VAMPIRE HUNTER D

DESCRIPTION

CAST

MOVIE ActionVampire Hunter D (2000)
NOVEL DramaVampire Hunter D
MANGA ActionVampire Hunter D

REVIEWS

• 

  TheRealKyuubey

  60/100
  An exhilarating watch, in spite of it's many shortcomings.

  This story takes place in the distant future, when mutants and demons slither through a world of darkness. Mankind has not yet disappeared from this world, but surviving in it has become a struggle, with some ancient war, lost to time save for it’s place in myths and legends, having rendered the world as we know it into a vast, unforgiving wasteland. The few communities that we’ve managed to form have been cobbled together from different points in human cultural history, with stone buildings, clothing from both Victorian and Wild West sensibilities, and technology that wasn’t technically available until far later. Conditions are livable, at the very least, but the worst of all is the fact that despite the measures we’ve concocted to battle the various demons and mutants that stalk our crops, livestock and children, we’ve fallen under the mercy of the Nobility, a class of ancient vampires who live out their eternal lives in their castles, allowing us to live our pathetically fragile and ephemeral lives more out of amusement than anything else.

  One such vampire, the cruel Count Magnus Lee, has become bored with his immortality, and after what is rumored to be somewhere between 5,000 and 10,000 years of life, he’s taken to finding ‘distractions’ to help him pass the meaningless years. By distractions, of course, I mean human women, untainted, unturned, cast into unbreakable trances so that he can marry them, break them and ravish their mortal bodies on a nightly basis. His newest obsession, orphaned farm owner Doris Lang, won’t go down without a fight. Even after he’s marked his territory with a quick nibble at her nubile neck, this tough ginger has recruited a mysterious drifter, the silent Vampire Hunter known only as D, to protect her from harm and bring about an end to the nobility, whom he insists on referring to as transient guests. Thus the fight is on between an accomplished supernatural slayer and one of the most powerful opponents he’s ever faced as D, half vampire in his own right, once again finds himself in a battle to protect one half of his geneology from the other.

  If Vampire Hunter D’s visual aspects look dated in any way, it’s because this particular anime film… OVA? Film? I see different sites claiming both. Anyway, it was released in 1985, which was a far different time than the current anime landscape. I won’t go into too much detail about the way anime styles have evolved over the years, as that would be another full length discussion entirely, but suffice to say I don’t really think it’s fair to judge an anime based on the restrictions of it’s age, especially since the spectrum of quality was just as diverse then as it is now. By the standards of 1985, this… I’m gonna call it a movie… isn’t quite the most beautiful material available at the time, but it’s still firmly on the high end of the spectrum, with a clearly generous budget and a sense of restraint about how and when to use said budget… For the most part. Yeah, they could have saved a significant amount if they’d skipped the oh so important shot of parting blades of grass that the film opens up on.

  Well, that’s a minor nitpick… There’s some filler from a visual standpoint, but it still looks gorgeous anyway. Production Reed, formerly known as Ashi Productions, is an animation studio that did the majority of it’s work in the eighties and nineties before taking a handful of long hiatuses in the new millennium. Aside from Vampire Hunter D, very little of what they’ve worked on has managed to stay out of obscurity, with a few examples being Blue Seed and… Well, Vampire Hunter. Seriously, who remembers Minky Momo? And if I’m being honest, what little I have seen of their production history points to D as being a rare standout. The movements aren’t always fluid, but they rarely ever feel cheap or stilted either, and out of the many action scenes that this movie has been packed with, I can’t remember a single one of them looking bad. There are some corners cut, but none that you’ll really notice, save for one particular moment where certain characters are getting captured, and some of the most obvious speedlines are employed. It’s jarring but brief, thankfully.

  Despite being dated, the animation did actually hold up nicely in it’s original DVD release, but it was also very recently released on bluray, and the difference in quality is more noticeable in some scenes than others, including a walk through an ancient battlefield that I always found way too dark, and now we can see the details in the bones and debris a lot more clearly. I’m also pleased to note that the cleaned up presentation hasn’t altered the dirtier elements of the design, namely the desperate old west setting full of makeshift clothes, arid desert and a town full of people who’ve spent their entire lives performing physical labor to get by. It has, however, provided the opportunity for the designs more gothic elements to shine through in all their beauty. Part of what makes this series so iconic is the blend of gothic, sci-fi and western elements, all of which play an equal role in the design of D as a badass hero, Doris as a tough beauty, and Lee as a villain who doesn’t even have to move or speak to feel intimidating. The random mutants and monsters are also really cool and diverse, with the possible exception of a bland dinosaur looking creature in the beginning.

  The soundtrack, composed by Noriyoshi Matsuura and Tetsuya Komuro, is a bit underwhelming, but there are a few memorable tracks here and there. D’s theme in particular, which plays at the end just before the credits roll, starts off with an intense action anthem before quickly settling into a more lonely, melodious tone, as if to tell the tale of a warrior whose exploits you may witness one day, but who endures years of uninterrupted travel that you don’t see once he rides off into the sunset, painting a more complete picture of the kind of life he leads and the kind of character he is than the movie ever properly establishes. Actually, D has three themes, and one of the other ones, that plays when he enters the film for the first time, is also pretty cool, with it’s lighthearted tune undercut by a beat that warns of danger and tragedy i the future. I called the soundtrack underwhelming, but I didn’t really mean to say it was bad… With the exception of D’s Themes, none of the tracks are really memorable, as they blend so flawlessly into the movie that they sound strange when dettached from it. They do their job well, and that’s not a bad thing by any means.

  As for the dub… well, there are two dubs, one from Streamline pictures, and the other from just last year, done by Sentai Filmworks. I’m not gonna lie, when I was first getting into anime, and this was maybe the second anime movie I ever bought(right behind Cardcaptors movie 1), I almost never watched it in English, vastly preferring the Japanese track, and I’ve heard a lot of people say the same. Descriptions of the original dub range from ‘It’s tolerable’ to ‘Burn my freaking ears off,’ and while the acting was decent for the time… Well, for the most part, Doris’s brother was an earsore… The writing, in parts, was just terrible. For a quick example… Trust me, this is not as bad as it gets… There’s a scene about halfway through the movie where a certain character who’s just been turned into a vampire is looking at an old friend in a new light. In the Japanese, he says that he’s always thought of her as like a granddaughter to him, and he’s now wondering why he never raped her. Honest, but creepy and abrasive, so a rewrite was in order. In the first dub, he replaces the second part with “I can tell now that she’s a beautiful young woman.” Nicer, but it feels neutered, almost too safe.

  In the Sentai dub, however, the line is changed to “But now that I see how beautiful she is, it’s a wonder I never violated that beauty,” which is a line that retains the honesty of the original while still finding a much more tasteful way to word it. There are a lot of scenes that were able to find a touch more subtlety in the new Sentai dub, such as an early scene where Doris offers to sleep with D in payment for his work, in a later scene where the count’s daughter is weighing her fate against a recent revelation about her lineage, and one very specific scene where they originally dropped the worst possible Star Wars reference. Seriously, Doris says she loves D, who drops the fucking “I know” bomb on her. I’m not making that up. There’s also a moment early in the film where Count Lee meets Doris for the first time, and it’s supposed to be silent, but the Streamline dub chose to fill in the silence with an introduction stolen right out of classic Dracula, which doesn’t sound that bad at first, but even on first listen, it just feels unnecessary. Sentai, on the other hand, left the atmosphere and ambience speak for itself.

  When it comes to the two primary characters, Doris Lang and the titular vampire himself, I feel like the performances were equally good in both dubs, despite different approaches that were taken. Both Michael McConnohie and John Gremillion bring a sense of strength and stoicism to the character of D, with the trade off being that while Gremillion plays him as more raspy and weary, playing more to his history of combat, while McConnohie’s steely, controlled delivery plays more to the character’s air of mystery. Also, McConnohie does double duty in playing D’s talking left hand, while another actor plays him entirely in the Sentai dub. Barbara Goodson and Luci Christian both play Doris as strong-willed and determined, with the main difference being that Goodson makes her sound older, making her constant fanservice and attraction to D far more palatable, while Christian plays her as much younger, sounding more like a teenager, which makes the threat of danger against her feel more palpable. Shannon Emmerick plays a much more likeable Dan than Lara Cody did, and that’s also pretty cool.

  One of the more obvious changes between the two dubs is the change in the nobility’s accents, with Count Lee and his daughter Larmica going from Romanian to British. There was really nothing wrong with Jeff Winkless’s performance, Dracula inspired as it was, but with the incomparable David Wald taking his place, he’s easily outshined, as you can feel the millennia of boredom and almost casual malice much more richly in Wald’s throaty delivery. Unfortunately his daughter didn’t fare the change so well, as Edie Mirman’s prideful, seductive performance almost feels mocked by Brittany Karbowski’s much brattier interpretation of the character. This could have worked, mind you, if Brittany didn’t overcook her accent, sounding like a middle schooler who just saw her first Harry Potter movie. To be fair, she’s stated in the past that she’s well aware of the fact that pulling off accents is one of her weak points, so I’m tempted to blame the director on this one. Actually, to be honest, while the new dub is well acted and well written, it does feel poorly directed in a lot of areas. I’d recommend the Sentai dub between the two, but neither can touch the Japanese track.

  I think I was about 16 the first time I ever saw this movie, and it happened at a friend’s house as part of their birthday party celebration. I had never heard of it before then, outside of the fact that it was one of the many ridiculously overpriced M-rated anime that I wasn’t old enough to buy at Mediaplay. I was still fairly innocent at the time, with my deepest knowledge of Anime revolving between what was airing on American TV and what I could find in manga form at the public library, and Vampire Hunter D blew me away as the first adult-oriented anime I’d ever seen. My fragile little mind was blown away not just by the ominous music and tone, or the dark, gothic design, but also by the graphic bloody violence and full-on nudity that I’d never seen from any other title prior. I bought the DVD soon afterwards, and I just about wore that poor disk out with my constant rewatches. Seriously, I still have that copy, and I can barely get it to play.

  To this day, Vampire Hunter D is not just my favorite anime movie, but also one of my favorite movies of all time, but if you think that means I’m going to give it a gushing masterpiece review, you’re sadly mistaken. I’ve learned over my years of reviewing that you have to separate your personal and professional tastes in order to be fair, and to be fair, Vampire Hunter D is not very good. It holds up very well from a visual standpoint, but when it comes to the story and the writing, it doesn’t really stand up to close scrutiny, which I’m sad to say is the case with most cult classics. For a brief overview of the plot, a young woman is facing the possibility of being abducted by a cruel lord of inhuman ancestry and questionable royal standing, so she hires a silent protagonist to retrieve her every time she gets taken. He must travel to the lord’s castle, battling grotesque monsters, several mercenaries and the lord’s own children in order to get her back, only to have her get captured again immediately afterwards.

  I’ve seen people compare this movie to Castlevania… I’ve never played it, so I can’t really speculate… But personally, it feels a lot more like a Super Mario Brothers story to me. I mean, yeah, there are obvious differences… Thank god D isn’t followed by a green clad brother named L… But just like the classic line of Mario games, it does get a little tiresome seeing a story’s lead female just getting traded back and forth between the hero and the villains like a volleyball. To be fair, the original books, including the first in the series, which this movie was based on, do have a lot more exposition and explanations given about all of the characters and the environment they cohabitate, but that’s just the thing… This movie isn’t a book, and that book isn’t particularly easy to find outside of the internet, so it’s more or less unlikely that anyone coming into this movie will have read the proper text beforehand, and by virtue of a movie being visual media, they shouldn’t have to. There’s so much more to this story than the movie gives us, and it’s sorely lacking without it.

  Right from the beginning, we’re given two sentences of dialogue to describe the world we’re about to be dropped into, and that’s it. It’s entirely possible to just take the movie at it’s word and not think about it, but considering the state the world is in in this story, with demons and dinosaurs existing alongside classic monsters like werewolves and vampires, there’s obviously a rich history behind it all, and it’s damn near criminal to leave all of it up to our imaginations. The history of the vampires… Excuse me, the Nobility… Is particularly important, because not only is their role in the history of Earth and human society never touched upon even once, but when it’s mentioned that Count Lee could be up to 10,000 years old, it leads to headache inducing questions about how long they’ve existed, how long we’ve known about them, why D keeps calling them transient guests, why half-vampire Dampiels are somehow stronger and better equipped to survive in the sunlight, and are exempt from that same transient label. The very few answers we get just wind up increasing the mountainous pile of questions that the book may or may not have addressed… I don’t remember, I read it thirteen years ago.

  Well, I do remember a few details that would have been nice for the movie to include, like the fact that four of the nameless monsters in the movie… A giant rock creature, an old hag, a flying S&M conehead and a hunchback full of spiders… All had names and identities at one point, and were all members of the mercenary Rey Ginsei’s gang. They’re reduced to glorified cameos in the movie, just a bunch of featured baddies to be mowed down. I also distinctly remember the three larmia sisters from under Lee’s castle having a backstory that got cut from the movie entirely. The interactions between Rey and Greco were also supposed to go on longer, with the two of them entering into a partnership as allies against D. There’s a lot of pulp that got cut out of the story, including a hint to the relationship between Vampires and humans revolving around their weakness, and the list goes on, but even if you can forgive all of that, there’s still a ton of stupid shit that happens in the story. I won’t go into all the little examples, but if you want to see them, I did an Inconvenient Questions post about this movie.

  So if I have all of these problems with the movie, do I think it’s a bad movie? Well, it’s not very good, but no, I don’t think it’s necessarily bad, either. As rushed and poorly executed as the story may have been, it’s still a story you can easily get sucked into, and the characters are compelling enough to get invested in without really knowing them as well as you should. The action and all the battles are still fun to watch, and the designs are still cool enough to hold your attention. Well, mine, at least. With the exception of D, who comes off as yet another example of every badass lone wolf wet dream that socially challenged emo kids have ever attached themselves to over the years if you haven’t learned more about his backstory and personality from the extended book universe, none of the other characters feel one note, they all have their own personalities and motivations. I found Larmica to be particularly compelling, but hey, even the annoying Greco had some depth to him. It’s just too bad this 80 minute film couldn’t have added in about an extra half hour of material to flesh out it’s setting and characters better.

  Vampire Hunter D was originally available on VHS and DVD from Urban Vision, but has been long out of print, at least until Sentai Filmworks rescued and rereleased it in 2015. I actually would recommend tracking down a copy of the original release, because unlike the more recent bluray release, it had a ton of special features in it, including trailers, interviews with the Japanese cast and a preview for the video game, which I’ve played… It’s for the PS1, and it’s pretty terrible. It’s actually based on the second movie, Vampire Hunter D Bloodlust, which is superior to the first in pretty much every way, and is based on the third novel in the series. The novels by Hideyuki Kikuchi, as well as a pretty decent manga series, are also available stateside. There’s also a handful of art books, if you’re so inclined.

  While I can’t entirely dismiss this movie as so many other critics before me have done, I can certainly acknowledge that it’s more junk food than most viewers realize. It does it’s job as a gateway anime, drawing in less experiences otaku and younger viewers with it’s dark tone and mature content, even if such content isn’t always presented in the most mature fashion. It survives in today’s market mainly as a right of passage for these fledgling otaku, especially once they’ve broken away from the current releases and started to venture into more old school offerings, but that isn’t to say that it’s aged well, as it’s obvious cool factor does little to make up for it’s bare bones world building, rushed story and absurdly strenuous pace. If anything, it stands as a symbol of how badass vampires can be in Japanese pop culture(along with Hellsing, which had a lot of similar problems), and in a market where the noble undead have recently been used as harem and romantic comedy fodder, this distinction is still an important one, lending this film both credibility and relevance beyond it’s years. I give Vampire Hunter D a 6/10.

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• 

  JTurner82

  69/100
  A fan favorite given a fresh new coat of paint… er, blood.

  Vampire Hunter D has always been a cult favorite of many Anime fans dating all the way back to what historians would call the "dark days of Anime". Back then, Anime had limited exposure to American audiences, aside from the occasional showing of children's cartoons often mangled and edited. But with the release of Katsuhiro Otomo's controversially violent but nonetheless brilliant Akira, an interest in edgy, darkly animated, gritty features from the Land of the Rising Sun was ignited, and so it followed with several titles imported. This low-budget animated direct-to-video feature from 1985 was one of them. Based on a book by renowned Japanese Horror author Hideyuki Kikuchi sporting smoky-hazed illustrations by Yoshitaka Amano (who would later gain cult status for his work on the classic Final Fantasy series and later, Neil Gaiman's "The Sandman"), Vampire Hunter D aimed to be an edgy thriller, a horror movie, and even a love story all rolled in one. That said, critics were not unanimously ecstatic. Reviews were mixed, with most criticisms centered on the somewhat stilted animation or sometimes inconsistent characters. To this day, Vampire Hunter D has its share of detractors. But it also has its share of devoted fans, many of who had grown up in the West with a dubbed version produced by the late Carl Macek and his company, Streamline Pictures.

  Set in a post-apocalyptic future where vampires and mutants have overrun a human world, Vampire Hunter D begins on a dark night with a deftly choreographed action scene. Here we see Doris Lang, a courageous werewolf hunter's daughter stalking her gardens in pursuit of a T-Rex like monster with sharp teeth and scarlet eyes. Chasing it into the forest on horseback, Doris finds herself face to face with an even more imposing threat -- a hulking, shadowy vampire known as Count Magnus Lee. Naturally, the bloodthirsty aristocrat takes a drink from our heroine's jugular vein. The following day, Doris encounters a lone figure on a cyborg horse -- a mysterious cloaked stranger called "D." Desperately, she hires him. The rest of the movie involves D doing everything in his power to slay the evil count to save Doris from an eternal life as a walking undead. Meanwhile, Doris must protect her impulsive little brother, Dan, and fend off the advances of an unwelcome suitor, the arrogant mayor's son Greco. Matters are further complicated when D also has to deal with L'armica, Count Lee's jealous daughter, and the ambitious Rei Ginsei, a deadly noble wanna-be who will do anything to earn his master's favor. During all this, Doris falls madly in love with D -- but it turns out that her rescuer (surprise) is half-vampire himself. (This explains why his left hand has a creepy-looking face that can talk to its master or even suck up nasty creatures.)

  Despite its promise of multi-threads, Vampire Hunter D turns out to be a much more simplistic story in execution, even bordering on predictable. Somehow the viewer knows that the lead character is going to triumph in the end in spite of the obstacles he faces in his quest. More problematic to viewers expecting flashy visuals might be the animation. As mentioned, this is a low-budget animated feature, resulting with a cel count that borders on choppiness in places. As such, the dramatic style of Amano's character illustrations loses a lot in the transition to screen. Furthermore, the backgrounds, although dark and appropriately imaginative, lack detail at times. As such, the film can seem visually dated to many viewers. Likewise, the soundtrack shares similar qualities. Although the sound effects are appropriately haunting and scary, at times they do sound cheesy, particularly the synthesizer sound effects when Count Lee sends rays from his eyes. The musical score from TM Network's Tetsuya Komuro is fittingly epic and sometimes spooky, although it is obviously driven by synth instruments from the '80s.

  Faults aside, Vampire Hunter D still delivers some entertainment value for viewers willing to overlook such technical shortcomings. In spite of its aforementioned predictability (some might argue this movie was tailor-made for Western audiences), Vampire Hunter D delves into some complex issues: D's inner struggle to resist his own instincts when Doris makes sexual advances on him and his inability to express his true compassion to others results from some very understandable emotions. It is also intriguing to discover that the villainous Count Lee's actions are motivated mostly by the desire for sport rather than malice, although he still does exude evil in every scene. The action and fight sequences are also skillfully choreographed in the style of a samurai-slasher.

  It's also important to note that this movie has its share of graphic violence--there are quite a bit of gory swordfights, resulting with stabbing, amputating, or slicing in half. There is also one particularly disgusting moment toward the end where a character's head explodes, exposing his insides. (A character's face is also briefly stabbed in the eye in the subsequent scene.) While all this may sound pretty extreme for squeamish viewers, the cheap production values actually make the violence less gruesome and more campy, making it easier to sit through than most bloodfests. (Even so, both Sentai's release and Streamline's version are guilty of censor in one instance; a climactic character's graphic death at the end is interspersed by a flashing red cut which feels out of place and jarring.) There are also a few very inoffensive nude scenes. This is a movie best appreciated by an adult audience; parents should think twice before considering showing this to children.

  Perhaps it's partially because of this graphic nature that Vampire Hunter D succeeded in crossover success from its native country of Japan to the West. Dubbed in 1992, Streamline Pictures' release has been a nostalgic favorite for old school Anime fans to this day. Having said that, critics and many fans of the time still staked it with scathing reviews. I at one time appreciated this older dub, but over the years I have grown less and less fond of it. I'm not sure what it was that turned me off from it over the years, but then I figured it out: it sounds dreadfully stiff and stilted. In all fairness, Michael McConnohie, Barbara Goodson, Jeff Winkless, Lara Cody, and Kirk Thornton are all fine voice actors. The problem is that they were saddled into a production that veered on pure cheese and a lot of choppy-sounding dialogue ranging from mundane to laughable. There were also instances when Macek did a bit of tampering with the music, extending Komuro's score longer than usual sometimes sounding out of place with the visuals. Most infamously, the opening scene in which Doris is confronted by the Count has a rather corny "permit me to introduce" myself monologue which not only diluted the mood, it gave a very laughable quality that sadly would be exacerbated by phony Transylvanian accents and even a groan worthy love confession ripped off from The Empire Strikes Back (DORIS: I love you. D: I know.) The sound quality was quite bad, too, although that may be on the fault of the equipment used at the time, so I wouldn't dock the dub against it. This same dub was retained on Urban Vision's DVD release, which likewise used Streamline's cut of the film (which aside from the aforementioned censor, was otherwise uncut), resulting in a lot of heavy over saturation and muddy images.

  Now, thirty years after its debut in 1985, Sentai Filmworks has brought this title back from the dead and given it a fresh new coat of paint… er, fresh blood. (Get it?) Remastered from the original film elements, this movie has never looked better. The colors literally spring to life off the screen and sequences compromised by an overuse of darkness are brighter. It really does feel like a totally new movie in and of itself. The only drawback of the transfer is the occasional sight of speckles on the print (mostly dust particles accumulated on the cel before the camera photographed it), but otherwise, the video quality is amazing with a capital "A."

  In what may be a controversial move to fans of the Streamline dub, Sentai Filmworks has opted not to include that version on its BD release, but instead provide a brand new version. This will likely be a point of contention, as a lot of Streamline titles which received new dubs (Akira, Castle in the Sky, My Neighbor Totoro, "Nadia--The Secret of Blue Water", The Castle of Cagliostro, "Getter Robo", "3x3 Eyes") have often been harshly maligned by old school fans, even though some might argue in the cases of some of those films, these newer versions were sorely needed, as a lot of these older dubs hadn't aged well at all.

  I do have a couple of minor issues regarding Sentai's newer dub, but unlike the Streamline version, this revamp, headed by Matt Greenfield of ADV fame, does a very commendable job of bringing the movie closer to its more serious intent, stripping it of much of the unintentional humor. The script is a fresh new translation of the original Japanese and sounds much better written and more natural, giving a more "adult" vibe. As far as the voices are concerned, the weakest voice of the dub is the same character that I had similar issues with in the Streamline version: that of Dan, Doris' little brother. In all fairness, Shannon Emerick does bring a bit more spunk to the role, but her voice, like her older dub counterpart, still strikes me as unconvincing for a little boy (at least she's not as distractingly feminine, though, thank goodness!). Otherwise, the rest of the cast is appropriate and well-fitting for the most part. I will always prefer Andrew Philpot and Mike McShane as D and his chatty left hand from Yoshiaki Kawajiri's later semi-sequel Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust; however, John Gremillion's performance as the title character is still a big improvement over that of McConnohie from the original, sounding far less cheesy and more natural throughout. As D's left hand, Andy McAvin, who also plays Rei Ginsei, is also thankfully less nasally than his Streamline counterpart, and even gets the best line: "This guy is such a HAND-ful." Luci Christian also sounds much more convincing and puts a lot more emotion into her role as Doris, making her a sympathetic character and her dialogue is thankfully free of any Kate Capshaw-isms. However, it's David Wald who really steals the show; as Count Magnus Lee, Wald has a smooth, regal-sounding baritone who sounds somewhat similar to Keith David. He's also very charismatic and dripping with pure evil; a huge improvement over Jeff Winkless' laughably stilted turn in the Streamline dub (the fake sound vocal effects not even helping). Surprisingly, both he and his daughter, L'armica (Brittany Karbowski) are both given upper-class accents as opposed to the Transylvanian ones in the older one; frankly, though, I think it's all the better for it. It's a bit of a surprise that the people of Doris' village, including Greco, are given Southern accents until one remembers that this is supposed to be a "Western" vampire. It takes some getting used to, particularly in the case of Jay Hickman's drawling Greco, but having said that the actor does provide a bit of a slightly humorous touch to the role, giving him more character than Steve Bulen's too wispy-sounding and not forceful enough turn. The sound mix also sounds really good; not only are the voices better recorded, the music and sound effects also much more crisper than the Streamline version -- even mixed to 5.1, on the DVD it still sounded very muddy. As mentioned, Streamline's dub was not well received by the Anime community; time will tell if Sentai's newer dub gets better recognition (although Streamline loyalists will find it jarring either way), but as far as I'm concerned, this is a huge improvement over the original. (And yes, purists, the Japanese version IS still on the Blu Ray, complete with subtitles -- and for the first time, the ending song "Your Song" is translated!)

  The only slight negative about Sentai's otherwise stunning BluRay is that there aren't enough extras. Urban Vision's DVD has the upper hand when it comes to that; aside from the Japanese trailer (the only thing from that release which is still retained here), there was also a "making of" featurette featuring director Toyoo Ashida and members of the original Japanese cast recording their roles. That is sorely missed, as is a video game preview and a gallery from Amano. If you still have your Urban Vision DVDs, you might wanna hold onto them just for that.

  On the whole, though, Sentai deserves a shootout for their reworking of this fan favorite. Not only does it look amazing, it sounds better than ever. More importantly, it gives what some might consider a lesser animated feature new life. I still maintain that Kawajiri's Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust is the superior version of this tale -- much more complex and ambiguous -- but having said that I recommend this newer edition of the original. It truly prowls the night.

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• 

  AdmiralNyan

  87/100
  The Quintessential Classic Horror Anime Film

  The Vampire Hunter D film follows Doris Lang, who is the daughter of a late werewolf hunter. One evening while she’s making her rounds in the countryside, she is confronted and assaulted by Count Magnus Lee, who is a vampire noble—presumed to be long dead—and one who wishes to make Doris his new bride. A few days later, Doris meets a mysterious stranger on cybernetic-horseback, who she comes to recognise as a vampire hunter. This enigmatic man, known simply as D, shows great strength, so Doris hires him to protect her by killing Count Magnus and saving her from her dark fate.

  Vampire Hunter D’s beauty lies with its ability to be unapologetically original. For starters, it is one of the most brutal anime films I have ever seen, never shying away from stunning sprays of scarlet and beautiful broken bones or decapitations. It displayed itself proudly without reservation. This happened in the mid ‘80s, where it was virtually unheard of to be able to showcase that sort of viciousness on-screen, specifically in animation. I still remember the very first time I watched Doris destroy a monster, the bullets plying through its neck and red liquid spurting out everywhere. It was a gloriously, jaw-dropping moment, one that I was able to relive while re-watching it after many years. By seeing it all again, I appreciated it all the more because it, honestly, is something that you do not get to see in mainstream animation today.

  I recently began watching an Online Net Animation (ONA) called Calamity of a Zombie Girl, and while it has graphic scenes of blood and guts, it’s laced with an overarching comedic effect that softens that intensity and stomach-churning qualities that would normally make that sort of thing so disturbing. I felt rather disappointed and disheartened with continuing with the episode. Those thirty minutes are akin to virtually the majority of anime films or media with violence: it must be cushioned. There are exceptions, of course, as there always are, such as with Tokyo Ghoul Season One and Hellsing Ultimate. But these are just a minor handful out of the sea of hundreds. In that sense, the gratuitous violence offered in VHD is remarkably timeless.

  In addition to the violence, VHD also never shied away from being really fucking bizarre with its use of monsters. The choice to be so unapologetically strange was a brilliant move as B-grade horror films in the West were on the rise with classics such as Friday the 13th, The Nightmare on Elm Street, Evil Dead 1 & 2, Hellraiser, & Fright Night. Vampire Hunter D was a phenomenal addition to these masterpieces of cult horror, adding to the collection with a distinctly Japanese-infused horror aesthetic—such as the scene where D is walking through a dark hallway that is packed from floor to ceiling with demented and deranged monsters of various sorts—that, again, is disappointingly rare in contemporary animation.

  Ambiance is another facet that encapsulates the audience with spine-tingly fear and the uncomfortable anticipation of what the bloody hell will happen next. The scenery that is shown is drenched in shadows and black silhouettes amid vibrant crimson backdrops. The use of otherwise miniscule details, like crumbling ruins, cemeteries, and looming castles, are crafted so well as to create a deeply psychological effect, enveloping you in Gothic excellence. When you remove all dialogue and have barest minimum instrumental complements to such scenes, it really sets the tone and mood for the next hour and a half; perfect escapism.

  As a fan of science-fiction and horror, it blew my mind to have a film that took the best traits from both genres and brought them together so fantastically. The cyberpunk qualities are more inferred rather than blatantly expressed or described, such as the laser weapons used and the fact that D’s horse is cybernetic. You see just as much of the futuristic technology as you do of the Gothic scenery; they are equally balanced and flow nicely to develop a twisted and fucked-up world that you can’t help but be more curious about.

  The creation of Vampire Hunter D, with its uniquely ‘80s style animation, and everything else that I have mentioned make it a classic in terms of cinematography and production, but then you also have the characters. Doris Lang is a female who isn’t afraid to fight back. She doesn’t allow herself to be victimised, which was a norm in many mediums during the time period, and that set her apart. Does she succeed? Not always. Nevertheless, it never stops her from trying. Lang is also one of the first depictions of consistent fanservice throughout an entire episode or film with a severely short, asymmetrical dress and a few scenes of pure nudity. Even today, there are a lot of shows that do panty shots or have ridiculous emphasis on large cleavage, but rarely will you see full on bare breasts. A part of the charm for the fanservice in Vampire Hunter D is that it never makes a big deal out of it. Doris never flips out or gets embarrassed when she’s naked or flashing her rear end. It’s just a tiny little after-affect in the midst of the rest of plot. When a film/series can refuse to acknowledge that these things are happening and just treat them as normal occurrences—no pointing fingers or having exaggerated responses—it makes it easier and more comfortable to watch. I would say that it even adds to the risqué aspects that it may have been vying for.

  Then we have D himself, the very first quintessential strong, quiet, badass. His entire persona is built on indistinctness. His name is D. His past, aside from the revelation of what he is and who his parents may have been, a giant ball of unknown. Even his appearance, aside from the occasional glance to his face, is unfamiliar and ethereal. It all contributes to allure of D, while complementing the world-building as it plays parallel to the vagueness of the realm.

  There are many more things that I could mention about Vampire Hunter D, but honestly, the best way to experience how extraordinary it is, and why it is considered to be a timeless classic in Japanese animation, is to watch it for yourself. I would go into it with a grain of salt if you’re a newbie otaku because, admittedly, the animation may not hold up well for many people who are used to—or only familiar—with modern anime, where everything is neat, crisp, and shiny. Yet, as I’ve mentioned before, that is part of its inherent allure. If you want an authentically Gothic, bizarre, and violent-as-fuck cyberpunk watching experience, then I highly recommend you watch Vampire Hunter D.

  8.75 serpents outta 10!

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