Use of Tropes: The Heiress

The Heiress was a Joe Lujan directed portmanteau film released in 2023 and had a surround that showed the Heiress (Anthony Avery, Scare Me) as the keeper of several monsters. As she and her servant Opis (Danny Bravo) feed the inmates, their stories become the segments of the movie.

As she introduces the first segment she refers to the captive as a succubus… In truth she is not, rather she is a Yuki-Onna (Judy Lay) or snow woman. Now, in fairness, Bane lists the Yuki-Onna as an energy vampire. Most famously we see her story in the Japanese anthology film Kwaidan. In that she freezes one traveller with her breath, with no evidence that she is taking his energy, but that film does add in a blood drinking element. In this we do not get any definitive energy vampirism – hence looking at the film’s use of tropes.

rough driving weather

The segment is very simple. A traveller, Len (Eric Lum), is driving down a snowy road. Speaking on the phone to a loved one. The weather gets worse, killing his visibility, and so he stops the car intent on waiting it out. It is here we start to notice the big issue with the segment. It is snowing… however the snow is an effect and they used foam. This distracts from the tale as it is clearly foam and not snow. I realise that they were working around budgetary constraints but… As a snowy locale is a primary location for this creature then they should have considered a different monster type and avoided foam.

Judy Lay as the Yuki-Onna

Eventually the Yuki-Onna starts moving around the car, even appearing within it. Eventually Len goes after the woman and she breathes on him, freezing him. There is nothing much else to this story and certainly nothing vampiric. However the use of the Yuki-Onna does link, as mentioned, to vampirism. Foam aside they manage to build a decent atmosphere, with very little to make the atmosphere more palpable the audience has got to trust in the filmmakers.

The imdb page is here.

Anno Dracula: One Thousand Monsters – review

Author: Kim Newman

First published: 2017

Contains spoilers

The Blurb: “There are no vampires in Japan. That is the position of the Emperor. The Emperor is wrong...”

In 1899 Geneviève Dieudonné travels to Japan with a group of vampires exiled from Great Britain by Prince Dracula. They are allowed to settle in Yōkai Town, the district of Tokyo set aside for Japan’s own vampires, an altogether strange and less human breed than the nosferatu of Europe. Yet it is not the sanctuary they had hoped for, as a vicious murderer sets vampire against vampire, and Yōkai Town is revealed to be more a prison than a refuge. Geneviève and her undead comrades will be forced to face new enemies and the horrors hidden within the Temple of One Thousand Monsters…

The review: Kim Newman hit on a fantastic concept in 1992 when he published Anno Dracula, a revisionism of Stoker’s novel in which the vampire won and subsequently married Queen Victoria and vampirism mainstreamed. The first novel took place in 1888 but subsequent novels decamped from the nineteenth century and were based through the twentieth (there were short stories set in the nineteenth).

This novel returns to the nineteenth century (or the very last gasp thereof) and the opening was published as a teaser in Anno Dracula 1899 and Other Stories. It sees a group of vampires, exiled by Dracula, appear as refugees in Tokyo. Offered sanctuary of a sort (the Emperor refused to accept that there are vampires in japan thus there are not) the vampires are taken to Yokai Town, a walled off ghetto where yokai are placed. In this Newman reimagines the various yokai as vampire types (not all blood drinkers, one subsists on tea that he has stolen – and it has to be stolen).

As in his other books in the universe Newman mashes up (alternative) history, mythology, literature and movies – drawing from all areas. Therefore one of the primary vampires in this is Drusilla from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the book contains the origin story of Popeye (not named that) and a kyonsi. The vampire Christina Light is a Princess (originally an American who married into nobility) and a revolutionary. Interestingly her vampire character is light based, being almost luminescent she is described at one point as sparkling. From a Japanese point of view there are appearances of characters/creatures as diffuse as Goke from Goke: Body Snatcher from Hell to various traditional yokai such as kappa, Kasa-obake and Rokurokubi. The primary yokai (though hidden for much of the book) is the Yukki-Onna – the legendary Snow Woman literally consumes heat (sometimes blood, but preferred cold) and the backstory we are given is the folkloric one, which was filmed in Kwaidan. This level of mash-up is a strength but, in this volume, it teeters on being a weakness.

The writing is as crisp as one would expect from Newman but the primary narrative is perhaps less convoluted than in other volumes and this gives more room for mash-up and one felt, just on the odd occasion, that perhaps a level of geek fan-service was being applied too thickly. That is a matter of taste and opinion, of course, and was only a minor grumble. Newman is a fantastic storyteller and strong composer of prose and so for the most part this is all you would wish for in an Anno Dracula book – especially as it moved back into the origin century (even if the setting was somewhat more exotic) 8 out of 10.

Kwaidan – review

Director: Masaki Kobayashi

Release date: 1964

Contains spoilers

Kwaidan was an anthology film based on Japanese ghost stories, specifically those collections of Japanese folk tales compiled by Lafcadio Hearn. The film would go on to be nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the 1965 Academy Awards and win the Special Jury Prize at the 1965 Cannes Film Festival. The DVD edition I used for this review was the Masters of Cinema release, which incorporates 21 minutes of footage not previously released to Western audiences and brings the running length to 183 minutes.

I saw this listed as a vampire film and wondered if that might be due to the segment Hoichi the Earless as it concerns a blind temple singer performing the death verses for a ghostly court. It is suggested that the Court is draining his life away but I didn’t get too much of a sense of that. The other two segments that are not our vampiric part are In a Cup of Tea, which is a strangely rewarding tale, and The Black Hair, which has a strongly moral centre but, despite some accelerated aging, is not particularly vampiric.

caught in the snows

The segment that concerns us is The Woman of the Snow. Two woodcutters, the old Mosaku and the young Minokichi (Tatsuya Nakadai), are caught in a snowstorm as they travel back to their village. The storm is particularly harsh and when they get to the river that they have to cross to get home they find that the boat has been left on the other bank by the boatman. They take shelter in a fisherman’s hut with Minokichi propping a branch against the door to keep the elements at bay.

stood over Mosaku

He wakes in the night to see a woman (Keiko Kishi) standing over Mosaku. There seems to be a glow and she breathes her icy breath onto the old man, freezing him. She turns her attention to Minokichi and moves to him. There is the same glow and he turns his head but she stops. Because he is young and handsome she decides to spare him but she warns him that if he ever tells anyone what happened that night she would know and she would kill him.

the Yuki-Onna

The woman is a Yuki-Onna and that is the name of the segment in the original Japanese. A Yukki-Onna is a Snow Woman and they are a yōkai – we have come across them before in such shows as Rosario +Vampire. The vampiric aspect may not be immediately obvious, but Bane lists the Yuki-Onna in her Encyclopedia of Vampire Mythology and suggests they are a form of energy vampire.

Yuki

In this we don’t necessarily see that but what we are told is that Mosaku’s body was not only frozen but also drained of blood. Later Minokichi suggests she was “hungry for warm blood”. Before that, however, he does not speak of the events – not even to his mother (Yûko Mochizuki). Eventually he meets a woman called Yuki and they have three children together. It is during a snow storm that he looks at his wife, who the villagers have noted never seems to age, and is reminded of the Woman of the Snow. He is not sure that the events were anything more than a dream and so tells his wife his story…

Tatsuya Nakadai as Minokichi

This was a beautifully shot segment, the painted backdrops during the snow storm segment was nothing short of gorgeous and added an eerie, overworldly aspect to the scene. In fact I would say this was my favourite segment in the film, though it was shorter than some (most notably Hoichi the Earless). This is most definitely one for cinephiles, lovers of ghost stories, lovers of Japanese movies and vampire fans alike. 7.5 out of 10 for the segment The Woman of the Snow.

The imdb page is here.

Rosario + Vampire Capu2

Directed by: Takayuki Inagaki

First aired: 2008

Contains spoilers

This is the second season of the anime and I looked at season 1 here. The anime is about Tsukune Aono (Daisuke Kisho) a human boy who ends up going to Youkai Academy – a school for monsters. He meets Moka Akashiya (Nana Mizuki) first, a vampire girl whose power is held back by the rosary she wears at her neck. When it is removed she transforms to her true powerful self and kicks monster butt.

To summarise what I said about the first season, it was harem anime – with a large amount of fan service – but it had a dark heart within it.

Capu2 isn’t the same. It has the fan service, in fact I suspect it has more than before, but the dark heart seems to have vanished. What we are left with is a focus on the ‘harem’ – and the fact that all the main girls – Moka; the succubus Kurumu Kurono (Misato Fukuen); the snow woman Mizore Shirayuki (Rie Kugimiya); and Yukari Sendo ( Kimiko Koyama), a witch – seem more determined to make Tsukune their man. This manifests in something close to bedroom farce at times.

There is a new character in place, Kokoa Shuzen (Chiwa Saitō), who is Moka’s sister. At first it seems that she hates her sister and is always trying to beat her up. For this she uses the bat, Nazo Koumori (Takehito Koyasu), narrator of the show and, it now appears, her familiar, by transforming him into weaponry. Later it becomes clear it is the power starved Moka she dislikes but she loves her true sister to the point of obsession. She is determined to ‘free’ her sister from the constraints of the rosary.

Of course the rosary comes away most episodes but we discover that it really is only Tsukune who can remove it (albeit accidentally). When Kokoa tries to remove it, the rosary will not budge and the tugging hurts Moka. We later discover that the rosary (and an identical one that supports the barrier hiding the school from the human world) were both made by Moka’s father (Katsuji Mori) who is one of the three Dark Lords of the monsters.

There are a variety of monsters to fight and not all are dealt with by Moka. For instance, when a monster with a perchance for curry enslaves the entire school as curry eating zombies it is actually Mizore and her new found culinary skills who comes to the rescue. Sometimes the menace is less in the form of monsters and more in the form of over eager mothers (rather than try to keep things proper – in a human sense – both Mizore’s mother and Kurumu’s mother are keen on arranging a quick marriage and consummation for their respective daughter and Tsukune, Kurumu’s mother is willing to offer herself to Tsukune also).

There are some on-running stories, and there are more of the self-effacing aspects that I liked in the first season – such as Kurumu wearing a rather skimpy French maid’s outfit and explaining to Tsukune that such outfits are all the rage out in the human world, a nod at cosplay. There are more self aware, deconstructive moments in this season with references to specific episode numbers being made by characters and Kurumu, in one episode, saying which character was the main focus in the last few episodes and thus it was her turn to be the centre of the story.

As I say, the darker themes have faded away to a degree but the animation is great fun. 6 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.

Rosario + Vampire – season 1 – review

Directed by: Takayuki Inagaki

First aired: 2008

Contains spoilers

If Lament of the Lamb showed us that anime can be a thoughtful character driven drama, then Rosario + Vampire is almost the polar opposite. It is, what I have heard described as, harem anime – in other words a central male character gathers a harem of female characters through the series and, as such, has plenty of fan service (a concentration on sexual tease for the viewer) – some of which seems somewhat inappropriate – and has a battle system through it that inevitably leads to a fight at the end of each episode with power transformations.

That said it is good fun, has a dark aspect to it, an underlying theme that you wouldn’t expect and, in many respects, turns the fan service aspects – and general anime concepts – around upon the audience in a knowing way.

Tsukune Aono (Daisuke Kisho) is a young man on his way to high school. The thing is, his grades were not good enough to get into high school and then his father met (accidentally bumped into) a priest who gave him (dropped as they collided) enrolment papers for Youkai Academy and thus Tsukune is being taken there. He is the only pupil on the bus. His cousin phones him and has been researching the academy but, before Tsukune can discover anything, the bus enters a tunnel and the signal cuts.

On the other side of the tunnel… well I guess the phrase ‘we’re not in Kansas anymore’ would be appropriate. A scarecrow – that holds the bus timetable – stands atop a cliff, a blood red sea is in sight and the academy is in the distance. Tsukune can get no reception on his phone and walks towards the academy. We see a bat, called Nazo Koumori (Takehito Koyasu), fly by and tell us, “I’m a bat”! Suddenly something hits Tsukune.

It is a bike, ridden by a girl – Moka Akashiya (Nana Mizuki) – and the resultant tumble leads to much fan service. She apologises as her eyesight is blurry due to anemia but then smells the blood from Tsukune’s bleeding nose. She bites him and then asks if he hates vampires. When he checks his neck there seems to be a hickey only.

He and Moka are in the same class but in the first lesson he discovers the truth – this is a school for monsters, hidden from the human world by a barrier and no humans are allowed – under pain of death. The monsters are there to learn integration (in order to remain hidden) and must maintain human form at all times, never revealing their true form. Moka, who has already told him what she is, explains to him that her true vampiric form is locked by the rosary she wears. Remove the cross and her true form appears.

Tsukune decides to leave and Moka tries to stop him but he explains that he is a human – and she has already stated she hates them (she went to a human school and was the odd one out). However another student wants Moka for himself and attacks Tsukune whilst in his true form – that of an orc. During the attack Tsukune pulls the rosary from Moka’s neck and she transforms. The transformation sequence involves bats appearing, her hair turning white, her eyes red and the bats that strike her plumping her ass and breasts up! In true form she is (one of) the most powerful monsters in the school. She defeats the orc and then Tsukune realises that the bus is not due for a month – he is stuck in the school.

The episodes fairly much take that form, short story (though later the stories carry over two episodes), Tsukune removing the rosary and Moka kicking butt. Nazo the bat will tell us how long the battle took and move the story along at certain points. Nazo also makes commentary on some of the character and tells us a little about the monsters that Moka battles. Of course there is also the harem anime aspect.

Eventually Tsukune develops a full harem of girls who fancy him and become rivals to Moka – but still they all become firm friends. The first is Kurumu Kurono (Misato Fukuen), a succubus who wants to enslave all the male students as she searches for her ‘destined one’ the one who can help her continue her race. Having charmed Tsukune and fought Moka she ends up believing Tsukune to be that one.

Later we get Yukari Sendo ( Kimiko Koyama), a witch who begins her episode in love with Moka and ends up loving Tsukune. Her presence went a little too far as she is depicted as very young but at least the series shied away from using her for fan service. There is also Mizore Shirayuki (Rie Kugimiya) a snow woman and, much later, Ruby (Saeko Chiba) another witch. There is an underlying theme in this of loneliness. It is hinted that Kurumu is of a dying race and the others have tormented, lonely pasts and band together as friends.

Lore wise things are limited. Moka can clearly go out in sunlight, drinks blood and is very powerful. We discover that water is a problem; it has a purifying effect and causes her great pain (and makes her look like she is electrically shorting). She can inject blood, much in the way we saw in Karin, though in this case it heals injury. I have mentioned the rosary, this allows her true form to speak to her at times and it very much seems as though there are two actual creatures; the human form of Moka being distinctly different to her vampire form and having a different personality – Moka (human form) is sweet, Moka (vampire form) is cold.

There are a couple of interesting creatures, from a genre sense – the first being a lamia. We have looked at the idea of the lamia in the past and there is some definite cross-over with the vampire myth. In this case the lamia is a dominatrix teacher who likes to literally pump knowledge into a chosen pupil through, what can only be described as, a flower like appendage to her tail. As such she isn’t vampiric, but her presence deserved mentioning.

The other creature is the mermaid. These are displayed as, almost, vampires of the water. They like to lure young men (cue lots of fan service) and then bite them, feeding off their life energy and causing them to age and corrupt it seems. This is a somewhat unusual view of the mermaid, of course.

What I found interesting within the series was the knowing self-effacing aspects thrown in. There are disparaging comments about cosplay, manga fans and the standard male lead characters in manga. What was also interesting was the use of a werewolf in an episode about a peeping tom. The fact that the female characters are up in arms about a clear disrespect, when the show itself uses voyeuristic devices to achieve the fan service aspects of the series, was amusing. We, on one occasion, also get a main character speaking directly to audience and other characters asking who she is speaking to.

The animation style works. Standard animation is mixed with some chibi style and occasional computer generated 3D. What I found most fascinating was that this had a real dark heart to the story, not only looking at loneliness and alienation but also throwing in an undercurrent discourse on racism and the folly of judging others by their race.

It should be said the idea of a school for monsters and magical creatures hidden from humanity by a magical barrier did have a touch of the Harry Potter to it – Harry Potter twisted almost beyond recognition it must be said.

The series proved to be much more than the standard style would have led you to think. 6.5 out of 10.

The series’ imdb page is here.