Anime and Manga Vampires

02.08.10 / anime / Author: admin
Tags: Cosplay Costumes

Vampires are ubiquitous; from vampires that walk among us to the mythology and media of every culture, we encounter vampires. These creatures and their lore are also universal: no matter how different a culture is, there will be vampiric stories of many forms. This, in turn, has led to everything from bestselling vampire fiction to popular blockbuster films to books about the lifestyles of real vampires. Though the Japanese culture differs in many ways from our Western culture, anime cosplay and manga are often awash with stories of vampire mythology, and what is perhaps most interesting is that their many vampire characters are usually styled after the Western pop culture notion of what a vampire should be. As our own ideas of vampires evolve, they are continuing to show up in Japanese culture.

In spite of having plenty of Japanese mythology to fall back on, the vampire has gotten quite a bit of the limelight in anime and manga. One side of the Western-style vampire is often used: the seductive but dangerous immortal. The realities of a true vampire lifestyle hasn’t quite reached mainstream Japan pop culture yet, so this is not something one would expect to find in a vampire anime.

Being one of the originators of the West’s fascination with vampires, does Dracula show up in anime cosplay and manga? You better believe he does. In Hellsing, the main character is named Alucard. Dracula spelled backward, that is. This Alucard wanders a red-skied night, sleek and creepy, not exactly the count of his namesake. Meanwhile, the manga novel Dark Wars: Meiji Dracula, has Stoker’s count leave Europe to spend some time in nineteenth-century Japan. Hideyuki Kikuchi, the man behind Dark Wars’ clever idea, was also the brainchild of a manga called Vampire Hunter D.

Still, considering that Dracula was published more than one hundred years ago, there has been much added to the image of the vampire since then. If one reads the original novel, they’ll see that this Dracula is not the most attractive person. The more attractive vampire archetype has had numerous influences, including movies and Anne Rice’s books. So while Hellsing’s Alucard may not be everyone’s idea of a pretty man, they have plenty else to choose from. Nightwalker, about a vampire detective named Shido, has its beautiful, eye-catching male vampires. Shido himself, with his long purple hair, may not be realistic looking, but he’ll get girls to buy the DVDs. Cain, the gold-tressed vampire and sometimes lover of Shido, was the one who brought his protégé to the dark side and now teases him whenever he can.

Oftentimes vampires can be heroes, meaning that in anime cosplay costumes they often don’t have negative connotations attached to them. This, however, isn’t always true. In Descendants of Darkness, for example, a vampire is loose in Nagasaki killing people and it’s up to the protagonist Tsuzuki to stop her. Still, it could be noted that she’s acting the way she is because the antagonist of the series brainwashed her, and she never meant to do anyone harm. Furthermore, she still remains undead after Tsuzuki saves her, except that with his help she’s able to regain her mind and act like herself. Just as in the West crosses are said to stop vampires, here, too, religion comes into effect, with Shinto prayer strips being used vanquish the evil in her and bring back the woman’s heart.