vampires in anime: October 2008 Archives

"Shikabane Hime: AKA" or "Corpse Princess: AKA" is action-packed and tackles a weird subject. Makina, the heroine, is already dead but she still exists among the living. She hunts down the living dead like her and blasts them to Kingdom Come using two guns. It seems she needs to whack a certain number to achieve her goal which isn't revealed in the first episode though.

But fighting the undead can be a tough assignment and she gets the stuffing walloped out of her in more than one instance. However, she gets revived by the priest who runs a local orphanage. He and other men back up Makina during her hunts.

Ouri Kagami, a teen who was raised in the orphanage, sees one such resurrection when a talking cat wakes him up and takes him to the temple where a beaten up and unmoving Makina lies. He later moves out of the orphanage and on his way to his new apartment witnesses Makina plummeting to the ground. She was fighting with a serial killer who turned into some vampire/monster hybrid.

Copying what he saw at the temple, Ouri holds the still form in his arms and Makina awakens. Does this mean Ouri will later be involved in her later adventures? Well duh Sherlock. It's called foreshadowing.

No one stinted on the making of this show so the animation, the background and the music are top notch. Here's hoping the show won't disappoint later on,

I don't think I'll be getting much sleep from now on since there's a bunch of interesting shows that came out this fall in Japan. This includes "Kurozuka" which is based on a 10-volume manga by Takashi Noguchi that is not for kids at all. The manga is an adaptation of a novel.

I saw the first episode and was wowed by the animation, the CGI and intriguing storyline. The anime version also toned down the graphic content of the manga and I think the story still stands.

"Kurozuka" opens with Minamoto no Yoshitsune or Kurou being chased by armed warriors he thinks are minions of his older brother, Yoritomo, who wants him dead. His brother is the first shogun of Japan.

Kurou and his underling, Benkei, end up in the mountains where they stumble upon a cottage and a beautiful woman in red. Kuromitsu, as the woman is called, doesn't question their cover story that they are a monk and his assistant seeking shelter for the night. She allows them to stay as long as they want with the caveat they stay away from her room in the back.

She seems to be taken with Kurou and he certainly likes what he sees.

But there comes a time when he looks into the room and discovers Kuromitsu's secret. She is a vampire and an immortal. She offers him a chance to be with her for eternity. End of episode one.

The story spans a 1,000 years so we will see the characters in modern times in other episodes. I'm looking forward to the next installment.