is a Japanese ''shōjo'' manga series written and illustrated by

Chie Shinohara is a Japanese manga artist best known for '' Red River'', known in Japan as ''Sora wa Akai Kawa no Hotori: Anatolia Story''. She has twice received the Shogakukan Manga Award for shōjo, in 1987 for '' Yami no Purple Eye'' and in 2001 for ''Red ...

. It was serialized in ''

Shōjo Comic , formerly published under its full name until December 2007, is a ''shōjo'' manga magazine published semimonthly in Japan by Shogakukan since 1968. The manga featured in ''Sho-Comi'' are later compiled and published in book form (''tankōbon' ...

'' magazine from 1984 to 1986. The individual chapters were collected in 12 ''

tankōbon is the Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or cultur ...

'' volumes published by

Shogakukan is a Japanese publisher of dictionaries, literature, comics (manga), non-fiction, DVDs, and other media in Japan. Shogakukan founded Shueisha, which also founded Hakusensha. These are three separate companies, but are together called the Hit ...

between October 1984 and February 1987. The story follows the struggles of a teenage girl after she finds herself turning into a

lycanthropy In folklore, a werewolf (), or occasionally lycanthrope (; ; uk, Вовкулака, Vovkulaka), is an individual that can shapeshift into a wolf (or, especially in modern film, a therianthropic hybrid wolf-like creature), either purposely or ...

leopard The leopard (''Panthera pardus'') is one of the five extant species in the genus '' Panthera'', a member of the cat family, Felidae. It occurs in a wide range in sub-Saharan Africa, in some parts of Western and Central Asia, Southern Russia, a ...

and having to battle her newly found predatory instincts. The series was adapted into 30-minute music video (

original video animation , abbreviated as OVA and sometimes as OAV (original animation video), are Japanese animated films and series made specially for release in home video formats without prior showings on television or in theaters, though the first part of an OVA s ...

) in 1987 and a series of six

light novel A light novel (, Hepburn: ''raito noberu'') is a style of young adult novel primarily targeting high school and middle school students. The term "light novel" is a ''wasei-eigo'', or a Japanese term formed from words in the English languag ...

s from 1991 to 1992. It was also adapted into an 11-episode

live-action Live action (or live-action) is a form of cinematography or videography that uses photography instead of animation. Some works combine live-action with animation to create a live-action animated film. Live-action is used to define film, video ga ...

Japanese television drama , also called , are television programs that are a staple of Japanese television and are broadcast daily. All major TV networks in Japan produce a variety of drama series including romance, comedy, detective stories, horror, jidaigeki, thriller ...

that was broadcast on

TV Asahi JOEX-DTV (channel 5), branded as (also known as EX and and stylized as TV asahi), is a television station that is owned and operated by the subsidiary of certified broadcasting holding company , itself controlled by The Asahi Shimbun Compan ...

in Japan in 1996. ''Purple Eyes in the Dark'' was awarded the 1987

Shogakukan Manga Award The is one of Japan's major manga awards, and is sponsored by Shogakukan, Shogakukan Publishing. It has been awarded annually for serialized manga and features candidates from a number of publishers. It is the oldest manga award in Japan, being ...

in the ''shōjo'' manga category.

Story

Rinko Ozaki is a normal high school girl, but she has a fixation on a weird birthmark on her arm. Her biology teacher, Ms. Sonehara, has a peculiar interest in the birthmark, and it fires up when her childhood friend, Shin'ya Mizushima, tries to make a move on her. Not only that, Rinko also notices her eyes glow purple. The next day when Rinko is sexually assaulted, she finally discovers that her birthmark causes her to turn into a leopard.

Characters

;Rinko Ozaki :A first year in high-school, she has a crush on her childhood friend Shin'ya Mizushima. When assaulted by some of her classmates, Rinko involuntarily transforms into a leopard and kills them. ;Shin'ya Mizushima :A third year high-school student, Shin'ya has known Rinko since they were very young. He first shelters Rinko after finding her unconscious after the deaths of their classmates. ;Kaoruko Sonehara :Rinko's biology teacher. She and her father studied humans who could turn into beasts. She first suspects Rinko of being one of these humans after she sees her birthmark. She is a cruel woman who tries to conduct experiments on Rinko and even her sister Maiko, assuming that she can transform too because they have the same blood. ;Maiko Ozaki :Rinko's sister. She later dies when Sonehara experiments on her, thinking she too can transform. ;Professor Sonehara :Kaoruko's father, he also studied people who can transform into beasts. When he presents his evidence to the world of science, he is shamed and rejected, and in a state of madness sets himself on fire. Kaoruko douses the flames and he survives, but has succumbed to insanity. Kaoruko locks him in the basement of their villa home so that the world can presume he is dead instead of tainting his image and research with his insanity. ;Mitusgu Odagiri :A journalist who originally tries to expose Sonehara's research on humans that can turn into beasts, but he later pursues Rinko, and reveals that he has purple eyes too. He can transform into a black panther that is larger than Rinko.

Media

Manga

Written and illustrated by

, ''Purple Eyes in the Dark'' was serialized in ''

'' magazine from 1984 to 1986 and later published in Japan in 12 ''

'' volumes by

. The first volume was released on October 26, 1984, and the last on February 26, 1987. It was republished in seven '' bunkoban'' volumes, the first four on February 17, 1995, and final three on April 15, 1995.

Albums

EMI Music EMI Group Limited (originally an initialism for Electric and Musical Industries, also referred to as EMI Records Ltd. or simply EMI) was a British transnational conglomerate founded in March 1931 in London. At the time of its break-up in 201 ...

released two albums for ''Purple Eyes in the Dark'' using songs written by Linda Hennrick. The first, , was released on March 20, 1986. Vocal tracks included performances by Shoko Yamagiwa, Derek Jackson, and Seki Mayumi. The second CD, , was released on January 27, 1993.

OVA

J.C. Staff and

Youmex was an anime production company and record label (under their label Futureland) established in 1985 as a subsidiary of Toshiba EMI and founded by Junji Fujita (formerly of King Records). The company was absorbed back into Toshiba EMI in 1998, af ...

released the

OVA , abbreviated as OVA and sometimes as OAV (original animation video), are Japanese animated films and series made specially for release in home video formats without prior showings on television or in theaters, though the first part of an OVA s ...

adaptation of ''Purple Eyes in the Dark'' in 1987.

Novels

The series was adapted as a series of six

s published by Shogakukan entitled .

Live-action drama

The series was adapted into an 11-episode

television drama In film and television show, television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or docudrama, semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humour, humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms t ...

produced by

Toei Company () (also styled TOEI) is a Japanese film, television production, and distribution and video game developer and publishing company. Based in Tokyo, Toei owns and operates thirty-four movie theaters across Japan (all but two of them operated by i ...

. It was broadcast on

in Japan between July 1 and September 9, 1996.

Reception

In 1987, ''Purple Eyes in the Dark'' was awarded the

for the shōjo manga category.

References

External links

* * {{Shogakukan Manga Award - Shōjo 1984 manga 1988 anime OVAs 1991 Japanese novels 1996 Japanese television series debuts Chie Shinohara Drama anime and manga Japanese television dramas based on manga Light novels Shogakukan manga Shōjo manga Supernatural anime and manga TV Asahi original programming Winners of the Shogakukan Manga Award for shōjo manga