Vampire Hunter D

5/5 worldbuilding and imagery. I love the setting so much. Gothic sci-fi western? Yes please. So fucking cool.

1/5 characters and prose. Especially the male gaze-y fawning zero agency female characters. Ugh. Gross. Incredibly bad writing too :(.

I'll probably read more of the series. It's fun and light. Maybe some of the later books are better.

The plot follows a young woman named Doris who hires a Vampire Hunter named D to kill the vampire that bit her.
There are a lot of elements in this plot. You have Doris relying on D to fight and defeat Count Magnus Lee, the vampire that attacked Doris. The Count aims to turn Doris into a vampire so he can have her as his wife. The Count's daughter is trying to prevent this union. There is a lot more in this story that will take me forever to type but it is pretty good.
The book does deserve praise. Despite that Kikuchi writes kinda flowery. The characters are well-written and the setting is well developed.

My issue and the reason why It is 4 stars is because of the audiobook. I spent 4 years being an audio editor and learning how to clean them up to make them sound smooth.

Let me explain, humans, make a lot of sounds with their mouths that they might not know that they are doing. These sounds can be ticks, sighs, teeth sounds, the pronunciation of letters that are drawn out, lisps that affect how one may pronounce letters, etc. In this audiobook, the S sound is very strong. For me, it is hard to miss because that should have been cut down or noted by the editors for removal. What I mean by noted is sometimes, you need permission before you can cut something out/down in the audiobooks.
Anyway, that strong sound of S is hard to miss in the first chapter. It does get better as the story progresses but for me, it's annoying my audio editor side due to how strong it is compared to all the other words and letters within this story. There are also breath sounds within this audio that should have been cleaned up but overall pretty good book. I enjoyed it.

Excellent book. Excellent translation.

I'm confused. Why is it that other reviewers think that ‘something is lost in translation'? As a translator, I would consider that one of the biggest insults there is.

People, PROFESSIONAL tranlators are chosen for these jobs. They are persons who have worked for many, many, many years in the original language (Japanese in this case). Unless your Japanese is better than theirs', or you comprehend Japanese on par with them, how can you EVEN CONSIDER making such a statement!?

Have I read the original? YES. Do I comprehend Japanese? YES. And I am telling you, if you have any problems with the style, look no further than the original.

Do I think the original is lacking in anything? Most certainly not. They are both fine books. I enjoyed the Japaense original and the English translation.

Fantastic work about the far future in which vampires have given Earth its greatest technological advances after normal humans destroyed the world. Known as the Nobility, they are the rulers of a world that is dying with them. Inhabited by monsters and demons, the Earth is an amalgation of technology and medival settings. Similar to King's Gunslinger world in idea setting.

A fun read.