Vampire Princess Miyu TV Vol. #6

By Dani Moure     March 18, 2004
Release Date: February 16, 2004



What They Say
Sharing a dark journey through the weaknesses of the human heart with her only companion, Lava, once an evil Shinma and now her devoted guardian, Miyu lives an endless quest as both the hunter and the hunted.

Once Upon a Time: Unaware of her true identity, Miyu is living as a normal girl with her Mother in the Talsho era.

Confrontation: Stray Shinmas are dying mysteriously. Miyu suspects Reiha, but can't understand why...

The Boy Who Returned: Tokiya is given the power of Shinma, and returns to Tokiwadai as an assassin with the mission of killing Miyu.

The Last Shinma: In order to protect her friends, Miyu must reveal her true identity to Chisato and the others.

The Eternal Sleep: Larva is trapped in a mysterious place and is confronted by the bird Shinma Shidon.


The Review!
The TV series comes full circle to a surprisingly emotional conclusion in the final volume of Vampire Princess Miyu.

Audio:
I listened to the Japanese audio track for my main review, which was a pretty standard stereo mix with no noticeable dropouts or distortions. The English dub sounds quite good from what I've heard, and spot-checking the English track revealed no problems.

Video:
The video quality for this disc is consistent with the rest of the series. Colours come of well, the print is mostly quite clean, and the cross-colouration that appeared on the last disc has been addressed, with little problem in that area here.

Packaging:
No packaging was included as this was a check disc.

Menu:
The usual static menus are here, which means nice and fast access times, but little else; just the same as previous volumes. My main gripe with the menu system is still that there's no individual scene selection from the menu system.

Extras:
With seemingly little for MVM/Madman to go on here, we've had the same extras for every volume, the last being no exception. We get the Japanese opening, and an all-too-short gallery of artwork of the Shinma. While these are nice, in general the extras for the series have been lacking.

Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Vampire Princess Miyu has been an enjoyable series, despite the occasional ups and downs along the way. The premise also lent itself well to the episodic nature that the writers presented in the TV series. But with the advent of the final volume, it's definitely a case of saving the best until last, with the story going back to the beginning, heralding a surprising conclusion that becomes quite emotional in places thanks to the relationships that have been established over the course of the show.

But let's not get ahead of ourselves. The first episode on this disc, "Once Upon a Time", finally reveals something I've wanted to know since Reiha was first introduced, and that's the reason for the animosity between her and Miyu. We are taken back to the time before Miyu knew she was the Guardian. Still living with her mother, whose knowledge of things had been blocked, she is a nice, innocent young child who interacts with the workers at the travelling theatre company her mother is a member of, who seem to have a keen interest in her. As the story unravels, Miyu's mother begins to remember about Miyu's destiny as the Guardian, and Miyu herself meets Reiha, another child without parents, who considers the lead traveller her father.

Quite simply, this episode is great as it really gets at the core of who Miyu is, and her issues with Reiha, and it does this by taking the characters out of the usual series setting and showing them as they were before they became aware of their destinies. It's great to see Miyu's interactions with her mother, and also to see the first meeting between Reiha and Miyu. The ending with Miyu protected above Reiha, and the last words of the traveller actually work really well as the catalyst for Reiha's anger toward Miyu. It's also interesting to note a bit of foreshadowing in this episode, as Miyu's mother keeps warning her not to go near birds, and all the talk of her father being killed by birds.

The next episode brings a close to the Miyu and Reiha story. After Chisato sees Miyu in the background of a news report about a man being killed, her suspicions are aroused. That morning at school, as the girls walk in (sans Miyu, who is off sick), Reiha appears to them to say she is looking for Miyu, and soon vanishes before them. While Miyu begins to wonder if it's time to finally settle things with Reiha, as they cannot live in the same world together, Hisae and Yukari begin to think everything with Miyu is a little weird and think they should be cautious. Chisato, still trying to be the best friend she can for Miyu, refuses to listen, but even she is noticing the strange things happening.

One of the best things about this episode was that it was nice to see Miyu's friends continuing to notice the mysteries, as they have in the past, but of course as the series is now drawing to a close they become more aware and start to dig more into what is going on with Miyu. But the big draw here, undoubtedly, is the final battle with Reiha. It's superbly done, and tells a great story at the same time. Having seen the cause for Reiha's hatred, she finally comes out and explains it to Miyu as the fight unfolds. Because the reasons she has all make sense, I found myself feeling quite sorry for Reiha and what she's been through, which made the battle all the more bittersweet. I was definitely pleased that she survived, though, and it was nice to see Larva involved.

The third episode begins the final arc, though it first may appear to be a standalone story. It turns out that Chisato has a brother, and he returns home from some travelling. When he meets with Miyu and the other two friends, there's a stare down with plenty of tension between the two characters. He uses some kind of power to break Miyu's cup of coffee, and then offers to help her clear up the mess. With the pair alone, he reveals that he's a Shinma, but the two don't fight right there. Miyu is torn over what to do because of her friendship with Chisato, but when brother turns up at school and challenges her to a duel, she knows what she has to do.

What I really liked about this episode is that it doesn't turn out quite as expected. With Chisato's brother sealed, Hisae and Yukari witness Miyu coming back through the door after she fights with Chisato's brother. The sinister look Miyu gives them is very ominous and leads nicely into the next episode. It's also good that the girls follow up on their suspicions of Miyu, going further than ever to find out the truth, since far too much has happened for them to ignore now. Chisato's blindness is definitely indicative of her friendship, but this episode really serves as a prelude to the tragedy that you know will befall the characters before the series ends.

And thus, the final two episodes bookend the series nicely, closing out the story by focusing on Miyu and her friends. As the episode opens, we witness a memorial service for Hisae, who's been killed by what would appear to be a vampire. Yukari naturally suspects Miyu, having seen the book Hisae was studying and pieced together her train of thought. She tries to tell Chisato, but she's having none of it and the two end up not speaking. Meanwhile, another "bird" appears, from the same group that turned Chisato's brother, and proclaims that the strongest Shinma will soon be born. Other friend is searching for Miyu and sees the confrontation, and when it transforms she realises Miyu wasn't the killer, and leaves to tell Chisato. Meanwhile, Miyu faces the Shinma with Larva, but it turns out the Shinma is keeping them there, and that Chisato is actually about to awaken. Miyu leaves to get to Chisato, with Larva continuing the fight. At Chisato's house, she's introduced Yukari to her parents... who are birds. As it happens, Chisato is in fact the strongest Shinma, and Miyu is forced to kill her friend.

It's really quite fitting that the series closes how it does, since Miyu and her friends have been the core of the series throughout, being an ongoing part of the series while many of the stories have focused on the stray Shinma that Miyu has to defeat. The ending is as tragic as you'd probably have expected, with Miyu ending up with only Larva and Shiina to accompany her, as once again all her friends have been killed. It's the life of a Guardian and it's a lonely one, and these last two episodes really show why Miyu's life will always remain lonely and full of tragedy. And though her friends all drop in the end, it never feels like a massacre for the sake of it, as it carries through the story well.

The final volume is as well presented as the past discs, and MVM should be commended for a series of very good discs in terms of production. As their longest series that was also the first to be released in cooperation with Madman Australia ensuring a bilingual release, they can only be commended for the improvements that this release heralded, especially after a string of disappointing dub-only new releases like Blue Gender. The video quality has always been high, with the only real issue being the first disc's, which stemmed from the release format in the US.

In Summary:
Vampire Princess Miyu has been a really enjoyable series. While it doesn't have a strong over-arching story like a lot of shows out there, the episodic nature works really well given the premise of the show, and the ongoing threads and relationships manage to keep up the interest level. Miyu is a great lead character and more than holds her own, but the core supporting cast are also excellent, even if a couple get slightly short-changed in terms of screen time (Larva, in particular). Nevertheless, I'd have no hesitation recommending this show, and at six discs is pretty good value.

Features
Japanese Language,English Language,English Subtitles,Original Japanese Opening Titles,Shinma Gallery

Review Equipment
Philips 28" Pure Flat Widescreen TV, Pioneer DV-464 code free DVD player, JVC gold-plated RGB SCART cable, standard stereo sound.