Vampire Hunter D volume two
Some spoilers included.
It took me some time to finally decide to make a review for this second volume. If you don’t know, volume three also appeared so I am pretty sure I will want to review it right after I will buy it. Now lets proceed with the review for Vampire Hunter D volume two. After a great first volume, I expected for something the same for this second part as well. Now, I wont say if its better or worse right now, because you may not read the review and miss some points. For starters, I like what Digital Manga made with this volume as well. I enjoy the color of the pages when the book is closed, looks very cool. The cover is the same, shiny and very good in quality, but with a picture of D that doesn’t say anything about the story.
I bought this book from an online Romanian shop, Mangashop.ro (if someone from Romania is interested). If you have purchased this volume, you can go to the OFFICIAL SITE and unlock a small surprise with the code you can find inside the book, by pressing on D’s medallion.
The story is adapted after the Vampire Hunter D: Raiser of Gales novel by Hideyuki Kikuchi, published in 1984, and the artist is Saiko Takaki. She also adapted the novel into the manga.
The village of Tepes (related to Vlad Tepes of course, but as a Romanian I am always amazed how people can put his name, Tepes, pronounced Tzepesh, on everything that its related to evil), was founded near some old castle ruins, that once belonged to the Nobility. Years ago, four children from the village went to the castle and disappeared. A few weeks later, three of them return, but with no memories about what happened to them in there. One of the children that returned is Lina Sween. Now she grown to be a very beautiful woman, who has been chosen by the government to go and study in the capital. This is a great chance for her and for the village. But half a month ago, the village starts to be attacked by vampires. The attacks take place at the outskirts of the village. The villagers fear that the victims could return as vampires so they apply the classical vampire treatment. A stake in the heart and their bodies buried. But during the rituals, some of the victims raised back to life from their coffins, in plain daylight. The people managed to dispose of them, with great sacrifices. But the village is under constant terror so the mayor decides to hire a vampire hunter to investigate and to find a solution to this problem. The vampire hunter is D. Soon, he finds out that the one who has been attacking the villagers is a powerful vampire belonging to the Nobility. This vampire can take the form of a mist and attach to his victims. There is no reason to reveal more of the story, because there is too much to say.
First that strikes me is the lack of cohesion in the story and dialogue. It takes you more than 100 pages (or even more) to understand what is happening (up to a point anyway). The story struggles to reach you, and you feel detached in some way. Is like a big giant puzzle, that looks great when all the pieces are together, but someone managed to misplace some pieces, leaving the viewer confused. I think Saiko Takaki tried too much to follow the original story from the novel. The dialogues don’t help the reader at all, too much is like random stuff just put there, and sometimes I started to think I missed something on the way. Also, there are some odd English terms placed in the dialogues. Feels a like the translation took some wrong turns from time to time. Some interesting facts are revealed at the end, which saves the story a little. Actually, the best of things come at the end of this volume.
Some weird things happened with the art as well. It took a psychedelic way of some sort, making it hard at times to distinguish who is fighting who and what really happens there. Not in a big degree, but enough to disturb the eye a little. But I enjoyed the art, there are many great drawings in there.
The characters are not very well done, in terms of reaching them. They are all dull, no one sticks in front and its hard to get attached of them. One character that should get our attention and it fails is Lina. She acts like a kid, then after one second shes all over D, making compliments and how beautiful he is… she looks lost as character and is hard to see her real side. Its difficult to say what is wrong with her as a manga character, really. I got lost in this review trying to explain her behavior but I am not a shrink so enough of Lina. Only D saves this volume, really. Don’t try to follow the story too much if you cant, just concentrate on D. Everything important happens when he is around.
Now, at the end of this review, I will finally say that this volume does not raise to the value of its predecessor. Here, I said it, its worse than volume one. A great puzzle, who was bad assembled. If its worth buying this volume? Only to enjoy the art and some fine fight scenes. If you can skip this volume and just buy the next one? Sure. This volume doesn’t bring anything big and reveals nothing important. You can skip it if you are not sure you want to buy it or not.
I leave you with these last thoughts, as I will go and watch Brasil – South Africa, semifinal for the Confederations Cup. Vai Brasil!
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