Blog 3

Summary

The character I chose to compare is a very recent vampire I was exposed to in an anime that was just released. Her name is Nazuna Nanakusa, and the anime she is from is called "Call of the Night." The number of differences between her and Lord Ruthven from “The Vampyre” right off the bat are copious. Nazuna is a female vampire, with blue eyes and light pink lashes. Her day-to-day outfit consists of a black overcoat with thigh high boots, and underneath said overcoat is a bralette with some short shorts. I find her to be a very non-traditional vampire, in the sense that she advocates for the night-time and the freedom it offers. She is obsessed more so with the night and having a good time rather than typical vampire behavior of gaining spawns by converting people. The way she "feeds" as a vampire is the same method of biting and drinking blood, but in this world, there are several nuances to the traditional lore. To her she states that blood is infused with the night, that it tastes best right before an individual falls asleep. Another varying nuance is the traditional lore concept that being bit turns one into a vampire, in this world the "victim" must be in love with the vampire to be turned into one. When it comes to sucking blood, she describes it as eating and copulating at the same time. When her partner in the show displays his neck she perceives it as lude, almost as if she's seduced. What I can gather from the way Nazuna is portrayed, and furthermore how writers and directors continue to portray vampires is that they want them to appear different, almost as if their vampire is the "correct" genuine vampire, not the variations that people have read in other works.

On the contrary, Lord Ruthven is your pinnacle Byronic hero, unapproachable and seemingly unobtainable but desired by all that encounter him. Women swoon over him and praise him even though his practices were unconventional. " His companion was profuse in his liberality; —the idle, the vagabond, and the beggar, received from his hand more than enough to relieve their immediate wants. But Aubrey could not avoid remarking, that it was not upon the virtuous, reduced to indigence by the misfortunes attendant even upon virtue, that he bestowed his alms;—these were sent from the door with hardly suppressed sneers; but when the profligate came to ask something, not to relieve his wants, but to allow him to wallow in his lust, or to sink him still deeper in his iniquity, he was sent away with rich charity. This was, however, attributed by him to the greater importunity of the vicious, which generally prevails over the retiring bashfulness of the virtuous indigent." Rather than giving money to poor folk with good intentions, he sought out those with vices and gambled his money away. In "Call of the Night," there are some parallels with Nazuna. She lures the protagonist (her soon to be partner) to her home telling him she'll aid him with sleep, when in fact she's seeking a quick fix for dinner. She also tells the protagonist not to go to school, and to instead spend time with her lurking in the night for fun. They both have their own intentions for their unconventional actions, and ultimately, I believe that Ruthven gambling his money away was for the simplicity of fun, not caring that other more "deserving" people were still roaming about in poverty.