One of Tezuka’s more serious works (I guess it could even be considered Gekiga). Vampire is about a young vampire called Toppei who leaves his village in the mountains to become an animator at Mushi Puro (Osamu Tezuka’s animation studio). Soon Toppei and his boss Tezuka (yep another comic where Tezuka actually drew himself as a main character) become embroiled in the vampire conspiracy and the machinations of Rock, a young con man who intends to use the vampires for world domination.
Tezuka’s vampires differ from the tradional sense in that they actually change into animals on certain conditions, for instance Toppei turns into a werewolf whenever he see’s the full moon and his younger brother only needs to see a round object before he does the same.
Reading Vampire will feel like you’re watching a motion picture, which considering Tezuka’s style and influence was his intention, and has interesting uses of frame and lighting. There are four volumes in all but the first three contain the main story and the fourth reads as an epilogue to the series and goes deeper into explaining some of the character’s back story and the vampires mythology.
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