Customer Reviews

Hideyuki Kikuchi's Vampire Hunter D Vol. 1

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Especially that there was this shocking news to an Anime fan that there was "No such thing" as an "Original Vampire Hunter D Manga". Direct from book to Anime. Rarer, but nowhere near unheard of. Also tangent "Shamanic Princess" for example.

Overall, it is a very good Manga adaptation of the novel. Actually a bit of a gestalt of the Novel and the film, leaning heavily towards the former. A little bit of artistic license here and there for gag effect, but in no way detracts from the story.

The artwork is very good although Amano's own artwork is much better but now much more stylized than most would like.

This is simply a "Must Have" for anyone who likes D enough to have the films. To anyone who's maybe watched the films on TV or a rental or at someone's house, I'd still recommend the Manga, then perhaps the first volume of the translated book.

Some examples of this are that Doris has black hair and is a bit of a more forceful personality rather than constant "Damsel in Distress" of the manga. The count's daughter, Lamika, is a blonde and is interested in rather than scornful of D. And the Count is still as formidable, but his powers are a bit...different. Won't say more and be a possible 'spoiler'...again I'll say its well worth buying. I don't even get that many comics or mangas these days, but I eagerly bought this one.

What I think is even better is that there seems to be promise to make more of these books into novels, up to perhaps (market willing) the whole series. At the least, "Raiser of Gales" will be available next summer:-)

Last, but not least, this book is a larger format. Half again the size of the standard manga. This, not licensing is no doubt the reason for its increased price, but it is thick and chock full of beautiful illustration, including a color front piece, something American Manga publishers seem to cheat out of for the most part.

I'm not a big fan of the movie version of this, but I'd heard the novels were better and that the manga was more faithful to those so I picked these up. At first the artwork surprised me. It's very busy. But then as I started to read I began to appreciate how the ornateness paired up with the spare dialogue to tell the story. The style reminds of a combination of Kaori Yuki (Angel Sanctuary/Count Cain) and Kouta Hirano (Hellsing), in a good way. It's dense with lines and textures, but most panels were easily understood despite that. There were only a few in battles scenes that confused me.

The story has been described by the others, vampire hunter with a mysterious past saves a buxom (waaaaaay too buxom) girl and her kid brother (who sounds like he stepped off the set of Bonanza). This is a Western at heart. The trappings though are new and original, and I was intrigued by this futuristic new world where horses were constructs and men could have hands that talked.

It looks like this could be a long string of volumes complete within themselves, but containing an arc slowly revealing D's past that strings them together. I've read the first two and thought they were really entertaining, lively action and bits of the puzzle of D to think about. I'd recommend them to anyone who likes mature graphic novels, vampires, dark fantasy, and science fiction.

It somehow seems surprising that with a pair of classic anime movies and several novels, Hideyuki Kikuchi's "Vampire Hunter D" has never been rendered in manga form.

Well, now it has. And it's a gorgeous, detailed rendering of Kikuchi's futuristic-western-by-Bram-Stoker style. And it does a solid job mingling dark science fiction with ancient mythical creatures -- werewolves, vampires, and a medieval futuristic world full of monsters.

Farmgirl Doris Lang stops a sword-carrying youth on a cyborg horse, and finds that he is a Vampire Hunter. Good thing, because Doris has been bitten by the vampire Magnus Lee, and needs this young man -- who calls himself "D" -- to save her and her brother from the vampire. Haughty vampire ladies, werewolves and feuding villagers all visit Doris' farm -- only to be repulsed by D.

But to deal with Lee, D must venture into a disgusting, labyrinthine castle, dealing with demonic serpent-women, lethal mutants, and the Count himself. Outside, Lee's servants and daughter Larmica grapple with various villagers, intending to capture or kill Doris -- but none of them realize what D, a dhampir, is hiding in his distant past...

The world Kikichi concocts is a pretty fascinating one. As the introduction explains, it's over ten thousand years in the future, in the waning days of a vampire empire that ran the whole planet, and Earth is overrun with vampires, werewolves, mutants and cyborgs. He's invented a gloriously rough, wild kind of world, sort of a postapocalyptic Wild West.

And his detailed, atmospheric writing is stripped down and translated into artwork and spare dialogue. The actual prose tends to be rather straightforward, in a "Shane" kind of way, but preserving much of the flavour of the original novel. And most of the stuff Kikuchi described is faithfully set down, and spun into detailed black-and-white illustrations.

And the artist should be commended for his work -- we have ornate satellites, cathedral-like castles, the dissipated-looking Count Lee and his sensuous (and big-haired) daughter, shadowed rapid-fire fight scenes, run-down wildernesses, and even the creepy monsters like Garou or the pretty-boy Rei-Ginsu. It's lusher and more ornate than a norma-sized manga could contain, and it adds to the gothic flavour of the story.

D himself is the absolute peak of the artwork, both in ink and in artistry. Ahe artist perfectly captured strength, inhuman stillness and melancholy age that he embodies, as well as the long lean body and beautiful youth's face. And he has a pretty cool costume as well -- think a medieval knight with a dash of cowboy.

The flaws? Well, the extremely rapid action scenes are a bit hard to follow. And Doris is absurd-looking -- her mouth is tiny, and she has giant torpedo boobs, each usually larger than her head. And they often appear to be trying to escape from her shirt and whap someone in the chin -- it says "Playmate" to me rather than "feisty farmgirl."

While it has a few errors, "Hideyuki Kikuchi's Vampire Hunter D" is a magnificently rich, exquisitely dark manga. Definitely worthy of Kikuchi's work.

As a Vampire Hunter D fan, I was happy to hear the manga come out, but I read it in Barnes and Noble, and I'm sorry to say, the manga was quite a disappointment to me. For someone new to manga publication, Saiko Takaki has potential, but she really needs to clean up some things.

1)Her drawings, while skilled, look more like sketches and drafts rather than the final print. Why? Because there's too many graceless lines drawn all over the place. She should clean it up.

2) She NEEDS to minimize Doris's breasts. They're ridiculously huge; how degrading towards females. The costumes are horrible too. She looks more like a whore rather than a feisty, resourceful, and gutsy heroine.

3) The flow of conversations and pacing of the story is a little choppy.

Despite these, it's a good read, but it's not something I would buy. Hopefully Ms. Takaki's drawings will improve with future volumes.

Like the novel, I thoroughly enjoyed the manga portrayal of the first Vampire Hunter D book. Considering how dated the first movie was, I was sort of eager to see how it matched up to the modern manga art style. D's definitely better looking than the illustrations in the novel which is great. Unlike the film, Doris is a brunette and she is D have a bit more romance than the film leads us to believe.

The manga is filled with vivid details, explanations, vivid action scenes, character development, romance, and just all out entertainment. I ended up liking the characters much more compared to their movie counterparts, even D himself. Most that have read the book and manga have probably seen the movie. Since there are more visuals than the book, the manga is even more fun to try to compare to the movie. There are so many drastic character design changes that you have to remember everyone's names to make sure they're the right characters.

The manga is easy on the eyes, as is D. You wonder if he will ever find piece, and you hope he does. I definitely recommend trying this series out if you're into vampires.

Nice beginner and good art, I found no problem with formatting or bluriness, th artist has true talent and sprised me alot because the movie seems to be much less cool because of this!

Mankind at last turns upon itself and unleashes weapons of unimaginable horror against themselves, despite knowing what the final outcome will be. The cities fall, towns collapse, and humanity is swept back into a Dark Age amidst ruins of past advanced civilisation. Mutants spawn in the fallout, and THEY appear. Creatures of ancient legend, they roam the darkness. Indescribably beautiful, powerful, ultra intelligent, thirsting for blood, they are vampires. Herding humanity under their care, they husband the last remnants of civilisation and advance the frontiers of science forward once more. For five thousand years they reign over the Earth, until their own base natures seem to envelop them, and their time, too, seems to come to an end. The children of mankind, having lived in the shadow of the Nobility and their own past human civilisation, expand on their own, trying to survive and grow in a world where monsters spew forth in unexpected places, rogue Nobles hunt in the dark, and their own frailties expose them to mortal danger. Amongst the humans though, occasionally one finds a useful mutation. Appearing human, they have an ability that sets them apart and makes them more akin to the demons stalking the world, perfect for becoming hunters. They work for a bounty, stalking the terrors that crawl and creep forth, and Nobles who come to take prey.

Amongst them is one so famed, his exploits precede him even to the furthest corners of the human frontier. His name is D, and his appearance often misleads people when they first lay eyes upon him. He is slender, and exceptionally beautiful in a way that turns the heads of men and women. He is solemn, dressed ready for his work as a hunter, and riding upon a cyborg horse. He is just, but when people realise just WHAT he also is, they often shun him or try to send him away despite his contract. Vampires and mutants call him traitor. No matter, he is who he is, and he knows a lot more about the Origins than those who despise him can ever lay claim to. His name is D, and he is a dhampir. Half human like his mother, half vampire like his father. His father, an ancient vampire of legend, whose name is revered and worshipped amongst the Nobles: Dracula.

D keeps his lineage under tight wraps, which is just as well, for his enemies often make assumptions about his weaknesses by what they know about dhampirs in general. D however comes from the wellspring of vampire blood, and so possesses the very best of their strengths, and due to his human blood, is not so strongly affected by their weaknesses. With a demon of sorts as a symbiote in his left hand, which he keeps hidden from view, he has unusual tactical advantages. This being has supernatural powers of its own, used to aid D, and indeed is shown to be able to act independently as the need arises. The occasion when this is the case arises all too soon on this occasion. D is out riding along the frontier, currently jobless, when he encounters a woman blocking his path.

She challenges him after asking if he is a hunter, and the two fight. D defeats her and she proclaims herself satisfied, and asks him to come save her town from a Noble, revealing she has been bitten. Once bitten, she knows the Noble will return again and again until she joins the ranks of the undead. Wishing to avoid her fate, and to save all that she holds dear, she offers the only payment she has: a place to stay, food to eat, and if he so wishes, the use of her body. D agrees to the bounty, though shows no interest in the carnal offerings. He soon discovers that the woman Doris has troubles other than just a Noble out to make her his bride, however, as she is trying to run a farm with her brother, Dan, who is still a young boy, and fend off the unwelcome advances of the mayor's loutish son. The farm is in need of maintenance, and with only Doris and Dan, much needs to be done to keep it going. D takes on the role of handyman, mending fences and whatnot, while keeping watch, observing, defending, and showing an unexpected tenderness towards children. The Noble Count Lee is not alone however; his daughter Larmica is about with her own ideas about what should be, and they have a team of mutant servants at their beck and call. When one of them, Rei Ginsei, manages to cut off D's left hand and then stake him through the heart, it at first appears everything is over. But D and his hand have a couple of aces up their sleeve, and when they use them, the Nobles realise they have much to fear...

Part science fiction, part fantasy and horror, and part western, Vampire Hunter D is a landmark within the seinen manga genre. Author Hideyuki Kikuchi originally wrote the series as light novels, short prose novels with illustrated pages scattered throughout. The novels number 21 in total and are still ongoing, and two have been adapted into anime feature films. The cult popularity of the books and anime led to Digital Manga Publishing approaching Kikuchi about a collaboration that would turn his prose novels into graphic ones. Kikuchi chose a self published manga artist and Vampire Hunter D fan, Saiko Takaki, to illustrate the manga versions. This works quite well, as Takaki is intimately familiar with the plotlines, characters, settings, the often occult like science, and fairly Lovecraftian mythos interwoven with folklore that make up the backbone of the series. Her illustrations with their dark and occasionally heavy lines married to the delicate sweep of the facial features and the beautifully expressive eyes fits in perfectly with Kikuchi's prose. It leaves the reader with an experience that tastes the best of both worlds: the enthralling storytelling prowess of Kikuchi and the frame by frame imagery of this world previously only glimpsed at from the anime. This is D as you have you have never seen him before. Bewitching, beguiling, and deadly, a glance at only the very first page being enough to sweep you away.

****I would like to thank Digital Manga Publishing for providing the review copy. This title is available as a paperback from manga retailers and as Hideyuki Kikuchi's Vampire Hunter D Vol. 1Kindle edition.****

I am new to manga...I've never really been able to appreciate the manga format as much as I should, but I am a veteran D fan. I adored Bloodlust, and over the past year have become a hardcore fan now that I've been reading the novels. I was excited to hear that a manga was coming out even though I don't read mangas, and now that I have it in my eager hands I was not disappointed! It's so wonderful to be seeing D and Doris, exactly as I saw them in my imagination. This was a splendid adaptation of the first novel, and the art work is simply gorgeous. The darkness, the pain, and the beauty was captured just perfectly. The dark, and captivating world of D was brought to life in a way the first movie failed miserably to achieve. The only thing I didn't really like was that there was just so much going on on each page, sometimes it was a little hard to follow. I think if I didn't know the story already I may have been lost. But then again you talking to a girl who didn't know your supposed to read a manga back to front, and right to left until two days ago.

I've read a couple manga before but nothing as good as this. Having grown up on Groo comics I've had to get used to black and white drawings. This is very good, the artwork is very good and I didn't have hardly any trouble figuring out each frame. Excellent story too. Left me wanting to read the next one. I've not tried the Kindle version, but am planning to. I hope it's as good as the paperback version.

I loved the novel, I loved the Anime and this Manga presentation fits beautifully in with first Vampire Hunter D novels.

The scene when Doris comes to D to offer him payment before the job was finished is very well done but different from the Anime. I think this and Volume 2 are both must have for Vampire Hunter D fans.