Culture of Vampirism : Vol. 1: The First Vampires Were Females

Vampire Girl

Vampire girl conjures up images of youthful supernatural creatures of the darkness. A playful take on the otherwise male dominated role, aka Count Dracula, vampire girls tend to strike a nerve in one's mind. A young girl who has lost her innocence as a child to a vicious vampire makes for an even more disturbing tale. However, Vampire Girl is most famous for being a fictionalized character of manga.

Manga, meaning 'whimsical images' or 'comics,' is a Japanese style of art that was developed shortly after World War II. The art of manga, as seen with Vampire Girl, is inspired by Western drawing styles, particularly of the US. This may seem inconceivable being that the devastating atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which ended the Second World War, was at the hands of the United States. However, the US troops in accordance with their role as Allied Troops went to Japan to aid in the recovery process, and, in the process, introduced magazines, publications, and art in the Western style.

Another influence on manga is ukiyo-e, which literally means 'pictures of the floating world' in Japanese. This well-known genre of Japanese art is based on the artistic medium of woodblock or woodcut prints. Established in the 17th century, ukiyo-e continued throughout the 20th century. This most popular art genre is used to illustrate landscaping, historical depictions, theatrical performances, and motifs of Japanese ways of life.

As with Vampire Girl, manga is an illustrated comic book that is filled with pages of black and white drawings. However, instead of Americanized comic books, such as those based on superheroes like Batman or Superman, the reader approaches manga pages by reading the blocked sections from the top of the page to the bottom, and then from the right to the left, just as one would if they were reading Japanese plain text.

The art of manga is extremely popular. In 2005, the market of manga in the U.S. was equal to $180 million; in Japan the market was valued at ¥24 billion. For Americans, manga was the fastest growing format and genre of books in 2005.

Vampire Girl, which is translated from Omae ga Sekai o Kowashitai Nara? literally meaning 'If You Wanna Break This World,' is a manga that is written by Fujiwara Kaoru. Other manga written and illustrated by Fujiwara Kaoru include Mukashi no Hanashi, Fetish, Kindai Renai, and Rakuen.

The Japanese publishing house Shodensha is the publisher of Vampire Girl. Shodensha is also the publisher of Feel Young, a monthly girl manga magazine that is josei, which means it is a ladies' comic. Feel Young is the magazine that includes the Vampire Girl comic, which has been in the magazine since 1999. As of 2012, Vampire Girl encompasses 17 chapters that make up three completed volumes.

Vampire Girl is a combination of psychological and supernatural story aspects. The plot line of the story begins with the main character, Koizumi Kanna, who is a waitress and a girl vampire, even though she is not aware of the latter. She is obsessed with a male customer whom ordered a burger, hold the onions. At the same time, the customer, Toujou Ren, is equally interested in Kanna because she is a doppelgänger to a woman he knew from many years past.

Then the story continues as Kanna is involved in a car accident. Ren saves her life, mainly because he is so intrigued with whom she resembles. However, the only way to save Kanna is for Ren to sacrifice her parents. Kanna also discovers she is a vampire, which she learns from Ren who helps her to regain memories from her past life.

In Vampire Girl, Kanna is Sianishi's reincarnate, and Sianishi was the past lover of Sebastian, who is reincarnated as Ren. For Ren he remembers his lover from such a long time ago and has pursued her ever since his death. He died from a silver bullet after taking the bullet that was meant for his love, Sianishi.

So for hundreds of years, Sebastian continued to be reincarnated until he could find Sianishi, out of his obsession with his love. Their paths cross several other times until Sebastian comes back as Ren, and Sianishi is reincarnated as Kanna. At that point, the story of Vampire Girl picks back up.

Part of the backstory of Sianishi is that just as Sebastian was waiting to be reincarnated to find Sianishi, she was also waiting for him to come back. She considered the crossfire an accident and longed for her vampire lover to return. However, many unfortunate acts took place with Sianishi during the time following Sebastian's death.

After Sebastian was killed, Sianishi was captured by a circus. The circus performers used her in a 'snuff show,' which is a murder show. Sianishi was raped and her forehead sliced open in front of a live audience. Afterward she was sold to Sebastian's father as his mistress.

By then Sebastian has returned reincarnated, and he discovers the fate of Sianishi. He kills his father out of rage, but then finds Sianishi feels indifferent towards Sebastian, which makes him even angrier. The reason for her indifference with Sebastian was she had suffered so greatly with the snuff show and being sold as a mistress to her lover's father.

By the time Sianishi comes back as Kanna in Vampire Girl, she has blocked out the memory of Sebastian. Kanna is shocked to learn that she has vampire teeth and is actually a vampire reincarnated. As Ren tries to bring her back into his world of vampirism, he has to force her to drink his blood from his mouth. Over time, Ren helps Kanna to remember her heritage and the two reconnect to their past lives.

The plot of Ren and Kanna comes to a blunt end when Ren is pushed into a policeman by Kanna as she runs away from the scene. The officer is pursuing the vampires and has a gun that is loaded with silver bullets just for the occasion. Unfortunately Kanna is caught in the crossfire of a silver bullet and turns into dust, just as Sebastian once had thousands of years ago.