is a series of novels written by Japanese author Hideyuki Kikuchi and illustrated by Yoshitaka Amano since 1983.
As of June 2026, 58 novels have been published in the main series, with some novels comprising as many as four volumes. They have sold over 17 million copies worldwide, making Vampire Hunter D one of the best-selling book series in history. The series has also spawned anime, audio drama, manga, comic adaptations, a video game, as well as a short story collection, art books, and a supplemental guide book.
Premise Vampire hunter D wanders through a far-future post-nuclear war Earth that combines elements of pulp genres: western, science fiction, horror and Lovecraftian horror, dark fantasy, folklore, and occult science. The planet, once dominated by the vampires known as , ancient demons, mutants, and their technological creations, is now slowly returning to a semblance of order and human control—in part due to the decadence that brought about the downfall of the vampire race, the continued presence of frontier dwellers, and the rise of a caste of independent hunters-for-hire who eliminate supernatural threats.
Some time in 1999, a nuclear war occurred. The Nobility were vampires that planned for a possible nuclear war and sequestered all that was needed to rebuild civilization in their shelters. They use their science combined with magic to restore the world in their image. Nearly all magical creatures on Earth are genetically engineered by the Nobility to possess seemingly supernatural abilities, regeneration, and biological immortality, with a very small number being demons, gods, aliens, and extradimensional beings who survived the holocaust. Despite their technology being advanced enough to create a blood substitute as food, they still prefer to feed on humans. As such, they created a civilization where vampires and humans coexisted, eventually developing the planet into parklands and cities. The society eventually stagnates when vampire technology perfects scientific prophecy, which determines they are at their zenith of existence and doomed to fall, overthrown by humans. The human race was transformed at this time, with fear for the vampires being woven into their genetics, and the inability to remember vampire weaknesses such as garlic and crucifixes.
Unlike vampires from traditional lore, the Nobility can reproduce sexually, although their offspring will permanently cease aging after reaching physical maturity, having inherited their vampire parent's immortality.
Main characters D
D is a dhampir, the half-breed child of a vampire father and human mother (actually genetically engineered by the ruler and first of vampires called Sacred Ancestor using his own DNA and that of humans in an experiment to create a vampire without vampires' typical weaknesses like the sun and having to drink blood), the ideal vampire hunter. He is renowned for his consummate skill and unearthly grace but feared and despised for his mixed lineage: born of both races but belonging to neither. Often underestimated by his opponents, D possesses surprising power and resourcefulness, having most of the strengths of the Nobility and only mild levels of their common weaknesses. It has been seen in both movies that his power is not only physical, but extends into the magical realm as well. His supernatural powers make him one of the strongest beings in the world: possibly the second strongest (after only his father). However, D prefers using his physical abilities, only using his magic in times of great need. Unlike most dhampirs, D is able to live as a "normal" human; however, he is marked by his unearthly beauty and exceptionally potent aura and thus rarely accepted by human settlements. In terms of weaknesses, he is randomly susceptible to sun-sickness, a severe type of sunstroke, about once every five years (far less than most dhampirs). D also recovers from it at a rate far greater than other dhampirs. Usually, it takes several days to recover from sunlight syndrome, longer if the dhampir is exceedingly powerful, but D recovered in a few hours (around 1–6 hours) despite being one of the strongest dhampirs alive. Otherwise, D does not appear to suffer from other vampiric weaknesses usual to dhampirs, being able to physically restrain opponents with his aura and having godlike reflexes surpassing even those of Nobles.
His symbiotic left hand states, in Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust: "The Herarchy of us became impatient with the heartless David and impaled The Lord on 'The Sword'". Speculation on whether "The Sword" is D's sword or not is debatable. Here, however, the movie differs sharply from the book from which it takes its story, Vampire Hunter D: Demon Deathchase, and future entries in the novel series do not differentiate between Dracula, The Vampire King, The Sacred Ancestor and D's father, proposing that they are one and the same.
D rides a cybernetic horse, wields a crescent longsword which looks similar to Yoshitaka Amano's scimitar sword design found in many of his works of art, but the sword has a hefty length, similar to that of a Japanese nodachi. D always wears a mystical blue pendant; it prevents many of the automatic defenses (such as laser fields and small nuclear blasters) created by the Nobility in past millennia from working properly and allows him to enter their sealed castles. He also uses wooden needles in the novels and game, which he can throw with super speed. He protects his milk-white face from the noonday sun with long black hair, flowing black clothing and cape, and the shadow of a wide-brimmed hat. D appears to be a youth, 17 or 18 years old, though D's age is unknown (the novels reveal that he is more than 10,000 years old). His beauty is mesmerizing, often unintentionally wooing women and sometimes flustering men.
Very little is known of D's past, and the identity of his parents is ambiguous, but his innate power suggests that his father is an extraordinarily powerful vampire. Regarding D's birth, some Nobles whisper dark rumors about their vampire progenitor, the Sacred Ancestor known as Count Dracula, bedding a human woman called "Mina the Fair" (implied to be Mina Harker). Dracula conducted bizarre crossbreeding experiments involving himself and countless human women or even other vampires. The only successful product of the experiments is D, who wants nothing to do with his father except to kill him, even refusing to go by his true name, shortening it to just the first letter. In Twin Shadowed Knight, D has a twin who goes unnamed. The twin states that he and D were born from the same woman in exactly the same conditions.
Left Hand
D is the host for a sentient symbiote, Left Hand, a wisecracking homunculus with a human face residing in his left palm, who can suck in massive amounts of matter through a wind void or vacuum tunnel. Left Hand enjoys needling the poker-faced D, but only appears as needed, rarely witnessed or heard by anyone other than D, yet aware of many of D's thoughts and actions. At all other times, D's left hand appears normal. Besides providing a contrast to D's reserved demeanor, Left Hand is incredibly useful, possessing many mysterious powers such as psychometry, inducing sleep, hypnotizing others, determining the medical condition of a victim, absorbing matter, energy, and even souls and magic, healing and reviving D and himself, and the ability to size up the supernatural powers or prowess of an enemy, even beyond D's keen senses. After absorbing four elements, Left Hand can use them to generate powerful attacks, regenerate D and himself, and to transform D into full vampire state rivaling Sacred Ancestor. Left Hand can store absorbed objects in a pocket dimension inside his stomach, and later spit them out.
In the first and second novels, Left Hand can also revive D when his physical condition is suffering, by consuming the four elements and converting the resulting energy into life force. This ability even saved D from the usually fatal for vampires stake through the heart he received from Rei-Ginsei in the first novel. Left Hand has its own mind and will, and acts as D's guide and sole permanent companion, providing a reservoir of knowledge pertaining to the lost Noble culture. So far, Left Hand's origins are unknown, and it is unclear how they came to be joined. However, some of its nature is revealed in the third book, which features a similar creature; it is implied he was one of the Barbarois (mutant/demon hybrids) who served in the personal retinue of the Sacred Ancestor, and was experimented on by him to increase his powers over other Barbarois.
Sacred Ancestor The Sacred Ancestor's role in the novels is very mixed, appearing both as the bane and savior to isolated towns, and deified as a legendary god-king to the vampires, many of whom have never even met him in person. D quotes the Sacred Ancestor's precepts ("Transient guests are we"—implied to refer to the Nobility) in the first novel. The Sacred Ancestor appears both as a lawgiver honored for his intelligence, who showed some interest in preserving humans, and as a ruthless scientist (in the second novel), conducting hybrid breeding experiments with humans in order to perpetuate his own dwindling species. D appears to have encountered his alleged father on at least one occasion, as when at times D reaches a place where the imprint of the Sacred Ancestor's power remains, D remembers the Sacred Ancestor telling him that "You are my only success." Like D, the Sacred Ancestor is portrayed as a mysterious and handsome young wanderer who deals with both life and death. However, in the English dub of the anime, D states that the Sacred Ancestor respected humanity and did not feed on innocent people.
Production In the postscript of the first Vampire Hunter D novel, Hideyuki Kikuchi cited Hammer Films' Horror of Dracula (1958) as his first inspiration in horror. He also praised horror manga artist Osamu Kishimoto for his distinct style, that he described as "a gothic mood in the Western tradition". Kikuchi is famous for writing his manuscripts by hand. Having written the Vampire Hunter D series for 40 years, the author has previously admitted that he does not remember all of its mythology, only that of a couple of volumes, and therefore one might find some contradictions in it. Kikuchi explained that the two points he is always careful of are, not to "mix up the characteristics of D", and "not to lose sight of the purpose of the journey". When asked if the Sacred Ancestor will ever be given a larger role, Kikuchi said the character "will come out someday" and "When that happens, please expect that to be your warning that Vampire Hunter D is speeding toward an ending". The author has previously said that he has "a final conflict for D" in mind, but that final conflict will not be the entire ending of the series.
Publication history
Beginning in January 1983, Kikuchi has written 41 Vampire Hunter D novels spanning 53 volumes as of April 2023. All of the publications in the series were published by Asahi Sonorama until the branch went out of business in September 2007. The release of D – Throng of Heretics in October 2007 under the Asahi Bunko – Sonorama Selection label marked the transition to the new publisher, Asahi Shimbun Publishing, a division of Asahi Sonorama's parent company. From December 2007 through January 2008, Asahi Shimbun Publishing reprinted the complete Vampire Hunter catalogue under the Sonorama Selection label.