Double Prizes: Nyanpire

As I've mentioned before, I love Japanese crane games. No visit to Kumamoto was complete without a visit to UFO Catcher, Geo, or the basement of Tsutaya (though that last one rarely produced any results). In fact, on more than one occasion, prizes from these machines would introduce me to some aspect of Japanese pop culture I was not aware of before. One such property was The Gothic World of Nyanpire.

The Gothic World of Nyanpire began as a doujinshi in 2009. Though often associated with adult content, the term doujinshi refers to any self published material, be it book, magazine, or manga. In this case, Nyanpire is nothing more than some short stories about the titular character and his friends. They are relatively short as well, the first two volumes weighing in at 18 and 24 pages respectively. We learn about Nyanpire's origins and watch as he meets new friends and is taken in by a girl named Misaki. The manga is ongoing and was popular enough to get a 12 episode OVA last year.

For me, however, Nyanpire began as an adorable cat plush in a crane machine. I can't remember which one I won first, but I became hooked on collecting them pretty quickly. This one's sash reads "血を下さい" which means "Blood, please". Adorable and perhaps just a little frightening.

Nyanpire goods come in all shapes and sizes. The upper plush is meant to be attached to a bag or phone. The lower one is a coin purse. I remember it being exceptionally hard to win. I probably could have filled it twice over with the change I used to get it.

As I said, the Nyanpire manga largely consists of Nyanpire hanging out with his friends. The first one he runs into is this guy. His name is Masamunya and his look is based on the historical figure Date Masamune. You may have noticed that both Nyanpire and Masamunya both have "nya" in their names. This is because "nya" is the Japanese onomatopoeia for the sound cats make. Also, how easy was it to get me to try for this twice? All they did was put him in festival wear, opened his mouth, and gave him a little fan.

Another of Nyanpire's friends, Chachamaru is the only cat I know of in the series without "nya" in his name. He is the last cat Nyanpire befriends. I have a larger version of this one somewhere, but I believe it's currently boxed away somewhere.

There's a fourth cat as well, whom Nyanpire meets at the end of the first manga. He is an angel/cat who has been thrown out of heaven named Nyatenshi. I don't have any plushes of him...yet.