Vampire Hunter D

For other uses, see Vampire Hunter (disambiguation).

Vampire Hunter D (吸血鬼(バンパイア)ハンターD, Banpaia Hantā Dī^?) is a series of novels written by Hideyuki Kikuchi. The series has been running since 1983 and there are now twenty books in the series. The hero (the titular D) is a dhampir (half-human, half-vampire) and a wandering hunter of the Nobility - his world's term for vampires. The books are illustrated by Yoshitaka Amano, and as of November 2007, Kikuchi and the manga artist Saiko Takaki are adapting the novels into a manga/dōjinshi format.

Possible references to the Castlevania series

Several elements in the Castlevania series seem to be an homage to Kikuchi's novels. For example, the uncanny beauty and personality of Alucard, akin of D, as well as his parentage and less-than-close relationship with his father are similar to D's situation.

In the 1999 PlayStation video game, Vampire Hunter D, one of the antagonistic characters addresses herself as "Elizabeth Bartley Carmila". This name is nearly identical to that of the main antagonist of Castlevania: Bloodlines, Elizabeth Bartley. It is unknown if the name of the Vampire Hunter D character is a reference to that from Castlevania; more so, because Bloodlines was released several years earlier, in 1994, although both having the exact same surname may be too much to be just a coincidence.

In a public interview with Koji Igarashi, director and producer of many Castlevania titles, that appeared in the Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow - The Official Strategy Guide by DoubleJump Books, when asked if the Castlevania series was inspired by the Vampire Hunter D franchise, he responded that while he could confirm that the early games never got inspired by it, as the series went on and various products came out, some of them were in fact inspired by the novel. Additionally, he also confirmed that Alucard was inspired by the series to some extent.

In Castlevania: Curse of Darkness, a more humorous reference is made to Kikuchi's famous dhampir in one of Hector's forgeable armors, the Clown Suit, whose description states: "Worn by the heroic Vampire Hunter Comesafter C. Filled with the rage of those he killed.".

The character Erzsebet Báthory from the Castlevania: Nocturne animated series is believed by some to be inspired by Carmilla from the 2000 anime film Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust.

Trivia

• Ayami Kojima, known for her work as character designer and illustrator along the Castlevania series, especially for Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, was the illustrator of the Vampire Hunter D spin-off novel, Noble V: Greylancer.

External links

• Vampire Hunter D at the Vampire Hunter D Wiki
• Vampire Hunter D at Wikipedia