Miyu TV series ended March 1998. When the TV series started I was much much moved and I started this page enthusiastically. I exchanged emails with the story-editor of the TV series. But,,, well, this "but" means I sort of have some negative impression from the TV series.
It's difficult, I mean to criticize. I watched all of the episodes and recorded all into video cassettes, and also I am sure to buy the LDs of the TV series when released.
Miyu's world is something, sort of, between the reality and illusion. I think the OVA series and also TV series deal with the sort of world or phenomena between the reality and illusion. There are a lot of mysterious and awful phenomena or cases. Most of them are caused by human illusion, or simply by human imagination. But people fear them, people try to avoid or escape from something awful and mysterious. Awful phenomena are awful because people don't know what they actually are or what are the causes of such phenomena. So, people try to give a name to them, such like they are the evil deeds of "Evil gods" , "Evil demons", or "Evil ghosts." When they define such a mysterious phenomenon as the phenomenon caused by something "named," they become less awful. The first episode of OVA series explains "A specter called by its true name loses the power..." Yes, when the awful phenomenon is named, the phenomenon becomes less awful.
And then, the mysterious and awful phenomena or cases are solved or terminated before people notice them. And the people concerned do not talk about them any more afterwards, and in some cases, they get out of mind. These may happen.
Miyu series explains that "those mysterious phenomena are caused by God-demons" and "if such a phenomenon ends, it is terminated by some coordinator or overseer that is ever trying to stop mysterious phenomena." And also such a existence (i.e. overseer) always erases the memory of the phenomenon from those concerned. There's no reason, but people tend to consider that such an overseer itself is a sort of evil being, and the overseer is ever trying to govern or constrain the activity of his or her kins, evil beings. Gods and demons are the same beings. When the being does something good to the humanity, the being is called "God" while bad they are called "demon" although their nature remains the same. Gods do not do something good to humanity for the sake of humanity. Gods' will is randum. However, gods or demons consider that they themselves should not concern deeply with humanity, because it's troublesome to deal with. So, some member of gods or demons set an coordinator or overseer to regulate the relationships between gods/demons and humanity.
However, tt is what people imagine that the evil and mysterious phenomenon is caused by the god-demons and there is a being that regulate and oversee the activity of evil god-demons. So Miyu says in the OVA version "the truth is always within people." The whole OVA series may be regarded as the hyposis or illusion of Himiko. Himiko encounters a lot of mysterious phenomena and she tries to explain those phenomena. She finds that if she supposes the existence of the god-demons and the existence of the overseer "Miyu," all of mysterious phenomena are easily explained. And the OVA series describes the process of Himiko's understanding of those mysterious phenomena with the senario full of illusions.
To conserve the mysteriosity within the god-demons, we should leave them unexplained. It's OK to name them "God-demons" though to leave them mysterious, we should not father structure their world. But, we are curious about the structure of their world. The structure that there are three mutulally opposite beings, 1) goddemons, 2) humanity, and 3) an overseer. People try to think further about the structure. There are superior people or leaders of the people, so there must be the superior of god-demons or leaders of the goddemons. The further we consider about the structure of the goddemon world, the less mysterious they are, and the more they become humane.
In a decade, Miyu's world (i.e. goddemons' world) went less mysterious because of a lot of explanations by structuring Miyu's world. If the story line of Miyu series is something like that of RPG, the structure of the mysterious world makes it easy to form the exciting story where Miyu always encounter stronger enemy, and Miyu get more powerful with clearing each battle. OVA series does not deal with the detailed structure of Miyu's world thus the series remains mysterious. The comic series "New Miyu" deals with the structure thus the series is something like RPG.
The TV series is something between OVA series and the comic series. Something between the mysterious series and the PRG story. OVA series ends in mystery but Miyu in the series has a strong will under the strong constraints or her destiny. Miyu is destined to capture goddemons, and she is willing to do so for the purpose that she be released from the destination. However, Miyu's existence is quite light, because she is sort of the existence in the imagination of Himiko. The Miyu in the TV series, however, is not so much destined, while she is the main character of the series hence her existence is quite heavy. So Miyu in TV series is just like a teacher's pet who unwillingly scolds bad students in the class, and as the result, revenged by the bad students. Miyu in the TV series is challenged by Chisato, in the final episode. Chisato was the best friend of Miyu though she is moved by the bird-demons.
Anyhow, Miyu in the TV series is trifled by the people around her while she gets nothing particular. She does not have strong character, strong will. A very unwilling girl is trifled by the people around her. And her struggle is explained as the destiny. Nothing more than that.
If Miyu 2 or Miyu Z is aired, I expect the Miyu with strong will.
The new series of "Vampire Miyu" started! It is really amazing! Most of MIYU fans had been afraid of the new series until they actually watch the first episode. Many had considered that Miyu should be played by Watanabe Naoko as it was in OVA series. Many had considered that the new series might follow the comic version "New Vampire Miyu" which is actually far different from OVA series.
We are satisfied by the first episode of TV series. It was great. Although the voice of Nagasawa Miki (Known as the voice actress for Maya in Evangelion, Sakura in KeyTheMetalIdol) is quite different from Watanabe Naoko, Nagasawa's voice becomes Miyu. The story line of the first episode is rather close to that of the episode 1 of the OVA series. The atmosphere and image are exactly those of OVA series.
This new TV series "Vampire Miyu" is truly the successor of OVA series and is exactly the series that the Miyu fans all over the world have been waiting for!
Well, Episode 2 has a slightly different taste from that of Episode 1. The story line is like a horror school drama with many mysterious accidents. Miyu now have three friends in the new school and they act like Sailor warriors in Sailormoon series (^^;
The episode 3 returns to the OVA mode. The story itself is slightly complex.
In the episode 4, the new heroine Reiha (Chillfeather) appears! She is also a hunter of goddemons. In this sense Reiha is a rival of Miyu. Ogata Megumi (who played Shinji in Eva) plays Reiha and her little baby. She speaks differently according to the character. Well, the episode 4 is something quite different from the previous stories. You can enjoy the scenes of nostalgic Japan.
Episode 6 was very good! I think the best in the series so far. Although the design of goddemon is slightly cheap, the story is good and is very convincing. It took a while before I started to write the synopsis. I mean, I was actually moved.