Talk:Vampire Hunter D

The second film is widely regarded as superior? The first Vampire Hunter D is considered by many a staple of the fandom canon along with Akira, Ghost in the Shell, and the like, and I feel dismissing it so easily is a bit of a mistake. But anyway, I've elected not to go in and edit the entry, but I hope I'll get some discussion going about it.

Solomon Kane?

D's look, if nothing else, seems to be heavily inspired by howard's Solomon Kane. Not sure if that is worth adding, or even where to put it. -Unknown

Typo

I've changed the words "mercinary" to "mercenary," "worriors with mystical powers" to "warriors with mystical powers," even though I'm not sure why this sentence is in there. I also changed the phrase "they a traveling to a 'pathway to the stars' " to "they travel to a pathway to the stars." -Unknown

Date for setting of bloodlust?

Is that correct?-- Dangerous-Boy

I don think so. If you look at the books, you'll realize Mr. Kikuchi's trick. he did not mention any date and time other than the year 12090 at the beginning of the 1st novel. That means the date of other stories are unknown, and chances are they might be happening in arbitrary orders. I guess, if it is truly mr. Kikuchi's intention, will there be any chance for a reunion between 3D (D and Doris and Dan)? Japanese fans who have chance to read all of the novels so far must know this most clearly? Any japanese readers out there? Can you tell me about the date of all 16 novels?

(The newest book has a reference to Doris and Dan... A doctor character made it. I'll avoid actual spoilers, but the recent novel is said to have happened at least a few years after the first.)

There is no internal evidence indicating the date at which the second movie is set—not in the movie or the novel. The video game corresponding to the movie gives the date as A.D. 12,090, which is also the year of the first movie and first novel. Internal evidence indicates that the novels occur in chronological order (source: translator Kevin Leahy); the fourth novel definitely occurs after the first, as characters from the first novel are mentioned in it. I've deleted the date of the setting of the second movie.—TheCert 03:25, 8 May 2006 (UTC)

Movie-Novel differences

I think there should be more description in how the books are far more in depth in regards to story development and description of the fictional history of the future the world is set in. Also there should be some discussion on the differences in pacing and development of characters that were barley in the original movie.

I also think there should be a section discussing D’s powers and skills, I don’t think the article even makes mention of his often used ability to emit his aura to over come his opponents with fear. Leon Evelake 06:01, 10 February 2006 (UTC)

Actually it's not an ability so much as a consequence of his supernatual nature, comparable to prior folk belief in martial arts of an evident battle aura-- which is much used in Japanese pop culture. Pops up frequently in Rurouni Kenshin, Fushigi Yuugi and Flame of Recca, and innumerable fighting games/animes/manga. But I'd forgotten to mention it. --sazynska 06:48, 21 March 2006 (UTC)

Splitting the article?

Maybe we should considering splitting the article. It's getting very big. --Dangerous-Boy 09:23, 25 February 2006 (UTC)

Splitting the animated movies and novel sections may be a good idea if the article continues to increase in size. Leon Evelake 02:28, 26 February 2006 (UTC)

I agree that the article is getting big, but some of the bulk currently in place (19 March 2006) may be inappropriate for inclusion as a violation of NPOV. Much material contributed by Shirl Sazynski appears to represent one critic's interpretation: for example, "Kikuchi makes a point to have D behave out of character and mysogenistically insult Leila's 'unnatural' and 'unfeminine' nature" or "Poor Mashira" or "the movie's excellent theme." I don't want to start a revert war, but there is room to argue that much of the article currently reads more like a term paper or critique than an encyclopedia article and perhaps should be cut.—TheCert 04:38, 19 March 2006 (UTC)

Dracula’s involvement

It should be mentioned that the noble responsible for the experiments in “Raiser of the Gales” deeply implied to be Dracula and that their mental encounter seemed to be the first time D met him as an adult.

Also that he referred to D as his only success, suggesting that he had been intentionally tying to create a new race of vampires since the events related in the first book. Leon Evelake 02:33, 26 February 2006 (UTC)

Moved from article

Unless otherwise noted, the bulk of current text, contributed by Shirl Sazynski, professional anime reviewer and critic, and modified from an earlier kernal article. I'm taking into account the notes on the discussion page, and attempting to honor them at this edit: please, by all means divide this. This article tends to get mangled with each new VHD release and loaded with spoilers. Subsequent edits, some delightful details, possible mangling, and the initial Bloodlust book-to-movie comparison, contributed by others. Thanks. 199.249.157.129 08:32, 14 March 2006 (UTC)

That was a tongue-in-cheek note, as I've often come back and found odd bits stuck in the article. I've been poking at this through mid-terms, and am making a concerted effort to remove the criticisms and consider details of the world missed in previous edits. I apologize for including those in the first place-- I've spent the semester writing narrative critiques, so, yes, the earlier poster was on the mark about that. The mass of this article was written by me, from an initial sketchy contribution with unprofessional writing. I've also been trying to balance spoilers vs. encyclopedia entries.

Actually, I don't think we should divide this, but you all have more experience working with Wiki than I do. The comparisons of the whole universe are far easier in keeping this together, and Kikuchi's universe keeps expanding and evolving with each new English release.

If there is some way I can actually officially take charge of this article, with input from others, I would like to. I'm a freelance writer/journalist, with a long background in Japanese pop culture and the world of VHD, so far as it's been accessible in English. My two degrees are narrative and the arts and asian studies, so I've got a relevant education. Thanks. --141.152.219.109 05:59, 21 March 2006 (UTC)

I'd like to take issue with a few points presented here. First, article length is one of the criteria for determining whether an article should be split. An article on "Vampire Hunter D" has the potential to be much longer than the 32K or 5000-word maximum recommended in the Wikipedia:Editing_FAQ. The current article (23 March 2006) appears to be about 60K. Vampire Hunter D is a fictional character who has appeared in books and short stories, movies, a video game, and artworks by Y. Amano. It might well be desirable to split an article on Vampire Hunter D into articles on, say, books and other media, or books, movies, and other media, if only for the sake of the length, even though that could make book-movie comparisons problematic.

Second, it's not Kikuchi's universe that keeps expanding with English-language releases; it's what people who can read English but not Japanese know about the universe. The VHD universe may well expand with each original novel released, but the English novels don't in themselves affect it.

Third, the notion that a user would "take charge" of a Wikipedia article seems contrary to the Wikipedia be bold guideline.—TheCert 03:04, 24 March 2006 (UTC)

I'd say that this would probably best be split into at least two main articles, one for the novels, and one for the movies and game. Arranging a Vampire Hunter D (Novel) section could detail information on each book individually, since there are already some 30+ books in the series in Japan (many of the volumes are split into multiple books). This would allow more space for the next wave of English translations, as well as a place where people can find information about the books that have yet to be translated. The book/movie comparisons could then be moved into the anime/other media sections. WtW-Suzaku 07:13, 25 March 2006 (UTC)

I think the movies should be 2 separate articles.--Dangerous-Boy 11:08, 25 March 2006 (UTC)

I agree: separate articles for the two movies would be good. I think book-movie comparisons would belong with either books or movies; my preference would be movies.—TheCert 12:53, 25 March 2006 (UTC)

I know you! You run the vampire hunter d archives! You're site rocks. I've been following it for years! vampire hunter D one won of the first animes I ever watched. Can't watch the much of the new stuff that comes because most of its crap.--Dangerous-Boy 07:29, 29 March 2006 (UTC)

If someone wants to start a Vampire Hunter D (Novels) article, I can add in the names of all the books (in Japanese - kanji and all, as well as Romaji, and English), and I've got pictures of 99% of the covers, as well. I'd start one myself, but I don't really know that much about creating new articles. Kevin (the translator of the books) also has brief summaries of nearly all of the books in the series, to boot. That could perhaps be implemented for the books that have yet to be translated, if he were willing.

Also, I just realized that there should probably be mention of the Books on Tape, which were recently rereleased in a Drama CD collection with a booklet containing a new short story and Amano artwork. WtW-Suzaku 02:04, 29 March 2006 (UTC)

Sorry for stealing your thunder, but I'd already put together a list of most of the available prose works—I've just added it to the article. The formatting, however, could use some help. I believe there are two other short stories in the dokuhon. I wonder if we want to shoot for articles on individual novels and individual movies, but with a list of the movies and novels on the Vampire Hunter D page. Synopses of the novels could get pretty long, particularly since Kikuchi puts so much world-building into them. (Forgot to sign this initially. Sheesh.)—TheCert 13:35, 29 March 2006 (UTC)

Actually, you're actually missing a couple books and there are 9 short stories total, to date.

I kind of figured a seperate article (with that section, this article is now extremely long) would have been a better choice, with individual sub-sections for each volume, where the titles, ISBNs, and release dates of all the books comprising the volume, as well as a brief summary, and possibly cover shot could be found. Formating could be similair to the many TV episode guides that can be found on Wikipedia. I'm contemplating starting a VHD Novels article just for the sake of seeing what can be done with it (no harm, right?). Unfortunately, I've got to run right now. WtW-Suzaku 13:17, 30 March 2006 (UTC)

Great—add those missing books and stories! Or if you're referring to the fact that I didn't give Kurai Nocturne and the dokuhon their own entries, maybe you can think of a better way of setting it up. This is Wikipedia—be bold! And if you want to add a VHD novels article, I don't know that there's a reason not to. I was thinking more of the way I've seen some articles on series of novels set up, but there's of course not one right way to do this. (Does anybody want to contribute something on the Taiwanese editions of the VHD novels?)—TheCert 19:07, 31 March 2006 (UTC)

Since I'm currently translating the second movie from Japanese to Hungarian, I thought I'd add a paragraph about the Japanese version. (As for Carmilla's name, I'm fairly sure I got it right.) —Mufurc 11:13 March 2006 (EET)

In all the material I've seen for the movie, the name is spelled Carmila, not Carmilla. (Though I'm aware the likely inspiration is spelled Carmilla.) See, for example, the page at Urban Vision's official site for the movie: http://www.vampirehunterdbloodlust.com/themovie/characters_carmila.html . I've been unable to find a Japanese source that spells her name with romaji; apparently her full name in Japanese is Elizabeth Báthory Carmila (source: Vampire Hunter D Playstation guide; at one time Yutaka Minowa's page had this information but he seems to have taken down his character design images). Báthory is probably as good a spelling as any.—TheCert 12:53, 25 March 2006 (UTC)

Oh, I'm sure I spelled Báthory right - I'm Hungarian and the Báthory family is one of the more famous and important families in our history (for reasons other than the myths about Elizabeth/Erzsébet). However, I don't have a script to the Japanese dub so I had to go by hearing alone; and I wasn't 100% sure that what the Left Hand says (as he recounts the history of the countess) is really "Báthory" or some VHD word or term that I'm not familiar with. But if there really is a connection between Carmila and the name Báthory then I guessed correctly. Mufurc 17:50, 25 March 2006 (UTC)

The spelling is problematic only if some official source transliterates バートリー a different way: as Bathory, or even as Bartley, as evidently happened with the Castlevania character Elizabeth Bartley. However, I don't think I've seen the VHD universe's バートリー transliterated by any official source, Japanese-language or English-language.

By the way, I'm delighted to see contributions from someone who understands Japanese and has some familiarity with the Japanese-language VHD source material. My own knowledge of Japanese is minimal.—TheCert 21:33, 26 March 2006 (UTC)

Summary edits

I've tweaked the summary to make it a bit less USA-centric. (Urban Vision's license is for the USA or for North America; other entities have released the movies in Japan, the UK, Europe, Australia, and perhaps elsewhere—for that matter, the first movie was originally released in America by Sreamline, then Orion Home Video, before Urban Vision got the rights).

Is there a way of documenting that the movies are considered "cult classics"? I'm in favor of cutting this phrase, or at least moving it to discussion of the movies rather than the summary. Changed "radio dramas" to "audio dramas," so these are at least mentioned in the article.—TheCert 13:35, 29 March 2006 (UTC)

Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust trailer voiceover

Recently added:

In the english trailer of Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust, the voice-over was done by Micheal McConnohie who voiced the original english voice of Vampire Hunter D, the first film.

Can anyone provide evidence for this? The voiceover in the Bloodlust trailer sounds like John Rafter Lee, who voiced Meier Link in the English dub.—TheCert 19:07, 31 March 2006 (UTC)

Vampire Hunter D: Movie-Novel Differences

Addressing a few changes I made in this section:

Gimlet and Golem are both named in the movie: in the Japanese dub, Golem repeats his own name as a sort of battle cry while attacking D; Rei murmurs "Gimuretto" [Gimlet] after killing him. These names are not reflected in the Streamline dub.

Golem is called "the tortureless" in the book because this is a translation of the kanji characters used to represent his name, 拷零無 (gõremu). As the English translation of the novel indicates, Rei-Ginsei means "serene silver star."—TheCert 04:31, 7 April 2006 (UTC)

Novels article

I went ahead and buckled down a while back and made one. Vampire_Hunter_D_(Novels) PLEASE read the discussion page before editing it, though. WtW-Suzaku 14:16, 17 April 2006 (UTC)

Okay, since the Novels article has the complete listing, I think it's probably okay to delete the novel listing from this article. I'm going to delete it again now. You don't need to revert it, Mr. Article Reverting Guy. WtW-Suzaku 07:20, 2 May 2006 (UTC)

Dhampir, dampiel, dunpeal, and transliteration

Converting the Japanese word ダンピール (dampiiru, Japanese rendering of dhampir) into the Latin alphabet is transliteration, not translation. "Dampiel" is the form shown in the Orion Home Video edition closed captioning and the Japanese dub subtitling on the Urban Vision DVD of the first movie. I am aware that the two previous sentences contradict may seem at odds with a statement about this movie at the IMDb, http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0216651/trivia — my changes to the article's parenthetical remark about this misunderstood term are based on definitions of the words "transliteration" and "translation" and on the versions of the movies I have seen.—TheCert 18:00, 24 April 2006 (UTC) Edited—TheCert 18:25, 24 April 2006 (UTC)

Castlevania stuff

Removed from article for now until citation or reference is given:

D is believed to have inspired the creation of Alucard from the Castlevania series of games. After all, besides being vampires, they are also the son of Dracula. Even the world presented in the games bears much resemblance to the world of the novels and movies.

-Dangerous-Boy 03:56, 19 May 2006 (UTC)

Moved from novels section

Template:Spoiler

Vampire Hunter D Volume 1

The first volume of Vampire Hunter D lacks an official subtitle. In subsequent novels it is designated simply as "Vampire Hunter D: Volume 1."

The story is similar to the original movie, but goes into far more detail in terms of plot, character, and building Kikuchi's world. The novel itself is discussed in the section concerning differences between the original movie and book.

Vampire Hunter D Volume 2: Raiser of Gales

Ten years ago, four children - three boys and a girl - went to play at the foot of a hill where an old Noble Castle stood-- and vanished. Several days later, only three of the children returned, one of whom was irrevocably changed. All three lacked memory of events that transpired while they were missing-- even under torture and repeated questioning.

The novel opens in the snowy village of Tsepesh (Tepes in the final translation), where residents solemnly carry casket with a dead child, killed by a vampire. Suddenly, a hand breaks through the coffin, impaling the expert vampire-hunter hired by the town-- with his own stake, in full daylight!

D is called by the mayor to find out what's going on and stop the vampires. Not long after, he uncovers a plot to create vampires with the ability to walk in the daylight. Lina, the girl out of the group who had vanished, tries in vain to gain D's affection while also struggling to bring her village fame by being accepted for a position in the Capital. D soon learns that a Noble kidnapped the four children and experimented on them in an attempt to make a new breed of vampires by splicing human and vampire DNA.

Vampire Hunter D Volume 3: Demon Deathchase

This volume inspired the second Vampire Hunter D Movie, and the translated version was published in the US in January 2006. D arrives at a village to find a single vampire has killed the entire population, who have come back to life and are attacking a group of fellow Hunters called the Marcus Brothers (Nolt, Kyle, Leila, Grove, and Borgoff). The ghost of a wealthy man manages to ask the Marcus Brothers to retrieve his daughter from the Noble responsible before the attack. This leads to the grueling and competitive hunt for the Noble responsible, as well as his human captive. Template:Endspoiler

Don't know what do with this yet. It's already listed on the list of vhd novels.--Dangerous-Boy 05:16, 26 May 2006 (UTC)

D’s Height

Does anyone know how tall D is? -Unknown

Unless it's said in the manga, I don't think so since the height of other characters isn't mentioned either to extrapolate from. I'd assume pretty tall though. Tyciol 21:50, 13 March 2007 (UTC)

Common mistake people make... They are novels, not manga. That is something that really needs to be debunked, because the novels are constantly being referred to as "manga" and "graphic novels" these days, which is just wrong. There has been no officially produced Vampire Hunter D manga in the last 20 years, and the new series being illustrated by Saiko Takaki is a recent development. WtW-Suzaku 06:19, 17 March 2007 (UTC)

Alucard, a dhampir that shares many qualities with D

I see nothing that D and Alucard have in common or the story at all. Alucard talks more and talks more like a poet. D half the time uses silences to talk and when he does talk it's very short and to the point. Alucard believes that the only why for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing. It wouldn't make sense if D said this because looks what he does all the time. Alucard wants to hide from everybody because of what he is and still has pain in him from his farther and mother. D shows no signs of this at all. And D and Alucard don’t even have the same kind of powers. -Unknown

The comparison seems to be more the nature of their appearance, choice in career, and heritage. Tyciol 21:50, 13 March 2007 (UTC)

• No, maybe appearnce and heritage but not a choice in career.

Alucard believes that the only why for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing. Alucard wants to hide from everybody because of what he is and still has pain in him from his farther and mother.

He's not out to kill Vampires. The only thing they have in common is that their mother was human and their father was the Vampire Dracula. But Alucard’s father has been show to be a bloodlust murderer who wants to destroy the world. Now D’s father to what D has said about him is that he was nothing like that at all. This is talked about in the first movie. “The strong shall live and the shall weak die.” D: “Your Noble ancestor never believed that.” In the novels D talks about his father as him being more of as the keeper of the peace of Vampires. In the 2nd movie D’s father killed Carmilla because he hated her bloodlust.

V?

I believe perhaps we should be looking at the character V (comics) which some of you might recognize from V for Vendetta. He was a character who came out during the same period. V first appeared in 1982, whereas the D novel was published the following year, 1983, and came to film (anime) in 1985. They are both loner characters with incredible melee skill (D uses a great sword, V uses daggers). They both wear a black coat and a wide-brimmed black hat. V wears a white mask, D has a very pale face. They are both somewhat inhuman, possessing superhuman abilities. V has them due to the experimentation, whereas D has them because has is half-vampire. They both have a single-letter name with an 'ee' sound. It is possible that D was based upon V? The language barrier between England and Japan and the close dating makes it seem unlikely to me, but who knows right? Perhaps great authors stick together. I can see it being likely that they were conspired during the same period of time. More likely it is a coincidence (sorry V) and perhaps they both drew some inspiration from a similar source, like Zorro. I am actually surprised Zorro is not mentioned in this article, what with also wielding a sword and riding a black horse and so forth. Tyciol 21:52, 13 March 2007 (UTC)

I highly doubt it, especially considering how closely together the releases would have been, and the fact that foreign comics are not nearly as well known in Japan, especially at that time. And also the fact that there is very little in common with the actual stories. The inspiration for D has been stated numerous times to be a combination of samurai and spaghetti western style, and "D" is an allusion to Dracula. Just because someone wore a black hat and a cape doesn't automatically mean D was inspired by or based on them, in fact, D's clothing is very similair to a standard rider's garb, with the iconic wide-brimmed traveller's hat and cloak. WtW-Suzaku 06:15, 17 March 2007 (UTC)