Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust [Blu-ray]

I never read or heard of the original material, so I came to this with no expectations other than my general trepidation of anime.The first Vampire Hunter D film was forgettable--a kindness. I had to rewatch it to remember it at all. It was AWFUL. The script is poor. The lines are delivered with the thud of lines that were never read aloud until they recorded them. The enemies are boring to laughable and of no real consequence. Like most anime, the characters constantly explain to you what you just watched happen as if it was a radio show. Painful and difficult to enjoy the material at all.BLOODLUST feels much more cinematic despite certain lapses into anime tropes. First, there is a soundtrack that changes with the action the way an orchestrated soundtrack should. It is built for the movie, not created separately. The English voices are mixed for me. I don't feel some of them match the characters on screen at all, but that can be very subjective. They are a giant improvement over the first. They are distinct and the emotion in the voices is in sync with the visuals, script and the emotion of the scene.The story is interesting as are the characters and the monsters. Some are just frickin cool. Several of the villains are entertaining to watch with interesting powers and visual tricks. There are multiple scenes with cool ideas and stylish graphics and quality animation. The shots of the film feel as if they storyboarded this for a live action film. The "camerawork" was done by a true director of film. Varied and creative. Shots designed to be emotive and evoke tension, interest, and effect. For me this is one of the better combinations of high quality animation and an anime subject. I think it moves along well, without those dud scenes that you want to fast forward through. By no means perfect but creative, unique, memorable, entertaining and with some emotional weight to the story. The ending is a bit heavy handed.I immediately watched this one again when it ended.There is another movie struggling to be made and there are a number of people from this production in that one, so I hope, if it ever gets made, it will follow the quality of this one, and not regress to the first.Now, I am not a fan of Anime, never have been, and probably never will be. Japanese animation was great back in the 80s. But they learned to cut quality for financial efficiency. Anime is filled with still frames with a sliding or flashing background, or just a tiny mouth flicking between two positions. Then you get panning of a still picture. The frankenstein walk where the transition of the leg is super quick followed by a paused stance, then super quick movement of the other leg. Long fixed shots are framed with minimal detail, or extreme wide shots with very little moving within them. These aren't artistic choices to tell a better story--these are frame reductions techniques to reduce how many frames get drawn by real animators. When you are accustomed to quality animations, these all look bad. Stylistically, there are the little whispering mouthed and big screaming mouthed characters which stay the same size and shape regardless if they are whispering or screaming, happy or sad. The giant bubble-eyed girls who all look like toy dolls mixed with the slot-eyed characters. The English voiceovers that don't match the visual expression or action. Characters screaming or shocked when the on-screen doesn't appear either. Couple that with the repetition of those styles for so many of the characters from series to series and I struggle to watch 98% of what the anime industry cranks out.This was such a welcome surprise.

The second Vampire Hunter D film, based loosely on the third novel, is a beautiful and epic chase. In it, the half-human half-vampire known as D is hired to rescue a girl taken by a vampire. The mission becomes more complicated as he faces competition from fellow hunters the Marcus siblings, the realization that this isn’t so much a kidnapping as an elopement, and some malevolent force manipulating the situation. The animation is beautiful, the music epic, and the performances solid (the film was a Japanese and American co-production so the English language version actually is the original version).A lot of complaints on here seem based on comparing it to the early dvd release by Urban Vision. They complain that this blu ray is somehow inferior because it’s not as sharp nor is it as brightly colored. And all I can say is: yeah, because this wasn’t artificially brightened or sharpened.I saw this film during its limited theatrical run. I was able to watch it on the big screen twice. And this blu ray sent me back to that experience. It’s literally the original film as I first saw it. And for my money, getting that experience at home with this blu ray is perfect.If your first experience was the original dvd release and you want to keep that image, skip this. But if you want to know how it felt to see this when it was projected on a movie theater screen, this blu ray is perfect.

Like a fine wine, they don't make them like this anymore.

Given the history of sequels, few ever top the original movie. I'll be the first to tell you that in terms of quality and medium the original movie is somewhat cheesy. What makes it good is the story and plot. Given how infrequent a sequel occurs for anime movies I admit I entered this one thinking it was going to be OK, but not near as good as the first one. Sure I saw the trailers for it and it looked good, but how often have I been fooled on that one.From the start the animation and audio are the first things to catch your attention. Unlike it's prequel VHDBL does not disappoint in the media department. Granted, for it's time VHD was a fine piece of work however VHDBL makes it's predecessor look like kindergarten scribble. Stunning computer and traditional animation mix seamlessly into an incredibly detailed and enfolding experience. The animators/director did an incredible job mixing interesting visual effects with camera angles and sweeps. The art style is reminiscent of Ghost in the Shell. Plenty of eye candy for all!Many people dislike anime due to the poor audio and dubbing quality. Often the language translators lose the dialog by translating too literally, and everything comes out cheesy. No fear. The studio sprung for real voice actors (is that the voice of "Friar Tuck" a la Kevin Costner's Robin Hood I hear coming from Lefthand??) and the dialog is more gripping than the original 'D'. 5.1 surround is used to full extent providing a fantastic audio experience!The plot is canned. 'D' is hired to slay a vampire who has kidnapped some guys daughter. On the basic premise it's a simple enough plot, that sounds pretty boring. What makes the story work and keep you riveted is the number of interconnected, and even disconnected subplots that provide mystery, intrigue, and even romance. The character interaction is virtually unmateched compared with most of the other 100+ anime titles I've seen. Of course there is a twist or two on the basic plot that I won't give away. Need I add there is also plenty of action!If you enjoyed the original VHD I guarantee you will not be disappointed with this title. If you have no clue who Vampire Hunter 'D' is, this is a great place to start!