Forum - View topicVampires in Anime: From Monster to Superhero?
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Wu Ming
Posts: 113 |
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Is it just me, or have Vampires essentially becomes Superheroes in Anime?
In some early horror anime, Vampires were kept as antagonists and monsters. Now, before someone starts shouting about teenage angst a la Twilight or angsty isolated heroes like D from Vampire Hunter D, i just want to make something clear. I'm not talking about that per say, the Vampire hero with identity issues and who feels soooo tortured about his/her existence. Whoh is me, no one can understand, the pain the pain, etc. I'm more referring to things like Vampire Knight and Dance in the Vampire Bund. While angst will always be present (it comes with the territory of being a vampire), there seems to be a quick "writer's move" that makes some vampires acceptable to the viewer. Its all about Hierarchy. There are civilized Vampires who act like European Aristocracy. They're refined, bishounen like, cultured, with an air of melancholy. And sometimes they or their servants dress up Gothic Lolita style to emphasize cuteness. Are they dangerous? Yeah. Will they drink your blood? Of course. But, the mangaka, the writer, etc does everything in their power to box in these vampires, to put them in a separate category. They are Elite, they are Regal, they are Civilized. They are the "Good Vampires." Now of course, all the Peons, the Peasant vampires, the Commoners with "thin bloodlines" etc. Well, they never come out so well in these types of anime or manga. 
And the excuse is always about the Bloodline. The purer your Blood, the more bishounen/refined/cultured you probably are. The less pure your blood...well.... then your just not of the "right sort." And you probably look the part of the Monster than being a Superhero or a tragic Villain. |
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DuskyPredator
 Posts: 15576 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
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Have you seen Hellsing, the supposed good guy; Alucard, could well be called a super hero, he is good looking, and acts like an aristocat. But the thing is, he isn't human, and as good as he seems at first, even the villains who can rip people apart, can end up cowering in fear calling him a monster. Even another vampire protgonist, who fights for her humanity, can get quite monsterous. Fans like to joke about Alucard tearing Edward from twilight to pieces, just becaus he is an insult to vampires, he is quite cool.
But they can be very much like superheroes, one such example is of Moka in Rosario to Vampire. She rarely gets like a monster, perhaps exceot for times like when she threatend to break the wings off of someone. Though in the manga especialy, well there was a character who was vampiric and could turn most monsterous (saying too much would be spoilers). In a way Moon Phase would be another good anime to consider, the vampire is cute, acts like an ojou, and a bunch of the vampires reminisent of superheros. There is rarely anything really makeing them a mindless monster, we get occasional psycho who looks down on humans. But towards the end of the series, a character had the power to see the true nature of things, and when they looked at the innocent looking girl they saw something so scary that they could only yell and stay frozen in fear. Something about her vampiric nature being that scary. Hopefully SHAFT can eventualy continue with Moon Phase. |
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EireformContinent
 Posts: 977 Location: Łódź/Poland (The Promised Land) |
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I think that's not just an anime trend. Similar evolution of the vampie you can see in western pop-culture.
From real fearful demons vampires turned into into upgraded versions of humans. Nowdays artists takes a pieces of "traditional" vampire image to form beings very far from what we are used to take as a vampire. OK, vampires always used to be "made" of humans mosf fearful desires (immorality, no religion and culture bonds), but I think that it went too far. Sometimes the effects are interesting, but often "vampire" is "vampire' only by name. There's that kind of "creativity" when someone takes small creature with beard and axe and call it "elf" |
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Youkai Warrior
 Posts: 505 Location: Sarayashiki |
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That creature with the small beard and axe is called a dwarf, not an elf. Elves are slender, beautiful and have pointy ears. Anyway, back on topic. The truth is, vampires actually do not exist in Japanese folklore. All the anime/manga that have vampires in them are borrowed from European folklore and western stuff with vampires in them. That is why anime vampires might be similiar to the ones you can find in the young adult section of your bookstore. To be honest, I really don't care for the superhero vampire or the ansgty vampire. I like my vampires to be antagonistic like they were meant to be. Also, many people who have written about vampires borrow from the media. They did not do actual research on the vampire. In real folklore, vampires are actually quite scary and far from the angsty "I wanna be loved!" or superhero vampire. Alucard may be fearful at times, but that was all done to make him look cool. The "real" vampire attacks out of nature, not testosterone. And vampires were never merciful toward humans like they have become in today's media. |
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rinmackie
 Posts: 1040 Location: in a van! down by the river! |
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Vampires were created out of the ancient fears of death, disease, sex, etc.
So it's only natural that our idea of the vampire has evolved as society has progressed, which is why today's vampires are more like superheros and less like monsters. That being said, I think we've gone too far in the other direction. Twilight is a perfect example of this. (Of course, some will notice my avatar and say that Vampire Knight is the same way. I don't think so; VK acknowledges the monstrosity of vampires. Or at least more so than Twilight does. VK vampires actually bite, hurt, and sometimes kill people.) While I love the new angsty/superpowered vampires; the fact that they're monsters should always be acknowledged. Plus, I know this may sound weird, but I think the fact that they can never truly be accepted is what makes them so appealing to me. |
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Skylark
 Posts: 827 Location: ORE NO TSHIRT |
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I don't see why vampires would want to be accepted into a society that will perish of old age in the blink of an eye to an immortal. Personally I hate these new protagonist-style vampires - vampires of old were completely badass, all they cared about was getting their next meal, hunting during the night, scaring children, and general acts of awesomeness. Now they cry and bitch about how hard it is to be immortal. Woe is me, I can be the best at anything and everything because not only do I have superhuman powers but I have an infinite amount of time to train myself doing anything. Boo hoo. Yeah it's got to suck so much. Pfft.
I say bring back the old style vampires that don't long to be understood, but instead long to kick ass. |
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DuskyPredator
Posts: 15576 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
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And the romantisation of vampires can be look at pretty far back, I would especialy point a finger at the Dracula novel as a time for changing of image. Especialy if you compare it to the film Nosferatu (or more recent the film "Shadow of the Vampire" which is a fictional telling of the making of Nosferatu) to get the difference of image.
THough in some ways there is also some reversing of where vampires turn into monsters such as 'Blood: the last vampire', the live action 'VanHelssing', and what might be 'Dance in the Vampire Bund'. One of my favirout legends of a husband discovering his wife is a vampire, which mirrors some Japanese legends of Kitsune. Another of my favirout Japanese creatures of folklore with some simularities to vampires are Kapa who apparently consumes life force and quite the monster. One tale even has one searching for it's lost arm, simular to what was in episode 1 of Dance in the Vampire Bund. Though Kapa are also taking more cute look these days. On a last note I thought I would look up on a particular Vampire type 'Stregoni Benegici' (a vampire that turns and fights for church), But I found the name has been dirtied by Twilight. And that was one of my favirout's which could have bearing with anime vampires. |
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DuskyPredator
Posts: 15576 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
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And the romantisation of vampires can be look at pretty far back, I would especialy point a finger at the Dracula novel as a time for changing of image. Especialy if you compare it to the film Nosferatu (or more recent the film "Shadow of the Vampire" which is a fictional telling of the making of Nosferatu) to get the difference of image.
THough in some ways there is also some reversing of where vampires turn into monsters such as 'Blood: the last vampire', the live action 'VanHelssing', and what might be 'Dance in the Vampire Bund'. One of my favirout legends of a husband discovering his wife is a vampire, which mirrors some Japanese legends of Kitsune. Another of my favirout Japanese creatures of folklore with some simularities to vampires are Kapa who apparently consumes life force and quite the monster. One tale even has one searching for it's lost arm, simular to what was in episode 1 of Dance in the Vampire Bund. Though Kapa are also taking more cute look these days. On a last note I thought I would look up on a particular Vampire type 'Stregoni Benegici' (a vampire that turns and fights for church), But I found the name has been dirtied by Twilight. And that was one of my favirout's which could have bearing with anime vampires. |
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Generic #757858
 Posts: 1354 |
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Hear hear! I hate it whenever an immortal (or otherwise superpowered) character starts bitching about their fate like that. Even Alucard occasionally succumbed to this. This is also part of the reason why Cassidy from Preacher is still the greatest vampire character ever conceived. |
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