
Episodes: 4 – 7 English dubbed Runtime: 100 Minutes
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Vampire Princess Miyu (Haunting, VHS)

Available from TOKYOPOP.COM

After watching the first three episodes of Vampire Princess Miyu I had high hopes for the next set of episodes from TOKYOPOP. Possibly my hopes were too high, but the four episodes aren’t as strong as the first three. They still manage to reach the level of “intrigue” but they won’t grab you by the lapels and slam your head on a table.

The first episode of the tape “Reiha Has Come” has Miyu going solo. (Larva, or Lava, is obviously on some kind of Shinma holiday because he doesn’t even make an appearance – he’s not even referred to.) In her Shinma hunting duties, Miyu winds up in the mountains in her pursuit of a father and daughter team who are trekking through a “cursed” area. They seemingly vanish right about the same time Miyu runs across a kind woman who offers her a place to sleep. Complicating things for Miyu is the appearance of Reiha (who appears throughout these episodes) and her creepy as hell talking doll. Reiha aspires to be a Shinma hunter but basically comes off as ultra annoying. Both spend the night at the kind woman’s abode but everything goes to hell in a hand basket when they discover she’s a Shinma

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(surprise!) and has been turning unwary travelers into forest animals. Needless to say Reiha screws everything up in a big way and there’s no happy ending.

“Sepia Colored Portrait” is probably my favorite of this tape. It involves a bitter and twisted professor married to a bitter wife and obsessed with a twisted film he made many years previously. The first time the film was shown the audience was eaten by it. No, I’m not kidding. A

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shadowy Shinma inhabits the film. For creep factor, the Shinma in this episode is right up there – owed mainly to her eerie laugh – but almost comes off as silly. The showdown takes place in the film itself and the Shinma’s defeat should be seen coming 12 miles away by anyone that has seen a film blister and melt during a university lecture. This episode has a happy/sad ending – but it’s certainly weird.

“Ghost of Miyu” doubles your Miyu viewing pleasure by having a shape shifting Shinma. This episode begins starts with a rash of vampire attacks and spooked cab drivers reporting giving a lift to a girl who wants to go to the cemetery. Miyu has real troubles tracking the Shinma down. Fortunately, the Shinma attacks one of her human friends at school and from that Miyu gets the bright idea of using the friend as bait to draw the Shinma out. It works of course, and the usual short, intense battle occurs, with Larva (Lava) getting in on the action too. The issue of identity is touched upon briefly but due to the rapid-fire nature of the action it’s a very short philosophical musing. (“If you’re me and I’m you, who am I really? Okay, time to FIGHT!”)

Rounding out this tape, is “Fate”, in which Miyu meets a brother and sister who are living on the streets. Turns out they have strange powers, a la X-Men. The brother can read minds and the cute little sister has telekinetic powers. Cute sister gets in a knot when she sees how badly brother handles the negative comments about them. (“They’re parents let them out like that?”) And when she’s in a knot, people DIE! The brother is intrigued by Miyu because he can’t read her thoughts and the three form a relationship of sorts. But then the boy meets a sad pathetic dog which turns out to be a Shinma. Complications on top of complications lead to the confrontation. And just as you think there will be a somewhat happy ending when the grotesque dog-Shinma is about to die, Reiha and her creepy doll show up and do something really annoying thereby preventing any kind of good ending.

Combined, the four episodes go to continuing the story of Miyu but they don’t do much to fill in the background details. In the first three episodes we’re given glimpses of the past of the characters, but the most we get in these episodes is the occasional verbal reference. The animation is consistent with the previous three chapters and don’t set any new standards. It was originally a TV show so the quality isn’t what’s expected of big budget Anime movies. Still, the sound is very good – it continues the creep factor set by the first three episodes, especially with the aforementioned shadow Shinma. I’m not a fan of dubbing foreign language features but it’s tolerable here, although I’d like someone to sort out Larva/Lava’s name. Is it just spelled “Larva” and pronounced “Lava”? I’ve got no idea. The topics covered in the four episodes vary quite a bit, but the topics are never explored much. It just throws them out there for the watcher to deal with. Which is not all bad – it marks itself as “mature” even though Miyu’s got her own Sailor Moon-ish catch phrase.

I’m glad there’s more to the Vampire Princess Miyu series. While not quite as addicting as a soap opera, it has its own charm which has it’s gentle hooks in me. Besides which, I want to see Miyu kick Reiha’s ass!

- Omni