Poe no Ichizoku

Poe no Ichizoku (Japanese: ポーの一族, Hepburn: Pō no Ichizoku, lit. "The Poe Family") is a Japanese shōjo historical manga by Moto Hagio that depicts a family of vampires from the 18th to the 20th centuries. The two main characters, Edgar Portsnell and Allan Twilight, as well as the family are named after Edgar Allan Poe. It was serialized by Shogakukan in Betsucomi from 1972 to 1976 and collected in nine tankōbon under the Flower Comics imprint. Poe was the first shōjo manga from Shogakukan to be released in this format.^[1] It was inspired by Shotaro Ishimori's story "Mist, Roses and Stars".^[2]

Plot

Edgar is born as an illegitimate child to Earl Evans. After the birth of Edgar's sister, Marybell, 4 years later, his step mother orders the nurse to kill Edgar and Marybell. The nurse does not kill them but abandons Marybell and Edgar in the woods, expecting them to die of starvation, where they are discovered by Hannah Poe. She takes them to her mansion near the village of Scotty. Hannah looks after the siblings. When Edgar is eleven, he learns the secret that Hannah and people in the mansion are Vampanellas. He is forced to promise that he will turn into a Vampanella, a member of Poe family, when he becomes an adult. Marybell is adopted by Baron Art due to Edgar's request. When he is 14 years of age, Hannah is killed by a villager and the villagers learn the secret of the mansion. Edgar is turned into a vampire by King Poe, effectively forcing him to join the Poe family, before the family escapes from the villagers.

Three years later, Earl Evans' eldest son, Oswald, meets Marybell and Edgar. Marybell attempts to kill Edgar because he is a vampire. However, Edgar's love and kindness cause her to change her mind. Edgar takes her into the Poe family. Edgar is adopted by a baron and his wife, Sheila Portsnell, who is also a vampire. However, Edgar and Marybell cannot not stay under the care of the baron for long because they remain at the ages of 14 and 13, respectively.

Character

• Edgar Portsnell (エドガー·ポーツネル, Edogā Pōtsuneru) is the protagonist. He is born on March 12, 1740, as an illegitimate first child, to an aristocrat, Earl Evans, and his mistress, Maryweather. He becomes a vampire at the age of 14.
• Marybell Portsnell (メリベル·ポーツネル, Meriberu Pōtsuneru) is Edgar's sister. She is also an illegitimate child of Earl Evans. She becomes a vampire at the age of 13.

Media

Manga

Poe no Ichizoku was written and illustrated by Moto Hagio and serialized by Shogakukan in Flower Comics from March 1972 to June 1976. The individual chapters were collected in five tankōbon volumes under the Flower Comics imprint, with the first volume published on March 28, 1974 and the final volume on January 25, 1978. Shogakukan later re-released the entire series in three bunkoban volumes on July 17, 1998,^[3][4][5] and then again in two wide-ban volumes on November 26, 2007 and December 21, 2007, respectively.^[6][7] In April 2016, to commemorate Poe no Ichizoku's 40th anniversary and Monthly Flowers's 15th anniversary, it was announced Hagio would publish two new chapters titled "Haru no Yume" (Spring's Dream) in May and June respectively.^[8] The first chapter was published on May 28,^[9] but the second chapter was delayed to "winter" without a specific date.^[10]

Volume listing

Radio drama

Poe no Ichizoku was adapted as radio drama broadcast by NHK-FM between January 1 and January 6, 1980. It was directed by Tokio Ootani from a script by Sunao Takata, with sound effects by Masakazu Haraguti and Akira Iwai. It starred Kouji Ishitobi as the Baron and Haruka Kurara as the Baron's wife.

Drama CDs

Poe no Ichizoku was later adapted as a series of six drama CDs from scripts written by Moto Hagio. They were released monthly by Shogakukan between December 2007 and May 2008. Each volume covered a different generation of the Poe Family.

• Volume 1 was released on December 21, 2007, and starred Toshihiko Seki as Glenn Smith and Tomokazu Seki as Clifford.^[16]
• Volume 2 was released on January 25, 2008, and starred Megumi Takamoto as Liddell, Honda Youko as Karen, and Ayumi Huzimura as Jane.^[17]
• Volume 3 was released on February 22, 2008, and starred Akira Saitou as Hannah, Takendo Koyasu as Oswald, Nobuhiko Okamoto as Yushisu, and Kana Ueda as Madonna.^[18]
• Volume 4 was released on March 21, 2008, and starred Narita Ken as Henry, Takayuki Huzimoto as Roger, Kana Uetake as Ellen, Hisashi Oda as Ernest, Akira Sugizaki as the doctor, Takaya Hazi/Tsutomu Ousaka as Marshal, and Yumi Shimura as Grid Marshal.^[19]
• Volume 5 was released on April 26, 2008, and starred Obase Tomoko/Kouda Naoko as Elizabeth, Teruyuki Sawa Makoto as Tony, Yukiko Okada as Yurie, Madoka Kimura as Julieta, Fuyuka Ooura as Anna, Kou Sonobe as Pierre, Atsushi Abe as Lewis, Tomiko Orikasa as Edith, Kawashima Toku Ai as Henry, Osamu Akira Sugiyama as Roger, and Hitoshi Takashi as Sir Bin Kyou.^[20]
• Volume 6 was released on May 23, 2008, and starred Sumiko Minakawa as Killian, Kaida Yuki as Mathias, Miura Junya as Theo, Cha Fūrin as Dr. Grof, Madoka Kimura as Robin, Akira Sugizaki as Heym, Isao Yoshimi Sonobe as Pastor, Atsushi Abe as Student 1, Kobayashi Kosuke as Student 2, Kaji Yuki as Student 3, Masaki Makiguti as Student 4, and Kouji Ishitobi as Music Teacher.^[21]

Television drama

In February 2016, TV Asahi announced that it along with Production I.G and Atmovie would produce a television drama adaptation of the manga. Featuring an original story scripted by Katsuhide Suzuki and directed by Katsuyuki Motohiro, Stranger ~Bakemono ga Jiken wo Abaku~ (Stranger: Disclosing the Monster Incident) shares the same worldview of Hagio's manga. It premiered on March 27, 2016 and follows Akira Misugi (Shingo Katori), a Taishō era doctor who is turned into a "vampanella" by Maria (Ayami Nakajō), a child descendant of a vampanella, when he attempts to suicide because of the death of his wife and child.^[22]

Reception

Poe no Ichizoku received the 1976 Shogakukan Manga Award for shōnen manga along with Hagio's They Were Eleven.^[23] In 1974, the first print run of the first volume (30,000 copies) sold out in one day, which permitted Hagio to continue with more stories set in the Poe universe.^[1] When a new episode was published for the first time in forty years in the July 2016 issue of Monthly Flowers, the publisher, Shogakukan, printed 50,000 copies (1.5 times the magazine's usual run), yet it still sold out within days.^[9][24][25]

References

External links

• Poe no Ichizoku (manga) at Anime News Network's encyclopedia
• Poe no Ichizoku at Mangayomi - overview of the series