Genre: Drama/Horror/Supernatural
Age Appropriate: Late Teens and above
Emotional Response: Meh…aww, sad…meh…HEY, YEAH!...but meh.
Notable Features: Demons, not-vampires (question-mark?), MORALS, very short battles
Language: Japanese
Length: 1 Season, 26 Episodes
Overall Recommendation: C-; Move along, people.
“Stray Shinma, return to the Darkness!” – Miyu
Hi, everybody! I’m Mike, Mini-Geek Girl's friend, and I’m doing a special GUEST REVIEW this week! This was going to be a post-holiday “let’s give a friend some help and create a buffer,” but life doesn’t work that way so now it’s a “here’s a free review in case you get backlogged” review! That’s the power of teamwork and procrastination combined! It’s over 9000!
So, I decided I would review something a little older on a whim. I was trolling the new releases on Hulu and saw this week’s victim, “Vampire Princess Miyu.” Based on the general description I thought it would be pretty good. This series, released in 1999, is about a half-human, half Shinma (read: demon, specifically vampire) girl trapped in a 15 year-old’s body because, you know, she’s a VAMPIRE. Despite being Shinma, she is destined to rid Japan of these same beings, banishing them into the Darkness to which they apparently should have gone anyway – and the opening credits are there to make sure you know EVERY DAMNED TIME YOU WATCH THE SHOW. She’s got a tall, apparently European (and therefore to be mistrusted) bodyguard named Larva – because ANIME – and a familiar, more or less, named Shiina. Throughout the course of the series, we discover more about sometimes-friend-sometimes-enemy Reiha, and about three school friends, focusing mostly on Chisato. Some history about Miyu and her parents is also revealed later in the series. We, the viewers, follow Miyu through her exploits in making friends, figuring out who she is, was, and where she fits in the world, and coming to final resolution.
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First things first, this series has some major timing issues. The first episode throws you in without telling you anything, placing you in the perspective of an Otaku student who first sees Miyu and tries to figure out what Miyu is. Normally, an anime would keep that first character around past episode one to develop plot lines, flesh out characters, and perhaps become an integral part in Miyu’s own character development. NOPE. After episode one, the point of which seems to be only hammering the vampire idea into the viewer’s head with a jackhammer, the character disappears without a word. Unfortunately, this is precedent for the majority of the episodes in the series: start with either a school scene or minor character scene, develop minor characters, enter Shinma, enter Miyu and/or Reina and, after an anti-climactic battle, end episode. So it starts super fast, becomes super slow, and then ends with super-fast character development!
As you might have guessed, character development is left wanting and it didn’t seem as though the writers cared about it until later in the series. In other words, timing was a problem on several levels. In short, character development was almost non-existent, at least for the major characters. Through most of the series I felt I knew more about and related more to the minor characters who were the victims for the Shinma, or even about Chisato, than I did Miyu. We end up learning more about both Miyu, Reiha and their combined stories, as well as a bit about Larva, in the latter half of the series but it takes SO LONG to get there. I seriously considered giving up on the series, something I am very reluctant to do. As a consequence, the balance is off through the entire series. Looking back, the series seems to be more about 1) the humans who let Shinma into their lives or are otherwise effected by Shinma; 2) Miyu’s school friends; 3) Reiha; and 4) Miyu, in drastically decreasing order of importance. This formula changes at the end, seemingly because the writers collectively decided they screwed up by not giving any back-story or context. Of course, they decided to fix it by dedicating whole episodes to storyline, with pertinent battle scenes peppered in, providing a odd consequential note when the composition is already flawed.
In spite of timing issues and lacking character development a theme can be discerned, but again it leaves the viewer wanting. With certain exceptions, usually the episodes in which the writers threw character development, all of the episodes had some kind of theme – at least at first. The Shinma, we’re told, enter (or possess) human beings and destroy them through weaknesses in their hearts. These come out through character flaws somewhat reminiscent of the movie “Se7en.” As I reflected on episodes, I felt that the series was really more of a shallow moral commentary than anything else, which added to the two-dimensional feeling of the series. Even this formula was later abandoned, as Shinma started to attack human beings increasingly for no reason without explanation – there was no force making them “bolder” nor was Miyu slacking in her duties. The only explanation is, once again, the writers trying to tie what exists of the plot to some sort of character development but in their haste grace is lacking.
Speaking of battles, a word is deserved. Most episodes end with the death of at least one Shinma. Please don’t expect those battles to be good battles. Because of the focus on minor character development alluded to above, most battles last less than 5 minutes and probably much less than that. The only really good battle comes in the latter third of the series – I won’t ruin the episode for those of you who choose to watch. Even where there is potential for a good battle to be had, Larva comes in and makes things far too easy. I was just overall sorely disappointed. Of course, this made the good battles really good, but on the balance it wasn’t worth it.
Overall, this is a poor anime. It’s hard to get into. It doesn’t really have a hook besides the nagging question of “what the hell is going on here?!” It’s poorly constructed. The characters are one-dimensional and shallow. We never really see Miyu being a vampire save rarely (despite the show’s insistence that she is) and, more fatally, Miyu’s raison d’etre is given as “destiny.” No more, no less – although a motive appears later in the series (and yet another wasted opportunity for character development). There is simply so much more that could have been done for this anime. There were parts where it shone; there is one hell of a twist at the end! Sadly, the end is the only place where it is good.
Still considering watching the anime? Do yourself a favor and pick up a good book or, better yet, watch a different anime. Cowboy Bebop is always good and, for the older viewers out there, Kill La Kill has had a fantastic first season. Otherwise, don’t say I didn’t warn you.
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Next time on Anime for the Mini Geek Girl: Sekai Ichi Hatsukoi
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