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Manga: Vampire Princess Miyu

One really special vampire lady, this one...

"At one time, gods and demons were as one. They were sealed away in the distant abyss of memories. The hearts of the humans who feared the darkness brought this about. For the present, let's call these beings "Shinma". Now, they have awakened from their slumber, and gathered together. On the final night of that Gathering, when the Dark, the Shinma and the Humans meet, a young girl strayed into their midst. This is her story, and her name is..."

Vampire Princess Miyu (吸血姫美夕, Kyuuketsuki Miyu) is a Japanese horror manga series by Narumi Kakinouchi and her husband Toshiki Hirano, as well as an anime adaptation by the same creators. The anime was originally presented in a 4-episode OVA (Original Video Animation) licenced by Anim Eigo in 1988, and was later adapted into a 26 episode television series licensed by Tokyopop and released in 1997. The furigana for the title indicate the pronunciation as Vampire Miyu or Miyu the Vampire - the princess part of the name comes from the third kanji, which reads "hime" by itself.

The series as a whole narrate the adventures of Miyu, a vampire who's been appointed as the one in charge of hunting down the Shinma (god demons) who prey on humans and cross the barriers separating the Darkness from the human world. In her hunting missions she's usually assisted by Larva, a masked Shinma whom she once defeated and enslaved...

Tropes:

Action Girl: Yui Lee from the TV series.
An Ice Person: Reiha has control over ice.
And I Must Scream: Episode two of the TV series. A bunch of vain women who want to be more beautiful consult a Mad Artist about that... and they end up turned into mannequins Something similar happens in the second OAV: If Uncanny Valley Girl Ranka captures you, she'll transform you into a mannequin and keep you inside her warehourse, immobile and listless but still very much sentient.
Anime Hair — Most notably Miyu's Improbable Hair Style. How can she do that with just a ribbon?
Anti-Hero: Miyu fights the shinma not because she cares about humanity or is a hero for the human race, but because it's simply her job and her fate. In fact, she often uses humans to trap the Shinma. Since she also hunts humans from time-to-time, you could make a case of her being a Villain Protagonist as well.
Asia Rune Chant — used by Himiko Se.
Batman Gambit: In the third OAV, Miyu pretends to be helpless against a Shinma and even reveals a part of her true story to Himiko so she agrees to help her free a kidnapped Larva. Turns out Miyu was using Himiko to lure Lemures, the culprit, out of his hiding place so she can fight him and get Larva free.
Battle Butler: Larva
- And Matsukaze, who is Reiha's in the manga.
- Aoi is Ranka's own battle butler in the manga.
- Yui has Nagi, too.
Battle Couple: Miyu and Larva
Big Brother Instinct: Kayo's brother in the TV series starts as this, then becomes a Knight Templar Big Brother and tries to kill Miyu for getting close to his baby sister. To be fair, the boy was under More than Mind Control coming from his dog, a Shinma in disguise. It all ends tragically when Reiha freezes the boy to death, and Miyu has to bite poor Kayo to keep her from falling in despair.
Bishōnen: Larva. Also Garline.
Bittersweet Ending: Many, if not most of the Monster of the Week episodes from the TV series tend to end this way.
Blood Brothers: Miyu and Larva.
Blood Knight: Reiha and Matsukaze.
Body Horror: Aside of dying at the hands of the Shinma, humans can be either turned into Shinmas or be enslaved by them. The results are NOT pretty or pleasing.
Bodyguard Crush: Possibly, Larva towards Miyu.
Bokukko: In the TV series, Yukari Kashima
Break the Cutie - A pre-requisite for a blood exchange with Miyu. Lampshaded in the second OAV when Himiko comments on how Miyu preys on the very handsome Kei and Miyu unabashedly admits that she likes pretty people.
Broken Bird - Oh, Miyu.
- And Yui Lee.
Bury Your Gays: Subverted in the TV series, surprisingly.
Catch Phrase: In the TV series: "Shinma, return to the Darkness!"
- And to a smaller degree, "May you sleep well in eternal happiness..."
Chekhov's Gun: The good-luck charms that Miyu and Chisato get in the TV series. These are some Shinma trinkets that prevent Miyu to sense Chisato's Shinma inner power. Chisato herself didn't know what they were for until she finally awoke to her Shinma blood, which happens after her brother Tokiya dies.
- Chekhov's Gunman: The artist who sold the charms to the girls. He's a very powerful Shinma in disguise, who knew what the trinkets were for and tricked the girls into buying them
Chick Magnet: Kei Yuzuki is so handsome that even Shinma women fall for him
Chinese Girl: Yui Li from the TV series.
Clear My Name: Miyu has to do this in the TV series, when a Shinma impersonates her.
Cool Mask: Larva, and Aoi from the manga.
- Lemures wore a spiffy half-mask in his true form.
Creepy Child: Miyu, specially in the OAV. Also, little Aiko from the OAV.
Creepy Doll: TV series!Matsukaze. Oh God, Matsukaze.
Cynicism Catalyst: Chisato's older brother, Tokiya. His death triggers Chisato's awakening and Face Heel Turn.
Dark Magical Girl: Inverted: Miyu is the main character and she befriends others out of her own will, more than being lured out by them. Reiha from the TV series is a more traditional example.
Dead Man Writing: In the episode "Woman Priest".
Deadpan Snarker: Himiko from the OAV's.
Defeat Means Friendship: Larva towards Miyu. Sorta.
Dissonant Serenity: OAV Miyu calmly smiles and speaks very softly as she burns Lemures to death as punishment for kidnapping and harming Larva.
Does Not Like Shoes: Miyu tends to go barefoot when hunting stray Shinma.
Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette: Ranka, Reiha
Eldritch Abomination: Both Miyu and the Shinma.
Empty Shell: If you exchange blood with Miyu, your mind is in a Lotus-Eater Machine and your body ends up like this. She almost exclusively does this to to people who have more or less good looks and have had terrible losses they'd rather block out of their minds.
Establishing Character Moment: Miyu and Larva have two in the first OAV. One, when they quietly watch the crime scene in Kyoto from afar and walk away. Later, when they pull a Big Damn Heroes to save Himiko from the monster, but Miyu then asks Himiko to stay out of the whole deal.
- Himiko's inner monologue at the beginning of the same OAV counts too, and so does her What the Hell, Hero? towards Miyu for exchanging blood with Miyahito..
Evil Laugh: Subverted: In the OAV's, while Miyu's laughter is more like a soft giggle, it's still creepy enough to send shivers down your spine.
Expy: Garline from the TV series is an Expy of the OAV's Lemures.
Face Heel Turn Chisato, in the TV series.
Failure Knight: Miyahito, who couldn't save his girlfriend Ryouko from being slain in the first OAV.
Foot Focus: Miyu Does Not Like Shoes and neither the manga nor the OVA are short on detailed shots of her and a few other characters' feet. The OVA has one particular scene with Miyu walking barefoot in snow.
- In the first OAV, Unearthly Kyoto, Himiko goes to Aiko's very traditional Big Fancy House for the first time. Then there's a scene focused on her and Aiko's parents' feet (bare, in the case of both Himiko and the father; clad in traditional socks, in the mother's) as they go to Aiko's bedroom.
Friendly Neighborhood Vampire: Miyu sorta tries to be this in the TV series. Emphasis on sorta.
Good Is Not Nice: Reiha is not evil, but God can she be a bitch.
- Similarly, Miyu's work is not to protect humanity but to keep Shinma out. Sure, sometimes she will help victims out and show empathy, but in the end her priority is not to give humans a hand.
Guile Heroine: OAV Miyu is not only a strong Dark Magical Girl, but also extremely manipulative.
Harmless Freezing: Subverted with Reiha and her ice powers. They look harmsless when in action, but they're NOT.
Hey, It's That Voice!: The Dub of the TV series contains several well-known voice actors and Actresses in guest roles, Many of whom are established Anime actors (like Steve Blum) and some never working on another one again. The English dub of the OVA's have Miyu voiced by Yoriko's actress.
Hime Cut: Miyu's hair, albeit it's brown and always worn up.
Humanoid Abomination: Miyu.
I Have Your Wife: In the OAV's, Larva is kidnapped by his Stalker with a Crush Lemures to force Miyu fight him. The other Shinma captured Miyu's parents and put them into a Convenient Coma to force her do their dirty work.
I Just Want to Be Special: The otaku from the TV series, Akiko-chan from the OAV.
I Know You Are In There Somewhere Fight: Horribly subverted. A woman sacrificed herself to the Shinma to bring her husband Back from the Dead, but he Came Back Wrong as a servant of said Shinma and without any memories. Miyu noticed this and deduced that the now-Shinma wouldn't stop killing people and wrecking havoc unless he remembered his past, so while fighting him she showed him visions of his past and tried to make him remember. And he did... but since he was now a Shinma, he was shot to death by the police.
I Know Your True Name: In the OAV, Miyu can't seal her enemy away without learning and writing its name with magic.
Ill Girl: Subverted quite cruelly with Aiko from the OAV, who was thought to be in a Convenient Coma due to Demonic Possession, but Himiko later discovered that she summoned the main Shinma in despair after blaming herself for her parents's death, having survived the accident that caused their demises.
Improbable Hairstyle — Miyu. See Anime Hair above.
Ironic Hell Himiko chased Miyu around because she wanted to hunt the vampire girl down. Turns out she was the person with whom Miyu first exchanged blood, when she was a little girl.
James Bondage: Larva gets hit pretty bad with the Distress Ball in the third OAV.
Japanese Vampire: Quite the subversion, actually. See the main trope page.
Kabuki Sounds: The second OAV and the flashback episodes of the TV series.
Kansai Regional Accent: The three first OAV take place in Kyoto and some characters speak in Kyoto-ben. In the first one, a pretty and young House Wife who's in an old textile store uses "o-kini" to thank the owner; the word is actually an abbreviation of oki ni arigatou, a kinda old-fashioned way to say "thanks" in the Kansai area. (But few seconds later... the poor woman is killed by the Monster of the Week.)
Kiss of the Vampire: Miyu's blood exchanges and the consequences.
Kuudere: Miyu, though more in the TV series.
Lady of War - Lady of Black Magic: While not a swordswoman, Miyu sure is very graceful when she fights.
- So is Ranka, using puppets and Razor Floss.
Lesbian Vampire: There are some homoerotic tensions between the girlish vampire Miyu and the shamaness Himeko who attempts to fight against her.
- In the newest Vampire Princess manga, which seems to be an Alternate Universe set in Imperial Japan, a Miyu Expy named Yuu Kamui has quite the Les Yay with another girl, a Lonely Rich Kid named Yui Shugakuin. See it yourself.
Living Shadow: The Shinma that appears in Sepia Colored Portrait.
Lost Aesop: The deal about lies and living in fantasy, in the OAV's.
Mad Artist: Roh-Sa from the second TV episode.
Mad Love: Ranka and Kei, so much
Magic Feather: Cruelly played with in Miho's episode.
Manipulative Bitch: Miyu, in the OAV. Also Lemures and several Shinma.
Meganekko: Hisae Aoki from the TV series.
Monster Misogyny: In the first OAV, all of the Shinma of the week victims were female: two schoolgirls (including Miyahito's girlfriend Ryouko), a college student, an Office Lady and a House Wife. ^{And we actually see two of the deaths on-screen} Supposedly, that's because the little girl "commanding" the Shinma considered herself a vampire after her parents's death and her life sort-of "ended" when she made the Deal with the Devil, therefore the Shinma believed he had to kill other women since they had the lives that Aiko couldn't aspire to anymore.
Names to Know in Anime: Many well-known seiyuus have acted in the VPM media:
- OAV: Naoko Watanabe (Miyu), Kaneto Shiozawa (Larva), Katsumi Suzuki (Miyahito), Masako Ikeda (Miyu's mother), Mami Koyama (Himiko Se, also the narrator in the CD dramas), Ryo Horikawa (Kei Yuzuki), Yuji Mitsuya (Lemures), Yumi Takada (Akiko).
- TV series: Miki Nagasawa (Miyu), Shinichiro Miki (Larva), Megumi Ogata (Reiha and Matsukaze), Mika Kanai (Shiina), Chiharu Tezuka (Yukari), Hiroko Kasahara (Miho), among others.
Off with His Head!: Happens to some Shinma in the TV series Including the Face Heel Turned Chisato. Reiha combines this with Losing Your Head.
Older Sidekick: Larva.
One-Winged Angel: Several of the Shinma. Subverted in the TV series: when she's turned into a Shinma, Chisato's appearance remains the same.
Ordinary High School Student: Miyu poses around as one, specially in the TV series. She also has three Ordinary Schoolgirls as friends there. Turns out one of them is anything but ordinary.
Playing with Fire: Miyu has control over flames.
Plucky Girl: Himiko.
Himiko: My happiness is not so trivial that it can be found only in a dream!
Pun-Based Title: The Japanese word for "vampire" is kyuuketsuki*
Even though the word in English is more commonly used in Japanese
; however it is normally written 吸血鬼 (literally, "blood-sucking Oni") in kanji. In the title, it is rendered as 吸血姫, with the 姫 ("princess") kanji instead of 鬼 ("Oni"), without prejudice to reading (this also results in Woolseyism in the case of the international title).
Puppet Permutation: Ranka does this to her targets.
Razor Floss: Used by Ranka in the 2nd OAV.
Role Called: Look at the title.
Really 700 Years Old: In both media, Miyu looks like a pre-teen girl not older than 13 but is actually an adult woman. Justified trope: the other Shinma specifically granted her eternal youth so she can take all the time in the world to catch the strays.
Secret Keeper: Miyu's friend Akiko from the OAV and the otaku from the first TV episode.
Shadow Archetype: Miyu and Reiha.
Shared Universe: Vampire Princess Miyu had two creators, who collaborated but had different visions of the character. One had more control over the anime, the other over the manga, and the OVA is a blend of the two.
Shoot the Dog: How Reiha views her killing of humans when they get in the way of her or Miyu's hunter goals. An example is when she kills little Kayo's brother, who is under More than Mind Control: as the kid attacks Miyu, Reiha freezes him to death, and when Miyu is upset at that she lectures her.
Shrinking Violet: Miho Arisawa from the TV series.
Stepford Smiler: Kei Yuzuki from the OAV. He's polite, handsome, popular, from a rich family, and seems to lead an almost perfect life... but is terribly bored of everything and feels that he will never live up to his more book smart siblings. He hides it under his Sheltered Aristocrat facade, until he gets involved in Ranka's plans and later in her feud with Miyu.
Spin-Off: One of Miyu's 'victims' goes on to have her own series, Vampire Yui, which crosses over again during the New Vampire Princess Miyu manga. The Wanderer, another series, spins off from Yui. All were partially translated by Studio Ironcat.
Star-Crossed Lovers: Subverted in the OAV with Kei and Ranka, who find a way to stay together.
Our Vampires Are Different: That goes without saying.
Team Pet: Shiina from the TV series.
The Promise: Larva promised Miyu to kill her when she's tired of her destiny.
These Two School Girls: Hisae and Yukari from the TV series.
Tranquil Fury: "I will not return you to the Darkness. You, I will burn to ashes!"
Uncanny Valley Girl: Ranka from the OAV. Chisato becomes one after her Face Heel Turn.
Unlucky Childhood Friend: Carlua
The Unfavorite: In the TV series, Reiha hates Miyu because her father called out to Miyu in his last words and not to her.
Our Vampires Are Different
Victim of the Week: The first half of the TV series and the two first OAV's.
Violently Protective Girlfriend: More like violently protective mistress, but you get the idea.
Winter Royal Lady: Reiha, in the manga, out-ranks Miyu to the extent she has the right to kill her any time she feels like it.
Woman in White: Miyu's most iconic attires include short white kimonos, with either red (OAV) or purple (TV) sashes.
- Ranka wears a white kimono in the OAV.
You Can't Fight Fate: In the OAV's, Miyu's mother tries to save her from being forced to become the Guardian. She fails.
Yamato Nadeshiko: Ranka, in the manga. She can pull off the look very well in the OAV's; in fact, she and Kei met for the first time when she was walking around clad in a white kimono.
- Also, Miyu's mother in the OAV.
Yandere: Chisato, after her awakening as a Shinma. Arguably, Lemures was a male example... towards Larva
Your Vampires Suck: People keep trying traditional weaknesses on her, such as garlic, holy water, and others, and they never end up working. "Holy water. How nice." "I love garlic!" Of course, she is different.