Follow TV Tropes

Following

Series / Vampire Idol

Go To

Vampire Idol (뱀파이어 아이돌) is a Korean sit-com that aired from 2011 to 2012 on cable network MBN. It's a crazy comedy about the vampire alien crown prince of planet Vampiritus and his three loyal body guards Gabri, Mukadil, and Yariru who get stranded on earth when they crash land their spaceship on their way to see the k-pop idol girls group Girls Girls in concert. Luckily, they end up getting to room at SD entertainment alongside Girls Girls thanks to their earth-side vampire contact's cover as the girl group's senior manager. The vamps have to learn to navigate strange new earth customs all while finding love and training to be k-pop idol stars. Awesomely campy narm and hijinks ensue.


Tropes:

  • Achilles' Heel: A vampire can only be killed by the bite of another vampire.
  • Alien Among Us: The premise.
  • An Odd Place to Sleep: The vamps sleep, not in a coffin, but a piano.
  • Been There, Shaped History: Since he has been on earth for such a long time, Taechi-Taechi-Ups often likes to claim this. However, seeing as he is also a frequent Hustler, it's better to be skeptical of some of his stories.
  • The Big Guy: Mukadil is the strongest and fastest bodyguard.
  • Body Horror: When quick delivery service worker Beon Gae has her Crash-Into Hello with the prince on her motorcycle, he ends up lying in the road with his head completely turned around. She panics that he must be dead, when he suddenly rises like a classic vampire from its grave and turns his head back around like nothing happened. She is understandably terrified.
  • Cannot Spit It Out: Despite actually dating each other throughout most of the series, Woo-Bin and Yoobi still manage to have a lot of trouble with this.
  • Dead Sparks: Taechi-Taechi-Ups' is married to a human woman, nick-named Aegi (baby). However, she has aged over the years while he has not and he is no longer attracted to her.
  • Deliberate Values Dissonance: On Vampiritus, the stocky, dark-complexioned crown prince with average looks is considered the paragon of manly beauty while his tall, pale bodyguards with unique features are considered ungainly and hideous. Needless to say the guards are shocked (and secretly delighted) to find the roles are reversed when they come to earth.
  • Ditzy Genius: For someone who is so smart Yariru can be remarkably dense sometimes. Like, dude, calm down. It's not even a real baby.
  • Dogged Nice Guy: Wangja to Woo-Hee.
  • Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette: The three bodyguards.
  • The Faceless: During the first stretch of episodes Yoobi always wears a hoodie with the hood pulled down and a mask or sunglasses. She hilariously says (texts) that she is trying to defy the idol system and keep her identity hidden while she's famous so that she can live an anonymous life later. However, it is also implied that she is hiding out of insecurity and other characters even speculate that she must be ugly. But of course she turns out to have been Beautiful All Along. Overlaps with her bunny persona Tokki.
  • Four-Temperament Ensemble: Works particularly well for our vampire foursome:
    • Wangja: Sanguine
    • Yariru: Choleric
    • Mukadil: Melancholic
    • Gabri: Phlegmatic
  • Genki Girl: Bang Min-ah.
  • Girl Group: The k-pop girl group Girls Girls. The members include the leader Woo-Hee, the cute but dim Min-Ah, the stylish and bratty Soo-Yeon, and the eccentric Yoobi.
  • Glowing Eyes of Doom: The vampires' eyes blaze blue when they are in vampire mode.
  • Going Native:
    • The vampires' earth contact Taechi-Taechi-Ups has been living as a human so long that he knows more about humans than humans themselves and can't even voluntarily bring out his fangs anymore.
    • In one episode Yariru attempts to build another spaceship to take the vampires back home. Gabri has adapted to life on earth the quickest and is clearly uncomfortable with leaving. By the end of the episode he puts his foot down and declares that he won't go.
    • As the series goes on, it's clear that all the vampires are becoming more and more at home in their human lives and may not want to return to Vampiritus.
  • Gone Horribly Right: Yoobi asks Soo-Yeon to pretend that she was Tokki in order to judge Woo-Bin’s reaction. When he forgives Soo-Yeon for the lie and tries to remain a good boyfriend despite his misgivings, Yoobi realizes she just set up her friend and her boyfriend.
  • Goofy Suit: Yoobi's bunny suit. Though it's actually pretty cute.
  • Gratuitous English:
    • Kwang Hee is the worst offender, always spouting off English exclamations. "Horrible, terrible!"
    • Yoobi's rather embarrassing "What the heol!" and "Dae-to-the-bak!".
    • If you stop to read the decorative text on the walls in the vampires' room... yeah, weird stuff.
  • Heroic Sacrifice: One of the best Tear Jerkers in the show. In an earlier episode Mukadil catches the flu, and Yariru unhelpfully points out the fact that thousands of people die of influenza every year and that is also highly contagious. Convinced he is going to die, Mukadil perpetrates a Sneaky Departure in order to protect the prince from contracting the disease, prepared to Die Alone. He actually gets in a pretty bad way having left the sickness untreated and collapses in the woods. Luckily Beon Gae finds and brings him to a sauna. When Wangja figures out the truth he storms over to the sauna despite Gabri and Yariru's protests. Mukadil tries to block the door but Wangja declares How Dare You Die on Me! and refuses to leave. The two share a touching moment of Window Love before Mukadil just breaks down and lets the prince in. Altogether now: Awwwww! And no one actually died in case you were wondering.
  • Innocent Aliens: A large part of the charm of the show is watching the vampires confront human culture with wide-eyed cluelessness.
  • In Vino Veritas:
  • I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Mukadil will gladly do anything as long as it makes the prince happy, even escort him (in)to the bathroom (ew...) and work a dangerous job as a stunt double so he can buy the things prince wants. Even more heartwarmingly, once the prince finds out about his job Wangja orders him to quit and never do something like that again. Aw, the lovely bromance!
  • Korean Honorifics: Played for Laughs. In the Joseon era royalty was addressed with the honorific "mama", something like "your majesty". The vampires call the prince "baba", his father the king is addressed as "bababa", and his mother the queen is addressed as... wait for it... "mama mia".
  • Laugh Track: Sometimes comes off as forced, but generally unobtrusive.
  • Loves My Alter Ego: Yoobi fears that Woo-Bin's love for her bunny persona is greater than any feelings he has for her.
  • Manchild: The spoiled princeling Wangja is definitely this, which is also the reason why he annoys his crush Woo-Hee to no end. All of the vampires can come off as this due to their child-like pleasure in the new things and experiences earth has to offer.
  • Nigh-Invulnerability: The vampires are extremely sturdy, having been thrown out of a crash-landing space ship, run over by a motorcycle, electrocuted, and thrown off a roof with only temporary effects. They can be hurt, but heal very quickly.
  • Our Vampires Are Different: Super powered Hallyu-loving alien vampires that drink synthetic blood substitute.
  • Overly Long Name: So. Ridiculously. Long. Wangja's full name is so long he credits having to learn it with his memorization skills and good breathing control. He even forces Aegi to memorize it once as a punishment.
  • Parody: Lots of Twilight references. In one episode, Soo-Hyuk stops a car from skidding into Woo-Hee with one hand, as Edward does in the famous Twilight scene.
  • Really 700 Years Old: The vampire foursome are all around 200 years old, which is considered to be adolescence on Vampiritus. Taechi-Taechi-Ups is over 2000 years old.
  • Resist the Beast:
    • Mukadil has particular trouble controlling his bloodlust. In episode 9 "Brand New Experience" The prince tires to teach Mukadil to overcome his urges by making him take care of a chicken without hurting it. This hilariously backfires when Mukadil becomes too attatched.
    • When the group goes out drinking, Mukadil loses control and the others fear he has bitten Beon Gae. Turns out is was just a cat.
    • All the vampires have to go through this when an ancient curse passed down by their Monster Progenitor which makes them loose control of their bloodlust is triggered by a Total Eclipse of the Plot.
  • The Scrooge: President Oh of SD Entertainment (Also Woo-Hee's dad) is a strict penny pincher who is always Cutting Corners.
  • The Smart Guy: Yariru has an IQ of 790.
  • Space Elves: Vampires used to be ravenous blood sucking creatures, but the Surak-like founder of their society led them to enlightenment. Now they have almost completely left behind their bloodlust and subsist on vials of synthetic blood known as ampoules. Mukadil is somewhat of a freak in that he has difficulty controlling his desire for blood. See Resist the Beast.
  • Super-Senses: Gabri's special ability is super hearing. Mukadil is particularly sensitive to smells.
  • Toilet Humor: It's a kdrama right? The vampires need only drink the ampoules to function, which produces no bodily waste. But when they start adapting to eating human food... let's just say it's a learning experience. After his first time, Yariru hilariously freaks out and declares that he'll never eat again.
  • Undying Loyalty: The bodyguards have this for the prince, especially Mukadil.
  • The Voiceless: Yoobi during the beginning of the show. Leads to her becoming The Confidant for everybody. That is until she decides to start talking again and suddenly can't spill the secrets fast enough!


Top