Friday, May 25, 2007

The lineage of Vampires in Shojo Manga

In this interview Hagio only discusses "Mist, Roses, and Stars," but there were other vampire stories in the history of shojo manga. When Hagio was still in high school, then-sixteen-year-old Machiko Satonaka debuted with "The Portrait of Pia" (1964), which was about a girl's love with a vampire (reference).

In this blog, Tommie (the blogger) writes about the lineage of vampires in shojo manga, and provides quotes from the special feature "THE Shojo Manga!!" in the September 1992 issue of CREA, which included several interviews with shojo manga cartoonists.

Tommie quotes Suzue Miuchi, who says:

"A piece doesn't emerge [out of a vacuum] like a sudden mutation, really. If you are a shojo manga cartoonist, then when you read a piece, you get a real sense of which works the author may have read passionately when she was little, or [how she] may be influenced by such cartoonists now, etc."

And as proof, Tommie introduces the connection between "Mist, Roses, and Stars" by Shotaro Ishinomori and "Poe no Ichizoku" by quoting Hagio:

"I thought the story of non-aging immortals could be interesting. That's how I got the idea for this work ["Poe no Ichizoku"]. When I was in elementary school Mr. Shotaro Ishinomori did an omnibus about a vampire entitled "Mist, Roses, and Stars." It's a story about a girl who became a vampire in the age when people rode horse carriages, and she lives on to the present when cars zip by, and goes all the way to the future where rockets fly around… That left me with a lasting impression."

Then Tommie talks about "It's Galaxy Manor!" by Toshie Kihara, which features space aliens from the Transylvanian System who are also vampires. She reports that she found Edgar from "Poe no Ichizoku" appearing in a poster (cameo appearance) on page 253!

It was not just Hagio, but Yumiko Oshima and other shojo manga cartoonists all made cameo appearances, underscoring the close relationship they maintained.

Tommie also compiled the list of shojo manga pieces that feature vampires since "Mist, Roses, and Stars." Great job!

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