Pô no Ichizoku is a series of long and short pieces of manga for girls by Hagio Moto (1949- ). It is representative of her early work. The story of a vampire boy wandering around various places in England and Germany for more than two hundred years is constructed minutely and described with drawings of a sensitive nature. It had a great influence on the world of girls’ manga, and was published in five volumes.
Edgar and his younger sister Merrybell have been deserted in the woods
when they were very young. Old Hanna Poe in the nearby village took care
of them. A few years later, Edgar realizes that people of the Poe family
were vampires. He consents to join them when he comes of age in exchange
for his sister’s safety. However, the identity of the Poe family is disclosed
to neighboring people and in the confusion Edgar is forced to become a
vampire at the age of fourteen. He curses his vampire self and intends
never to meet his sister again, but she also becomes a vampire in order
to live with him. They were adopted by a Poe couple and live together for
a long time. One day Merrybell is shot with a silver bullet and is extinguished.
The couple also ceases to exist and Edgar, out of solitude, draws a lonely
boy named Alan into the fate of Poe. Together the two boys drift through
time inevitably having contact with many people. Some of them pass down
the memory of ever younger boys to their descendants. By and by those who
are attracted by a vampire begin to search for the two boys. In order not
to be lonely Edgar has to draw his beloved ones into the fate of Poe, and
he suffers from the dilemma. He blames himself for not having been able
to save his sister. Alan does not understand Edgar’s feelings, and although
they are strongly attached to each other, they often cannot consider each
other’s feelings and feel even more lonesome. This kind of relationship
leads to an important motif of affection between boys in the world of girls’
manga.
Pô no Ichizoku was first serialized in monthly girls’ magazine Bessatu Shôjo Komikku [Monthly Girl’s Comic] intermittently for about five years. The style of serial long and short pieces was rare in girls’ manga at that time. As the story was not told in chronological order, unaccustomed readers found it difficult to understand. However, features such as a detail of a story being an advance hint of another story, as well as minute psychological descriptions were valued as literary and highbrow, which led to an increase in male readers.
Hagio received the Shogakukan Award for Manga in 1976 for Pô no Ichizoku and a science-fiction manga Jûichinin Iru! [Mysterious Eleventh Member].
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