Vampires marked an especially important stage in the progess of Rock Holmes, one of Tezuka’s longest-running characters, who appeared here for the first time in a charismatic villain role as Makube Rokuro. Vampires is certainly not as mature a work as some of Tezuka’s later social commentaries, but a story of the fight for the right to do evil is certainly a far cry from Astro Boy’s quest to bring about friendship between humans and robots.