Poe no Ichizoku

Poe no Ichizoku (ポーの一族) is a Japanese shōjo historical manga by Moto Hagio that depicts a family of vampires from the 18th to the 20th centuries. The two main characters, Edgar Portsnell and Allan Twilight, as well as the family are named after Edgar Allan Poe. It was serialized by Shogakukan in Flower Comics from 1972 to 1976 and collected in nine bound volumes. Poe no Ichizoku received the 1976 Shogakukan Manga Award for shōnen manga along with Hagio's They Were Eleven. In 1974, the initial release of volume 1 of the manga sold 30 thousand copies in 3 days. It was inspired by Shotaro Ishimori's story "Mist, Roses and Stars".

Plot
Edgar was born as an illegitimate child to Earl Evans. After the birth of Edgar's sister, Marybell, 4 years later, his step mother ordered the nurse to kill Edgar and Marybell. The nurse did not kill them but abandoned Marybell and Edgar in the woods, expecting them to die of starvation, where they were discovered by Hannah Poe. She took them to her mansion near the village of Scotty. Hannah looked after the siblings. When Edgar was eleven, he got to know the secret that Hannah and people in the mansion were Vampanellas. He was forced to promise he would turn into a Vampanella, a member of Poe family, when he became an adult. Marybell was adopted by Baron Art due to Edgar's request. When he was 14 years of age, Hannah was killed by a villager and the villagers got to know the secret of the mansion. Edgar was turned into a vampire by King Poe, effectively forcing him to join the Poe family, before the family escaped from the villagers.

Three years later, Earl Evans' eldest son, Oswald, met Marybell and Edgar. Marybell attempted to kill Edgar because he is a vampire. However, she changed her mind when Edgar kept being nice and loving her very much. Edgar took her into the family of Poe. Edgar is adopted by a baron and his wife, Sheila Portsnell, who is also a vampire. The Portsnells who owns the port. However, Edgar and Marybell could not stay under the care of the baron for long because they remained 14 and 13, respectively.

Character

 * Edgar Portsnell (エドガー·ポーツネル) is the protagonist of the series. He was born on March 12, 1740, as an illegitimate first child, to an aristocrat, Earl Evans, and his mistress, Maryweather. He became a vampire at the age of 14.
 * Marybell Portsnell (メリベル·ポーツネル) is the sister of Edgar. She is also an illegitimate child of Earl Evans. She became a vampire at the age of 13.

Manga
Poe no Ichizoku was written and illustrated by Moto Hagio and serialized by Shogakukan in Flower Comics from March 1972 to June 1976. The individual chapters were collected in nine tankōbon volumes under the Flower Comics imprint, with the first volume published on March 28, 1974 and the final volume on January 25, 1978. Shogakukan later re-released the entire series in three bunkoban volumes on July 17, 1998,  and then again in two wide-ban volumes on November 26, 2007 and December 21, 2007, respectively.

Radio drama
Poe no Ichizoku was adapted as radio drama broadcast by NHK-FM between January 1 and January 6, 1980. It was directed by Tokio Ootani from a script by Sunao Takata, with sound effects by Masakazu Haraguti and Akira Iwai. It starred Kouji Ishitobi as the Baron and Haruka Kurara as the Baron's wife.

Drama CDs
Poe no Ichizoku was later adapted as a series of six drama CDs from scripts written by Moto Hagio. They were released monthly by Shogakukan between December 2007 and May 2008. Each volume covered a different generation of the Poe Family.
 * Volume 1 was released on December 21, 2007, and starred Toshihiko Seki as Glenn Smith and Tomokazu Seki as Clifford.
 * Volume 2 was released on January 25, 2008, and starred Megumi Takamoto as Liddell, Honda Youko as Karen, and Ayumi Huzimura as Jane.
 * Volume 3 was released on February 22, 2008, and starred Akira Saitou as Hannah, Takendo Koyasu as Oswald, Nobuhiko Okamoto as Yushisu, and Kana Ueda as Madonna.
 * Volume 4 was released on March 21, 2008, and starred Narita Ken as Henry, Takayuki Huzimoto as Roger, Kana Uetake as Ellen, Hisashi Oda as Ernest, Akira Sugizaki as the doctor, Takaya Hazi/Tsutomu Ousaka as Marshal, and Yumi Shimura as Grid Marshal.
 * Volume 5 was released on April 26, 2008, and starred Obase Tomoko/Kouda Naoko as Elizabeth, Teruyuki Sawa Makoto as Tony, Yukiko Okada as Yurie, Madoka Kimura as Julieta, Fuyuka Ooura as Anna, Kou Sonobe as Pierre, Atsushi Abe as Lewis, Tomiko Orikasa as Edith, Kawashima Toku Ai as Henry, Osamu Akira Sugiyama as Roger, and Hitoshi Takashi as Sir Bin Kyou.
 * Volume 6 was released on May 23, 2008, and starred Sumiko Minakawa as Killian, Kaida Yuki as Mathias, Miura Junya as Theo, Cha Fūrin as Dr. Grof, Madoka Kimura as Robin, Akira Sugizaki as Heym, Isao Yoshimi Sonobe as Pastor, Atsushi Abe as Student 1, Kobayashi Kosuke as Student 2, Kaji Yuki as Student 3, Masaki Makiguti as Student 4, and Kouji Ishitobi as Music Teacher.