Vampire Hunter D (2000)

Hopelessly corny story, wildly underdeveloped characters and bizarre twists, but still thoroughly enjoyable with its unique designs, flair for the dramatic and memorable fight scenes.

Character development is about what you'd expect with the limited runtime, Leila exists to get hurt/kidnapped and the final villain comes out of nowhere in the last 20 minutes. Definitely an improvement over the 1985 adaptation, although it would perhaps have fared better as a 12-episode series or even a short OVA series. Many characters felt underdeveloped, especially if watching this as a standalone adaptation.


Despite originally being dubbed in English, and having 'western' characters, this kind of hammy writing deserved an ... equally hammy Japanese cast.

When the young woman Charlotte is abducted by Baron Meier Link, a vampire nobleman, her father Elbourne, hires D, a half-human-half-vampire hybrid known as a dhampir, to find her. On D's journey, his deadpan demeanor and a colorful parasitic sidekick in his left hand make no easy friends and fast enemies wherever they go in a utterly creative world full of style and innovation for its time.

With a standard kidnapping plot setting up the story, Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust sets itself apart from the rest of the vampire stories of its day by incorporating non-cheesy emotional relationships, believable and sympathetic checkered pasts and absolutely stunning ... art design. Though the sound design and mixing for the film in both Japanese and English dubs is tepid and half-baked, it is the only element that can be held responsible for ultimately bringing down the quality of the work.

Produced by studio Madhouse, quality oozes from every frame with a budget to match, concocting a world with such vibrant life and intoxicating atmosphere. Though the characters can be a little lacking and the story generic, Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust manages to pull the best elements from the original novel series by Hideyuki Kikuchi. Helmed by versatile director Yoshiaki Kawajiri (Wicked City, Ninja Scroll, Demon City Shinjuku), and sporting voice talents such as Hideyuki Tanaka (Paprika) and John Rafter Lee (Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex), it has all the elements necessary to create a seductive journey through blood and time.

Tragically, this film has been massively overlooked since its release and though it has gained traction in the cult favorites sphere, a work such as this should be rewarded with far wider praise and consumption than it got.

After the excellent and violent Ninja Scroll, Yoshiaki Kawajiri plunges us into the fantastic fantasy world alongside the most ruthless bounty hunters !! Among them the solitary and taciturn D (the "hero" of the film) who works alone, and his rivals: a bunch of human hunters !! Again, at the level of animation we are well served: fluidity is excellent bill, we take full eyes, character design, sets, costumes are really very classy, the scenario is very eye-catching, no downtime, ... Anyway, do not rush on this pearl

the film is ultimately not very rich in dialogue, the plot is nonetheless fascinating. Each of the ... characters, despite a film that is far too long, presents a lot of work, from the secondary ones to the main ones.
A lot of different characters, with a lot of different abilities. Basically we are not bored, we take full eyes and we are even entitled to a few doses of melodrama.

Do you like vampires? Do you like the legacy of Castlevania? Does gothic impress you and its various nuances (gothic literature, gothic architecture, and gothic fashion)? Do you like retro anime and violence? Then this movie's for you!!!

Vampire Hunter D: "Bloodlust" is a standalone spiritual successor to the original VHD movie, bringing us tons of romanticism, gothic, and philosophical poetic-like whimsies of the mind. Often said is that this film is gorgeously beautiful, hauntingly even, but what is often unsaid is that this film is also dreamlike and static. Yes, what I fell in love with when watching "Bloodlust" is the fragility of its characters ... and world, often fringing between immortality and mortal sentiments. Time flees as if its momentarily, but it means everything to these people. It's what the vampire genre excels so well at portraying in recent literature; that feeling of suffering at the very peak of immortality. And it is executed quite remarkably, almost novel-like in its portrayal. And though this film is foretelling of its ending, which can quite be poignant but also frustrating if you've seen the first film, it still bleeds of steady development and alot of its signature styles is kept in Bloodlust, but significantly upscaled for more exploration.

This is what peak VHD could look like if we get an anime series for this, since, quite surprisingly, the light novel is still ongoing to this day.

What this film has to offer is all-round deep-thinking sentiments of vampires, life, and a static yet harrowing world filled with humans and monsters. There's not much more to ask.




P.S. Slightly biased review, but I was typing this to the sound of gothic ambience music (hahaha), which really got me in the zoneee!

Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust is a film I don't see enough people talking about and is something I view almost like a 'hidden gem' of the beloved studio Madhouse, so much love, care and skill went into making this enthralling journey of man and monster.

The film has a very unique art style that I don't see being used enough, it fits the mood of the film so well with it's bold and sharp designs, the colours are bright yet gloomy which gives it so much charm while also sticking to it's roots as a dark fantasy tale. One thing I do see many people discuss ... about the film is how well it manages to blend so many genres together; horror, fantasy, sci-fi, action and even romance, all mixed together in order to create a rather unique watching experience. Marco D'Ambrosio's obscure soundtrack adds so much to the films many exciting scene's and I don't think it would have been the same without it.

By far the biggest highlight of the film for me was it's aesthetic, the blend of gothic and post-apocalyptic imagery is so fascinating, I've watched this film multiple times and after every rewatch I want to experience this marvellous tale all over again just to dive deeper into it's lore and fascinating world, the people that worked on this film clearly took the time to do research into Hideyuki Kikuchi's original Vampire Hunter D novel series in order to make the film a faithful adaptation.

The pacing is spot on, it never once drags or goes too quickly, there's a brilliant balance between scene's of high 'stakes' action and more dialogue heavy scene's so the audience is always invested in it's highly entertaining story.

In conclusion, Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust is a story like no other, it's characters, world and lore are mysterious and engaging and the story is so entertaining you'll be wanting to watch it again and again for a very long time

Halloween is upon us! To celebrate, let's write a review about something I actually enjoy. OOOoooOOOooo~!

Let's get this right out of the way: this movie is hella cheesy! We got a dark and mysterious half-vampire bounty hunter - stoic and brooding, you know the type. Extremely corny romantic dialogue with lines like "oh, my dear one". Super broad-shouldered musclemen spitting one-liners like "it's zombie time" (an absolute classic). If this sounds like it makes you want to puke, I completely get where you are coming from. If you can't get over these aspects, maybe pass on this. If you can overlook the cheese - or ... better yet, if you can embrace it - I expect you'll have a great time with this movie.

A vampire kidnaps a girl and makes a run for it in his carriage. Badass post-apocalyptic bounty hunters are hired to track down the carriage and to get the girl back. And that's the movie! It's really not a story where you have to stretch your brain to figure out what is going on, but the story re-aligns itself a few times along the way to keep things interesting. Where we start and where we end up are like night and day and none of the characters will really look the same to us by the end.

Where this movie really gets down to business is it's pace. There are 0 seconds of bullshit. And I do not mean that the movie is non-stop action, because it most definitely isn't. For me, it has the exact perfect amount of "exciting" without ever getting "exhausting". Right as it starts to feel like you could maybe use a moment to catch your breath, it slows down for some character stuff that informs the audience what these people are like and why we should care about them. The dialogue scenes have just enough room to convey their information and let their emotion sink in, and right as you feel that it's maybe starting to drag a little bit, it'll quickly shift gears again.

The animation is flawless, both in terms of style and fluidity. It has a very neat 90s hand-drawn (I guess, at this point) "retro" quality to it. And if you are like me and you like broad shoulders and sharp chins on your characters, this movie might well be your new favorite thing. The setting is a neat mixture of gothic horror, western and some post-apocalyptic future tech. I refuse to call it Sci-Fi just because it has some lasers and some horses with robocop visors - there's not really anything sciency going on here. The Marco D'ambrosio score is excellent and I listen to it all the time just on it's own when I need some bombastic gothic feels.

The biggest gripe I have about the movie is the voice acting. If you take a look at the japanese cast and their track records, it is hard to imagine the voice acting being anything less than stellar. Sadly, it feels like many of these industry giants are just phoning it in here. They play their parts way too subdued, considering the nature of the material. With that in mind, I would say Bloodlust is actually the one anime where I think I prefer to watch it with the English audio. The English cast isn't afraid of going ham and they bring some of the characters to life a little better. Also, not having to read subtitles is actually a real nice aspect when watching a visually busy movie like this. I mentioned some of the cheesy lines already and the English cast doesn't exactly get through all the dialogue stuff with flying colors, so if you can't stand the English voices, that's okay, the Japanese track is decent enough.

This is the only anime for me that I can, with a good conscience, give a 10/10 rating to and stand behind it 100%. Is it a perfect movie? No. But none of it's flaws really put enough of a dent in it to lessen my enjoyment of it any meaningful way. It's a really tightly packed, exciting thrill ride and easily one of my favorite movies ever.

(Don't be confused about this being labeled as a "sequel" - this is a completely stand-alone piece of work with no plot ties to the other Vampire Hunter D movie)

The art and set pieces are easily the best parts of this film. Camilla’s castle, the village of the Barbaroi, the Sand Manta desert.

The characters are pretty fun, if not the most well rounded. The main focus may be D and the starring couple, but for me the Markus Brothers really stole the show. Their chemistry was great, and the amount of care those brutish dirtbags showed each other was very sweet. D himself was the typical grizzled stoic with a heart of gold (ala geraldo witcherino), and honestly made for a fairly boring protagonist. Left Hand, the face on, well, his left hand could ... have done a good job helping explore him more, but he never responded to his needling. You understand him more through the eyes of other characters, rarely getting any of his personal thoughts, or getting to see inside of his head. Romance fans will probably enjoy the main couple, Link and Charlotte, but as that’s not really my jam, I don’t want to touch on it here.

The fights were cool asf and well animated, some interesting fighting styles and powers were shown off. Did a good job of establishing the rules of people’s powers without actually having to sit the viewer down and tell them exactly what can and cannot be done, which I appreciate.

The world building was give or take. It’s a post apocalyptic world, which explains the weird jumble of victorian England, rural americana, and modern/future tech. It doesn’t really explain too well the workings of the relationship between Nobles (the vamps) and humans, something that is left to the novels. Leaves you questioning on how things work and if certain events are even plausible, which somewhat damages it as a standalone film.

To wrap up, the movie was a fun romp through strange set pieces, following (mostly) enjoyable characters, but does somewhat require previous knowledge of the world to understand what’s going on. It was good, but nothing profound. 7/10

Amazing show, the entire premise of it is

''back when vampires where not gay''

And to this day I still believe it's one of the films with the best worldbuilding ever made, including non anime stuff too.
It's not just a bunch of random fantastical concepts smashed together, the world actually feels alive even though the entire focus is on the characters and not on the world.


10/10 graphics, which is basically the most important thing
10/10 animation
...
the dialogues are kind of dull and grey, but everything was back then, so it's ok, plus they are still superior to most of the shows of it's time.

Mesmerizing environment art and cinematography failed by generic story and dull characters.

Despite the suboptimal and generic story, dull characters, and mediocre music, Vampire Hunter D really shines in its beautiful environment art and worldbuilding. This film consists of many wide camera shots and the use of symmetry is a consistent design and composition element, consequently accentuating the stunning surreal environment and gothic architecture. The lighting and color grading choices are also exquisite and reinforces the dark romantic atmosphere. I also enjoyed the occasional incorporation of dutch tilt shots from different angles - particularly the shots at the castle.

I found the desert scene and monsters ... to be rather novel - something I have never seen before. The scene where D reaches the noble’s residence surprisedly comprised of a fusion of gothic and science fiction elements such as laser rays shooting from an eye. This reminded me of the animated version of Aeon Flux. The castle scenes were also very similar to Satoshi Kan’s Magnetic Rose, with their interchangeable dark and surreal atmosphere and plot.

Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust is an animated movie written and directed by Yoshiaki Kawajiri, which has been involved in a lot of anime that I love, from directing CLAMP’s X/1999 adaptation to anime, to making storyboards for modern favorites like Attack on Titan, Demon Slayer, and Jujutsu Kaisen, among many others.

Bloodlust tells us a brief story on the long life of adventures of D, a dhampir (half-human and half-vampire) bounty hunter who has been tasked to save the daughter of a rich man that has been abducted and possibly killed by a noble and powerful vampire. If the premise sounds simple it’s because it is, ... however, there’s a lot to chew off in between.

The first thing that you may notice will be its animation and design, motion in characters it is flawlessly done not only for action-packed fights (which the movie has its fair share of) but also with seamless more personal moments, and it is only accentuated by its terrific character and location design. Bloodlust is one of those movies on which even if the plot wasn’t good it will still be a joy to watch due to its excellent artistry work. Yoshitake Amano (of Final Fantasy fame) was the mind behind the original character designs for the novels and I believe that the character designs for this movie based on his work are the best adaptation of his art to date.

The whole movie has a Western genre feel to it, more particularly a Spaghetti Western feeling, it uses a lot of silent moments to let you sink in its apocalyptic world, and also utilizes its geography to convey sentiments like isolation or magnitude, in one of the first scenes D needs to traverse a giant desert inhabited by titanic manta-like flying monsters just to let us know the vastness of this world and the almost meaningless existence of humans, to give an example.

The rhythm of the movie goes pretty good until we’re introduced to the supporting cast, a human team of eccentric bounty hunters which also serves as some sort of rival entity for D. These characters aren’t badly written or boring mind you, on the contrary, their presence on screen it’s always entertaining, however, it is because of them and some antagonists introduced soon after that a lot of the Western tension wears off since we now have a lot of expository scenes and the film goes towards a more action-focused threshold. Maybe the major offender is D’s left hand, which has a speaking mouth with a mind of their own, again, this character isn’t bad either and I imagine that for a silent medium like Manga, you need a character that explains us things that we need to know but will be hard to tell naturally in another way, but still, I would prefer to have more contemplative moments which required my interpretation and not some character’s explanation. Another thing it’s when hitting the second half of the movie, it somehow has this structure of hunting down some enemies and it makes the rhythm a little repetitive and formulaic. Still, in the great scheme of things, these issues aren’t as bad and maybe for other people would be good.

Bloodlust is at its best when it lets us traverse its world without the hand of exposition, nonetheless, it is an incredibly animated and beautiful movie. It wasn’t as well-received as it should when it first launched, it sure has some issues in some regards but by any means possible it is a bad movie, not only it is a good animation film but also a great Western movie that it may have one of my favorite endings that I have seen on the genre. If you happen, to stumble upon this movie, please check it out, its auto conclusive nature lets you enjoy it even if you don’t know anything about this universe beforehand.

This visually stunning spectacle oscillates between classic and modern vampire horror, post-apocalyptic sci-fi, action, western and romance. A touching, beautiful romance. The banal story has more layers than you'd guess after absorbing the basic info and manages to grab your heart and shake it hard at many points (the final scene is downright heavenly). A few dialogues about the tragic past and the unfortunate fate of the characters certainly don't hamper the speed with which D hurtles forward. Blades spark against each other, music blares, adrenaline soars. And at any moment you can turn your mind away from the action and just marvel. I hadn't ... even recovered from the talking hand that glosses over the actions of its "wearer" and already my jaw was dropping at the sight of one of the villain's henchmen, whose belly literally clenches his fangs as he transforms into a werewolf. The last minutes are a visual orgy. Excuse my uncritical enthusiasm, I've found the vampire in me.

Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust is a combination of stunning animation, gripping storytelling, and a dark atmospheric world. The beautifully produced visuals bring the characters and settings to life, while the narrative weaves together a compelling tale of vampires, hunters, and the supernatural. This movie strikes a perfect balance between action and emotion. This anime also has a captivating plot and high-quality animation (for an anime released in 2000). The Character backgrounds, pacing, plot complexity, and underdeveloped side characters as potential drawbacks. But after all, It is a beautiful journey into the world of vampires and hunters that will leave you wanting more.

Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust

Filthy casual confession: I watched the dub.

The movie is pretty decent. I got into it thinking that I’d have it on in the background while I did some work. The art, music, and brisk action pulled me in. I had to rewind a few times to make sure I caught the moments. They were pretty cool.

If you want something harder than Twilight and already watched the Blade movies, this one might be for you.

Story

Some rich dude’s daughter runs off with her vampire lover. Rich dude offers a fortune to have his daughter recovered. D and a team of ... bounty hunters in a tank take up the offer and off on our adventure we go.
There are the antagonists: some weirdo baddies whose motive I didn’t catch but were cool, the daughter and her vampire lover, and the queen vampire in her castle.

The daughter and the vampire are trying to get to the queen vampire’s castle to blast off Bezos-style to vampire paradise. D and the bounty hunters try to capture them. And the weirdo baddies escort the daughter and vampire.

It’s a simple story and that’s fine by me.

Characters

This was the movie’s strong point.

You have D who is the half-human-vampire vampire hunter. He’s got a hand who talks to him and has its own powers, a big hat and cape, a giant katana-style sword, and a horse. He’s kind of a boring guy. Some of his action scenes were okay. His only move seems to be a basic sword stab but he’s effective because he moves super fast. I hate saying it but he was boring in his action scenes. They mostly involve him being OP and doing a basic lunging stab or slash for the killing blow. It’s cool but not exciting. And while his hand had some good dialogue and gabbing, D himself didn't have much to say or to do to display his character. He was a generic hero in this story. Maybe there’s more to this guy in the books. But in this movie, he doesn’t talk much and just kind of does his thing. He was the weakest link of the characters.

There was the bounty hunting crew. They were the best characters. There was the badass guy with the rapid fire crossbow on his arm. His arrows were sometimes basic projectiles, had arc so they would rain from above, and homed in on the targets. His action was cool. Then there was the spinny blades guy. He hit hard and took care of business until he got gored. There was the big dude with the spike hammer. He seemed cool in the beginning but he died early on. And then there was the infirmed dude who could cast his spectral form to zap and suicide bomb bad guys. Awesome concept and execution.

And then there was the chick with the force pistol. She was a main character with a backstory and all. In the end, she let the daughter and the vampire go and even rooted for their rocket ship to not explode. That’s some character development.

The weirdo baddies were pretty good. The high-voiced laughing shadow man swam in the shadows. He snuck around and got taken care of in a cool but short action scene. Then there was the tree girl who had crazy wood spikey hair. She was a really cool concept. She had the upper hand on our pistol chick but then got struck by lightning. It was kind of random and not a satisfying way for her to go out. Too bad.

The daughter and her vampire lover were boring. They had a good character designs but everything else about them was pretty bleh.

Then the vampire queen was decently creepy. Her design was weird and awesome and she fought by playing mind games on our good guys. She had her theme song that was creepy and gave me the chills. She was calm and reserved, befitting of an ages-old vampire queen. And she had a space ship. Cool!

The characters were a good batch. Bravo!

Art

The art was surprisingly good. Most of it was beautifully hand drawn. The face close-ups were expressive, detailed, and gorgeous.

The action was plus stuff. The scenes were short but the shots and strikes carried good weight and physics. I really liked that they didn’t make the action obvious and over-explain things. There was a scene where a werewolf guy used his x-ray vision to see that there were bombs placed on a bridge. He jumped off the bridge into the water below and then, a minute later, reappeared to attack the bounty hunters. The bounty hunter decided to jump into the water and set off the bombs. But the werewolf guy moved the bombs from the bridge to the water so the bounty hunter blew himself up. Awesome battle concept.

The queen’s castle was amazing to look at. It was grand, gothic, and futuristic all at the same time. The interior was weirdly gorgeous. There was a sculpture of winged horses and demon men at the stairs that I had to pause to admire. It was completely superfluous but really tied the room together! The crumbling of the queen’s castle at the end was serious eye candy and was a nice way to cap the end of the movie.

Sound

The music was mostly basic but effective. It had the gothic vibe that was creepy and eerie. Then there was Carmella’s theme at the end. There were parts of it when the human vocals came on that gave me chills.

Another thing I liked about the music is that they let it run for extended periods of time. During the action scenes, it was awesome because it let the tension build during the sneaking/setup and pick up during the short bursts of action.

The dub was sort of emotionless. I’m not sure if this was intentional or bad voice acting. The characters have their reasons to be withdrawn and stoic. But this time period was known for pretty shitty dubs with minimal/misguided director input and this could have been that too.

Enjoyment

I didn't have a rocking great time but I liked the movie. I started out having this on in the background while I did other stuff and ended up stopping what I was doing to pay attention to it. The action is what reeled me in. Something quick happened on screen and I was like “What was that? Who died? And how?” and I had to rewind to see.

Overall

This movie is pretty good. It’s a good Halloween movie.

They nail the future gothic atmosphere. It’s gorgeous and creepy.

D was kind of a boring guy character and action-wise. The other characters had pizazz and it made up for him.

The animation, action, and music were plus. The story was basic but good enough.

Overall, it was good vampire stuff.

"Transient guests are we..."
—Sacred Ancestor

Set in the distant eons of a far-off future, the fictional world of Vampire Hunter D is a world where society's culture and technology had become depressingly regressed that is almost akin to the middle ages after the scars left by the mutually-assured destruction wrought by humanity's never-ending desire of conflict. At their lowest point however, came the vampires who had been living in the shadow of their towering achievements. Through molding humanity's society from the ground up, they made the once scorched earth teemed with various inhabitants of dangerous mutants of their making to shackle the once top predator of ... the food chain as their slaves.

Fast forward to approximately 10,000 years into the future where the story takes place, the numbers of the nobility however had dwindled down to some fraction. Humanity would then soon rebel against their masters and their hordes of monstrous experiments. To combat the constant threat plagued by a world of mish-mash creatures that seemingly came out of fantasy books, they needed champions of renowned strength and valor. But, even far above and a cut from the crop are hunters that hunt the aristocratic and blood-sucking beings whose powers are even magical by nature. They are called vampire hunters.

We are then introduced to D, the series' titular character—stoic and mysterious—whose sole mission is to eradicate the depravity and evil wrought by the vampires towards humans over the numerous millennia.

Bloodlust kicks off when D took up the contract of rescuing a young beauty of notable birth from a noble vampire. While the premise is simple by nature, it is sprawled with a well-written and quite ambitious narrative and character arcs without so much as sacrificing the quality of its writing while also retaining some of its visceral, flashy, and eye-popping action sequences.

Kawajiri, director of other classical and animated works such as Wicked City & Ninja Scroll, championed well in scenes that demand insatiable action sequences. Summing together with its remarkable direction and creative storyboarding in the fighting scenes and blaring orchestral music in the background that sounds quite gothic and religious, I was left with a very tense and gripping experience. It wouldn't even be far-fetched to say that the film is up there together with the classics such as Akira and Ghost in the Shell as the hallmark of quality action flicks.

The film is also not without nuanced and poised character writing. It painted itself not by the shades of black and white but quietly snuggles itself well-comfortably in-between. Motivations aside, much of the characters in Bloodlust have both their highs and lows in the moral aspect of things. Some established a steely and familial bond and were even compassionate but at the same time, at the behest of fame and glory, they could be violent and cruel. Some may had also been noble for resisting their vampiric urges but they had also culled countless innocent blood in the fit of their rage. The writing is so subtle in their painting of morally-greyed characters that it could have gone over the viewers' heads for its overarching narrative.

Then, there's also D whom we looked at his lens right from the beginning. We see his internal conflict and struggle of loneliness against his nature as a dhampir while at the same time, fighting in a grand mission that brings no gratitude. I can't help but empathize with such a character who forged himself to a lonesome path.

All in all, the film is ultimately attributed to the world and characters around D. It never forgets to also tell a tale of forgiveness, hatred, and love while packed to the brim with badassery; It is a film that is gripping and heartfelt in its writing.

Your plot is device a character "D" what are A "Dampire" an especime of cruzament of nobles and peoples, in this world noblest are vampires but Dampires also, but they can walk on the sun and the aren't needs to hurt joint circulation of the people's.
"D" is this a Dampire he's working like a hunter of vampires getting missons of your's contractors, in this movie he's catch the mission of a father of a girl what had sequestred by a Noble, in the your journey he's fighting also with an guang administered of a girl what had have your parent's killing ... by Nobleses and because it she hater very fucked nobleses, but she hater D also.She wanted catch the nobleses but, she don't like D.
The aesthetic of this movie is the principal in this movie because he's supramacy, it's very detail in the backgrounds and very bratifull, this is very upped in the moments finals of movie, and the animation is very strong of a lot scenes of sakugas, the character designer of yoshitaka is amazing, I love very much, for example, the long and pointed hat of D, your sword thin and the same time longer, your apaling face, your hair longer...The orther character's also count this, with your clorthes very details and your face's have a tracing very easy of loved, but I don't the why, I feel it but I don't understand how explained.The photography is very beatifull because the scenes is the focus and the same time mostred much characteres, I don't explained, but is so beatifull...

An absolutely gorgeous Castlevania-esque action anime with some sci-fi lore mixed in. It follows D and other vampire hunters in a quest to rescue a woman kidnapped by a vampire. The vampire employs several monsters with all sorts of abilities to block the hunters' path.

You don't need to watch the 80's prequel movie to watch this. They don't have anything in common except for the protagonist.

Weak points: fights. The world/main character remains mostly unexplained, just like in the prequel.
Strong points: beautiful traditional art. Interesting side-characters.
Content warning: contains flashing lights in some points.

Despite being packed with action from start to end and the protagonist using a ... sword for weapon, there is barely any actual sword fighting. In some cases the sword works more like a laser beam because it cuts 20 meters in front of the protagonist. There just isn't much close quarters combat in this movie at all.