Coffin: The Art of Vampire Hunter D by Yoshitaka Amano

Coffin: The Art of Vampire Hunter D Reviews

• 
  Michael Sorbello

  Whether you love or hate the actual series, you can't deny the art design, world design and character design of Vampire Hunter D is some of the most breathtakingly beautiful, creative and hauntingly awesome stuff you've ever seen. It's inspired legions of fantasy, horror and sci-fi authors, comic and manga artists, jrpgs and even fashion and music. Neil Gaiman's Sandman, Michael Moorcock's Eternal Champion, Dark Souls, Castlevania and Final Fantasy are just a few examples of legendary properties he inspired.
  
  Yoshitaka Amano in general has always been stunningly creative with his original and instantly recognizable gothic fantasy art style.
• 
  O O

  The Vampire Hunter D series have always been brought to life, not only by the words of Hideyuki Kikuchi, but also the through the ink drawings and paintings of Yoshitaka Amano. He created the first images we know of the dhampire, described as strikingly beautiful and young in his black cloak, long sword and travellers hat. The beasts and nefarious souls of the frontier were artfully formed through the flowing ink of his pen.
  
  Looking through this book is an opportunity to gather a completely visual view of the Hunter. His decisions, his acts, his will and his strength.
  
  Amano's portraits are classic relying on the contrast of the beautiful pale face and black garments to capture the dark piercing stare of the Hunter. The bits of colour are captivating in their brilliance and scarcity, and are usually not from the Hunter himself, but the humans he has taken up to defend.
  
  The Hunter, he is a force to be feared and revered, and this book pays perfect homage to him.
• 
  David

  Have not read the book yet, but a warning: This book is HUGE.
• 
  Matthew Cranford

  The art is beautiful, and the images add their own version of the tale of D. While Amano has a very definitive art style, he shows a very wide variety of what he is able to do with that style.
  
  I enjoyed looking through the many images. This is a high quality book, no expense being spared, it would seem. The (few) pages that contain writing are written both in English and in Japanese, and the English is flawless (I'm sure the Japanese is as well, but as I failed my Japanese classes, I really couldn't tell you.)
  
  If you're not a fan of the style of
  Vampire Hunter D, or if you just get bored by art books that just feature a bunch of pictures of the same thing over and over again with no apparent plot line, you may want to steer clear, or just look at a friends copy of this book. Otherwise, it's well worth the purchase.
• 
  H. Anne Stoj

  Many thanks to Far for whatever Christmas it was where she gifted me with this. Truly a marvelous moment.
  
  Amano's work is sheer beauty. I remember one of the reasons I was drawn to Vampire Hunter D in the first place was the cover art. His work can also be found in the novels (which, I admit, I find melodramatic, but they're enjoyable for that reason--at least D's more of a vampire than, oh...Edward Cullen, let's say.) Back to Amano. Yes, the book is large. It takes up weird shelf space as it's really a coffee table book. But it's so worth having if one's a fan either of Vampire Hunter D or Amano or both. There's such a sweeping scope of images and it's the sort of thing that can be lingered over. At least I linger. I can't imagine why someone wouldn't.
• 
  Chrissy Poo

  Coffin is a (fairly) comprehensive coffee table book featuring Yoshitaka Amano's beautiful artwork for the Vampire Hunter D series from its inception in the '80s through to the mid '90s (about 10 books worth). There's also a short story by the "D" series' author that's not horrible but rather inessential, but I assume if you're shelling out the big bucks for this out of print masterwork you're buying it for the art, and the art is indeed stellar. My only gripe is there hasn't been a sequel; Amano continues to draw for the Vampire Hunter D books to this day, meaning that a majority (20+ years at this point) of his VHD art remains uncatalogued.
• 
  Drew

  the beautiful visual world that intensifies an amazing storyline; well worth a lookthrough
• 
  Becky Hoffman

  I find it funny that artbooks are on good read. What should I say, the pictures spoke to me? I just like Yoshitaka Amano. He's an amazing artist.
• 
  Ðanisty

  Stunning! Yoshitaka Amano is one of my favorite artists. I'll more than likely get one of these pieces as a tattoo at some point.
• 
  Michelle Wardhaugh

  Ethereal. Beautiful. Magical.
• 
  Nishi Serrano

  Of course Vampire Hutner D is one of my all time vampire heroes! And Amano's work has inspired me since the 80's.
• 
  Derrick Mcdonald

  Always a pleasure to check out Amano works surrounding D and Final Fantasy.
• 
  Michael

  A prize in my art book collection. Also, my favorite artist.
  
• 
  A. E. S.

  A collective visual masterpiece from Yoshitaka Amano's vivid imagination.
• 
  Marie

  Lovely. Breathtaking.
• 
  Felicia

  I am A big fan of vampire D, so this bought and added to my collection for pure fan base only.
• 
  Jordan Schick

  Beautiful. Astonishing. The architecture is amazing.
  
  I have a framed print of 'Passion' on my wall.