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Title: Vampire Hunter D
Author: Original story by Hideyuki Kikuchi, adapted and illustrated by Saiko Takaki
Publisher: Digital Manga Publishing
Volume: Today, volumes 1 and 2.  $12.95 each.
Vintage: These manga are based on the light novels by Kikuchi (illustrated by the amazing Yoshitaka Amano), which began in 1983.  The novels are published domestically by Dark Horse and Digital Manga.  It’s up to twenty volumes in Japan; volume 14 will be released here in June.  The manga began in November 2007, published in the U.S., Japan, and Europe.  The fifth volume should be out this July, and Kikuchi and Digital Manga have plans to adapt the entire novel series.
Genre: Well, it’s certainly a mature series.  DMP has it labeled as a young adult book (16+).  There’s nudity, some sexual content, violence, blood and gore, vampires, demons, large breasted women who occasionally find themselves naked….  It’s horror and suspense, with some sci-fi elements (it’s set in the future, with some futuristic elements, like robotic horses), but it has an old-fashioned western feel to it most of the time (the cowboy kind, not geographically speaking).

In 1999, a nuclear war destroyed civilization.  The Nobility, ancient powerful vampires, were prepared for the disaster, and became the ruling class, rebuilding the world, co-existing with the humans.  Centuries go by, and vampire technology and society reaches its peak, a sign that it’s doomed to fall…and fall it does, with the great vampire families crumbling into decay as the humans rise back into power.  It is now 12,090 AD.  A mysterious man wanders the land, a dhampir, the child of a vampire and a human (it’s not totally spelled out, but it’s hinted at rather obviously, that the vampire is the King of Vampires, Dracula).  He is D, and he is a renowned vampire hunter, his vampire ancestry providing him with the perfect set of skills needed to destroy the decaying race of beings that have become dangerous to the humans.  D has incredible supernatural powers, with much of the strengths of the vampires, and little of their weaknesses.  His mixed blood aids in his task, but also causes him to be shunned by both vampires and humans, despite his exceptional good looks and commanding aura.  As if he weren’t powerful enough, in D’s left hand resides a symbiote, which (aside from needling D with various wise cracks and taunts) can suck in large amounts of matter, and regenerate D’s body when he’s injured.

In the first volume, D wanders into the town of Ransylva, where a Noble terrorizes the citizens.  He meets a woman named Doris on his way into the town, who realizes he is a hunter and asks him to be her bodyguard.  She has recently been attacked by the ruling Noble, and wants protection for her and her little brother.  But the Noble isn’t the only danger in the town.  He has a jealous daughter, and she commands a powerful werewolf.  Even her fellow townspeople are on her case, afraid of the mark of the vampire on Doris’s neck.  Toss in a reckless human with a powerful suit of armor, and a quintet of demonically enhanced humans, and D’s got quite a lot to deal with.  However, they all make the terrible mistake of underestimating the powerful dhampir.

D moves along to another town in the second volume, Tepes, which lies in the shadow of an old, ruined, deserted mansion.  Ten years ago, four children wandered up the hill to the old mansion, and disappeared.  Two weeks later, three of them returned – Lina, now the beautiful adopted daughter of the mayor; Cuore, who came back mentally deranged; and Lucas, now a school teacher.  D has been hired because several townspeople have been attacked by some form of vampiric creature, assumed to be the missing child, Tajeel.  The townspeople are suspicious of all four of them, but many want the suspicions cleared, as Lina has been chosen to take an exam that may get her into a prestigious school in the city, which will benefit the entire town.  When D goes to examine the abandoned ruins, he finds the remnants of a strange laboratory that brings back memories from his past.

These books are gorgeous.  The wrap-around book cover is a faded rust color, and is covered by a beautiful dust jacket.  The edges of the pages are colored to match the volume (volume 1 has red pages, volume 2 purple).  They’re oversize like most of Digital Manga’s books, and there’s even a color insert inside (the color images for volumes 1 and 2 highlight each volume’s female protagonist).  The art inside by Takaki is fantastic, if you like the style, and she seems to have taken some inspiration from Yoshitaka Amano’s original character designs from the novels.  Just a couple pages into the first volume you’re greeted with a large breasted, naked woman…but don’t let that mislead you.  She bounces those things about quite a bit, but the books are not overtly sexual in nature (no more so than anything else in the genre anyway), though those elements exist from time to time (it should come as no surprise that D, as a mysterious, beautiful, half-vampire, is incredibly attractive to the main women in the books, and they’re not exactly shy about it).  There’s a lot more in the way of limb slicing and and blood gushing, and even an occasional disemboweling.  The pacing is a little scattered at times, and sometimes a tad cryptic and confusing, but otherwise the story telling is solid.  The girls come and go like Bond girls for now, with both of the first two volumes following separate, contained stories.  D’s past and lineage haunt him in various ways, and seem to tie everything together.

For Wednesday, I’ll either have a review for DMP’s Happy Boys manga, or Previews highlights.  Just picked up Previews yesterday afternoon, and Happy Boys is already written, so it’s more likely to be the latter.

Kris
kristin@comicattack.net
@girlg33k_Kris

Review copies provided by Digital Manga Publishing.