Vampire Hunter D

Did You Know?

• Hideyuki Kikuchi cited Hammer Films' Horror of Dracula (1958) as his first inspiration in horror.
• Kikuchi writes his manuscripts by hand and has admitted he does not remember all of the series' mythology.
• The author has stated he has a final conflict for D in mind, but that will not be the entire ending of the series.

Premise

The series is set on a far-future Earth after a nuclear war in 1999, where the vampire Nobility used their advanced science and magic to rebuild civilization. Nearly all magical creatures are genetically engineered by the Nobility, with a few being demons, gods, aliens, or extradimensional beings that survived the holocaust. Vampires and humans coexisted under a society that eventually stagnated when scientific prophecy predicted the vampires' downfall. Humans were genetically altered to fear vampires and forget traditional weaknesses like garlic and crucifixes. The Nobility can reproduce sexually, and their offspring cease aging at physical maturity. The world now slowly returns to human control due to vampire decadence, frontier stubbornness, and independent hunters who eliminate supernatural threats.

Main characters

D is a dhampir, the half-breed child of a vampire father and human mother, genetically engineered by the Sacred Ancestor to lack typical vampire weaknesses such as sunlight and blood drinking. He is renowned for his skill and grace but feared for his mixed lineage. D possesses most vampire strengths and only mild weaknesses, including random sun-sickness about once every five years, from which he recovers in a few hours. His supernatural powers make him possibly the second strongest being in the world, after his father, though he prefers physical combat. His symbiotic left hand made a cryptic statement in the film Bloodlust about 'The Sword,' but the novel series equates Dracula, the Vampire King, the Sacred Ancestor, and D's father as the same entity.

Publication history

Hideyuki Kikuchi began writing the series in January 1983, with 41 novels spanning 53 volumes by April 2023. Asahi Sonorama published the series until its branch closed in September 2007; subsequent releases appeared under Asahi Shimbun Publishing. The first English translation was released on May 11, 2005, by DH Press, translated by Kevin Leahy. By 2020, 24 novels had been published in English across 29 volumes. Dark Horse began releasing omnibus editions in 2021 and partnered with GraphicAudio for dramatized audiobook adaptations in December 2021. A prequel series, Another Vampire Hunter: The Noble Greylancer, started in January 2011, set 5,000 years before the main series.

Adaptations

The first film, set in 12,090 AD, was billed as a dark future science-fiction romance. The second film, Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust, is based on the third novel and features advanced animation, detailed art mirroring Yoshitaka Amano's style, English voice casting by Jack Fletcher, and a soundtrack by Marco D'Ambrosio. It received age ratings of NC-16 in Singapore, M in Australia, 15 in the UK, R13 in New Zealand, and R for violence/gore in the USA. In June 2015, a new animated series titled Vampire Hunter D: Resurrection was announced, produced by Unified Pictures and Digital Frontier, with Yoshiaki Kawajiri as supervising director. The series was planned as an hour-long serial drama for American cable or on-demand, with up to seven seasons. Pre-production was put on hold in early 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.