious issues with her boyfriend Luke, who is trying to break through the wall she’s built between them. She’d like to confide, but instead watches helplessly as he drifts away from her.

Claire carries the bonus share, by having not one, but three men with whom she needs to address things – Ewan (called Yuan in this release, but that seems less likely to me,) her brother and her father. We learn that, despite all evidence to the contrary, Claire is not actually dirt poor. Her pride goeth so she need not fall, this time.

Rose and her friend decide to track down Rose’s father, whose absence comprises half of the burden on her family. We learn that he is not *gone,* per se – he is simply absent. Rose decides that his presence is more important than the money he sends to support the family.

And Kate gets to be the target for the schemings of Herve’, who is angry that his sisters are dying and being ignored for Lise. Herve’ decides to scout the enemy by pretending to go out with Kate. Unfortunately for him, Kate is a genuinely nice girl and he’s bound to be disappointed in his attempts to hate her. (Well, not, but you know what I mean.)

Yuri in this episode is once again expressed in Paula’s quiet caring and obsession about Kate. Nothing is stated explicitly, but it is not hard to read the text, sub or not.

This volume was captivating. Nothing *happened,* but what was going on on the screen captured my total attention. I forgot to write a single note as I watched – but I recall each episode clearly. An excellent volume of an excellent drama.

Ratings:

Art – 6
Story – 8
Characters- 8
Yuri – 2
Service – 1

Overall – 8

Kate, to her sister: “I’m all about lemons these days.” LOL

And the cover copy – “Buffy the Vampire Slayer with more visual flair.” Whah? Do these reviewers even watch this stuff before writing words down? Guess they have to say something, but huh??

In Volume 4 of Kurau Phantom Memory, we follow Kurau and Christmas as an unhappy accident allows them a little breathing space. The ship they are on (a freighter piloted by Jose, the man Kurau saved many episodes ago) is boarded by pirates, even as the GPO closes in. In the intervening tragedy, it appears as if Kurau and Christmas have been destroyed, although in truth, they have not.

They head for the Alps, where Kurau grew up with her aunt and uncle. In a flashback, her separation from her father for all those years is explained. And for a little while, the two girls are happy and safe.

The GPO, having captured all the rogue Rynasapiens that they know of, is bored. Ayaka wishes for something to do, when they are drawn into a scandal of a sort. In their infinite wisdom, The Powers That Be are doing experiements on humans, “infecting” them with Rynax energy. And you just *know* they’re doing that for the good of all mankind, dontcha?

One of their experiments, Yvon, escapes after losing it when his pair is sent back to whereever they come from and he’s left alone. Because he is looking for Rynax, he naturally tracks down Kurau and Christmas and just as naturally, drags the GPO after him.

Yvon, desperate to be paired, first challenges Kurau for Christmas, but when Christmas rejects him and says that she would die without Kurau, leaves and tries to commit suicide.

Only, he doesn’t succeed. He’s found by Jessica, a girl who lost her parents to a Rynax accident. While not a Rynax herself, she’s got enough Rynax sign that Yvon feels paired at last. The two of them are happy for a little while, until the GPO arrives and isolates Yvon. Jessica overloads trying to save him and Yvon finds himself alone again, so he goes nuclear.

Kurau and Christmas, hiding in the deep woods, see the explosion.

The thing that makes this particular volume interesting is that it centers around the conundrum of relationship of Rynax to Rynax. Kurau’s aunt sees Kurau and Christmas as sisters, perhaps coloring their relationship in light of the loss of her own sister. Yvon’s desperation and Christmas’ words clearly say that the Rynax relationship is more like that of the Jian bird, who *needs* its other half to survive or it will die. Obviously, the Rynax relationship goes deep, and we, as mere humans color it in the shades of our own understanding.

In terms of Yuri, there’s the above – Christmas’s insistence that she would die if Kurau did, and for me, there’s Ayaka’s uncomfortable memories of Kurau and the questions her apparent death left unanswered.

Kurau remains complex, fascinating and full of emotion. In a world of anime that devolved in the last few years to inane, superficial non-relationships, Kurau stands out as something well worth the time.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 7
Characters – 7
Music – 7
Yuri – 1
Service – 1

Overall – 8

Once again, it is my sincere pleasure to thank Ted the Awesome for sponsoring today’s review!

What better way to start a new week than with a new word! Nioi-kei is a word coined by fujyoshi – the Japanese term for what you probably call Yaoi FanGirl. Fujyoshi are as delusional about Boys Love as you are about Yuri, and as a result come up with all sorts of neat words to describe stuff you didn’t realize needed to be described.

Nioi-kei (pronounced “nee-oy-ke”) means something that “smells of BL.” For instance, Ouran High School which has no actual BL, but because of the preponderance of bishounen and the twin’s playing with an incestuous BL relationship as part of their persona, “smells” like a BL series. In the case of Yuri, it would be something like Kiddy Grade, or Venus Versus Virus. They smell strongly of Yuri, but really, they aren’t.

Today’s review is totally nioi-ke, because although Vampire Princess Miyu OAV Volume 1 and Volume 2 *smell* like Yuri…etc, etc. :-)

The OAV is outside the framework of the TV series (which I am also rewatching). It begins with a girl possessed, an occultist named Himeko, and rumors of a vampire haunting the town.

Himeko learns of, meets, then begins to obssess about Miyu, sure that Miyu is an evil influence, here to destroy lives – and basically nothing Miyu does convinces her that she’s wrong. For her part, Miyu is determined to remain disinterested in human existence, so while in some ways she’s helping people, in some ways she really isn’t. It’s all comes back to the basic concept of existence as a human equaling dealing with stuff, both good and bad, that life brings. Miyu brings forgetfulness to some, but is she really helping? Himeko unconditionally thinks not.

Himeko continues to track Miyu, as their lives become intertwined in a tragic story of a family betrayed – and true to her inhumanity, Miyu involves Himeko in a way that could very well become deadly.

The end remains as ambiguous as the beginning, with Himeko still convinced that Miyu brings nothing good into the world, even if she doesn’t exactly bring evil.

The thing that stood out the most for me was that, at the very beginning, Himeko arrives at the airport with no money in her purse to get a cab or make a phone call. I just started to grin, thinking that these past 20 years have changed things a lot. Nowadays, you’d hop to an ATM, get some money and call your friend on your cell. But Himeko was basically stranded. Also, Himeko was animated in those days, a generation ago now, when adult women looked like adults, and women. It was very nostalgic.

The Yuri is, as I said, totally nioi-kei. You can just about smell the scent in Himeko’s unreasonable obsession with Miyu, but it’s not developed any more than that, not even as service. The mangaka who created Miyu, Kakinouchi Narumi, has bathed more than a few of her works with that eau de Yuri, and has even added a few actual crystals to the Miyu TV series and to her obscure, one-shot manga Utahime Fight.

For a 20+ year old anime, this OAV holds up pretty darn good, I think. The animation is old-school hand-drawn art and yet, pretty cool, the story is tight, dramatic, full of foxes and other supernatural creatures, action-packed and in some way, all very much about people and what makes a human life.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 8
Characters – 8
Yuri – 1
Service – 1

Overall – 8

Thanks be to Ted the Awesome for his contribution to today’s review and also to my wife who bought me the first OAV of the series a really, really, long time ago. :-)

Also thanks to Bangin-san, for his Japanese Words of Anime Fans blog, where we got today’s shiny new term!