It’s real, and it’s a steal. Just launched on Humble Bundle is a new charity drive where participants can get their hands on all of the current English translations of Vampire Hunter D volumes for as little as fifteen dollars. If you’ve ever been interested in the series, or have read a few volumes and had trouble finding others, then now is your time to get your hands on them.
Why Is This Worth It?
Nearly all of the English copies of Vampire Hunter D have long been out of print for so long that individual volumes have been put up for sale on eBay from anywhere between $100 and $400. While digital copies are available for e-readers such as Amazon Kindle and Kobo, each volume can cost anywhere from $6 to $12 apiece. Suddenly being able to nab all 29 currently translated books for just a little more than the price of a single volume is an absolute godsend of a deal for anyone wanting to get into the series.
Note: These ebooks are distributed in ePUB format; not PDFs. Be sure you have a device, application, or software that can support this format.
What Charity Is the Bundle Supporting?
All proceeds will be going toward the World Central Kitchen (WCK).
World Central Kitchen (WCK) is a non-profit organization addressing food insecurity during and after natural disasters and humanitarian crises, while also operating long-term programs aimed at improving livelihoods by strengthening local food ecosystems. Founded in 2010 by Chef Jose Andres following the devastating earthquake in Haiti, WCK has since served more than 8 million meals to those affected by disasters.
What is Vampire Hunter D?
Penned by Hideyuki Kikuchi and illustrated by Yoshitaka Amano, Vampire Hunter D has been an ongoing novel series in Japan since 1983 and is still continuing to this day. That’s right, even at the age of 73, Kikuchi-sensei is still penning D’s seemingly endless adventures. In Japan, the series celebrated the release of volume 53, which coincided with the 40th story for the series this spring. (Several of D’s stories are told over multiple volumes). While the volume numbers have gotten a bit jumbled due to the English publications, these 29 English volumes actually have all written content from what is volumes 1-36 in Japan.
Vampire Hunter D takes place 10,000 years in the future where the world is on the brink of a second… or rather, fifth or sixth, apocalypse. Most of the world is uninhabitable, save for the Frontier. Just how expansive the Frontier is isn’t stated, but it’s presumably the last continental landmass capable of hosting carbon life. Vampires (referred to as the “Nobility”) had once been the dominant species. In part to their enslavement of humankind, they returned the remaining world to a medievalesque order. In the millenniums that followed, war, famine, genocide, and every other horrifically imaginable outcome occurred. Now, the vampires’ numbers are dwindling as technology advances. But the real threat is D, or more specifically what he is.
Born of a vampire father and human mother, D is a dhampir caught between both plains of existence. Stronger than any humans and capable of surviving in sunlight, D wanders the world, seemingly without aim or purpose until local governments or total strangers pay for his service to slay the Nobility. It’s a simple ‘traveling mercenary’ setup, but what makes the series so captivating is the world the audience experience through D’s life.
You can expect more than a typical sword fight finished with a wooden stake through the heart. The scope of the Frontier and the history of Nobility expand from genetic alteration, demonic biological construction, armageddon weapons development, space travel, astroid imprisonment, political corruption, survival enslavement, the imbalanced distribution of wealth, magic, and lots of blood within just the first ten or fifteen volumes.
Each book comes with a number of illustrations by the famed artist behind the early Final Fantasy games, Yoshitaka Amano. Currently, I’ve read all the way through to volume 20 and have enjoyed nearly every single story. At the time of writing this, the Humble Bundle sale will end in twenty days (November 2nd). What are you waiting for? Enjoy the series, now!
