Vampire Hunter D, Mysterious Journey to the North Sea, Part 1

The Vampire Hunter D series continues in this seventh volume entitled “Mysterious Journey to the North Sea, Part 1.” This is the first multi-volume installment to the series. It is a translation of the Japanese, vampire, horror novels by Hideyuki Kikuchi. I recommend this story to anyone who is a fan of vampire hunter stories and Vampire Hunter D in particular. If you are a fan of the vampires, you might find this story a little on the wrong side, as vampires are the bad guys in this world. With the rare exception, there are no lovable bloodsuckers in these books.

“Mysterious Journey to the North Sea, Part 1” continues the story of D’s quest to find his father, who throughout the series has been referred to as “Him.” Due to the clues dropped throughout the previous books and to Kikuchi’s mild obsession with the character, I think “He” is Dracula, but that is merely speculation on my part.

As with the rest of the series, each installment has a completely new cast other than D and his carbuncle sidekick. In this particular volume, the reader is quickly introduced to Wu-Lin, a girl who is obviously far from home in a large city. She asks D for help because she is being followed, but he refuses on the basis that he only hunts the Nobility (vampires). However, he gets involved in her fight after all, when her pursuers attack her. Wu-Lin attackers mortally wound her before D sends them packing. Her last wish is for D to take a small, blue bead back to her family in Florence, a town on the far reaches of the North Sea.

The “bad guys” of the story are mostly a group of five mysterious strangers. Their identities remain obscure because their identities are not revealed to each other until the next volume. They are the ones who attacked and killed Wu-Lin in their paid quest to get the bead that she gives to D. As D heads north, he encounters one of the five, while waiting for a ferry. After boarding the ferry, he is confronted by a sixth warrior, whose connection to the story is also not revealed in this book.

In addition, D finds Su-In, while on his journey north. She talks to him while on the ferry, and when she finds out that he is going to her village, she asks if she can accompany him. She is the woman of the story. There always is one in Kikuchi’s works. She asks D to stay with her in the village, but since D is not one to stay in an area without a quarry, Su-In tells him of the history of her village and of a Noble who attacks it every summer.

Anyway, this installation to the Vampire Hunter D series is as entertaining as the rest of them. As with the previous volumes, Kevin Leahy translated “The Mysterious Journey to the North Sea.” Because of the translation, some of the prose is a little stodgy, but it does not detract from the story itself. Yoshitaka Amano contributed his illustrations to this issue, which depict scenes from the story. In addition to all this, the author, Hideyuki Kikuchi, indicated that this story has been considered for the third movie in the series.