Vampire Hunter D Review
A classic worth checking out or another anime that hasn't aged well
While a good portion of us anime fans like to watch old classic anime from the '90s, not every anime fan has the patience or the resilience to sit through episodes of poorly animated frames that have not aged well or just aberrant bad plots that just are not as good as some of the mediocre modern anime according to today's standards.
Well, that may not be that bad of a case in today's climate, where even the 20-year-old classics like Cowboy Bebop have pretty decent animation, and other classic's like Evangelion suffer a bit from the lack of budget. Still, they are not excruciatingly painful to watch.
Well, as much as a Boomer thing, it is to say, things were not that simple in the old days of anime. Specifically, in the latter part of the 1990s and early 2000's when the shift from hand-drawn cell animation and digital animation had essentially begun.
When better animation standards were established in that transition, even the author, Hideyuki Kikuchi, came out and complained about the cheap look and lousy quality of the original Vampire D movie. Vampire Hunter D fans started clamoring for a follow-up movie of the 1985 Vampire D film. It was finally decided that Vampire D will be returning for an adaptation of the third Novel in Kikuchi's series, Vampire D- Demon Death case.
The now infamous Studio Madhouse unexpectedly took on the new adaptation, and the latest adaptation was named;
Vampire Hunter D - Blood Lust!
Plot
Vampire D- follows D’s story, vampire hunter and a half breed—half-vampire himself. He works as a mercenary for hire, whose main job is, of course, to hunt down vampires and save the damsel in distress in the classical Horror of Dracula and old Polidori's classic The Vampyre Fashion.
He is called onto a town where the daughter of an affluent family, Charlotte Elbourne, gets kidnapped by a Vampire and Charlotte's father hires D to either save his daughter or kill her if she has turned into a vampire.
D is not alone in this business, and other bounty hunters also hunt the undead and the Vampires for gold. And they are also looking to make some extra cash in this hunt for the Family's kidnapped daughter. But the Vampires are not that easy to deal with, and here, D, the Vampire hunter, may be facing more than what meets the eye.
Characters
While D is not a man of many words and likes to work alone, in his journey to save Charlotte, he gains the help of the mercenary clan, The Marcus group, which Charlotte’s Family also hired, her brother.
The Movie has the classic Vampires vs. humans set. Still, unlike the classical Soap Opera that you would expect from such a classically inspired Movie, Vampire Hunter D Bloodlust manages to surprise its viewers in every turn by releasing the faintest bits of information, and more so, using morality to just turn the plot in an unexpected direction with every encounter that D has with the Vampires.
The plot is just soo epic that you can't help but start resenting the mercenaries and the Vampire hunters as the story moves on. But that is not to say that the Vampires are innocent too. The tale of The Vampire Hunter D is just that Epic.
Art
But the most prolific part about Vampire Hunter D is that the animation is just pristine 1990's style that goes exceptionally well with the setting. The Art has aged exceptionally well, that is to say, if you are willing to look over the jitteriness of the 1990s animation. But other than that, it holds extremely well even after 20 years after its initial release.
Madhouse has done an excellent job in animating each scene with care, detail, and just a sound production process that they could take advantage of with many newer projects.
Vampire Hunter D’s art style is, for the lack of a better word, aesthetic and has almost all the early 2000's goodness in an anime movie that you could hope for. And with the HD versions available, you can be sure to have a total joyride with Vampire Hunter D in full quality and stunning animation without worrying about anything.
Soundtrack
But with good comes the bad, and although the soundtracks in Vampire Hunter D are nothing to write home about, they are there and supplement the atmosphere on the screen a little bit. But most of the time, you would not even notice them and even forget that they are there. Unless you make an effort and concentrate on the background music, the Soundtracks don't stand apart that much and mostly follow old classic Vampire themed melodies.
But another feature that sets Vampire Hunter D Bloodlust from other classical anime is that it was initially made with English dubbing, and then it was dubbed into Japanese.
Even if you are a purist, the English dubbing in Vampire Hunter D Bloodlust is so good that it is essentially on par with the Dub of Cowboy Bebop, just with a ting of dramatic Soap Opera added in the mix.
Conclusion
Vampire Hunter D Bloodlust is a fantastic example of an anime movie that shows how good art will age well and, depending on the setting, even make an anime better with time. The morgue colors, dark shadows in Vampire Hunter D make the age-old classic even more in line with its classic setting. With the fantastic character design and great Art, you can easily give Vampire Hunter D a 9/10 because it is pure joy and full of emotions to go through.
