Plot Summary

D has been hired by the mayor of Tepes to investigate a surge in paranormal activity in the village. The small town has been plagued with suspicious activity that resembles that of the Nobles. And the source of trouble may be too close for comfort.

Overlooking the village is a hill crowned by a research facility built by the Noble’s some thousand years ago. Ten years ago, four children were abducted and taken to the facility, three were returned to the village unharmed, sans memories of the incident.

Lina Sween, a gifted and promising student headed for the Capital, was among those kidnapped. She resolves to help D anyway she can, although she may be part of the problem instead of the solution. D manages to unravel part of the mystery and comes face to face with his own hidden past.

Review

Vampire Hunter D Manga

Volume Two of Vampire Hunter D falls short of Volume One. It’s mushy where Volume One is solid, dull where One is keen. The concept isn’t bad, but the execution leaves something to be desired.

The dialog in this volume is not good. In fact, it’s the main reason why this volume drags. But blame cannot be laid entirely at the feet of the mangaka, Saiko Takaki. Nay, the manga closely follows the light novel, down to the dialog and illustrating how beautiful D is described as being- over and over and over.

A fair sample of the stellar back and forth: “Nothing wipes that scary look off your face, does it Mr. Serious?”, “Quit your tomfoolery!” and “Wouldn’t being a Hunter’s wife be a total thrill?” Albeit most of this is coming from Lina, would it have been hard to translate it into something more modern and readable?

The manga has thus far been painstakingly faithful to the books, emphasis on the pain. Unfortunately, while Kikuchi’s ideas are inventive, his novels read like poorly done pulp shorts from the ’50’s. Whether that’s on him or the translator is unknown.

Faithfulness to source material is commendable, but taking an original concept and transcending it is a homage to a writer, mangaka or artist. The mangaka has done as well as can be hoped for considering the books are very visually worded. Kikuchi’s ideas should be illustrated throughout, since that’s how they read- like scripts or screenplays.

Story

Vampire Hunter D Panel

The story in Volume Two doesn’t draw me into the world like the first Volume does. I feel like a passerby in the manga, not really paying attention to the shallow events unfolding in front of me. Just passing through- nothing to see here!

If there had been more character development, more focus on just one aspect of the story, I would have felt more attached to the story. As it was, it went by far too quickly with minimal development.

Character Development

Lina is annoying. Although she doesn’t come across as moe, she’s a hindrance in the story. I cared for nobody in this volume, except maybe D, and even he seemed a bit slow on the uptake this time around.

Art

Saiko Takaki

The art in Volume Two is disappointing. It’s muddier than the initial volume, and is distracting and smudged in places. Some scenes look quality, while others are hard to discern. The drawing isn’t nearly as good throughout and consistently as Volume One.

Conclusion

Vampire Hunter D, Volume Two is disappointing. It’s disappointing that more wasn’t done to improve upon the original story and the dialog and disappointing that the art went down in quality.

The ideas are unique, and should be penned so that a wider audience can appreciate Kikuchi’s vivid imagination.

Rating

Vampire Hunter D, Volume Two gets 2 outta 5 Hammies!

Retail Info

• Publisher:Digital Manga Publishing
• Release Date:July 9, 2008
• Retail Price: $12.95
• Paperback: 200 pages
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1569707871
• ISBN-13:978-1569707876

Hideyuki first began writing the Vampire Hunter D series in 1983. Yoshitaka Amano illustrated the covers for the books and drew illustrated pages for Hideyuki’s books, as well. The novels were hugely popular and led to a Vampire Hunter D anime feature in 1985, based off the first novel, Vampire Hunter D.

The movie was considered a success and in 2000, a second Vampire Hunter D feature was released, Bloodlust.

Bloodlust was based off the third of the D novels, Demon Deathchase. This sequel was also considered a success, and Hideyuki continued to write the popular Vampire Hunter D novels.

Nineteen D novels have been published so far, with the first of nine being translated into English in 2005. The latest novel, Throng of Heretics, was released in Japan this past October.

In November of 2007, a Vampire Hunter D manga was released for the first time ever by Digital Manga Publishing. The manga was drawn and written under the direct supervision of Hideyuki, by a mangaka the author personally handpicked; Saiko Takaki.

Hideyuki Kikuchi’s Vampire Hunter D, as the manga is known, was released first in English. A Japanese language release will follow after the manga has been translated into German, Finnish, and Hungarian.

The manga closely follows the first novel…

plot summary

10,091 years after the world’s governments unleashed atomic doom upon the earth, a strange nobility is teetering on the brink of obsolescence. Vampires stepped onto the world stage after the nuclear dust cleared, and declared themselves rulers of a post-apocalyptic planet. The Nobility, as the vampiric ruling class is known, has governed the world from the safety of night for the past 100 centuries. But they have become decadent and outdated.

Mutants and supermen have risen from the peasant ranks to overthrow their vampire suppressors. They are the vampire hunters. The most renown vampire hunter, D, has dedicated his life to eradicating the Nobility. D gets his formidable strength from his lineage as a dhampir; a creature half human and half vampire.

As D is roaming the countryside one day, a young girl flings herself into his path and challenges the vampire hunter to a fight. After gaging the dhampir’s powers, the girl, Doris Lang, hires D to help her. Doris has been bitten by a Noble and needs D’s help to rid the countryside of the vampire who has chosen Doris as his unwilling bride.

D agrees, and becomes entangled in the girl’s plight and his needs as both man and dhampir.

review

I loved the original Vampire Hunter D anime. I loved it so much, that when the novels were first released in English, I rushed out and bought the first two. The novels were slightly disappointing, though, since it felt that the translation was poorly done.

I got tired of reading “the gorgeous youth/man” over and over and over. It seemed something integral was lost when the text was turned into English. But the gist of the story was still interesting enough for me to soldier through the book.

A manga format is a much better fit for an English rendition of the famous novels. The visuals which don’t translate well into boring prose, are painstakingly drawn out in the manga. The wordiness of the novels is changed from hard to read book, into beautifully illustrated manga, which needs little translation.

Character Development

There isn’t much development at all in the first Vampire Hunter D novel and there wasn’t much character development in the manga, either. Within the first four pages, Doris gets naked, fights D, and then begs him to work for her. This scene was ripped from the book, nearly word for word.

I can’t fault the manga for what the novel failed to do since the manga is following the novel so closely. It would have been nice, however, for the manga to strengthen the story with a bit more insight into D and Doris.

The Nobility is given some amount of character development in the way of motivations and background. D isn’t given any back story, but there’s some hint at his origins. The other books in the Vampire Hunter D series flesh the hunter out by degrees; however, this manga was a great opportunity to really develop D for Western audiences.

I felt no connection with Doris and her little brother, Dan, beyond superficial pieces of the story. D was the main draw, no pun intended, of the series, and the manga didn’t disappoint.

Story

The story is actually compelling, if not a little overwrought at times. I had a hard time getting into a few parts of the manga, just as I had a hard time getting into parts of the book, as well.

The beauty of crafting a world so far into the future, is that an author can be as far-fetched as they please and not have to worry about timely contradictions or unbelieving naysayers. There are many “out there” instances in the manga which I couldn’t connect with but still enjoyed: cyber-horses, mutants, scientifically-advanced vampiric nobility. Yet there were some examples which left me scratching my head: time-bewitching incense seems more like a parlor trick than an advanced feat of science by the ruling class.

Part of the story involves D and Doris. Their “relationship” seemed forced, if not downright fanservice for those wanting to see two gorgeous people hook up. It did work wonderfully as a fanservice device. I don’t mind admitting I was smitten with the vampire hunter way back, when I first saw him animated, and wasn’t averse to the thought of D in love.

Character Design

The mangaka, Saiko Takaki, did a wonderful job in following and developing Amanao’s initial direction of the character designs. Much of Amano’s trademark style is evident in the manga; the long eyes, sharp noses, and organic lines have all been worked into Saiko’s art.

D never looked better, nor could I have imagined him to look better, than how he appears in the manga. He truly does live up to the description, “gorgeous youth”, but without the youth bit. In the novel, both D and Doris are described to be around the age of 17-18. In the manga, they look to be more around the age of 23-25.

All the characters in the manga look exactly as they’ve been described in the novels and they also resemble Amano’s brief illustrations. However, the art does retain some of Saiko’s own style.

Art

Too many busy lines, though, tend to distract from the work. The overall heavy organic feel of the art becomes tangled up in all the detailing and shorts the flow of the manga. The shading also tends to be a bit muddy. Aside from a few distracting instances, the art for Vampire Hunter D is strong and beautifully rendered.

Production

The cover for Vampire Hunter D is richly done in dark purples with crimson embossing. The edges of the pages are tinted a matching reddish-purple which compliments the gorgeous cover. However, the paper of the pages themselves is only a step above newsprint.

The roughness and off-white cast of the pages detract from Saiko’s artwork. Paper quality counts, and sadly, Vampire Hunter D’s pages don’t add up to the effort inked onto them.

Hideyuki Kikuchi’s Vampire Hunter D is a must read for any Vampire Hunter D fan, but it’s also a must read for fans of the truly unique and creative.

Rating

Hideyuki Kikuchi’s Vampire Hunter D gets 3 outta 4 Hammies™.