Vampire Princess Miyu OVA Anime Review (Spoiler‑Free)

Synopsis

Himiko Se is a spiritualist researching a series of murders seemingly perpetrated by vampires. During the investigation, she runs into Miyu, a mysterious girl who fits the vampire description. But Miyu reveals she has more complicated motivations beyond preying on humans indiscriminately. With her thrall Larva, she battles the demonic Shinma, while struggling with her past and keeping Himiko at arm’s length.

The Good

As with many 80’s OVAs, Miyu’s strengths are in its visuals. Each fight has at least one spectacular moment of animation, either in slick movement or grisly and fun (for those who enjoy it!) gore. It helps that the use of shadow and color is consistently striking, and the work done to touch up this OVA makes the visuals shine further. Miyu and Larva often use fire spells in combat, and AnimEigo’s predictably excellent transfer allows the viewer to see light shining through the animation cels as well as the individual brush strokes that color each scene. It’s well worth the price of admission to see how great this transfer is.

I also found Miyu to be a well defined character. Her base drive to feed on blood, reined in by her desire to keep her humanity, grinds against her human flaws. She misses her parents, gets interested in romance, and harms people when she means to help them. While her combined vampire and human heritage provides her with classic “daywalker” immunities, she’s not Blade. Miyu isn’t a hero, but she’s not malicious either. She’s more compelling than I expected an OVA heroine to be.

The Bad

The “bad” here is less an issue with this show and more a limitation of the OVA format. There are no characters of note other than Miyu. Stories are basic “monsters are killing people!” tales meant to set up fight scenes. That’s what you’re here for if you’re buying an obscure 80’s horror OVA: all vibes, all visuals. You’re watching this to see a bunch of weird monsters get obliterated by a creepy little girl. That’s okay! I’m here for that too, and it’s here in spades.

There is also the issue with the physical release from AnimEigo. At time of publication,  the packaging of this release is completely blank save for a few pieces of text and the bar code due to licensing and approvals issues. At Otakon, it was reported that this may change, but for now, Miyu is advertised as having a completely featureless cover. This doesn’t change anything about what’s on the disc. But if you’re someone who cares about the presentation of your physical media, this may be a major turn-off. Alternatively, it could be something you jump for due to its oddity. Either way, the content of the disc meets the quality standards you’d expect from AnimEigo.

Verdict

Vampire Princess Miyu is a feast for the eyes, as well as a fun schlocky murderfest to dig into after a long day. Miyu’s characterization adds a smidge of depth and humanity that I didn’t expect. But again, I mostly dug the atmosphere and animation here. While it’s a shame that the physical release is marred by the lack of art, I wouldn’t have paid as much attention to this otherwise. Now that I’ve seen it, I can say that I had a decent time with this OVA.

Credits

Original Manga Writer: Toshiki Hirano

Original Manga Artist: Narumi Kakinouchi

Director: Toshiki Hirano

Dub: AnimEigo (1995), Manga Entertainment (1997)

Published by AnimEigo

Thank you to AnimEigo for providing a review copy. Receiving this copy did not affect the reviewer’s opinions as expressed here.

Article edited by: Adam Wescott