Vampire Princess Miyu is an anime tv series based off the manga of the same name. Yamano Miyu is a vampire who hunts down Shinma, a force of evil and darkness and poses as a student. Shima’s are evil spirits who torment others through many different forms. Miyu plans to banish the Shinma from earth with the assistance of Larva, a former Shinma who renounced her evil ways. Larva is also hunted by vampire hunters. Each episode is a monster of the week type formula where a mysterious monster causes trouble and Miyu has to stop them. There is an overarching plot only in the final episodes of the series. It is a fairly long if a bit slow paced show with 26 episodes.
The final episodes are where the story really gets going as it focuses on Reiha and Miyu’s crumbling friendship. Reiha is a vampire hunter who knows Miyu is a vampire and has to reluctantly kill her especially as their friends are now turning up dead. It is also where you start to learn more about Larva and Miyu as their pasts were not revealed. There was not much story development in the lore in the show. You could watch any episode in any order as each has a self contained story.
The animation really hasn’t aged that well and was fuzzy. The art style was appealing and characters movements were somewhat stiff. At least the art was generally nicely drawn and each monster design was unique from one another and the monochromatic faded scenery fits in well.
As Miyu is a vampire, she only feed on the ones who wish to see their loved ones again but its only through dreams as they lay in a slate of eternal slumber. Her character development is interesting as she forms real friendships with her classmates and grows to be a more caring and kinder person. She had excellent chemistry with Larva.
The action in the show is simple and easy to predict who could win. The voice acting was average to say but still serviceable most of the delivery was monotone and lacked any drama. Most of the characters sound more or less the same due to lack of range from voice actors. The soundtrack was generally good though even if the audio quality hasn’t aged well.
Vampire Princess Miyu is an ok show with nothing special or memorable to really recommend it.
It gets 2 out of 5 stars
This is mainly for fans of the series.