Vampire Hunter D chronicles the story of D, a hunter, and his vampiric employer, Baron Balazs, as they travel towards Krauhausen, where it will be D’s job to kill the Baron’s father. The plot behind the story is fairly interesting and the alternate world where this story takes place is an intriguing mix of normal life, fantasy, and fantastic science fiction. The author’s use of detail is incredibly graphic. Some of his scenes are so vivid, the reader feels as if they could be standing in the middle of a furious battle between D and some monster.
However, as good as the writing style is and as interesting as the plot is, relatively little happens in the entire book. Every other page, D seems to be fighting assassins, aliens, mythological monsters, and even the odd robot or two, but the reader never learns why the assassins are after them or why they want to kill the Baron’s father or where the aliens went after wreaking massive havoc on earth for millennia.
Another major issue with the book is the characters’ lack of emotion. It was difficult to get into the story because there was no way to empathize with any of the characters. None of them seemed to have emotions or feelings, especially D, who seems shallow and cold. The reader is more inclined to sympathize with the vampires because at least they show some confusion over who and what D is.
A friend of mine saw me reading this book and told me that there is a manga and an anime series that preceded this book. This might explain why there is so little emotion, but a great amount of detail. This book would be good for a reader who enjoys lots of detail (especially bloody battles) but does not want to get involved with characters’ emotions. I think this story is probably better in either (manga or anime) form, but I will probably get the 2nd book in the series just to see if they ever actually make it to Krauhausen.
The final and more astonishing point is D is supposed to be the most feared vampire hunter in the land; however, he made it through an entire 314 page book and never killed a single one!