Lament of the Lamb

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Lament of the Lamb
羊のうた (Hitsuji no Uta)
Genre	Seinen, Horror
Manga
Authored by	Kei Toume
Publisher	Gentosha Comics, Inc. Scholar Sony magazines Inc.
Other publishers: Tokyopop Tokyopop
Serialized in	Birz Comics
Original run	January 1997 –
No. of volumes	7 (complete)
OVA
Directed by	Gisaburō Sugii
Studio	Madhouse Studios
No. of episodes	4
Released	May 25, 2003

Lament of the Lamb (羊のうた, Hitsuji no Uta^?) is a horror manga and OVA series about Kazuna, a boy who suffers from an illness that turns out to be vampirism.

Contents 1 Story 2 Anime and Manga 3 Main characters 4 References 5 External links

[edit] Story

The story centers on Kazuna, an "average high school student" who starts to lose control at the sight of blood. This problem is traced down to him being a vampire, like his lost sister, Chizuna, who he now turns to for help.

Kazuna lives with his "aunt" and "uncle" (both of which are actually old friends of his father), after his mother died, and his father took Chizuna and left. Kazuna is friends with an aspiring artist named Yaegashi, who later learns about his condition.

Kazuna and Chizuna's father had committed suicide six months before the start of the (manga) story and trying to understand his suicide is one of the central plot of the story.

[edit] Anime and Manga

Both the anime and the manga have strong incestuous undertones, and (in the manga) Kazuna admits to seeing Chizuna as more than a sister. In volume 4, Chizuna warns Yaegashi that she doesn't want to see her with Kazuna ever again. Yaegashi wants to see Kazuna regardless of his condition, but later backs off after coming to terms with Kazuna's avoidance of her.

The anime ends with Chizuna dying (due to her weak condition), and Kazuna committing suicide after admitting that he doesn't want to live a life without Chizuna. However in the manga, he was saved but all of his memories of the past year (the entire Hitsuji no Uta series) are erased from his mind.

[edit] Main characters

Kazuna Takashiro - Chizuna's younger brother. Recently afflicted by a "vampiric" condition that is passed down through the Takashiro family.

Chizuna Takashiro - Kazuna's elder sister. She has had the blood-craving disease since early childhood. She also has heart problems. She has two moles below her left eye. "A child with a mole in the path of their tears is destined to have a sorrowful life full of them." - Japanese proverb printed in vol 3.

You Yaegashi - A member of the art club at Kazuna's school and has a crush on Kazuna.

Shin and Natsuko Eda - Kazuna's foster parents. They care deeply for Kazuna and have offered to adopt him. During the course of the story they try to understand and cope, and to help Kazuna cope, with the events that happen. Aunt Natsuko is featured more prominently in the story than Shin.

Doctor Minase - Chizuna's doctor. A close friend of the Takashiro family since she was a small child. He has a scar that extends from his left eye orbit downward, caused by a bloody wound inflicted by Chizuna years ago. He has been in love and devoted to her for a long time but his affections have not been reciprocated.

Doctor Shizuna Takashiro - Chizuna and Kazuna's father. His original family name was "Ishikura", hence he is a Takashiro by marriage rather than blood and did not inherit the disease. He spent years trying to find a way to cure the Takashiro disease (which affected and killed his wife), and committed suicide the year before Chizuna reunited with Kazuna.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Tokyopop's page for the manga