Vampire Princess Miyu 1 & 2 [VHS]

Given my biased opinion, I'd recommend this to anyone. Its more on goingstorylines across the episodes are more complex than you think and theheroine, Miyu, has interesting relations with her shinma companions aswell as new human ones.
This strays far away from the stunning four episode OVA but still has itsperks. Miyu's character is further developed as her role as The Guardianshows how it takes toll on her own feelings. (This actually becomes moreevident in later episodes and DVD's.)
Despite all the upsides this anime does, I wouldn't advise you to rush outfor it, unless you're already a fan. Mostly because its too expensive.(£18.99 as of 27/04/04) for just three introduction episodes. Unless youknow Miyu and want to see the series through, hold fire and see what elseis out there.

The story of the 4 part OVA movie for Vampire Princess/Kyuuketsuki Hime Miyu isn't the same as this series.
The animation of the Miyu series is dark and it's just oozing the perfect piece of entertainment to be watched during the night. Miyu is a (Japanese) half-Shinma and half-human and looks older than her age. Larva is a Western Shinma and Miyu's companion *and really handsome too ;-D` shame he wears that mask a lot*. I swear this guy could almost be an albino if his hair was a different colour.

In the first episode we see Miyu starting at a new school. Girls are killed and have bite marks on their necks. Immediately as someone who watched this for the first time I assumed it would be vampire-related...not quite. You'd all think Miyu had something to do with it just because she is half-vampire (ok half-shinma) and half-human...well don't jump to conclusions just yet. She is a goodie after all.

Miyu isn't like your typical vamp. She can walk in sunlight and change her eye colour. Like the vamps in Buffy, her eyes go yellow when she's ready to battle, plus she has the power to call upon flames from her hands. As a general point, Miyu has a destiny to destroy the Shinma that roam the cities. They are disguised as humans but when they hear of the Guardian (i.e. Miyu) they show their true selves.

In episode 2, women go missing from the last carriage of a train. And somehow a guy in awesome clothes and stud looks seems to be connected. In this episode Miyu also befriends Chisato and her other two buddies Hisae and Yukari. Indeed a friendship with schoolmates is building but Larva warns Miyu to not get too close, otherwise someone would get hurt.

Episode 3, well this is more like a brief insight to Larva's past. This is only the beginning though. More about Larva pops up later on :D. Anyway episode 3 involves a Shinma that Larva had met in the past. In the present time, this particular Shinma unfortunately still exists - but in someone's house in the form of a mask. Larva gets to show off his moves in this episode and it's really cool ^^.

As I said in the title, the series is worth watching from start to finish and you don't exactly have to be a die hard horror fan to watch this. The level of horror is much like in the Buffy series as a matter of fact. Throughout the series, you do learn about how Miyu deals with conflicts, particularly when it comes to compassion for humans. Her destiny's burden very much sounds like Buffy's you know :P. Anyway I actually wanted to give this 3 or 3.5 stars but the extra star is for admiring Miyu and Larva :).

This anime is amazing. It has such an complex story but doesn't leave you totally confused the first time you watch it (like many other anime!). The animation is some of the best i've ever seen especially for the time (1988)

The music is amazing and had it all in the right places.

This is a great horror (especially the last episode - I would have nver have suspected that....). If your an anime fan this would be a great edition for you collection.