Vampire Princess Miyu Vol-2 (1988)
Animation Production: Sooeishinsha/Pony Canyon
Running Time: 55
Released by: Animeigo
By Jeffrey Couto

Introduction

Having seen the first volume of Vampire Princess Miyu recently, I thought it would be good to go right into volume two and see the last two episodes of this classic OVA series. If the previous episodes were anything to go by I knew I was going to be in for a fun ride, at least that’s what I was hoping for.

What's it about?

“Vampire Princess Miyu. Is she friend, or fiend? As the eldritch Shinma strive to obtain a foothold upon the mortal plane, Spiritualist Himiko seeks the truth.” - Animeigo's Vampire Princess Miyu Page

Review

It’s winter time in Japan, the skies are grey and snow fills the landscape, muting what would have otherwise been a colorful setting. Himiko, the young spiritualist we met in the previous DVD continues on her quest to track down Shinma and more importantly the Vampire Princess, Miyu, however she is in for a surprise as the young vampire is the one who is looking for her this time out.

It seems that Larva, Miyu’s enigmatic servant, has been sealed away by a Shinma and now the only one who can help him is Himiko. Faced with the strange and unexpected request to unseal him she hesitantly agrees, but only after Miyu agrees to tell Himiko about her connection to Larva and the story behind their relationship.

In the final episode we meet up with Himiko as she travels back to the town where she lived when she was a young girl. As she sits down atop a hill memories of her past come back to life, courtesy of Miyu. What unravels next details the origins of Miyu’s life as a vampire and her life before it. Is there a connection between Himiko and the young vampire that dates back to the distant past?

With the second volume of Vampire Princess Miyu we come to the much anticipated conclusion of the series. By building on the previous stories with two episodes that live up to all expectations and injecting a lot more insight into Miyu, Larva, and Himiko’s origins the creative team not only puts together a very impressive entertainment package, but also manages to surpass their previous efforts, a hard feat in my opinion.

Both of the episodes in this DVD were very much character-centric and focused almost exclusively on exploring the emotions and motivations of the main cast as well as those of the supporting characters. A great example of this can be seen in the "Fragile Armor" episode as we meet the Armored Shinma when it first appears in the snow covered forest and then follow him throughout the story only to see him learn a terrifying truth about himself at the end. Despite the episode’s main selling point being that we get to learn about Miyu and Larva’s relationship it's ultimately this Shinma character that ends up being what makes the story so compelling and powerful.

The final episode then takes us through a completely different path that we’ve taken with the previous three stories as it centers around not Miyu and Himiko fighting the Shinma, but rather the young vampire princess’ past life. This is truly revealing as it shows that she used to be part of a regular family and had the same hopes and dreams for the future that any young person has. Perhaps this is why it's so tragic to see how her fate and destined role comes to be. In the end this was a very powerful episode that stands on its own.

As with the last volume the artwork here is without equal, especially in episode three, which employs a very muted color palette to great effect. "Frozen Time" relies on a darker and more sinister black and red color scheme that gives the story that much more visual tension and danger. It’s really amazing to see how something as simple as colors can be used in the way they are here. In a way they almost seem to go beyond a simple atmospheric effects and become as much of a haunting presence as the Shinma and vampire princess herself. The rest of the production elements fall in place beautifully with a very memorable music soundtrack, solid animation and special effects.

The DVD itself comes with the last two episodes of this OVA, which include:

Episode 1 – Fragile Armor
Episode 2 – Frozen Time

Extras include an English dubbed soundtrack and a an image gallery with various pieces of artwork from the series and still from the episodes themselves. I would also like to give Animeigo kudos for their insert inside the DVD box. Even my wife who is not really into this hobby thought it was great and funny! Won’t spoil it for you though so you’ll have to check it out yourself.

Conclusion

It’s too bad that the original Vampire Princess Miyu OVA was only four episodes long. My guess is that this was more of a testing phase to see if the story could be successful enough to eventually be transferred to broadcast TV as a full-length series (something which strangely enough did happen). Regardless, what was produced for this OVA was tremendous and very much worthy of the title “classic”.

This DVD along with volume one are very highly recommended to all anime fans.

Jeffrey Couto