Vampire Hunter D Volume 4 cover image courtesy of Anime Castle Books.

Sci-Fi/Horror; Rated “YA” for “Young Adults 16+”

Digital Manga Publishing is in the midst of producing a manga adaptation of Hideyuki Kikuchi’s Vampire Hunter D novels.  Manga-ka Saiko Takaki is adapting and illustrating the Vampire Hunter D manga.  The first volume appeared in 2007, and the fourth volume was released this past December.

Vampire Hunter D is like a futuristic, supernatural mix of the knight-errant, the wandering swordsman, and the American cowboy.  The star, “D,” is a dhampir (half-human/half-vampire) that hunts vampires called the Nobility, as he travels by cybernetic horse across the wasteland that is Earth around 13,000 A.D.  By the time Vampire Hunter D’s narrative begins, however, the Nobility have long been in decline and are practically extinct – except for the legacy of their nefarious designs and technology.

As Vampire Hunter D, Vol. 4 begins, D arrives just in time to rescue the survivors of a monster/animal attack.  Then, the two, John M. Brasselli Pluto VIII and the girl with him, Lori Knight, join D in boarding a mobile city – a city that floats high above the land, away from the troubles below.  However, even this floating city is not immune from all of the world’s problems.  D begins to investigate a series of vampire-like attacks, and the mystery involves the people he rescued as well as the townsfolk.

[This volume also includes a preview of Hideyuki Kikuchi’s new manga, Taimashin – The Red Spider Exorcist.]

THE LOWDOWN:  The plot of Vampire Hunter D, Vol. 4 is, as the others were, a mystery story filled with complicated alliances and shocking plot twists.  The gloomy atmospheric art and gothic visual storytelling of Saiko Takaki will take the reader on a fearsome journey in which night seems eternal and where strange monsters and humans-turned-monstrous are in abundance.

However, this fourth entry in the Vampire Hunter D line of manga seems oddly disjointed.  Perhaps, this is because the story is set in a city disconnected from one of the elements that most serves this concept – the wounded planet.  Whatever the reason, Vampire Hunter D, Vol. 4 is still a good read, but lacks the punch of previous volumes.

POSSIBLE AUDIENCE:  Readers looking for engaging horror comics will find it in Vampire Hunter D.

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