Vampire Hunter D - A series of light novels written by Hideyuki Kikuchi and illustrated by Yoshitaka Amano

[Beluga Le Vampire Hunter]

Have any of you guys (or gals) read the Vampire Hunter D novels? If so, what is your opinion of them? Do you have a favorite? I've only seen the two animated films but, I might start reading the novels myself.

 

[Megaroad 2012]

I read a chunk of the books and all I can remember is the self-mastabatory way D is describe and every woman being raped, but tends to be common in Japanese books.

 

[Beluga Le Vampire Hunter]

I read a chunk of the books and all I can remember is the self-mastabatory way D is describe and every woman being raped, but tends to be common in Japanese books.

Interesting, I also recently found out the author has also written Demon City Shinjuku and the Black Guard series.

 

[Kari Kamiya]

I really want to start reading them, but I don't know where to put the books should I purchase them lol, need to invest in a new bookshelf.

I don't know of any place to read Japanese novels (and light novels), though, if I'm to get started sooner or later.

 

[Lunete]

I enjoy the books despite their flaws. I have a few of them.

 

[Pineapple Fox]

I have never read the novels but I should, the two movies are on youtube and are both great if anyone is keen to watch them

 

[REGENDarySumanai]

Dark Horse has the license for Vampire Hunter D in the states, though Hideyuki Kikuchi doesn't translate them, despite being perfectly able to.

 

[XYZpdq]

So beautiful

 

[Orion Balls]

Read the first five seven. (Had to check my bookshelf.) Decent pulp fiction. But I agree with @Megaroad 2012, the books have some weird views on sexuality, in general. Vampires always want to be eating hot chicks.

 

[Megaroad 2012]

Read the first five seven. (Had to check my bookshelf.) Decent pulp fiction. But I agree with @Megaroad 2012, the books have some weird views on sexuality, in general. Vampires always want to be eating hot chicks.

I remember the book the second movie was based on had the heroine being routinely raped by her brothers or something and was like, I've had enough.

 

[Dog-O-Tron 5000v5.0]

I've read a few, meant to get more, never did, probably will eventually.

They're decent pulp, like people say. If you like the world and setting of the movies they are more of the same; I think the movies capture the books well. I'm not a huge anime fan, but I enjoy a few and Vampire Hunter D was one of them, so I started reading the books and was not disappointed.

They expand a bit on the lore, but there's still a lot of mystery and unexplained stuff which is a good way to go.

 

[Honka Honka Burning Love]

Ya'll are ignoring the most important part...

The first movie had boobs in it.

 

[Syaoran Li]

Loved the anime movies, have not read the novels but I want to

 

[LinkinParkxNaruto[AMV]]

Never read the books but i love the artbook with Amano's work for it. Bloodlust is a great halloween movie too, definitely more style over substance but i loved it.

Also, theres a psx game, i had a vivid memory of a game magazine i had with a spread about it and i though the game looked cool as heck but never actually played it. Its a cool nostalgic memory though.

 

[Affluent Reptilian]

Can't comment on the books. Iirc there's a new anime series being made on this - maybe being made in the west? Bloodlust is a great movie. Fantastic animation, a vivid depiction of the strange science fantasy world, some surprisingly decent character drama, and the dialogue is much less stilted and weird than most anime (iirc this was because it was originally expressly intended for a Western audience, and English might actually be the canonical audio?). One of my favourite anime films (although I don't watch tons of anime so maybe that's not such high praise), and a must watch for anyone into gothic horror or far-future Dying Earth science fantasy.

 

[L50LasPak]

Its worth noting the original flick got redubbed at some point, which makes me sad as hell. The original is one of my personal favorites when it comes to anime.

I legit didn't like Bloodlust though. Maybe I'm just too much of a hardass.

 

[Beluga Le Vampire Hunter]

Here a download link for the PDF's of volumes 1-27.

https://nyaa.si/view/1096064

 

[Dom Cruise]

I've seen the two movies and read the first book.

The best thing about the book is giving you the full backstory for the world that the movies don't go enough into and everything makes a lot more sense because of it.

Basically it's a twice post-apocalyptic world, first mankind destroyed their civilization with World War 3, then a futuristic vampire civilization rose from the ashes only to be toppled by a human uprising, this is why the world is such a strange mishmash of technology.

Another thing the vampires did is use genetic engineering to create creatures from folklore that didn't actually exist prior to that, so it's also a mishmash of genuine supernatural creatures and creatures created by science fiction technology.

It's a fascinating world and I wish we could get another anime movie, I liked the first book, but my favorite scene in the first movie, that scene in the entrance tunnel of the castle with all the horrifying mutants and monsters, is not actually in the novel, I was surprised at how faithful the movie was to the book despite being a short OVA length.