Review: Vampire Hunter D – Vol 1

Here is a great review by Theron Martin over at Anime News Network.

SYNOPSIS
In the wake of an apocalyptic war, vampires – eventually popularly called Nobility – rose to supernatural, psychological, and technological dominance over humanity despite their daytime weakness. They rebuilt the world to their liking and, for thousands of years, subjugated what was left of humanity through power and terror. Gradually their dominance waned and a class of Hunters able to fight them and their genetically-engineered denizens arose, but still they remained fearsome presences. In the frontier village of Ransylva, farm girl Doris Lang, the tough and beautiful daughter of a Werewolf Hunter, has found herself the target of the ancient vampire Count Magnus Lee, who seeks to draw her into the Nobility and marry her, much to her dismay and to the consternation of the Count’s daught Larmica. Thus she seeks out the aid of D, a passing Vampire Hunter who also happens to be a dhampir (i.e. a half-vampire). What follows is a multifaceted battle between D and Doris, Magnus Lee, Larmica, village tough Greco (who is obsessed with Doris), and a deadly band of mutant bandits led by the suave but lethal Rei-Ginsei.

REVIEW
In the early 1980s, writer Hideyuki Kikuchi, heavily inspired by the 1958 American movie Horror of Dracula, penned the first of a long line of Vampire Hunter D novels, two of which would eventually be made into anime movies. The first, an iconic 1985 movie
based on the seminal novel, is one of those anime movies that nearly any anime fan whose fandom dates back at least to the ’90s has probably seen at some point, as despite its aged technical merits it still stands as a classic tale of a stoic hybrid hero and his battle against the forces of darkness. (And if you are too new to fandom to have ever seen it, Halloween is an ideal time of year to check it out.) Due to the popularity of that movie and its 2000 follow-up, Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust, Digital Manga has spent the last three years releasing many of the novels in the series. No place is more fitting to start reviews with than with the original, however. Read more