Kyuuketsuhime Miyu

this is a classic 1988 anime in the fact that it has a great story, great characters, but bad voice acting. Miyu is a fascinating character tipe and has been underrated. i found the VHS for all four episodes in a Little miscellaneous store that was about to shut down and i payed $6 for it. If i had know that i would like it so much then i probably would have payed the man more. If you like classic anime and also are a big vampire fan than this is the perfect anime for you. ... Vampire Princess Miyu is so well done you forget about the bad voice overs and focus completely on the plot.

Vampire Princess Miyu is among one of the many underground and little known anime titles of the late 1980s. Most people would naturally write off shows like these popping up around this time as a sort of generic, simplistic garbage. I can see why though, one does not need to search far to reinforce the pure late 80's cheese we all know. Yet Vampire Princess Miyu does stand out among many shows and for good reason. While the ever growing theme of vampires have been done over and over again, this anime offers a unique approach to the gothic and vampire aesthetic. Instead of just ... shooting for a straight typical vampire story, it offers a lot of difference in terms of storyline and execution. It tells a short tale of a girl named Miyu, whose destiny is to banish demons called Shinma and return them to the land of the dark. She is then pursued by a strange woman who desperately wants to find out about her origin. Already, we have a very unique and engaging plotline. Sadly, despite it's very short length, it becomes incredibly repetitive very fast. Each episode is told from the perspective of the woman who is hunting after Miyu, trying to stop her from taking innocent human lives. It follows an incredibly repetitive and formulaic approach to storytelling, which makes for in turn, very predictable outcomes. Of course, I could not also go without mentioning the main thing that never fails to drag down old school anime: the voice acting. I felt as though if I had watched the subbed instead, I would have gotten a lot more enjoyment out of the show itself. The incredibly laughable and non-emotional dialogue between characters is really what dragged it down so much, but I suppose it's something that was to be expected.

Yet, like with all late 80's shows, I just love the "rough" look of everything. The animation is nothing short of very well down. The mysterious demons and environments are incredibly detailed and add a very great atmosphere. The action sequences, while very few, definetly keep you enthralled. As for the characters themselves, there was a good number of development going on. It delved into all of the main character's back stories without feeling incredibly forced and overdone. It gave a very good insight on each of the three involved. Despite all of this, the very short length, awful voice acting, and very formulaic episodes are what makes it just satisfactory, rather than anything noteworthy. However, the fact that this short little OVA will never see the light of day for most people, it is really worth your time to check out, as it won't take anymore than 2 hours. A very unique and awesome approach to vampire storylines and great use of visuals and atmosphere.

Miyu is a Guardian, a vampire whose destiny is to hunt down stray shinma (demons, shapeshifters, vampires) and send them back into the darkness from whence they originated. Unlike the TV Series, the Vampire Princess Miyu OVA has a secondary lead character in Spiritualist Himiko. Himiko is under the impression that Miyu has something to do with vampiric victims, and follows her around trying to find out what is going on and to get proof.

The OVA's strength is that the stories are much more interesting than most of the ones in the TV series. There are only 4 episodes and each is unique. The weakness ... is it tends to be like X-Files, here is the mystery of the week and the shinma/monster of the week. It gets predictably boring after a while, but luckily the short 4 episode length managed to keep it from being too boring or predictable. If there were more background or an overarching plot it would have scored higher.