Ki*Me*Ra Volume 1.
Ki*me*ra is a seinen manga written and drawn by Kazuma Kodaka, which was serialized in Super Jump from 1995 to 1996 and compiled into two volumes.
The manga follows a man named Osamu who falls in love with an androgynous vampire-like alien named Kimera, being held by the Air Force and hunted by two other aliens. One wishes to use Kimera for his hermaphroditic nature as the mother to revive their dying race, while another wishes to kill Kimera to save him from a fate Kimera did not desire.
An OVA was produced by Toho in 1996. Both the manga and OVA were licensed and released in English by ADV Films.
This series provide examples of:
- Amazing Technicolor Population: Ginzu's skin is dark red.
- Anyone Can Die: the opening of the OVA has Ginzu kill the farmer who found the lifepods as well as his dog, scientists and guards in the lab are killed by the aliens, later on Kimera kills the two men who raped him.
- Body Horror: Kimera creating aliens out of the humans he killed, this is in the manga only.
- Classical Movie Vampire: despite being an alien, Kianu looks decidedly like this in the OVA, complete with dark long hair and a cape, in the manga he just wears a regular long coat.
- Combat Tentacles: Ginzu's left arm can turn into tentacles with smaller tentacles growing on them.
- Dissonant Serenity: Kimera is completely unfazed and humming a song after killing two men with in the background the sirens of police cars driving to the dessicated remains, it's even worse in the manga where he kills a lot more people and is perfectly calm after.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: in the OVA Kimera and Osamu ride off into the sunset together, but since their offspring could end the world...Osamu even says he thinks he opened a Pandora's Box, but wants to believe hope is the only thing left in the box.
- Emotionless Girl: Kimera, a male example at least on Earth, on his home planet he showed emotions before transforming.
- Everybody Wants the Hermaphrodite: Osamu falls for Kimera straight away, Jay says he's going crazy when he first sees him, then later the men who end up raping him, Kianu is also revealed to have been in love with Kimera.
- Fate Worse than Death: Kimera sees becoming the Mother as this and asks Kianu to kill him.
- Flashback: after being teleported away, Osamu sees a flashback of Kimera's life.
- Forceful Kiss: in the OVA, while one man is raping Kimera, the other one kisses him.
- Friendly Neighborhood Vampire: the flashback shows Kimera refusing to drink blood, he would rather die than take life to live, which causes Kianu to offer him his own blood.
- Friend to All Living Things: Kimera on his home planet during the flashback, subverted on Earth he kills his rapists and shows no remorse after.
- Good All Along: Kianu tries to kill Kimera, but it's at Kimera's own request, later he stops Ginzu from using their sibling to revive their dying race. He's also the only one to show regret at having to kill.
- Healing Factor: the aliens, Kianu is shown to regrow his entire lower arm though the process was painful and he had to kill several people for it, which he does feel guilty over.
- Hollywood Kiss: the first thing Kimera does when he's freed by Osamu is kiss him, cue Jay's facepalm and subsequent turning around, they don't stop until Jay asks them to. It happens again in the ruined church.
- I Don't Think That's Such a Good Idea: Osamu tries to dissuade Jay from posing as doctors in the research facility, then Jay tries to stop Osamu from going into an area with a danger for viral contamination, then from opening Kimera's tank "you shouldn't push strange switches" and finally from getting Kimera out of the facility. Neither of them heed each other.
- Mad Scientist: subverted with Jay's father, Dr. Gibson, ((though he does work in a lab that treats aliens as specimens to be experimented on For Science!. He assures his son that as long as the team is his, nothing inhumane will happen.)), played straight with Dr. Fender.
- Mood Whiplash: Kimera is portrayed as gentle, ethereal and defenseless, until he bares his fangs and kills his rapists.
- Monstrous Humanoid: Ginzu looks like a red-skinned devil, complete with spikes growing from his head and fangs.
- Naked First Impression and Naked on Arrival: Kimera is naked in the tank when Osamu finds him.
- Never Found the Body or Not Quite Dead: Kianu collapses after killing Ginzu, but his condition is not revealed.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Osamu distracts Kianu, allowing Ginzu to get the drop on him, Osamu again when rather than killing Kimera, drives off into the sunset with him, possibly dooming the entire human race.
- Nonhumans Lack Attributes: Kianu who looks like a man but is not a man and "doesn't even have a man's functions", according to Ginzu.
- Not Quite Human: Kimera and Kianu look human, subverted with Ginzu who looks like a demon.
- Our Vampires Are Different: Alien vampires, actually, who are said to be the originators of the vampire legend.
- People Farms: To Ginzu, humans are livestock.
- People Jars: Kimera is sealed in a tank after being captured
- Pillar of Light: When Kimera disappears from the greenhouse, taking both Osamu and Kianu with him, though all three end up in different places.
- Pretty Boy: Kimera, one of the men who raped him said "not even a woman is this beautiful".
- Race Against the Clock: to enter the code for the security door, only for the alarm not to go off when the timer ends.
- Sexual Harassment and Rape Tropes: Kimera is raped by two men in the city, in the manga it's three men. Right after he kills them all.
- Riding into the Sunset: Kimera and Osamu at the end of the OVA.
- Sadistic Choice: Kianu tells Osamu if he doesn't kill Kimera, the world is doomed, but Osamu can't bring himself to do it.
- Salaryman: Osamu and Jay are corn cereal salesmen.
- Sibling Rivalry: Ginzu comments on Kianu's beauty out of spite because he himself looks monstruous. It turns creepy when after thinking he's killed Kianu, Ginzu uses one of his smaller tentacles to gently pull the hair away from his face, even a single strand, and then carresses his cheek.
- The Chosen One: Osamu, for creating children with Kimera (who was to become the Mother).
- The End of the World as We Know It: Kianu claims a child of Kimera and Osamu will cause the downfall of Earth.
- The Voiceless: Kimera doesn't say a single word while on Earth, though in the flashback it's revealed he did talk on his homeworld.
- Vampiric Draining: the aliens drain humans of all blood and bodily fluids, though the end of the OVA reveals Kimera bit Osamu without it causing further harm, so it doesn't necessarily kill them.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Ginzu literally tells Dr. Fenden this after he reveals the Mother System is ready.
- You Taste Delicious: Kimera licks blood off Osamu's face after he gets hurt.
- Window Love: when they first meet, Kimera and Osamu kiss through the glass of Kimera's tank.
