An American Writer's Thoughts on Japanese Animation

Prophecy of a Failed Vampire – A Dark Rabbit Has Seven Lives Spoiler Review

Let’s talk about Vampires. Few mythical creatures seem to have captured quite as much worldwide attention as the blood-sucking undead. Perhaps it’s because they’re a resonant idea when used for horror – a monster that is active when most humans are vulnerable and that acts as a predator on humanity. Perhaps it’s because there’s a lot of baked-in sexuality to the modern vampire (as well as many mythical predecessors), evoking some pretty deep fantasies.

Or perhaps it’s because they’re versatile – as might be guessed from those first two points, there’s a huge range of possibilities with vampires, from the zombie-like infected of I am Legend (the original book, mind you), to the charming but deadly children of the night that come to us from Bram Stoker, Anne Rice, and Vampire: the Masquerade; from neighborhood nobodies as with Call of the Night’s Nazuna Nanakusa to terrifying powerhouses like Kizumonogatari’s Kiss-Shot Acerola-Orion Heart-Under-Blade. There are a lot of ways to do Vampires. So it’s kind of frustrating when we get a vampire show where you could call the vampire just about any supernatural name and have it stick just as well.

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