I'm kind of amazed that a self-proclaimed manga fan knew nothing about Vampire Hunter D; the original anime film is kind of a classic, and the sequel is actually much better than the original. Plus Yoshitaka Amano's artwork graces the books and is quite gorgeous.
I've only read the first two novels but I kind of liked them, though I'm not sure I'd enjoy reading the huge numbers of sequels. The prose might be rather purple, but I think that's a combination of the fact that Japanese writing tends to be slightly more flowery than modern English-language writing anyway, and because the author was intentionally mimicking an old-fashioned Gothic horror style. Personally, as I said, I enjoyed them even if I did find myself giggling at how "gorgeous" D was constantly said to be.
Anyway, as someone else already said, you should definitely watch the 2000 movie, it's really quite impressive visually, and the story is actually a bit more interesting than you'd expect from an action-horror anime as well, in my opinion.
The artwork I did like; it just didn't make up for the rest of the book for me.
I'd definitely heard of Vampire Hunter D, but aside from knowing that it existed, I'd never known much about it. Clearly it seems it's not really my sort of thing.
Yeah. I actually liked the first movie; it's cheesy fun. But when I tried to read the first Vampire Hunter D book, I was put off by how bad the writing was and never picked up another.
He has another book series now being published called "Wicked City" that takes place in modern Tokyo. In it, a TOTALLY HAWT human demon hunter who shags his way around Tokyo when not killing demons teams up with a demon woman who is so beautiful that--get this--she works as a model but doesn't often work because all the photographers are afraid her beauty will offend the other models. -_- Lots and lots of rape-sex ensues.
"In it, a TOTALLY HAWT human demon hunter who shags his way around Tokyo when not killing demons teams up with a demon woman who is beautiful." Oh my gawd, almost like in his other manga that he wrote, Sword of Shibito where in feudal Japan (a twist!) average joe teams up with TOTALLY HAWT undead master swordsman who was made to have the perfect body and who spends most of the first volume naked and they kill lots of bad people! The Originality!
Please tell me that Wicked City also has some wisecracking minor character, like the hand in D and the crow in Sword of Shibito?
Kinda. There's a little old man our heroes are assigned to protect from demons, who is obviously comic relief. He keeps feeling up women and making perverted comments. *sigh*
"We know that he’s beautiful because Kikuchi reminds us constantly, in an awkward, purple prose style no less." Ho ho ho, oh yes. I loved that in my books because they were on the level of "he so pretty that even the manliest man of manliness shivers from his beauty" and I was lolling so badly.
I would argue though that some of his motivation for vampire hunting and reasons why he's so überpowerful is revealed in the previous books as well as vampires genetically-engineering the human race (and lighting-spiders!) and the books generally are stand-alone ones so there's no actual continuing series-plot (at least as far as I've read of them) and if you didn't notice it wasn't the first book of the series, I'd say that's the point.
But yeeeeaaaah D is an awful Stu and I can't really disagree with you review. But I too would recommend the anime movies.
Ugh, yes. Like... it's not as if this book were terrible or something, but the way D is described put me off it almost immediately. I found it downright annoying.
That's why I prefer the 2000 movie much better. There he just is, without any cheesy "SO PURDY AND MAGICUL AND PRETTY" prose or dialog. I don't think that anyone of the main characters even says he's pretty.
Oh good god. Haha. I consider myself a fan of D but the books are so hilariously bad I don't even know where to begin. I haven't read the particular book you picked up because I never made it past the third in the series; they are, as you say, filled with awful cardboard characters, as well as a depressing amount of cheap, gratuitous violence and rape. The purple prose I could at least handle because it was humorous, but Kikuchi is not a skilled enough author to deal with the heavy issues present in his post-apocalyptic world.
I think of these books as sort of tragic because I find the setting very creative and interesting and brutal, and it might have been something excellent in the hands of another more talented author. I can't imagine anyone comparing Kikuchi to Stephen King unless they really, really hate Stephen King, or are absolutely nuts about Kikuchi's characters and have no other frame of reference as to the quality of the writing in these things. King is not a literary juggernaut by any means, but Kikuchi is not even at
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I've only read the first two novels but I kind of liked them, though I'm not sure I'd enjoy reading the huge numbers of sequels. The prose might be rather purple, but I think that's a combination of the fact that Japanese writing tends to be slightly more flowery than modern English-language writing anyway, and because the author was intentionally mimicking an old-fashioned Gothic horror style. Personally, as I said, I enjoyed them even if I did find myself giggling at how "gorgeous" D was constantly said to be.
Anyway, as someone else already said, you should definitely watch the 2000 movie, it's really quite impressive visually, and the story is actually a bit more interesting than you'd expect from an action-horror anime as well, in my opinion.
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I'd definitely heard of Vampire Hunter D, but aside from knowing that it existed, I'd never known much about it. Clearly it seems it's not really my sort of thing.
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He has another book series now being published called "Wicked City" that takes place in modern Tokyo. In it, a TOTALLY HAWT human demon hunter who shags his way around Tokyo when not killing demons teams up with a demon woman who is so beautiful that--get this--she works as a model but doesn't often work because all the photographers are afraid her beauty will offend the other models. -_- Lots and lots of rape-sex ensues.
Not one of my favorite authors.
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Oh my gawd, almost like in his other manga that he wrote, Sword of Shibito where in feudal Japan (a twist!) average joe teams up with TOTALLY HAWT undead master swordsman who was made to have the perfect body and who spends most of the first volume naked and they kill lots of bad people!
The Originality!
Please tell me that Wicked City also has some wisecracking minor character, like the hand in D and the crow in Sword of Shibito?
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Ho ho ho, oh yes. I loved that in my books because they were on the level of "he so pretty that even the manliest man of manliness shivers from his beauty" and I was lolling so badly.
I would argue though that some of his motivation for vampire hunting and reasons why he's so überpowerful is revealed in the previous books as well as vampires genetically-engineering the human race (and lighting-spiders!) and the books generally are stand-alone ones so there's no actual continuing series-plot (at least as far as I've read of them) and if you didn't notice it wasn't the first book of the series, I'd say that's the point.
But yeeeeaaaah D is an awful Stu and I can't really disagree with you review. But I too would recommend the anime movies.
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I think of these books as sort of tragic because I find the setting very creative and interesting and brutal, and it might have been something excellent in the hands of another more talented author. I can't imagine anyone comparing Kikuchi to Stephen King unless they really, really hate Stephen King, or are absolutely nuts about Kikuchi's characters and have no other frame of reference as to the quality of the writing in these things. King is not a literary juggernaut by any means, but Kikuchi is not even at ( ... )
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