One of my very first exposures to Anime came in the late 80′s and the wonderfully atmospheric Vampire Hunter D. Oh sure I had seen Robotech and Speed Racer and the like, but this was truly unlike anything I had ever seen before. Dark Horse Press and Digital Manga Publishing have joined together to bring the fantastic Vampire Hunter D novels to American audiences for the first time. Originally written some 20 years ago by Hideyuki Kikuchi, “Tale of the Dead Town” is thus far the fourth book in the series to be released.

As the story opens, D comes upon a lone biker out on the frontier defending an injured teenaged girl in what remains of her family’s RV from a flock of Dragons. Only D’s intervention saves the pair but the girl, Lori Knight, is badly injured, and her parents are killed. Along with the biker, Pluto, D leads them to a great city that hovers several feet off the ground on a large disk. D has been hired by the mayor of the town to seek out and destroy the vampire that attacked his daughter. Lori’s suffered radiation poisoning causing her to lose her hearing and speech. D soon finds out that Lori and her family once lived in this floating town but left recently.

D finds that the Knight’s old house has been locked up tightly by the town’s sheriff, but D manages to get inside and finds a secret laboratory that lori’s parents used. And he also encounters something else…a shadowy shape that quickly flees from the Hunter. D is hardly welcomed by the townspeople who consider the dhampir to be just as much of a threat as any other vampire. Soon a body turns up, completely drained of blood. Everyone believes it is obviously the work of the vampire and yet an investigation of the body shows no bite mark at all. And yet, not longer after the body is buried, it rises from the grave, intent on killing D.

D now finds himself not only hunting a vampire, but also trying to solve the mystery of how the man turned into a vampire without being bitten. And what is the secret to the experiments the Knights were working on and why did they flee the safe haven of the town.

Tale of the Dead Town is much like the D anime, more of an adventure story with horror elements to it. In the postscript to the story, Kikuchi talks about how he was influenced, in particular by the Hammer Dracula films and Christopher Lee. This is reflected in his writing although the character of D is vastly powerful and you really get the feeling that not much can challenge this avenger of the night. Tale of the Dead Town skillfully wove both a horror and a mystery tale and sprinkled it with liberal action scenes to make for one heckuva enjoyable story. Kikuchi’s prose is quite colorful and descriptive. It’s a quick read at 167 pages and as a bonus the first chapter of the next book, “The Stuff of Dreams” is included as a preview.

Reviewed by Tim Janson

Rating: 5 / 5

This review is for “Tale Of The Dead Town”. I’m not sure why it’s being included with the reviews for other Vampire Hunter D novels.

I just finished this novel last night. The mystery wasn’t quite there like in the earlier novels and I felt the end wasn’t quite wrapped up.

*Warning Spoiler*

The stranger who had visted 200 years earlier was never identified. Also, abandoned city of Nobles was never quite explained. Where did the 2,000 imitation vampires come from? Also, D acts like as if he knew the place was there all along which means he didn’t need to investigate in the first place. If I missed it and someone else didn’t an explanation is welcome.

All in all I have to say that I wasn’t dissapointed. Remember, the first Vampire Hunter D novel is hard to live up to. That being said even if this novel was 25% as good as that then it would still be a classic.

I’m very happy with my purchase and anyone looking at the reviews has my recomendation.
Rating: 4 / 5

Vampire Hunter D is one of those vampiric characters who clings to the imagination — a chilly, powerful dhampir with a big hat and sword.

And Hideyuki Kikuchi is still in pretty good shape in D’s fourth fantasy adventure. “Vampire Hunter D Volume 4: Tale of the Dead Town” is more of a mystery than straight sci-fi horror, and while it lacks the visceral punch of Kikuchi’s other work about his postapocalyptic dhampir, it’s still a solid story with some solid action scenes, and a glimpse of D’s life as a wandering Hunter.

As the story opens, D rescues the lone survivor of a dragon massacre — a radiation-sick teenage girl named Lori — and a brash biker named John M. Brasselli Pluto VIII.

With his two new companions, D arrives at a very unique town — it floats above the ground, and constantly travels. Compared to the rest of the Frontier, it’s pretty idyllic, except that the mayor’s daughter has been attacked by the Nobility. At first D thinks that the place has been invaded by a lone Noble, but when he kills the vampire he finds that the man is not the only one in the floating city.

And he finds that something strange is lurking in Lori’s old home, where her father was conducting some odd experiments. Using John’s special talents — possessing the minds of others — D soon discovers just what Lori’s father was trying to create all those years, and who is responsible for the vampire attacks. To make matters worse, the city is going waaaaaayyy off course toward some Noble ruins…

Hideyuki Kikuchi has explored the horrors that science can create before, even in a series with vampires, mutants, and monsters of assorted types. And “Tale of the Dead Town” straddles the line between horror and mystery — not mystery of the Agatha Christie type with subtle clues and many suspects, but more of a Raymond Chandler dig-up-the-dirty-nasty-facts pulp variety.

With that in mind, “Tale of the Dead Town” unwinds at a relatively relaxed pace, with D poking around in dark corners and fending off the bigotry of the locals. Kikuchi’s shadowy, lushly detailed descriptions lend themselves well to the eerier scenes — such as the vampire girl’s creepy multiple-personality moment — as well as the action sequences. One particularly striking scene is D’s battle against some vicious carnivorous birds to save a little girl.

There are a few bumps in the literary road, though — Kikuchi’s detailed writing sometimes goes a bit over the top (“vermillion rage” in someone’s voice?), and he reminds us at least every two pages about how unspeakably gorgeous D is.

Though D claims he’s “seen too much” to react to his surroundings, Kikuchi keeps his anti-hero from becoming a cardboard cutout. He spends most of the book being chilly and remote, but occasionally comes out of his shell — his unacknowledged with the brash, talkative John M. Brasselli Pluto VIII is a particularly fun one, since the men are utter opposites. At the same time, we get a glimpse at the mindless hostility he’s been hit with for centuries.

“Vampire Hunter D Volume 4: Tale of the Dead Town” is one of Kikuchi’s lesser works, but it’s still a solid horror/mystery tale of a hi-tech city that is rotting from the inside out.
Rating: 4 / 5