The image of the vampire is a fixed entity within our collective consciousness, haunting literature, stage-plays and cinema. The popularity of the vampiric beast, of course, meant that it would bleed – pun intended – into Japanese culture and finds its expression in Japanese creative productions. Michio Yamamoto’s Bloodthirsty trilogy (The Vampire Doll (1970), Lake of Dracula (1971) and Evil of Dracula (1974)) might be the best example within Japanese cinema of the appropriation of the western vampiric image.

However, as this image has been exploited from many different perspectives, it is highly unlikely that something unexpected and fresh can be said about vampires – every element has its antecedent somewhere. Yet, while the content of the narrative is doomed to only offer a variation on well-explored thematical elements, one can be creative with the visual envelope that brings the story alive. The field of animation, as Tatsuya Oishi proves with Kizumonogatari – Koyomi Vamp – (2024), offers the director the necessary freedom to creatively exploit this envelope to offers an eclectic visual experience that satisfies the spectator. By fluidly shifting between styles and atmospheres, Oishi creates a wild genre-blend (mystery, thriller, horror, action, erotic, and comedy) that breathes life into the drama of desire that unfolds between Araragi Koyomi (Hiroshi Kamiya), Tsubasa Hanekawa (Yui Hori) and Kiss-Shot (Maaya Sakamoto).

Before exploring the visual envelope of the Kizumonogatari – Koyomi Vamp –, let us analyse the drama of desire, the conflict between the intermingling of Thanatos (the death drive) and Eros, that structures the narrative. This subjective conflict bursts forth into the narrative at the very moment Araragi decides to sacrifice himself to save the dying Kiss-shot. This sacrificial act, if one follows the subtle indications within the first half an hour of the narrative, finds its origin in the self-hate that consciously and unconsciously structures him (Narra-note 1). He feels invited to pursue his unvocalized suicidal wish and realize his own death-drive because Kiss-Shot succeeds in reflecting Araragi’s being with her mirroring signifiers ‘You’re a lowly insignificant human’. In other words, he does not sacrifice himself to satisfy his obsessional desire to heroically save a vampiric damsel-in-distress, but to act in accordance with his own unconscious death wish and, thus, realize his own dismissed truth of being symbolically death.

As the encounter with Tsubasa Hanekawa cannot halt his suicidal act, we cannot but conclude that this encounter with her comes too late. The spark of eros, the ejaculation of enjoyment that fleetingly takes hold of his body, is no match for his unconscious truth and the grasp his death-drive has over his logic. Yet, despite Araragi’s self-destructive reflex, his willingness to accept the finality of his own death-drive, Kiss-Shot’s act of sucking out his blood does not lead to his death. Despite accepting his radical erasure from the societal field, Araragi ends up becoming a vampire himself. His sacrificial act does not lead to his desired death, but to the inscription in a different symbolic frame and dynamic, one between minion and master.

It is this symbolic inscription that rescues him as a subject- the death-drive is halted. Instead of being alive, but symbolically death, he ends up being ‘death’, but symbolically alive. However, by becoming Kiss-Shot’s minion and servant, who is tasked to bring back her amputated limbs from the vampire exterminators Dramaturgy (Masashi Ebara), Episode (Miyu Irino), and Guillotine Cutter (Houchu Otsuka), Araragi does not merely receive a symbolic position within a different societal field, but obtains a signified that can stuff his ego with and breathe renewed sense within his life. The unexpected continuation of his life, coupled with the chance to return to world of the living if he succeeds in restoring Kiss-Shot to her full power, gives him an unexpected second chance to act in accordance with his own eros, his blossoming desire for Tsubasa Hanekawa – I want to return to reality.  

Quite unexpectedly, Oishi’s narrative also underlines the fundamental misunderstanding that marks speech-interactions and shows how such misunderstanding is born from the drama of desire. Araragi wrongly assumes that Hanekawa’s sacrificial acts are function of her desire for him, because he seeks a spark of desire to cling to, feed his withered eros and breathe life into his wish to become human again (Narra-note 1). The psychological and communicative dynamic of the misunderstanding within the narrative allows the spectator grasp that the human subject needs the misunderstanding to keep himself in a desiring state and breathe life into the imaginary (his ego) as well as in the symbolic (his subject). 

The ultimate question Kizumonogatari – Koyomi Vamp – explores is how Araragi’s vampiric state will affect Araragi’s subject, his death drive as well as his eros. Will his state of being vampiric not poison his desire for Hanekawa and turn the oral dimension of his love – I love you so much that I can eat you – into a pulsating need to ravish her flesh and suck her dry? Will the realization of the vampiric truth not cause his unconscious suicidal desire blossom again?    

The composition of Kizumonogatari – Koyomi Vamp – combines 3D elements (e.g. interiors, doors, flags, characters in some shots, …), real-life imagery (e.g. the water of the river, the clouds in the sky, … etc.) and 2D animated elements. While the combination of the three can something be jarring and leave a fleeting taste of discontinuity in the spectator’s mouth, the overall composition is nevertheless incredibly satisfying (Cine-note 1).

The main reason why Tatsuya Oishi succeeds in engaging the spectator with his imagery is because he composes his animation with an expressive freedom not seen that often anymore in live-action cinema. He does not merely combine a variety of dynamic shots (e.g. zoom-ins, tracking shots, …etc.), intertitles, and different musical pieces fluidly together to evoke a variety of atmospheres, but also exploits compositional tensions and visual repetition to entice the spectator and induce a quantum of anticipatory tension within him.

Oishi, in short, crafted an evocative compositional whole, a highly effective visual grammar, littered with eye-catching imagery and bristling with moody atmospherics (General-note 1). Once the visuals have the spectator in their grasp, he cannot but stay glued to the screen to see the narrative unfold.

In a world where even the composition of animation films become more functional, Kizumonogatari – Koyomi Vamp – dares to be different, utilizing the visual field as a creative and expressive playground. The result is an evocative experience that succeeds in giving the vampire and the well-explored themes a fresh coat of drama and sexiness.  

Notes

General-note 1: Oishi’s choice to work more evocatively is also because he needs to reshape and recombine the story of three movies into one. In one instance, Oishi fluidly decouples his imagery, sketching out a summery atmosphere, from the unfolding conversation.

Narra-note 1: Later in the narrative, Araragi dismisses the suicidal truth of his bodily gift by framing it in more heroic but self-deceptive terms – I thought I could die for you; my actions, though beautiful, were not righteous. Yet, we cannot dismiss the fact that his death drive infested his narcissistic reflex – to seek death at a ‘moral’ zenith.   

And while Kiss-Shot seems driven by desire to life – eros, can we be sure that the death drive has no impact on her subjectivity?  

Narra-note 2: It is also interesting to note that Araragi ignores Hanekawa’s confession of the selfish nature of her act and keeps acting as if she desires him. Yet, it is this fantasy of being desired that breathes life into his own desire for her.

Narra-note 3: The narrative can ultimately be read as a tragedy of symbolic nomination; of the signifier one identifies with – human or vampire – and the effects this assumption has on one’s subject. The finale of Kizumonogatari offers a resolution, first and foremost, of the discrepancy between Araragi’s nomination as human and his vampiric real.  

Cine-note 1: Luckily, as the narrative goes on, the jarring effect of the combination of the three visual elements diminishes.