Hideyuki Kikuchi is best known for the Vampire Hunter D novels on this side of the Pacific, but a few of his other franchises are seeing translation as well. Wicked City (yes, it was the inspiration for the anime and live-action Hong Kong film of the same name) pits the human world against the demon world, with only the “Black Guard” — an elite composed of entities from both sides — protecting the tenuous peace that exists between them. Human Black Guard Taki and demonic guard Makie join up to protect a human diplomat crucial to the forging of a new treaty, only to discover they’ve been dragooned into a much larger and more complex series of events.
Those familiar with the D books will find all of Kikuchi’s trademark elements in force: creative (bordering on cheerfully ridiculous) uses of supernatural and fantastic elements, cinematographic violence — and now kinky sex as well, so much so that you might think you wandered into an Anita Blake book by mistake. But Kikuchi has, amazingly enough, an explanation for even that part of the story, one he drops on the readers in the last couple of pages. It’s not as much wide-gauge fun as the D books, which were at least as much about their outlandish setting as their inscrutable main character, but it’s a good way to get an idea about what else Kikuchi can do. Note: If this sounds like Nightwatch, bear in mind Kikuchi wrote this in 1985, so your guess as to who influenced whom is as good as mine.
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Heh heh heh.....! I remember watching the WICKED CITY anime back in college--no subs, no dubs. While it did have the sex and violence, I was more interested in the animation--Kawajiri directed the film almost as if it was a live-action movie, and there were scenes that were atypical for an animated movie. A friend said it best--it was hentai for intelligent people.
Years later, I found out that it was based on a novel by Kikuchi; already my interest in Kikuchi was piqued by Vampire Hunter D. So I was happy when all three WC books were translated into English.
Reading the book was quite the experience--you are right that it isn't like the D novels--but it was a solid, hard-boiled story with great action and had...er, some interesting, ah..."kinks". That said, the anime did follow the book closely, and I could not help thinking about it as I read the book.
I have to say that in the past few years, it's been great to see so much of Kikuchi's work translated into English--the D novels, the WC books, YASHIKIDEN (sic) and A WIND NAMED AMNESIA/INVADER SUMMER. Still, the man is prolific, and hopefully we will see DEMON CITY SHINJUKU and his new GREY LANCER novel series, which takes place in the Vampire Hunter D universe, but 5,000 years before the first D novel.
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I actually have volume 2 of "Yashakiden" - I mistakenly purchased it out of order, so at some point I have to go back and fill in the first volume before I can commit to it. Apparently there's quite a few books in the series (now in English, too), so I'll be in for the long haul with that one.
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