What else lives in the world of Vampire Hunter D?
Prequels five thousand years deep, a second dhampir hunter, and stories Kikuchi gave away at parties.
The main novels are the spine, but Kikuchi has spent four decades growing side growths on the world: a prequel line about the Nobility at their height, a spinoff about a different hunter, and a scatter of short stories published in unlikely places, art books, a convention guide, and one famous case, a fan's hands.
THE PREQUELS
Another Vampire Hunter: The Noble GreylancerGreylancer · 20 January 2011
Hardcover, ISBN 978-4-02-273960-5. Lord Greylancer of the Northern Frontier Sector fights the Outer Space Beings in the year 7001 of the Noble Calendar, five thousand years before D's era, when the Nobility were still ascendant.
Drawn by Ayami Kojima
The prequels' illustrator is not Amano but Ayami Kojima, the artist who defined Castlevania's look. Two dark fantasy shelves in this Library share her hand.
Blood of a Hero · 18 November 2011
The second volume. A third has been on hold since 2013. In 2021 both books were reissued in paperback with new covers by Amano, the two illustrators shaking hands across the spinoff.
THE OTHER HUNTER
Vampire Hunter Gaiden: Dhampir HuntingDhampir Hunting · 20 February 2015
Written by Yuki Asakawa with Kikuchi supervising, illustrated by Yukito, published under Asahi's Aero imprint. Its hunter is Olivia Cross, a dhampir hunter hired by a Noble, a deliberate deviation from the main series' lore. It was not continued.
THE STORIES IN STRANGE PLACES
Short fictionArmageddon · 1984
Published inside Amano's art book Maten, a year after the first novel: a glimpse of the final showdown between D and the Sacred Ancestor, written decades before the series would approach it.
The raffled manuscripts
Kikuchi has given original D stories away to fans: The Castle's Resident was a prize at his year end party, and The Wanderer's Ship was raffled with its publication rights. The recipient published it, in English, in the New York Anime Festival 2008 guide. To date it exists only in English.
Message from Cecile · 2005
Premiered inside the Audio Drama CD Box, then crossed media again as the American comic Message from Mars. No other D story has lived in so many forms.