When I mention “Fight Club” what do you think of?
I mean past the whole “First rule of Fight Club is you do not talk about Fight Club”… more or less.
I mean what do you think of when I talk about “Fight Club”?
Most of you would probably think of the movie of the same name, but some of you also think of the novel. Yes, the novel, the basis upon which the movie was made… nobody thinks of the godawful video game so no need to mention it here again.

Believe it or not the same holds true for Vampire Hunter D.
The classic horror yarn about a far flung distant future plagued with vampire woes, and the hunter (himself a half vampire) who is the hero of this tale, is probably a movie quite a few of you are familiar with, and have seen at one point or another. But do you know about the novel? I figure only the most serious of fans, who’ve done their homework on the movie, knows of the existence of this book… until now. Now everyone’s years and years of request to see the original Vampire Hunter D novels translated into English have finally been answered, as Dark Horse Press takes to the task of bringing you the Vampire Hunter D trilogy in English for the first time - starting with the book that made the movie.

You know the score. It is the year 12,090, and the world is not in it’s happy place.
At the end of the 20th Century mankind annihilated itself in nuclear war. From the ashes the few humans pulled themselves out of darkness, and right into a darkness of their own as they allowed civilization to die, replaced by a dark “Middle Ages” of their own design. Concerned more with survival, humans forgot their progress and became dark things which lasted for a few thousand years until the Vampires came out of their own fallout shelters to bring “civilization” back to the masses.

Creating the single technological wonder known as “The Capital”, they created space travel, explored the far reaches of space, and basically dominated humanity until humans (like a certain breed of crab when tossed into a bucket) dragged the vampire race down the evolution chain with them, bringing their “civilization” crashing and scattering the “Nobility” to the four winds where they ever came to ground in the deepest reaches of the galaxy, dead, or hunkered down in some backwater part of the Earth as the “lord” of their own rapidly vanishing domain… much like the guy in this book.

Meet Count Lee, who seems quite happy to hide in his small corner of the rapidly diminishing vampiric world. He seems to have a firm grip on his small pocket of domain, even as his neighbors are dragged down and vanquished one after another. But for Count Lee the only thing that seems to be on his mind is getting it on with this lovely girl named Doris Lang… yeah, going to die anyway so might as well be having fun while waiting for death to come knocking on the old castle doors like the Avon lady.

Death, it seems, is going to come in the form of one Vampire Hunter codenamed D. This hunter, a Dhampir born of the union between a vampire and a human, has come calling and now is the guardian of Doris and her younger brother Dan, and like the Girl Scouts he’s going to knock at the bad Count’s door until it opens, and not take no for an answer.

What follows is a struggle. Between “good” and “evil”, light and dark, the fading light of one whose race is nearing it’s twilight, and one who stands between the fading “light” of the vampire race, and the slowly re-emerging glow of humanity. It will be a harsh, bloody, dark and strong battle but before it’s over you’ll see much, including lots of details that the movie seemingly didn’t flesh out in great detail.
The movie is excellent, but having THIS and the movie together is an unbeatable combination. Just watching the movie alone might not have answered enough questions, but add the depth of writing that this book (written by Hideyuki Kikuchi and illustrated by Vampire Hunter D designer Yoshitaka Amano) and the experience is increased tenfold. And, lest we forget, we also have the Vampire Hunter D Special Edition DVD from Urban Vision with exclusive behind the scene making extra to add to the mix! That has to be more than enough incentive to go out and get both now, before Halloween rolls around again, so you have something to throw into the old DVD player and crank up to full in time for the ghoulish festivities.

The movie is great, but it needs the book to reach it’s full potential. One is fine, but have both together and everything will make sense. And hey! You even get a preview of Volume 2, which should be a whole new never before seen Vampire Hunter D story… unless it inspired Bloodlust, but since I never saw that movie I wouldn’t know which novel was the inspiration for that unless the cover said so. Ok. Breakdown time.

Vampire Hunter D Novel Breakdown
What’s Hot?
This is something any die hard fan of the Vampire Hunter D movie must have! It’s the “holy grail” of the franchise, and a must have companion to the movie! Translated at long last into English, this oh so essential novel is a must have for the horror fan, the fan of old school anime cinema, and (of course) the fan of Vampire Hunter D or vampires in general. Of course the book must have the movie, so if you get one be sure to have the other. It’s vital.

What’s Not?
The only regret I have is that Dark Horse/Urban Vision didn’t join forces and put together a special gift set of the Special Edition DVD and this novel. Since the two work so well together they should have forged an alliance to release the ultimate DVD release with an “extra” that truly cranks up the bar on “extras”! I only hope that Dark Horse/Urban Vision do join forces in the future, if not for this than at least for the Vampire Hunter D : Bloodlust Special Edition (in conjunction with the future release of the novel (if one exists) that inspired the sequel… if that happened, which I’m not certain of). Of course I’ll still recommend the Novel/DVD combo for your collection, but it’d make it far easier on you if these two were put together into one easy to order combo pack… you know, for those of us who like our orderings to be nice and simple.

Moments to Remember?
Read it for yourself. You’ll see all the memorable things! Promise!

What to Ignore?
Hmm… nothing. Without a doubt this is a significant release for those of us who are fans of old school anime theatrics, especially horror/vampire fans. Of course I’m neither a horror nor a vampire fan, but I still like my old school and this is old school without a doubt. If not for the horror then get it for the old school.

Overall?
So far we’ve only been experiencing have the experience when it came to Vampire Hunter D. No more.
Now you have no excuses! If you thought the movie was abit beyond you now you can have that AND the companion novel which should clear up most everything about the movie without a shadow of a doubt!
If one is good, both of these together is excellent. So, be you a fan of horror, vampires, or just a fan of good old fashioned old school, then the combo set of Vampire Hunter D Volume 1 (novel) and Vampire Hunter D Special Edition DVD is right up your alley… only they’re not really released in a combo pack, you’ll have to dig around for both of these separately. Now mind you it’d be NICE if they were available in a combo pack, but I wouldn’t hold my breath if I were you. Sigh. Still… it would be nice. Nuff said.