Among the greatest of these hunters is the one simply known as D. It is here where vampire hunters travel to kill their pray and make money. It is now the year 12,090 AD, and the main areas of fighting between Nobles and humans are in the frontier regions, far away from the centralised Capital. However, the Nobles grew decadent, the humans would not stop rebelling, and now humanity is once again establishing itself as the dominant race, although the Nobles are still feared. The Nobles, however, brought about every kind of monster to subjugate and control the humans they fed on, and even went as far as to wipe out of humanity’s memory of the weaknesses vampires have, like garlic.

While they had all the benefits of future technology, they still liked their medieval-style castles to live in – some things never die, including the Nobles, unless a stake was struck through the heart. Among the survivors were vampires, or Nobles as they called themselves, who gained control of shelters and technology that allowed them to create their own civilization, with them as the dominant race. The story of Vampire Hunter D arguably starts in what was then the futuristic 1999, when a nuclear war struck the Earth. Dark Horse are now releasing these omnibus editions of his novels, while Graphic Audio is to release fully dramatised audiobook versions of these books from December onwards. Created by Hideyuki Kikuchi, who also created Wicked City, and illustrated by Yoshitaka Amano (whose work has ranged from Speed Racer to the Final Fantasy games) these novels have resulted in the creation of a title character whose ventures into anime and manga have left their mark on popular Japanese culture. Vampire Hunter D is one of the most successful and enduring Japanese novel series, having started in 1983 and with new novels still being written to this day.

Vampire hunter d volume 8