Well known for his love of horror movies, Kikuchi is an advocate of Darker and Edgier, often utilizing tropes like Cosmic Horror Story, Our Monsters Are Different, Lovecraftian Superpower, and plenty of Rule of Cool in an interesting, nightmarish and very Japanese style.
He's a graduate from the Gekika Sonjuku program, a college course by Kazuo Koike meant to teach people how to be a manga artist, which helps to explain how Kikuchi has influenced manga as much as manga has influenced him (names like Hajime Kanzaka and Kouta Hirano, known for Slayers and Hellsing respectively, are huge fans of Kikuchi).
On the literary field, Kikuchi draws influences from Bram Stoker, H. P. Lovecraft and Futaro Yamada, and is often compared to contemporary authors like Fritz Leiber and Stephen King.
He is brother to jazz saxophonist Naruyoshi Kikuchi. Aside of a writer, Hideyuki is also a trained martial artist, having a background in Shorinji Kempo.
Hideyuki Kikuchi's works:
- Demon City Shinjuku - A part of Tokyo is turned into an urban hell after being hit supernatural disasters. It was Kikuchi's debut work, and gave birth to a rather large Expanded Universe of novels, manga and short stories. Its first volume was made into an anime movie.
- A Wind Named Amnesia - In a post-apocalyptic world, a mysterious wind has deprived humanity from their memories. The first stand alone work by Kikuchi. It was made into an anime movie, a stage play and a radio drama.
- Black Guard - A secret organization keeps the order between the human world and the demon plane. Its first volume, Wicked City, was adapted into an anime film. A loosely related Hong Kong live action film was also made about the series.
- Vampire Hunter D - A dhampyr roams another post-apocalyptic world fulfilling jobs for the human population against a race of vampires known as the Nobility. Kikuchi's most successful work, it spawned a long series of novels, manga, two anime films and an oncoming CGI animation series.
This author's work includes examples of:
- Action Survivor
- After the End: Vampire Hunter D and A Wind Named Amnesia.
- Author Appeal: Let's say Kikuchi and Yoshiaki Kawajiri are guilty of a big part of the pervasiveness of All Anime Is Naughty Tentacles today.
- Body Horror: Plenty of it.
- Cosmic Horror Story: Tilting towards Lovecraft Lite, but sometimes hitting it pretty hard.
- Lovecraftian Superpower: Sometimes of demonic nature and often used by heroic characters as much as villains and monsters.
- The Vamp: Sexual-themed horror is present in many of his stories, especially Black Guard.
