Wampir na Dalekim Wschodzie. Manga i anime
Vampire in the Far East. Manga and anime

Summary/Abstract: Vampire stories in the Far East are the example of memetic art. With the Vampire Figure, Far East adapted a whole range of western mems. In my article I focus on Japanese manga and anime. I choose these media, because they are most specific for Japanese culture. First I discuss the meaning the vampire narration has had and has nowadays in western culture, I analyse both bad vampire Figure and good vampire Figure. When Far East wanted to adapt vampire narration, it encountered the basic problem. The vampire figure in the West represented the Other, who was often associated with an Easter immigrant. That is why the East, adapting the vampire myth, had to develop special strategies: it could be a simple reversal (vampire represents the West), disregard of the ethnic dimension of the Otherness (focus on its sexual, gender and social dimension) or the shift of the border between ourness and otherness, so that the ourness compounds both East and West, and the otherness - the common enemy. I analyse each strategy. At the end I discuss the example of Kurt Wimmer’s Ultraviolet, American film inspired by the manga and anime aesthetics, to prove that the inspirations are reciprocated.

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