Publication Facts and Rating (0 to 5 stars) "At-a-Glance"

Publisher: ?? (Hong Kong)
Publication Year: 2000
Number of cards: 22
Quality of artwork -- 1 1/2 stars
Usefulness for meditation/pathworking -- 0 stars
Readability (Divination) -- 0 stars
Symbology -- 1/2 star
Value to Collectors -- 2 1/2 stars

General Commentary
You know you're in trouble when the highlight of your tarot review is the title of the deck itself. Of course, a title like "My Date with a Vampire" (MDWAV) is bound to elicit some curiosity. So, a basic run-down of the facts is probably in order.

First, this tarot is in no way related to U.S. Games' recently-released "Vampire Tarot." Second, the title of the deck actually comes from a Chinese television show. Third, unless you've seen the show, this is probably the most worthless reading tarot you're likely to run across.

I received my copy of this tarot from a trading friend in Hong Kong. As it turns out, the MDWAV tarot was actually just a "bonus giveaway" item that was packaged with the comic book adaptation of the television show. Apparently, one of the actresses in the show (who played a character known as the "Cat Monster") is also a tarot reader, although I was unable to determine whether she reads professionally or as an avocation. Although the comic book is in Chinese (which I neither read nor speak), there is an obvious center section devoted to explaining the basics of the tarot cards and how to use them. Included are several pictures of the actress demonstrating how to spread the cards. One rather humorous point is that the actress is clearly using a copy of the Osho Zen tarot and not the MDWAV tarot itself.

And probably for good reason. The MDWAV tarot consists of nothing more than photographs of the actors and actresses portraying their characters. Each character has been assigned to one of the 22 major arcana cards. Whether the correspondences have any validity is difficult to say. For what it's worth, here's what my friend from Hong Kong told me about the show:

"…The review in the local newspaper said that watching one episode of My Date with a Vampire is just like watching $100,000 burning. But the TV company put a lot of special effects into the show, and it was a great hit in Hong Kong. The story was about a female exorcist in love with a 'good' vampire. But due to her family tradition, she couldn't fall in love and couldn't shed a tear for any man -- otherwise her powers of exorcism would be lost. And then some sort of evil thing appears and destroys the whole world. Only the exorcist and the vampire could find the way to stop it. Finally, everyone was dead, including the evil entity. The only person left was the good vampire. Then Buddha appeared and gave the vampire a wish. The good vampire wished he never had been bitten and had never become a vampire. The Buddha granted his wish, and the vampire transformed into a 'normal' human being and transported him back in time to before the tragedy, and he became a cop."

(Nothing like a pinch of Deus ex Machina to liven up the ending of a show, eh?)

There's really little else of interest that can be said about the cards of the MDWAV tarot. The photographs appear to be nothing more than "publicity stills" from the show, although as portraits of the characters, they are fairly well done. The card stock used is also of an adequate quality, and the cards are enclosed in a small, clear plastic casing that should suffice to keep them reasonably well protected when not in use. But about the only reason to go out of your way to find a copy of the MDWAV tarot is if you are an eclectic collector with a taste for truly odd decks. From that standpoint, the MDWAV tarot is really "quite a catch," as the comic book with which it was packaged has already been "off the newsstands" in Hong Kong for several months. Which means that the MDWAV tarot is effectively out-of-print for good.

Click here for pictures

or here to return

Please use your browser's back button to return from pictures

Guest review copyright 2001 by Jeannette Roth
Used with permission