Vampire Anime

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Vampire anime is the artistic style of animation, and it is a common term to describe all of the graphics and cartoon styles in the Japanese art form including manga. 

The earliest anime was created in 1917, but the modernistic style of anime that is used in anime vampire was established in the 1960s. However it was not until the 1980s that anime as Westerners know it reached the world beyond Japan. 

One of the first manga artists was Osamu Tezuka. Tezuka is called the “Godfather of Anime.” In Japan he is of the same level of animation artists as Walt Disney is to the US. Some of the earliest anime to be created by Tezuka is Black Jack, Astro Boy, and Kimba the White Lion. One of the most distinctive features that are associated with most anime including anime vampires is the oversized eyes of characters; it was Tezuka who invented this feature.

While anime is representative of all fiction, vampire anime is popular all over the globe from Australia to North America. A comprehensive list of anime, vampire themed, includes Vampire, Emperor of Darkness: Vampire Dracula, Tezuka Osamu's Don Dracula, Tokimeki Tonight, Vampire Hunter D, Vampire Miyu, Vampire Wars, Master Mosquiton, Kimera, Vampire Hunter, NightWalker, Rosario+Vampire, Blood: The Last Vampire, Vampiyan Kids, Hellsing, Hitsuji no Uta, Shingetsutan Tsukihime, Legend of Duo, Tsukuyomi ~Moon Phase~, Karin, Blood+, Trinity Blood, and Black Blood Brothers. However, of these many vampire anime titles, there are a few vampire shows that stand out from the crowd.

Vampire Knight    is a shōjo manga and anime series that was first released in 2005 in LaLa magazine. The vampire anime series of Vampire Knight stars Yuki Cross who was attacked as a young child by a vampire. Kaname Kuran, who is a vampire, saved Yuki Cross from a sure fate. A decade later Cross meets Zero Kiryu, a vampire hunter who attends Cross Academy. The anime vampire series follows Cross and Kiryu’s through their friendship, which includes Kiryu’s transformation into a vampire. Cross works diligently to help Kiryu as he tries to stop the transformation. Meanwhile, Kuran reenters the story and Cross feels like she is missing some major detail of her childhood encounter with the vampires.

Hellsing is an anime vampire series that is based on the manga Hellsing. The series was produced by the Japanese animation studio, Gonzo. In the story of the anime Hellsing the vampire Alucard, who is a vampire that would prefer not to be, is pals with Seras Victoria, who is a former police officer who is turned into a vampire. The two vampires work for a vampire hunter organization called the Hellsing Organization, which is located in England. 

During their time as vampire hunters a new type of vampire is created. The new breed has been formed by an organization whose goal is to overthrow the leader of the vampires, Lord Alucard. While the two vampires are given the task of exterminating this new powerful breed of vampires, Victoria is struggling with her new identity. The two must fight through their own personal convictions in order to identify the mysterious organization so to put a stop to the creation of the vampires.

In Rosario+Vampire, a vampire anime that includes 13 episodes, Tsukune Aono is just a regular student who ends up attending high school at a private academy called the Yokai Academy that is for supernatural beings including vampires. Unfortunately for him the students hate humans, and will do everything in their power to rid the school of them. As Aono tries to conceal his identity, he meets a vampire named Moka Akashiya. While the female vampire finds Aono’s blood rather tasty, she also helps to protect his identify from the other students. The anime vampire series was released in 2008 in Japan. Since then, the two seasons of Rosario+Vampire have been released to DVD in North America. In 2012 the anime will be released in New Zealand and Australia.

Trinity Blood is a vampire anime series that was adapted from the novel Trinity Blood written and illustrated by Yoshida. The manga artist died in 2004, but his friend Kentaro Yasui continued to write the remaining manga and anime series. As an anime vampire series, Trinity Blood includes 24 episodes that were produced by one of the most successful anime production studios in Japan, Gonzo.

Chibi Vampire, also known as Karin, is a vampire anime series that includes 24 episodes. The anime series first aired in Japan in 2005. For the North American release in 2008, the title Karin was utilized by the production studio Geneon USA, and released on DVD format. The story of Chibi Vampire is also a Japanese manga series that was written and illustrated by Yuna Kagesaki. It premiered in Monthly Dragon Age, a shōnen magazine that is aimed at school age audiences. 

In the story of Chibi Vampire the main character is a vampire girl who must inject her blood into others by biting them, rather than drinking blood herself. If she does not release her blood into others, she will suffer from extreme nose bleeds. She is also different from the other vampires in her family as she is not sensitive to bright light. She sleeps during the night and attends school with humans who are unsuspecting that she is a vampire. However, her family is worried about protecting their odd vampire child from vampire hunters, as she tends to be on her own for the majority of the time. Fortunately she meets a human male, and the two begin having a romantic relationship. The anime vampire series of Chibi Vampire explores the worlds that the vampire girl and her human boyfriend live in.

Anime vampire is a popular form of literature for vampire fans. The plot lines and characters that are invented in the anime style are much more creative than the traditional Western story of the vampire, which typically involves Count Dracula in his aristocratic or Victorian era clothing.