Vampire Hunter D (and other Vampire Miscellany)
Posted: Tue Oct 05, 2010 12:21 pmI've been so put off by the crappy interpretation of vampires in recent pop culture (yes, that includes Anne Rice and not just Stephenie Meyer) that I've also avoided vampire-related manga.
Yet, every time I'm in the manga section at the book store I wander past the "Vampire Hunter D" novels and always think, hmm... It might be a nice break, who knows? So what the hell, I went ahead and bought the original (translated) novel the other day. So far, I love it.
What's great about the Japanese take on Westernized themes and mythology is that it's never about one thing. It can't simply be a story about vampires in their original gothic settings. Nope. It's 10,000 years into the future, post-apocalypse, and vampires can breed! There are hybrids! Ahh! Still, there are no cheesy rocker vampires or "vegetarian" vampires, which makes this novel so far not suck. Yay.
I've also been reading the "Trinity Blood" manga, which is okay. I like it enough to continue reading it, anyway. I seem to like it for all its non-vampire elements, actually. It's somewhat steampunk.
So... got any good vampire series I should check out? I'm not really a shoujo fan, so I haven't dabbled in "Vampire Knight" yet. Unless someone can come up with a really compelling reason why I should read about a reverse vampire, I also doubt I'll look into "Chibi Vampire."
Yet, every time I'm in the manga section at the book store I wander past the "Vampire Hunter D" novels and always think, hmm... It might be a nice break, who knows? So what the hell, I went ahead and bought the original (translated) novel the other day. So far, I love it.
What's great about the Japanese take on Westernized themes and mythology is that it's never about one thing. It can't simply be a story about vampires in their original gothic settings. Nope. It's 10,000 years into the future, post-apocalypse, and vampires can breed! There are hybrids! Ahh! Still, there are no cheesy rocker vampires or "vegetarian" vampires, which makes this novel so far not suck. Yay.
I've also been reading the "Trinity Blood" manga, which is okay. I like it enough to continue reading it, anyway. I seem to like it for all its non-vampire elements, actually. It's somewhat steampunk.
So... got any good vampire series I should check out? I'm not really a shoujo fan, so I haven't dabbled in "Vampire Knight" yet. Unless someone can come up with a really compelling reason why I should read about a reverse vampire, I also doubt I'll look into "Chibi Vampire."
