Anime Profile: Karin

Okay, we all know about the whole "Count Dracula"-type vampires, the kind that come out at night, suck blood from humans, are weak against crosses, holy water, garlic, and all that stuff.

Now meet the heroine of this story, 16 year old Karin Maaka, who is born within the "Count Dracula"-kind of family. Yes, they are all vampires, migrated from Transylvania to Japan, who suck blood and stuff. However, it seems Karin is the oddball in the family! For unlike her family, who sucks blood, she does the exact OPPOSITE of taking blood. Yup, you guessed it. If she bites somebody, she GIVES blood to them. She also can go out during the day and is not weakened by crosses, holy water, garlic, exc. Not only that, but when she is around happy people or under certain stress (the manga says once a month) give gets a nosebleed! This ain't a tiny nosebleed you get when you get hit in the nose with a soccer ball, this nosebleed is like a fire hose! And to save herself from embarrassment and/or revealing the secret she and her whole family are vampires, she has to keep it all secret. Good luck with that.

But sadly, she has no luck with that. For a new exchange student, a young boy with a bad, glarey-eye problem named Kenta Usui, arrives at Karin's school. Unfortunately, his unhappy vibes gives Karin a bad nosebleed. Then he spots Karin biting 3 people--one of which is his own mother (although he finds out Karin is a vampire only after the 3rd person). So now he knows Karin's secret--which is bad for the both of them! You see, if Usui spills the beans, he'll lose ALL of his memories! Also, he must take care of Karin in the light of day, since her family can't, and make sure to clean up in case if she gets any nosebleeds.

Looks like it's a start of a beautiful, comical romance! But these lovers are gonna have plenty of obstacles in their path in the wonderful world of the Anime Series "Karin."

Editor’s Note:

Sometimes the last name "Maakaa" is seen spelt as "Marker", since in Japanese "Maakaa" means "Marker". For some reason, Elda seems to be the most common character that gets her family name spelled as "Marker". In the Japanese manga, Volume 5 Chapter 19, we see the Elda's name spelled in the line "彼女の名は　エルダ・マーカー", which reads as "Kanojo no na wa Eruda Maakaa" and translates to "Her name is Elda Marker." I've been told that in both the anime and manga, Henry, Calera and Elda all keep their European name of "Marker" after moving to Japan. Only Ren, Anju, and Karin change their name to the Japanese "Maaka".