YMMV / Vampire Princess Miyu

• Awesome Music: The soundtrack is by Kenji Kawai, people. Of course it'll be awesome. Special mentions go to the OVA opening, Ranka the Beautiful Girl from the second OVA, and "Now comes the conclusion" aka "the third OVA's Tear Jerker song from the Armor Shinma's death scene".
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: In the TV series, Miyu accidentally turning Yaguchi into a baby after biting him, apparently as a consequence of making him happy through her dream realm (he hated his adult life). This breaks the established rules of her bite magic (which had been previously established to be just a mental Lotus-Eater Machine, leaving the body as an Empty Shell) so much that both Miyu and Reiha are left shocked at it, unable to find a sure explanation. Predictably, it never happens again.
  • In episode 22 of the TV series, at the circus, a woman that appears to be inflated shows up without any context, whom is never seen again after this.`
• Esoteric Happy Ending: The artist and her assistant from the TV series episode Love of the Dolls. Surely, they are in a happy relationship at the end, but it is impossible to forget how unhealthy and violent they were to each other either, and one has to wonder what will happen in the future for them.
• Fridge Horror: The reason why Miyu's father seems so out of it is because Miyu's mother gave him her vampire blood. Now imagine growing up with a father who stumbles around life as if in a waking dream.
• Ho Yay: In the TV series, pretty blatant between Larva and Garline, especially from the latter's side: he acts like a spurned lover, mentions Larva's "beauty", takes his hand, caresses his cheek... Considering that Garline is an expy of Lemures, it's not really a surprise.
• Les Yay:
  • In the manga, the difference between how Reiha treats Ranka and Miyu is very... extreme. When Ranka is injured in the process of shielding Miyu from her wrath, Reiha becomes very courtly and kisses her wounded hand. Ranka's reaction to this is a shudder.
  • In the TV series there's also the episode Love of the Dolls where an artist and her assistant end up pretty explicitly in a relationship together.
  • The newest VPM manga, an Alternate Universe set in the Meiji era and simply named Vampire Princess, the Miyu stand-in Yuu Kamui has dynamics like this with the New Transfer Student Yui Shuugakuin.
• Moral Event Horizon: Many Shinma leap over this limit, but some cases are worse than others.
  • In the anime, Lemures crosses it with gusto. Not only he kidnaps Larva and seals him away, but he uses a very cruel trap to recruit the Shinma armor. He tricks a desperate young widow into giving him her life to bring her husband back, but once she does so and dies, the hubby's soul is bound to an armor in his Big Fancy House, making him his memory-less and Ax-Crazy mook.
  • Then we have Chisato crossing it in the TV series, when she murders Hisae and Yukari as soon as her Shinma powers awaken. She has kind of an excuse in the case of Hisae since there's some degree of More than Mind Control from Shidon, but in the case of Yukari she does it outta her free will.
  • By proxy, Shidon crossed it too. Who is he? Well, he's Chekhov's Gunman Shinma that gave her and Miyu the trinkets that kept Miyu from sensing Chisato's growing Shinma energy. Double when he awakens Chisato's powers for the first time... and manipulates her into killing Hisae.
  • And the Shinma that manipulated Miho via preying on her insecurities and her gorgeous singing voice is not much better either.
• Narm:
  • The Kabuki Sounds from the second OVA can be distracting.
  • The abundance of Off-Model animation in the TV series, often resulting into Dull Surprise faces.
• Nightmare Fuel:
  • From Aiko's parents deadpan voices to Ra-en and to Lemures's Shinma servant...
  • Awakening as a Shinma. Alright, one day you Awaken and get some powers and a One-Winged Angel form, but guess what? You will be burned to...an obscure place. Your family will suffer. And then get put into a Lotus-Eater Machine. Life sucks if you happen to have any Shinma blood.
• Retroactive Recognition: Emmanuelle Chriqui voiced Hisae in the TV series English dub long before she starred in Entourage.
• The Scrappy: Reiha is hated by fans, and Himiko isn't really liked either.
• Too Bleak, Stopped Caring: It can be hard to invest emotionally in the TV series when just every Monster of the Week plot ends up with everyone involved dead, worse than dead or in Miyu's dream realm.
• The Woobie:
  • Aiko. Poor, poor Aiko.
  • Aside of Aiko we have Aya, Mari and her sister Rima, Ruri and Mamoru from the manga; Miyahito, Ryoko, and the Shinma armor from the OVA; Miho from the TV series as well as Yukari and Hisae and Yui Shuugakuin from the Alternate Universe Vampire Princess.

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