(New)Anne Rice and Kaori Yuki - Similarity?

[Sindeira]

Anne Rice is known for weaving an almost- dreamy, gothic ambiance around her characters, while tormenting them to the very end. This sounds strikingly similiar to Kaori Yuki's own tales of intrigue, with the mere exception being that her novels don't seem to linger for several decades, if not centuries, onward to become near to the story's conclusion.  

[Silmone]

I don't see many similarities maybe except the fact that they both create angsty characters. Kaori Yuki's works are much deeper and darker, they often show the ugliest cravings of human's soul. Anne Rice ,no matter how much I admire her work, seems to concentrate on tormenting her characters for reasons I never really understood. Seriously, most of her vampires make ME feel like a villain. confused  

[Vi Sparklemist]

I haven't read all thay much by Rice; I only read half of The Vampire Lestat before getting bored with it. Not because of the story or the characters, but rather because of the dull language (which probably is an effect from the translation, though). I have, however, seen Interview with a Vampire and read pretty much about Rice and her stories, and think you really can't say they aren't similiar in any way.

There are in my opinion two things that connect them most (at least that connect Count Cain and Rice's stories)

The Setting: Pretty gothic with some kind of high classed aristocrats as the main characters. You get to know the darker side of the cities too.

The Characters: None of them are happy. You get a picture of the sadness, and perhaps madness, of the characters that are drawn into a dark world with very much evil. Cain is a lonely count tormented by the memories of his father while the characters in Interview with a Vampire (well, most of them anyway) learns the dark sides of being immortal.

They are far from being the same story, of course, but I wouldn't say they aren't similiar.

Then we have the opinion that Rice is more of a tormenter while Yuki shows a more deeper darkness - of that I cannot tell, as I haven't read too much of her works. And that's probably a reason for not taking what I just said too seriously as well.  

[Silmone]

Vi Sparklemist

There are in my opinion two things that connect them most (at least that connect Count Cain and Rice's stories)

The Setting: Pretty gothic with some kind of high classed aristocrats as the main characters. You get to know the darker side of the cities too.

The Characters: None of them are happy. You get a picture of the sadness, and perhaps madness, of the characters that are drawn into a dark world with very much evil.

That describes a lot of books. sweatdrop

I don't know, maybe it's all about what you classify as gothic. There's a bit more to it than an old house and the lack of electricity in my opinion. When I think about gothic settings I imagine stormy nights, dark corridors echoing with lonely footsteps and creaking doors that make your skin crawl. There were only a few of such elements in Rice's works, maybe one per novel. Kaori Yuki has tons of them, maybe because it's easier to create such atmosphere with drawings than words.

As for the characters no matter how hard I try, I just can't think of two that would be similar in more than one way. Maybe someone would be nice enough to provide me with an example and suitable reasoning? neutral  

[Cain_Hargreaves]

Silmone

As for the characters no matter how hard I try, I just can't think of two that would be similar in more than one way. Maybe someone would be nice enough to provide me with an example and suitable reasoning? neutral

I can't think of any, either.

Actually, when I think about it, the atmospheres created by the two different authors are completely different. And it feels like to me, Anne Rice tries a little too hard to create drama for her characters, but none of it really seems so horrible when looking back on it. Certainly not as twisted and macabre as some of Kaori Yuki's characters become. I mean, it gets to the point that. . .if someone doesn't bathe in another person's entrails at some poing durring a Kaori Yuki series, I start to feel cheated.

She pulls off unhinged and insane so well, that Anne Rice's attempts fall (I think) short of their goal.  

[Vi Sparklemist]

Silmone

I don't know, maybe it's all about what you classify as gothic. There's a bit more to it than an old house and the lack of electricity in my opinion. When I think about gothic settings I imagine stormy nights, dark corridors echoing with lonely footsteps and creaking doors that make your skin crawl. There were only a few of such elements in Rice's works, maybe one per novel. Kaori Yuki has tons of them, maybe because it's easier to create such atmosphere with drawings than words.

As for the characters no matter how hard I try, I just can't think of two that would be similar in more than one way. Maybe someone would be nice enough to provide me with an example and suitable reasoning? neutral

I just noticed that my view on what is goth is almost something one of them n00bs could say. eek I think aristocracy, despair, a setting around 1700-1800, dark colours, um.. family issues(where the hell did I get that from? sweatdrop ), fancy clothes (you get the idea..EGL for the win)... So in my opinion there's a match. (And yes, when I've read or watched something I classify as gothic, I kind of start to associate it with dark colours... Don't ask)

As for the characters, I don't think there are two characters that are much like eachother from each of the stories either. But what they face, again, in my opinion, is pretty much the same.  

[Silmone]

[ Message temporarily off-line ]  

[Vi Sparklemist]

[ Message temporarily off-line ]  

[Silmone]

[ Message temporarily off-line ]  

[Vi Sparklemist]

[ Message temporarily off-line ]  

[YGOPaladin]

[ Message temporarily off-line ]  

[Silmone]

YGOPaladin

The main character in her novel Cry to Heaven (I'm sorry I can't remember his name) could be comparable to Cain. He's an extremely tragic character with an awful and painful past. (He was castrated after all). He grapples with his sexuality as well as what he should do with his life taking into account that he is only "half" a man. He's enormously tragic and that book made me cry a couple times. I'm not sure whether his life is as tragic as Cain's because I haven't finished the Count Cain/God child series yet and so don't want to assume anything. Though a comparison may be possible there.

Ok, that is a good argument. I completely forgot about that novel.