Hideyuki Kikuchi's Vampire Hunter D, Volume 06

Hideyuki Kikuchi's Vampire Hunter D #6

by Saiko Takaki (Adaptation), Hideyuki Kikuchi (Original Story)

Hideyuki Kikuchi's Vampire Hunter D Vol. 6 (manga)A vital piece of information regarding a “person of great interest” to D sends him galloping across a dangerous desert. He is tailed by Granny Viper, the people finder, who needs to cross the desert herself to bring home one of the Hidden, someone once imprisoned by a Noble.Doubtful that they can make it through the journey alive, Granny ingratiates themselves to D, hoping that the vampire hunter would protect them from the perils of the land when the time comes. Which is just as well, since “the desert of no return,” as the name implies, is no ordinary desert. In fact, no one has ever come out of it alive!Along the way, D gets on the wrong side of the Bullow Brothers, two of the roughest, toughest hunters there are and they are looking for some payback.It’s D out on the wild frontier, complete with covered wagon and guns a-blazin’. Or rather, sword a-slashin’.

Genres: Manga, Horror, Fantasy, Science Fiction, Graphic Novels, Supernatural, Vampires

241 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 29, 2011

Reviews

[F.D. Gross · Rating 5 out of 5]

A living desert. A moving forest. D must cross forbidden sands, one labeled as the “Desert of no return” and he has to do it with unwanted company, for someone in that group is insistent on crossing the dry arid zone of death no matter what. A precious cargo is being transported, and it’s the old hags job to get her safely home, no matter the cost. Wind blown sandstorms. Tornados of doom. This particular D novel is packed with country western style art, and slight comparisons to the Wild West life style. It’s an interesting concept to say the least the trials D undergoes in this installment of gothic horror. And the girl that’s being transported has a special secret that may or may not make her more valuable than anyone could have ever imagined. Especially for D.

This manga was definitely a step up from the previous one.

5 out 5 stars.

F. D. Gross

[Michael Sorbello · Rating 4 out of 5]

Vampire Hunter D takes place in an alternate version of Earth where Dr. Van Helsing failed to kill Dracula and save Mina Harker; which resulted in Dracula killing the cast of Bram Stoker’s original novel, enslaving humanity and ruling the world with an army of scientifically manufactured demons at his disposal for thousands of years.

The year is now 12,090 A.D. The world has ended, ravaged in a firestorm of man’s wars and madness. But from the wreckage a few humans manage to survive, and a race of forgotten creatures rose up from the ashes. The vampires and their legions of bloodthirsty demons.

Over-the-top violence and flashy action scenes, a blend of every monster in the history of fiction and folklore pulled from every culture imaginable, an insane mashup of dark fantasy, science fiction, dystopian horror, sword & sorcery, spaghetti western, detective mystery and gothic drama. Vampire Hunter D is pulp fiction in its purest form, an orgy of every hammer film production and cheesy 70’s fantasy and horror novel you can think of.

Each book chronicles D traveling to a new location to solve a mystery and take down a tyrant vampire lord terrorizing the locals. It’s very formulaic and that’s not such a bad thing. If you’ve read anything by Robert E. Howard, Michael Moorcock or Arthur Conan Doyle, you’ll have some idea of what to expect. Travel to a new place, hunt some monsters, uncover long forgotten lore, solve mysteries, save pretty girls, big climactic battles between powerful warriors and bloodthirsty beasts. Rinse and repeat. Each monster vanquished brings D closer to facing his arch nemesis, the sacred ancestor who created him and everyone of his kind: Dracula.

Fun fact: Vampire Hunter D inspired the Castlevania series of video games in the same way the manga Berserk inspired the Dark Souls franchise.

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[Alyssa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this volume in particular, it has a distinct sci-fi noir feel to it and I loved all of the characters this time. It was also quite interesting to finally see some emotion from D. We learned that there is an unbelievable amount of grief and sorrow concealed behind his unusually perfect visage and stoic personality. The antagonist this time is a sentient desert which is a little bit weird and different from what D usually faces but it reminded me a bit of Andrei Tarkovsky's Solaris and Rene Laloux's Gandahar.

[Kimberly · Rating 3 out of 5]

In this volume, D meets a young woman who is traveling with a grandmother figure. They are attacked by monsters & the girl has been taken into the arms of the nobility.

When D askes her if anything was done to her by the vampire, she gets upset and says no. Did something happen? Why does she feel like she's seen D before?

[Holly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautifully drawn art with lovely characters who are, surprisingly, quite well characterized despite their limited screen time – given that each book is pretty self-contained with the series having only a few connecting plot threads, the only recurring characters are D and Left Hand. I like how the series fleshes out Noble-human-dhampir relations and how dhampirs have nowhere to belong, really. The biggest issue I have with the series, again, is that it tends to always strive for the downer ending and this bothers me because it often feels like it's pulling the carpet out from under you. The downer ending often kind of seems contrived, like everything is twisted to make sure it ends that way. This is one of the rare ones that ends on a hopeful note. Enjoy it. Most of the others don't have this.

[Caroline Eising · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read Volumes 5, 6, and 7 of the manga, and this one was probably my least favourite.

Perhaps it was because I was getting used to the artwork and the setting, but I found it very hard to follow what was happening in many panels, and either the translation or the writing was very basic, lacking subtlety.

There were also a number of outlandish scenarios (even for a manga about a vampire hunter) including a literal jumping of the shark (which, if it was a meta reference, didn't really work), and sometimes scenes didn't segue together very well, leaving me even more confused. Action scenes were blurs of dark ink, and I couldn't clearly read the motion of the fighters, unlike the other mangas I have read.

Probably not a good idea as the first experience with a character like Vampire Hunter D.

[Emoon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just done reading it yesterday....

[dejah_thoris · Rating 4 out of 5]

The bizarre tale of a sentient desert and D's struggle to cross it. Read it all in one sitting but it wasn't as memorable as #5.

[Virginia Aikens · Rating 5 out of 5]

This series is beautiful and haunting. The post apocalyptic story, the haunting artwork...I just can't recommend this one enough.