Nana Codexery

The Poe Clan

A non-chronological saga of a teenage vampire's eternal loneliness.

Edgar is turned into a vampirnella at age fourteen, and later converts Marybelle at thirteen and Alan as a teenager.[1][2] The series explores the loneliness of immortality versus the mortality of humans they encounter.[2]

Quick Facts

Genre
Fantasy, Gothic horror

Facts from the source article.

How it changed

Moto Hagio disliked vampire stories as a child because vampires were depicted as villains who attack humans.[3] She became inspired by Shotaro Ishinomori's 1962 manga about a tragic vampire girl to create her own "beautiful vampire story"[3] Hagio decided to make her protagonist a boy after realizing she preferred writing about male protagonists.[4] The series began as a trilogy planned for the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries, but editorial constraints forced Hagio to publish it as one-shots.[5]

The first chapter was published in March 1972, and by August 1972 the editor allowed it to continue as an official serial.[6][7] The Poe Clan was the first manga released under Shogakukan's Flower Comics imprint in June 1974.[6] The tankōbon edition sold out its 30,000-copy print run in three days, an unprecedented sales volume for a shōjo manga without an anime adaptation.[8] While searching for an alternative term to "vampire," Hagio mistakenly read a word and from that error coined the name "vampirnella."[4]

Hagio's original run of The Poe Clan ended in 1976, and then in 2016 she brought the series back with a one-shot sequel that appeared in Flowers magazine.[9]

What the maker and period sources say

Science fiction critic Mari Kotani argues that in shōjo manga, the west is often depicted as idealized and utopian, so the vampire as a western figure is viewed positively in this context.[10] Kotani also notes that the vampire represents a hostile "other" in Japan following World War II and the US occupation.[10] Hagio stated she began writing The Poe Clan after becoming inspired by the idea of an immortal protagonist wearing costumes from different historical periods.[4] The British Museum featured The Poe Clan in its 2019 manga exhibition, calling it "representative of the period"[11]

As of 2016, the total sales of collected editions reached 3.5 million copies.[11]

References

  1. Wikipedia, "The Poe Clan" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Kan 2010, p. 53; Kan 2010, p. 53 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  2. Wikipedia, "The Poe Clan" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Kan 2010, p. 53 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  3. Wikipedia, "The Poe Clan" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Thorn 2005 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  4. Wikipedia, "The Poe Clan" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Thorn 2005; "バンパネラとカンパネルラ（小原篤のアニマゲ丼）", The Asahi Shimbun, November 28, 2016; "輝き続ける、永遠のいのち デビュー５０周年記念 「萩尾望都 ポーの一族展」", The Asahi Shinbun, July 23, 2019 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  5. Wikipedia, "The Poe Clan" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Nakagawa 2019a; Hagio 2019, p. 13, 49 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  6. Wikipedia, "The Poe Clan" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Hagio 2019, p. 13, 49 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  7. Wikipedia, "The Poe Clan" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Nakagawa 2019a (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  8. Wikipedia, "The Poe Clan" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Nakagawa, "新書判コミックスで変わる、マンガの読み方", Gentosha Plus, October 29, 2019b; Nakagawa, "新書判コミックスで変わる、マンガの読み方", Gentosha Plus, October 29, 2019b (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  9. Wikipedia, "The Poe Clan" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "萩尾望都さんがＪＸＴＧ児童文化賞を初受賞 まもなくデビュー５０年 少女漫画をリードし続け", Sankei Shimbun, February 10, 2017; "舞台「エッグ・スタンド」会見で萩尾望都が執筆の経緯を語る、「ポーの一族」も", Comic Natalie, February 7, 2017; "萩尾望都「ポーの一族」４０年ぶり掲載雑誌、発売直後に完売！ 異例の重版決定…ファンの予約殺到", Sankei Shimbun, June 7, 2016; "萩尾望都「ポーの一族」４０年ぶり掲載雑誌、発売直後に完売！ 異例の重版決定…ファンの予約殺到", Sankei Shimbun, June 7, 2016; Hodgkins, "News Moto Hagio Launches New Poe no Ichizoku Manga Next Spring", Anime News Network, May 28, 2017 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  10. Wikipedia, "The Poe Clan" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Kotani 1997 , p. 189; Kotani 1997 , p. 189; Kotani 1997, p. 191 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  11. Wikipedia, "The Poe Clan" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "萩尾望都さんの「ポーの一族」40年ぶりに復活！ オスカー・ライザーを主人公にした番外編も", Netatopi, April 28, 2016; "小学 館 漫画 賞 過去 受 賞 作", Shogakukan, October 25, 2018; Hodgkins, "Kono Manga ga Sugoi! Reveals 2018's Series Ranking for Female Readers", Anime News Network, December 8, 2017; Pineda, "Kono Manga ga Sugoi! Editors Unveil 2020 Rankings", Anime News Network, December 11, 2019; Pineda, "Kingdom Manga Tops Da Vinci Ranking", Anime News Network, December 6, 2019; Brown, "Boys' love to Pokémon: British Museum to host major show on manga", The Guardian, December 5, 2018; "Mang en.wikipedia.org

Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article The Poe Clan (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.

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