What are some Japanese ANIME/MANGA that focus on VAMPIRES?

[amylian2084252]

I need a list of Japanese anime/manga that are about vampires, or have vampires in them, and Japan's imterpretaion of them? Also, if you could basically summarize hat the story says about vampires, like what are the characteristics of a vampire in that particular story, that would help immensely! Basically, any info you got on Japanese myths/folklore surrounding vampires will help! Thank you!

[Tracel]

Hi there,

I didn't think that vampires were a Japanese "おばけもの", and from the few sites I looked at they are not really. The vampire as western culture depicts them, is not really in the Japanese folklore. Most of the anime and cinema that portray vampireｓ are a Japanese interpretation of the Western myth. But the following site suggests a few interesting ideas regarding the かっぱ and its possible vampire-like tenancies.

http://www.answers.com/topic/vampires-in-japan

I have watched a couple of anime that depict vampires, but they seem very western.

1. Dance in the Vampire Bund
2. Bleach - The Bount Arc (vampire arc)
3. Vampire Knight and Vampire Knight: Guilty

If you Google any of these anime, you will get Wiki references, which describe the anime in much greater detail than I could ever give you.

Have fun

トラセル

[community.japanese]

amylian2084252-san, トラセルsan,
kon'nichiwa

Thank you very much, トラセルsan! かっぱ seems to be a brilliant idea to start with Japanese
"weird" creatures

"vampire" in Japanese can be 吸血鬼(きゅうけつき/kyuuketsuki) or ヴァンパイア (vanpaia or banpaia).

As to manga with imaginary creatures, how about very famous ゲゲゲの鬼太郎 (ge ge ge no kitarou)?
Very Japanese, very famous and very interesting in many ways, for sure!
If you want to search on internet, recommended key words are also;
幽霊 (ゆうれい) = ghost
妖怪 (ようかい) = specter
お化け (おばけ) (almost same as 幽霊)
化け物 (ばけもの) (like spooky creature or "bugaboo"?)

Probably you want manga/anime with 妖怪 if you want a list of those with Japanese tastes.

Hope it helps!

Natsuko(奈津子),
Team JapanesePod101.com

[mewes6190]

Hello Amylian-san,

what about the - I guess - most famous one? "Hellsing"? (ヘルシング)

It's modern, funny, gory and all in all pretty good.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hellsing

Greetings
Kurokuma

[community.japanese]

Kurokuma-san,
thank you very much for the information!!
I've actually never heard of it and so I checked the link you provided
It seems interesting!
Thank you!

Natsuko(奈津子),
Team JapanesePod101.com

[mewes6190]

My pleasure, Natsuko-san!
It's one of my favorites and one of the reasons I started learning japanese in the first place. I got the first issue at home, but I still can't read it. 漫画の日本語がすごく難しいですね。

Greetings,
Kurokuma

[community.japanese]

くろくまさん、
そうですね～・・・
漫画 usually has an extremely colloquial language in.
It might be a bit of challenge for Japanese learners

Natsuko (奈津子),
Team JapanesePod101.com

[jeremychinn8628]

As Tracel mentioned above vampires aren't native to Japanese folklore so it'll probably be a bit tricky. They didn't start showing up in movies there until the 50's. If you're simply looking for a list to start on though you can try this page http://www.animeplus.tv/shows-genre/Vampire. がんばってください

ジェレミー

[community.japanese]

ジェレミーさん、
thank you very much for sharing the info here!

Natsuko (奈津子),
Team JapanesePod101.com

[Casandara]

A recent very good and fairly Japanese vampire anime is Shiki. It's set in a sleepy Japanese country village where a doctor tries to figure out what's killing his patients. The setting is pretty typically Japanese imho, but with vampires.

When it comes to anime with Japanese supernatural creatures in them the recent and hilarious Houzuki no Reitetsu comes to mind. It's set in the Japanese part of hell, though Satan shows up on business trips from the European hell occasionally, it features a ton of Japanese folklore and youkai/bakemono and it's utterly hilarious to boot.

[community.japanese]

Casandara san,

Thank you for sharing the information.

Yuki 　由紀
Team JapanesePod101.com

[carronade_503275]

One I would highly recommend is the original "Blood: The Last Vampire" by Mamoru Oshii. It takes place at the start of the Vietnam War on Yokota Air Base.

Its fairly short as far as anime films is concerned but still one of the best. The spin-off series really botched up the main character 'Saya's personality (IMHO) but who knows, you may like them.

Mamoru Oshii is the same creator of the fantastic "Ghost in the Shell" series and films. It's rather interesting that his main characters share curious similarities (!)

[community.japanese]

Carronade san,
Konnichiwa.
I haven’t read them yet.
Thank you for sharing the information.

Yuki　由紀
Team JapanesePod101.com

[Murius]

One obvious choice right now would be 終わりのセラフ (Seraph of the End). I read a chapter in Jump Square and liked what I saw, so it's on my reading list. I has furigana too, which is of some help.

From Wikipedia :

In 2012, the world allegedly comes to an end at the hands of a human-made virus, ravaging the global populace and leaving only children untouched. It is at this time that vampires emerge from the recesses of the earth, likely followed by age-old horrors of the dark thought only to be myth. The vampires sweep the earth and claim it in a single violent stroke, subjugating the remnants of humanity and leading them beneath the surface to safety. This "protection" comes at the price of donating blood to their captors. At the age of twelve, Yūichirō and his friend and fellow orphan Mikaela plotted to escape along with the children in Hyakuya Orphanage. However, this resulted in their deaths and Mikaela sacrifices himself in order for Yūichirō to escape and be saved by members of the Moon Demon Company, an extermination unit of the Japanese Imperial Demon Army. Four years later, Yūichirō dedicates his life to destroy vampires and seek revenge against them for murdering his "family."

And upcoming anime trailer :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NtzDAmRhD9s