Dark Horse Manga has confirmed the start date for its next Vampire Hunter D release. In a November 9 post, the publisher reminded readers that Vampire Hunter D: The Rose Princess, artist Saiko Takaki's adaptation of a Hideyuki Kikuchi novel, begins its English release on June 29, and the book's product listing confirms the year as 2027. Check out the official post down below:
Dark Horse's listing describes Volume 1 as a 176-page paperback priced at $14.99, rated 16+ and translated by Kevin Leahy, who has handled the English versions of Kikuchi's novels since 2005. The publisher calls Vampire Hunter D the longest-running Japanese novel series in English translation.
What Vampire Hunter D Is About
Kikuchi has written the novels since 1983, with illustrations by Yoshitaka Amano, the artist also known for his Final Fantasy work. The main series reached 58 novels as of June 2026, some split across as many as 4 volumes, and the books have sold more than 17 million copies worldwide.
The stories take place in the far future, more than 10,000 years after a nuclear war. Vampires known as the Nobility used their science to rebuild the world in their image and ruled over humans, but their civilization has since collapsed, and the frontier villages that remain hire independent hunters to deal with the Nobles and the mutant creatures they left behind.
D is the most feared of those hunters. He is a dhampir, the child of a vampire father and a human mother, and the novels link his origins to the Sacred Ancestor, the first and greatest of the vampires. He travels on a cybernetic horse, carries a longsword and shares his body with Left Hand, a wisecracking symbiote with a face in his left palm that can draw in air, earth, water and fire to heal him and fight alongside him.
The Novels In English
DH Press released the first English translation on May 11, 2005, and Dark Horse now collects the books in omnibus editions. Vampire Hunter D Omnibus: Book One, released October 27, 2021, runs 640 pages at $19.99 and collects the first 3 novels, Vampire Hunter D, Raiser of Gales and Demon Deathchase, with Amano's illustrations.
Each omnibus collects 3 novels in publication order. Book Nine, covering Volumes 25 to 27, arrived on September 23, 2025, and Book Ten followed on January 20, 2026, at $24.99, collecting Volumes 28 to 30: The Tiger in Winter, Noble Front and Gold Fiend. Kikuchi also started the Noble Greylancer prequel novels in 2011, illustrated by Castlevania artist Ayami Kojima and set more than 5,000 years before D's stories, and GraphicAudio has been producing full-cast audiobook versions of the series since December 2021.
The 1985 Movie And Bloodlust
The first anime adaptation, Vampire Hunter D, is an 80-minute film from 1985 directed by Toyoo Ashida at Ashi Productions, with a screenplay by Yasushi Hirano and the theme "YOUR SONG" by TM NETWORK. Based on the first novel, it is set in the year 12,090 A.D. and follows D after he is hired by Doris Lang, a farm girl bitten by the Noble Count Magnus Lee.
Here is Sentai Filmworks' official trailer for the film:
The film played more than 600 theaters across North America on April 9, 10 and 13, 2025, for its 40th anniversary, as covered in Horror Anime Classic VAMPIRE HUNTER D Is Returning To Theaters For its 40th Anniversary. It began streaming on HIDIVE and Shudder on May 30, 2025, using Sentai's 2015 remaster.
Here is HIDIVE's trailer for the anniversary screenings:
Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust followed in 2000, directed by Yoshiaki Kawajiri at Madhouse. It adapts the 3rd novel, Demon Deathchase, and sends D after Baron Meier Link, a Noble who has carried off a human woman, while a family of rival hunters races him for the bounty. The English audio was recorded first, and the film opened in US theaters on September 23, 2001. Both films adapt separate novels and tell standalone stories.
GKIDS announced in August 2026 that it acquired the North American rights to Bloodlust. The distributor is holding Japanese-language screenings with English subtitles in fall 2026 and plans a theatrical and home entertainment release in 2027.
The Manga And The New Comic
Takaki first adapted the novels in Digital Manga Publishing's Hideyuki Kikuchi's Vampire Hunter D, which launched in November 2007 in the US, Japan and Europe at the same time. That series aimed to cover the whole novel catalog but ended after its 8th volume, in part because of an injury that affected Takaki's ability to draw.
American publisher Stranger Comics also put out Vampire Hunter D: Message from Mars, a 5-issue series funded on Kickstarter in 2016 and supervised by Kikuchi. Brandon M. Easton wrote it and Michael Broussard drew it, adapting Kikuchi's 2005 short story Message from Cecile.
The Rose Princess marks Takaki's return. The manga launched on the Sonorama+ web platform in July 2024 and adapts the 9th novel, and Dark Horse announced its license at Anime NYC in August 2026. The publisher's synopsis is set in the year 12,XXX AD in Sacri, a fertile oasis village on the barren frontier ruled by an immortal vampire princess who feeds on the villagers at will. When a young man tries to stop her from biting his lover, the princess sends her 4 knights to punish the village, and D sets out to end her rule with the help of a rebellious young woman named Elena.
Dark Horse is also publishing Vampire Hunter D: Fortress of Blood, an original 4-issue comic built on a story concept from Kikuchi, with writer Chris Condon, artist Filipe Andrade and colorist Jordie Bellaire. The series has D cross paths with a family of outcasts making a final stand at an old fortress against a marching vampire army. The run starts with Issue #1 on February 24, 2027, at $4.99 for 32 pages, with variant covers by Amano and Riccardo Federici, and Issue #2 follows on April 7, 2027, with a variant by Emma Rios.
Dark Horse is also the English home of Hiroyuki Takei's newest manga, as covered in Where To Start With Shaman King Before Hiroyuki Takei's Martial War Arrives From Dark Horse.
Which version of D introduced you to the series: the 1985 film, Kawajiri's Bloodlust, Takaki's manga or Kikuchi's novels with Amano's art?
Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.