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Reviews tagging 'Body horror'
Vampire Hunter D Volume 3: Demon Deathchase by Hideyuki Kikuchi
2 reviews
kgullingsmith's review
adventurous
dark
medium-paced
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Gore, and Violence
Moderate: Sexual assault and Sexual violence
wolfism's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
1.5
Pretty much around every Halloween I'll watch the anime based on this novel, among other things, as sort of tradition. And I really like it! A few years back I decided to finally pick up the novel as you can see. This review is written much later.
So I read Vampire Hunter D: Demon Deathchase. I was aware of its nature before going in, but still decided to give it a go to maybe get a deeper sight into the characters and the world.
I can't say the novel made anyone feel necessarily deeper or better. I'm not too fond of the Marcus brothers in the film, but man are they despicable in here. The Barbarois bodyguards also left a much worse impression on me.
(DEAR GOD, MIND THE CONTENT WARNINGS, everyone. I think I might have forgotten some minor occurences, so I might accidentally forget some)
The same can be said, however, about the "good guys" or "lesser evil" or "victims". Take your pick. Knowing their thoughts didn’t make them deeper or more interesting characters than in the film. I think the film does a wonderful job conveying emotions and intentions. Honestly, it didn't do anyone of the characters a favor I read the novel (though, thankfully, it hasn't ruined the film for me).
So I read Vampire Hunter D: Demon Deathchase. I was aware of its nature before going in, but still decided to give it a go to maybe get a deeper sight into the characters and the world.
I can't say the novel made anyone feel necessarily deeper or better. I'm not too fond of the Marcus brothers in the film, but man are they despicable in here. The Barbarois bodyguards also left a much worse impression on me.
(DEAR GOD, MIND THE CONTENT WARNINGS, everyone. I think I might have forgotten some minor occurences, so I might accidentally forget some)
The same can be said, however, about the "good guys" or "lesser evil" or "victims". Take your pick. Knowing their thoughts didn’t make them deeper or more interesting characters than in the film. I think the film does a wonderful job conveying emotions and intentions. Honestly, it didn't do anyone of the characters a favor I read the novel (though, thankfully, it hasn't ruined the film for me).
Having said that, it isn’t like I felt it was a waste of time or money. It was an experience and it did fill in some holes the film left us with, like the abilities of the Marcus brothers or the world.
All in all, I personally think the novel is inferior to the film. I feel sorry for saying that because obviously the idea stems from Hideyuki Kikuchi...But some stories just don’t need to be several hundred pages long.
The writing style is very descriptive and spells out everything. Purple prose all over. Back when I finished it, I was unsure if I would pick up the rest of the series or some of the novels, but it hasn't happened yet and I don't think it will, even though I am still sort of interested in D's heritage, but if not for the dark things (especially sexual violence) happening - I'm sure the other novels aren't much kinder to women or other vulnerable persons - I wouldn't want to sit through Kikuchi's writing again, with all due respect, I think he has lots of readers who love it, but I kind of hated it, like gushing over D's good looks constantly.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Incest, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, and Sexual harassment
Moderate: Terminal illness
Contuining content warning because I didn't feel like there a word that really fit and I'm not going to put it as spoiler because that would defeat the purpose: Leila is said to be in her early 20s in the novel, but it said or just strongly implied that her brothers might have started raping her when she was underaged, whenever that was exactly.
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