Ranked #1974

Vampire Hunter D

Title: Vampire Hunter D

Novels, Manga, Anime: Vampire Hunter D was originally a series of seventeen novels written by Hideyuki Kikuchi and illustrated by Yoshitaka Amano (famous for his work on character designs and the logos for the Final Fantasy series) starting in 1983.

Vampire Hunter D was adapted into two separate media; manga and comics. The manga was an adaptation in which Kikuchi hand-picked the artist, Saiko Takaki, began running in 2007, was licensed Stateside by Digital Media Publishing, and is currently ongoing. The comic, whose rights were acquired Devil's Due Publishing (the parent company of Digital Media Publishing) in July 2008, is known as Vampire Hunter D: American Wasteland, and will be written by Jimmy Palimotti (known for writing the Sci-Fi series Painkiller Jane and work on Monolith).

Vampire Hunter D, an 80 minute movie, was produced by Ashi Productions (known for their work on the Sailor Moon S and SuperS movies) and directed by Toyoo Ashida (famous for his work on... well, there's nothing really to speak of here). It was released in 1985 in Japan and licensed Stateside by, in order, CBS Theatrical Films, MGM, Streamline Pictures, and, the current holder of the license, Urban Vision Entertainment.

Story: Doris Lang, the daughter of a werewolf hunter, is out hunting werewolves one night when she is bitten by Count Magnus Lee, who then decides to make her his bride, marking her with his bite marks. She hires a vampire hunter known only as D, who she meets out in the middle of nowhere one day, offering him food and herself to take out the Count and save her from becoming his bride.

...Where to begin with this?

This story is all over the place. I mean, there's a general narrative here, and it's something resembling coherent when it's looked at overarchingly. In execution, however, it is made of WTF. There are sudden jumps from scene to scene, subplots are bought in out of nowhere, and twists are thrown around like they're candy, with all of this having little to no explanation whatsoever. Moreover, the thing just drags, with scenes seemingly added simply for the point of drawing out the movie, which really shouldn't have happened.

I honestly can't tell you what the hell happened here. I was watching this with my anime club tonight, and we just gave up on even trying to understand what happened about a half hour in and just started mocking it mercilessly.

Art: For the 80s, this is halfway decent. The character designs are extremely pointy and detailed, but they're based off of Amano designs, which explains a lot.

However, it has not aged well. Action scenes are done mainly with pulsating lines in the background, not to mention flashing lights that could probably induce epileptic seizures in those susceptible to them. The movie's extremely heavy on the gore, but the way that blood works in this is incredibly stylized and not even close to reality in the slightest. Characters' color palettes will change from scene to scene, far more than lighting should account for. Most notably, the hat that D wears creates a black void in the upper part of his face with only his eyes showing, and it's incredibly painful to watch, especially when it doesn't move even when the lighting does.

There is some nudity in here, however, it's not really all that well done, and it's paired with images of death and gore and such that I'm sure that, by the process of association, if you showed this to kids, they could very easily never ever ever want to have sex ever.

Music: Meh. I didn't notice this much, but it didn't make that much of an impression on me, either. So, we'll say passable.

Seiyuu: As with the music, I didn't notice them that much, but neither did they make that much of an impression on me, so, again, we'll say passable.

Length: This movie just dragged on and on and on; it should've ended at the hour mark, and a good deal of the "twists" could've been cut out, and it would've been semi-decent.

Overall: Don't watch this. It's not worth it, except for mocking purposes.

Story: 4/10
Art: 4/10
Music: 6/10
Seiyuu: 6/10
Length: 5/10

Overall: 25/50; 50% (F) read more

I own every Vampire Hunter D light novel. I've read all of them at least three times (it's really easy they're only about 200 pages) So when I saw this movie I spent a good portion of my time going ".......what?"

Story: The story is ok. I felt they spent too much time focusing on the story when it would have been much better for them to use the story to transition the action scenes. They make it a little less complicated than the book, but not to the point where it really detracted from it.

Art: The art is VERY old-school. You have to get over that very quickly or else you're not going to enjoy this anime at all. That old-style seemed so uninspired to me, it wasn't trying to be incredibly original and it wasn't.

Sound: With the old-school art comes the old-school sound effects..again get used to them. I can't say that I enjoyed the music, but that would mostly be because...it's old, it didn't stick into my mind at all as to what it could have been.

Characters: This is where this anime falls incredibly short. Every single character is a stereotype. You have D, the most incredibly powerful vampire-hunter on the face of the planet...and you really know it. He never seems to struggle and in every battle you know he's going to win. Magnus Lee...what can I say about him? I watched the dub...because it was the only one available to me and they just tried to make him the image of Dracula. But my biggest concern was Doris Lee. In the novel she's a powerful woman, she kills monsters too and she does a great job of looking out for herself and her brother. In the movie they make her dependant and very weak, no character for her at all.

Overall: Watch this for the experience. If you've been watching only recent anime, stuff from the last 2-3 years...watch Vampire Hunter D and appreciate how far along this art work has come. After you've watched this, watch Bloodlust. read more