VAMPIRE HUNTER D SHORT STORY PUBLISHED BY NYAF

NEW STORY APPEARS FOR THE FIRST TIME IN PRINT
A new and special manner to present original content to a captive and devoted audience has been created by The New York Anime Festival (NYAF) who today announced that the short story Vampire Hunter D: The Wanderer’s Ship by Hideyuki Kikuchi will be published inside its Official Guide Book. Vampire Hunter D: The Wanderer’s Ship has never been printed before in any language anywhere in the world. The New York Anime Festival, an anime, manga, and Japanese pop culture convention from the creators of New York Comic Con, takes place September 26th through the 28th, 2008 at the Jacob Javits Center in New York, NY.
Hideyuki Kikuchi is one of Japan’s most prolific horror novelists and one of the New York Anime Festival’s Guests of Honor. Mr. Kikuchi is most famous for his Vampire Hunter D novel series, stories that follow “D” — a half-human, half-vampire swordsman — through a dystopic future ruled by vampires. The first D novel, penned in Japan in 1983, has been followed by over 15 sequels, with the most recent — Throng of Heretics — released in Japan in 2007. Mr. Kikichi is attending NYAF along with Vampire Hunter D illustrator Yoshitaka Amano and translator Kevin Leahy.
Vampire Hunter D: The Wanderer’s Ship, a story of D and his encounter with a blood-red battleship, dates back to one of the author’s “Talk Live” events. Each year, Mr. Kikichi hosts several “Talk Live” gathering in the Kabukicho section of Shinjuku. At these events, he introduces a younger generation of fans to a wide variety of horror and sci-fi films and brings them face-to-face with guests from the worlds of publishing, animation, and film. The events conclude with drawings that give the audience chances to win signed books, artwork, and other exclusive prizes. The very best is saved for last — short stories handwritten by Mr. Kikuchi with exclusive publication rights.
To date, three tales set in the Vampire Hunter D universe have come into the possession of lucky fans. Only the first has been published. The third — Vampire Hunter D: The Wanderer’s Ship — was won by Ms. Hitomi Yasue, a longtime fan of Mr. Kikuchi and a regular attendee of his events. As someone who knew D from the novels before ever seeing the anime, she was surprised to hear the opposite was true overseas. Ms. Yasue has graciously agreed to share this short story with fans at the New York Anime Festival in the hopes of exposing more people to the literary incarnation of her favorite Vampire Hunter. Vampire Hunter D: The Wanderer’s Ship has been translated for the New York Anime Festival by Mr. Kikuchi’s friend and the translator of his Vampire Hunter D novel series, Mr. Kevin Leahy
“It is with great pleasure that the New York Anime Festival presents Vampire Hunter D: The Wanderer’s Ship in print for the first time anywhere, in any language,” NYAF Show Manager Lance Fensterman said. “This is a genuinely historic moment, something for Kikuchi’s fans around the globe, and it is only possible because of the generosity of Ms. Hitomi Yasue and the hard work of Mr. Kevin Leahy.”
The New York Anime Festival Guide Book will be available in the Jacob Javits Center lobby from September 26-28, 2008. Tickets to the New York Anime Festival are now available at newyorkanimefestival.com.