Ask John: Is Vampire Anime a Current Trend?

Question:
Vampires seem to be pretty popular in anime these days. From the just completed Trinity Blood, the ongoing Moon Phase and Hellsing Ultimate, the upcoming comedic take on the genre in Karin to Blood+ on Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim, bloodsuckers are all over the place. Are vampires the new flavor of the month in anime, or is this nothing more than a happy coincidence?

Answer:
A number of vampire themed anime do seem to be hitting America at the moment, but I don’t see any evidence that there’s an organized trend or intentional effort in America’s anime community to concentrate of vampire anime, and judging by Japanese release date, I don’t think these recent release really constitute a trend. If there’s a current trend in Japan’s anime, I’d have to say that it involves psychic powers since there are 4 anime series from the current spring season that all feature telekinetic power (Darker Than Black, El Cazador, Heroic Age, Terra e…). But the prevalence of vampire themed anime seems to be merely coincidence. On a relative basis, as far as I’m aware, vampire anime has never been exceptionally common, but neither has it been rare. I’m probably missing examples, but for reference, those that I can think of are:

Vampire (1968)
Emperor of Darkness: Vampire Dracula (1980)
Tezuka Osamu’s Don Dracula (1982)
Tokimeki Tonight (1982)
Vampire Hunter D (1985 & 2001)
Vampire Miyu (1988 & 1997)
Vampire Wars (1991)
Master Mosquiton (1996 & 1997)
Kimera (1996)
Vampire Hunter (1997)
NightWalker (2000)
Blood: The Last Vampire (2000)
Vampiyan Kids (2001)
Hellsing (2001 & 2006)
Hitsuji no Uta (2003)
Shingetsutan Tsukihime (2003)
Legend of Duo (2004)
Tsukuyomi ~Moon Phase~ (2004)
Karin (2005)
Blood+ (2005)
Trinity Blood (2005)
Black Blood Brothers (2006)

The final episode of the 3 episode Cyber City Odeo 808 OAV series from 1990 dealt with vampirism, so it may be called one-third vampire anime. Similarly, one of the four protagonists of the 2006 anime Renkin San-kyuu Magical? Pokaan was a vampire princess, arguably making that program one-quarter “vampire anime.”

Examination of this list exposes an odd lack of vampire themed anime throughout the 1970s that I can’t explain. Furthermore, the number of vampire themed anime produced in the 2000s has literally tripled from the previous decade. But there are still not quite enough instances of vampire themed anime to make me confidently say that the increase is a current trend. With an average of only two vampire themed anime a year in the 2000s, the genre doesn’t seem nearly as common as overt anime trends like “harem” anime or adaptations of visual novel games. Rather than being a trend incited by a single blockbuster success or a sudden surge in demand, I think that the growth of anime’s vampire genre has been a gradual increase coming in response to slowly expanding interest in the concept among Japanese anime creators and fans, and a result of mere averages. When there are more of every type of anime produced, the law of averages infers that there will be more vampiric anime produced.

On a side note, I’d like to point out a little bit of trivia. Most experienced anime fans are aware that the current Hellsing OVA series has an earlier television series incarnation. Likewise most anime fans know that the Blood+ television series is a re-imagining of the 2000 film Blood: The Last Vampire. But many fans may not be aware that Yuna Kagesaki’s Karin may have been inspired by, or influenced by the earlier manga and anime series Tokimeki Tonight. The conceit of Karin – a vampire who has too much blood rather than not enough – is original, but the concept of a high school age vampire girl with a dominant mother and timid father who must hide her supernatural characteristics at school seems to be drawn from Tokimeki Tonight.