Vampire Hunter D

Original Title: 吸血鬼ハンターD
Romanized: Kyuuketsuki Hantaa D
Literal: Vampire Hunter D

Plot Synopsis

10,000 years in the future, the world has become a very different place; monsters roam the land freely, and people, although equipped with high tech weapons and cybernetic horses, live a humble life more suited to centuries past. This story focuses on a small hamlet plagued by monster attacks and living under the shadow of the rule of Count Magnus Lee, a powerful and very ancient vampire lord. When a young girl is bitten by the Count and chosen as his plaything, she seeks out the help of a quiet wandering stranger, D. It so happens that D is one of the world's best vampire hunters, and he takes it upon himself to cut through Magnus Lee's many minions, and put an end to the Count's rule.

Review

Rating: 3 / 5
Reviewer: Marc
Review Date: 2003-07-26

This in one of the first anime movies brought to the US by Streamline Pictures, and although it's wildly popular for no particularly good reason, it does hold its own as an old-school anime gore flick with a fair amount of style.

The story, which has a bit of a classic epic horror feel to it, is basic but reasonably well done, and I can at least give it credit for being unhurried without getting boring. D is the archetypal quiet, aloof hero (Clint Eastwood with a big sword, hunting vampires), and although there isn't much to the rest of the main characters, the evil vampires actually had some personality--I rather liked Magnus Lee's dispassionate elder vampire style in particular.

What Vampire Hunter D really has going for it is not its story but its style: a fine example of a classic anime horror movie. There is of course an abundance of spraying blood and monster hacking, with the added bonus of some reasonably well done gothic style. Being an older movie, the visuals show their age, but is still distinctive in parts. The older style also means that the look is rougher, more detailed, and less smooth than most modern movies, and although it's not spectacular it generally maintains its classic horror movie theme quite well.

Perhaps most noteworthy, though, are the character designs by Yoshitaka Amano (famous for his art designs for the Final Fantasy game series, among other things)--although the art didn't quite live up to the potential of his concepts, the characters still have a sharp, refined look to them. The animation, though a little static (to be expected in an older movie), is generally good, and there's a fair amount of well done bloody action.

There are two small things that set Vampire Hunter D out from the pack of generic bloody vampire flicks, though: It's setting, and D's left hand. The setting wasn't laid out in great detail and didn't feel particularly well realized, but there was just enough of a cyberpunk touch to this dark future world to make things interesting. And D's hand? Well, he has a little issue with some sort of parasite attached to his hand, and it occasionally offers some snide remarks to offset his too-cool demeanor. Neither of these things was taken as far as I'd have liked (the sequel did much more with both), but still nice touches.

The acting in the dub is classic Streamline, with recognizable actors and generally good performances (though Michael McConnohie is a little too dry as D), with Magnus Lee's voice probably being the most distinctive of the dub cast. The acting in Japanese version is somewhat better (certainly less cheesy), but I'd have to say it didn't have quite as much character as the English take, and in a way the touch of dry humor added in the dub was nice. The soundtrack is interesting--a lot of strings, and perhaps a bit underpowered for the broad themes of the movie, but still attractive and for the most part appropriately creepy.

In all, this is a classic horror story told as a classic anime movie. It's not a spectacular movie in any way, but if you enjoy a good bloody horror action flick, you'll no doubt enjoy Vampire Hunter D, and there's enough gothic style (with a cyberpunk twist) to go around for fans of that sort of thing as well.

For some other thoughts and comments on the sub vs. dub, check out these readers' comments...

Related Recommendations

To start with, there's the sequel, Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust, to track down, which is better in almost every respect. In terms of style (in that it's an old style bloody action movie), VHD bears some similarity to Fist of the North Star. In terms of bloody swordplay and nasty beasties, Ninja Scroll looks good and probably took a lot of cues from this one; a few of the monsters (like the wasp guy) in that movie are suspiciously similar to ones (the spider guy) in this one. Others that might be appealing are Amon Saga (not as violent, but by the same character designer and somewhat similar), Ninja Resurrection (much, much more violent and somewhat sillier), and if you're really stretching for a modern take on the same sort of lone wolf character, Golgo 13: the Professional, and Golgo 13: Queen Bee might be worth a look.

US DVD Review

The video on the DVD is fairly good looking for a movie this old, with a minimum of bleed and harshness, although a few scenes seemed to be so dark that some of the detail was lost. The Japanese audio, unfortunately, is very harsh, and crackles whenever folks start screaming, but it's still a welcome addition. The dubbed audio track is the old Streamline version, but sounds pretty good all things considered. On the down side, the DVD also used the Streamline video, which means that the English credits are overlaid on the montage at the end, and although the full Japanese credits are included, there is no English translation (see below for the cast).

The DVD also includes the Japanese Trailer (not subtitled), a trailer for VHD: Bloodlust (and other Urban Vision titles), an Amano image gallery set to music (including some biographical information and an introduction to a collaboration with Neil Gaiman), a preview of the Playstation game, and a video on the making of the production, including interviews with the director and Japanese stars (you probably don't want to know what D really looks like, though).

Content Guide

Very violent, with some mild sexual content, for a 16+ rating. Note that there is an edited version that was shown on the Sci-Fi Channel.

Violence: 4 - A fair amount of spurting blood and dismembered bodies.

Nudity: 2 - One shower scene.

Sex/Mature Themes: 2 - Nothing direct, but some mature themes.

Language: 2 - Some harsh language.

Notes and Trivia

Vampire Hunter D is based on the first of a long series of novels, written by Hideyuki Kikuchi, about the same character. This movie has a sequel, Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust, that is loosely based on the third novel in the series. There's also a Playstation game.

An additional semi-random (and obvious) note not of much interest outside role playing circles that I feel like pointing out anyway is the similarity between Vampire Hunter D's world and the Palladium role playing game (the paper-and-dice sort) Rifts. I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if this provided some of the inspiration for the setting of that game, particularly considering Palladium's extensive involvement with the highly detailed Robotech RPG.

Similarities include the distant future setting, medieval-styled post-apocalypse peppered with extreme technology and monsters, the resurgence of magic, and powerful vampires and supernatural beasts ruling over cowering human peasants. In a particularly random side-note, I also noticed that this movie lines up quite well with Palladium's rules regarding vampires and mega-damage; Magnus Lee is entirely immune to Doris' obviously mega-damage laser rifle, but he is physically damaged (with no lasting effect) by her brother's knife.

Availability

Available in the US from Urban Vision on bilingual DVD ([buy from RightStuf or AnimeNation). Was previously also available on subtitled and dubbed VHS. There was also a much older Streamline dubbed VHS tape, long out of print.

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