Shinjuku is an organic city in ways that most outsiders cannot wrap their heads around.  In the Women's Fashions department of the Isetan Department store, a certain wall has mysteriously mutated until it bears the shape of female genitalia, and any man who sees the phenomenon is drawn toward it most irresistibly, wishing to touch, resulting in the direst of consequences.  Now only women are allowed to work or to shop there. On a street that goes up a hill in Shinjuku the buildings change every twenty-four hours, but this transformation can only be seen by a spectator going up at the hill at dawn – at no other time, and in no other direction.  Sometimes there can be seen in these shifting buildings glimpse of husbands and children and lovers lost since before the destruction.  Sometimes it is ages and worlds from the past – from the Mediterranean to the Gobi desert, to the mysterious East.  The abnormal is the normal in Demon City Shinjuku.

 

On a steaming hot night in Shinjuku, as Setsura Aki sits at a bar and drinks, conversing with the bartender even as Setsura's beauty attracts the attention of a young woman a few barstools down from him – and draws the ire of her boyfriend; as Doctor Mephisto, the Demon Physician, attends a performance by a most talented singer, the likes of which few have ever heard – on this steaming night which began only at midnight, something is happening, something unusual, even for Shinjuku.  From the singer's lovely throat, water gushes forth, mysteriously, which the Doctor collects within his glass. And the bartender, glancing outside, sees that the street is filling with water; as Setsura looks, he hears the hauntingly beautiful sound of the koto, and beholds the approach of a large wooden ship, which glides through the darkness upon the water, three silhouettes visible upon the deck – a thin old man with white hair, a young woman with long black hair braided into buns, and a young man with a small dot like an embedded jewel between his eyebrows, all garbed in Chinese fashion.

 

Crossing the waters we've crossed before

Seeing the flowers we've seen once more

Spring breezes along the riverbank road

Before we know it, we've made our way home

 

And so it begins:  Yashakiden, the Demon Princess, volume 1, by Hideyuki Kikuchi.

 

Highlights

 

Doctor Mephisto is known in Shinjuku as the Demon Physician.  A startlingly beautiful man, he has dark hair and eyes that see things that no one else can see, clad in perpetual white, and radiating an inner charm that is impossible to resist.  Setsura Aki owns a senbei store – senbei being a type of Japanese cracker, commonly served with a green tea.  But inside the shop he has another office where he plies his other trade, that of being Shinjuku's most infamous P.I.  He is the flip side of Doctor Mephisto, and always wears black – and he too is a very beautiful man.  Early the morning following the arrival of the unearthly ship, the Doctor summons an unwilling Setsura to the Mephisto Hospital.  The hospital itself is as unusual as its owner, and it is equipped to handle far more than the common medical emergency.  It has several basement levels, which include a special containment ward for hardcore cases, and the sensory devices which protect the hospital are such that no one can intrude, nor escape.  Setsura arrives to find that the Doctor has a patient – a female picked up by the police wandering the streets the night before – and when Setsura surmises that she is a victim of post-traumatic shock, Mephisto replies that, and much more.  The girl is the singer that Mephisto had listened to on the previous evening – he tells Setsura his story and the PI reciprocates with his own tale.  And then Mephisto reveals that the girl is now a vampire!  Which leads Setsura to speculate if perhaps those in the Toyoma housing project have broken their pact?  As the two converse, speaking of vampiric history, and of the nature of beauty, it becomes apparent that something must be done, which is the purpose of Mephisto's call – he wishes to engage the services of Setsura.  Agreeing to take the case, under the condition that the girl not be moved from the hospital, the detective begins to transform…  Using the girl as bait, the two men watch and wait, with interesting results.

 

The 200 vampires of Shinjuku reside within the area known as Toyoma, and when the Elder – who is a thousand years old – wakens from his long slumber, he summons Mephisto and Setsura to come to this well-guarded place, where they are also introduced to his beautiful grandson, Yakou.  There they find the vampiric police officer who has assaulted a new client of Setsura's – Takako Kanan – and they seek to learn who his sire is, but he isn't exactly forthcoming with information.  So they decide to test an old theory – what will happen to a member of the undead when exposed to sunlight?  The results are not pretty, even as the Elder and Yakou enter into a discussion on the merits of sire expropriation.  The Elder decides he wishes to hire Setsura to find the four Chinese vampires, offering him a bank card with an unlimited expense account but, as he reluctantly must admit, he is there with his client (Mephisto) and cannot accept.  "A man cannot serve two masters," Setsura maintains, "My policy remains first come, first served…."

 

On the ruins of what once was the grounds of Keio University Hospital and Keio Medical College, three itinerant workers seek the freakish creatures which still flourish there, the unnatural things which make their home there, hideous experiments now released into the ecosystem that is Shinjuku – there is a market for them, and it is a way to make some money.  But it is dangerous, as well, as these three fools discover.  And one of them has a different fate, as he ends up as part of the Sumptuous Feast…

 

Overall

 

Yashakiden will draw you in with all the subtlety of a vampire's kiss, hold you spellbound even as you breathlessly turn the pages, begging for more of its mysteries.  This is a world unlike any other, and while there are vampire stories and there are vampire stories, these are vampires that are unique in the annals of vampiredom.  Author Hideyuki Kikuchi also brought usVampire Hunter D, the acclaimed graphic novels, and having read the first volume of Yashakiden, I am more than ever curious to delve into his other world.  He has been writing horror novels for some twenty years and his stories have found homes in film and anime as well.   I find myself especially fascinated with the characters of Doctor Mephisto and Setsura Aki, and as an avowed yaoi enthusiast, I cannot help but see the possibilities inherent in these two as a couple, although I confess to having no idea if the author shares these proclivities.  That being said, this novel is definitely for the over 18 audience, as it has moments which are quite graphic in nature.  The more I read, the more I want to know, to answer those questions which burn in my head – what is the relationship between the Doctor and Setsura, and what is the other nature of Setsura, that is only hinted at, tantalizingly.  He shoots devil wires from his fingertips which serve both as protection and as weapons, and the Doctor has his own tricks up his sleeve.  I cannot even begin to guess what lies ahead, which only intrigues me all the more, as I eagerly wait for the next book in the series.  Pick up Yashakiden and enter into this strange world which is fantasy, horror and sci-fi all rolled into one delicious ball – you'll be glad you did.

 

Comicsonline gives Yashakiden, the Demon Princess, Volume 1 5 out of 5 shadow boxes.