Forum - View topicAbout Vampire Anime
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Psycho Sting
 Posts: 21 |
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I was just wandering how come there is so many animes about vampires and why
And how did vampire mythology enter into the anime scene And also how did the vampire mythology transport itself from Europe into Japan 1 more question what was the first vamipe anime and how many are out there now |
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selenta
 Subscriber Posts: 1774 Location: Seattle, WA |
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The only one of those questions I can answer is the "why are there so many", and the basic response is: human psychology. Humans have a wierd obsession with vampires; they are creatures of the night, 'defiled' humans, enjoy being what they are, they feed off humans, are much stronger than humans, live for a long time... it is the very qualities that define what the typical 'vampire' is that helps to explain why we are so fascinated with them. Part of most people's psyche longs to have these qualities (to be inherently stronger, to assert their authority over other people, to live forever etc); the reason vampires in particular are so popular I'd assume is a combination of the fact the exact stereotype in use today is a European one (i.e. foreign and thus cool to Japan), and they have become the the embodiment of man's fears and hopes wrapped up in one neat stereotype.
To be honest... I love the idea of vampire shows and watch everyone I can get my hands on, but I have yet to find one I am truly happy with. Blood+ is way too much of a drama (and god I hate Kai), I just didn't care about Alucard in Hellsing (I kept waiting and waiting for Celes) and the story fell apart half-way through anyway, Karin had some good moments when she half-turned but was otherwise ignorant of the fact she was even a vampire, Blood the movie was pretty good (even if she wasn't a vampire) but the monsters weren't even really vampires at all  , Bloodlust was just terrible, not much point in having vampires if it's not an otherwise normalish Earth in my book, and in Vampire Princess Miyu the main girl didn't seem to have much of any emotions at all (and thus came across as really really boring), not to mention she seemed like more of a magician than a vampire.
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Fui
 Posts: 339 |
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Ah, vampires. There must be a lot of anime about vampires since I've learned the Japanese term for vampire through anime (Kyuuketsuki). Often depicted as either an evil bishounen or a mysterious loli. I have to agree with a lot of what selenta said about them, and Japanese people tend to be particularly fascinated with them. Japanese tend to like to make really cool-looking demi-human monsters (cat-girls, vampires/demons, etc). A recent completed vampire anime is Tsukuyomi: Moon Phase, which you should catch if you're into vampires.
Unfortunately I don't know much about the history about them, but there's so much cultural exchange that I'm not sure if you can get a definite answer to your questions. Here's the Wiki on it:
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Key
Moderator
 Posts: 18404 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
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Vampire stories may not be indigenous to Japan, but they do appear in the folklore of other Eastern countries. In Malaysia, for instance, there's an obscure vampire called penanggalan, which involves a woman's head and entrails detaching from her body and flying around at night, seeking the blood of newborns, little children, and pregnant women. According to some variations of the story, the penanggalan can pass for a normal woman during day (albeit she smells somewhat of vinegar, which she must soak her entrails in before returning to her body) and is only affected by sunlight if her detached parts are struck by it. I'm sure there are others.
And while vampire anime might seem common, they don't appear any more frequently in Japanese media than they do in American media. |
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fighterholic
Posts: 9193 |
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I think though that a Japanese version of a vampire would be some kind of oni, since there are plenty of oni legends in Japan. I have yet to see Vampire Hunter D, but so far the most interesting of vampire anime to me would be Tsukihime, just because it connects to Melty Blood.
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Key
Moderator
Posts: 18404 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
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I can't think of an anime I've seen involving vampires which takes the "oni" angle on them, however. All of them (including especially Vampire Hunter D) take some variation of a very Western approach to them.
Why? For the same reason they're popular in Europe and America: vampires are majorly cool as is. Japan is at least as much of a slave to pop culture as any other developed nation, so naturally they'll wholesale adapt aspects from other countries that they find cool. That's also why Western-style weddings and wedding music pop up so much in anime when characters envision weddings. |
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Deltakiral
 Posts: 3338 Location: Glendora, CA (Avatar Hei from Darker than BLACK) |
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Remember that the term vampire from Bram Stroker novel techincally gets the term from turkish legends. If your interested in a good novel with lots of factual information (concerning Vampire) check out the Historian. But like Key says Vampire forklore can be found in lots of countries, but the stories will vary with culture. Also am I am only person who is bother by how badly the Dracula history has been warped? Like how most think he can't go out in the day, and that sunlight instantly kills him. But whatever, I was a little crazy about Vampires (Dracula in particular) a few years ago when I wrote a short story about them. As for Vampire anime, I have seen Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust that is a fun anime, I really want to find some time to watch the original Vampire Hunter D. As to why there are so many different anime dealing with vampires well Vampire are just so cool. Not only that there are lots of different themes and other ideas that can be presented, case in point blood+. Till next time, Delta Kiral |
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hentai4me
 Posts: 1313 Location: England. Robin is so Cute! |
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I think another important point is that vampires; while super endowed with strengths and weaknesses; still have human features and emotions. Why does this matter? Well it eans that you can use a vampire in many situations, because they still act like humans do, react to things like humans do and face the same emotional challenges, they are also able to integrate into society in ways that a human cum daemon cannot. Now obviously vampires will have different outlooks and solutions to these kinds of problems to that of a regular human but the fact they still face them allows them to be used in a great deal more situations. Karin for example, she's a vampire (sort of) but that's only one element of her character while with things like vampire hunter D it's his whole character. So just because someone is a vampire doesn't mean that has ot be played up but it can.
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selenta
Subscriber Posts: 1774 Location: Seattle, WA |
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Exactly, if the character isn't human at all, it's hard to empathise (sp?).
Not that there's anything inherently wrong with those human cum daemons 
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omar235
 Posts: 1572 Location: Florida, Jacksonvile |
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I think that vampires are cool because they are what people fear about the night just like demons and other monsters. They are creatures that humans aren't able to kill easly, they feed on blood, and they are immortal. I suppose it is because vampires are better than us in certain aspects in which we dream for, like immortality and superior physical ability. They are also a mystery, that mystery is what intrigues us to delve deeper into there origins, so we end up with many stories that are about facinating super humans or destructive monsters that are nearly impossible to kill and can hunt you through the night like an animal. It the fear of the unknown.
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