Reviews

Ah, Vampires? Gotta love 'em, don't ya? I mean, I certainly do. Yeah, there are some stinkers like Twilight and some Dracula movies can be pretty bad, but overall, the genre does have enough range to create a lot of different stories... the problem being that, well, more than a few of those stories suck. But when they're good, they're damn good, with From Dusk Till Dawn in particular being among my favorite movies of all time.

Which of course, brings us to today's movie. Vampire Hunter D is a long-running series of Light Novels that started in 1983 and, as far as I can tell, is apparently still ongoing. I haven't read them, namely due to lack of time, but I'll probably do so someday... though I've heard the early ones were pretty bad. Either way, despite its overall popularity, the series has only had two animated adaptations. The first was a movie from 1985. I haven't read it nor do I plan to as it looks pretty bad (And no, I don't care how influential it was on bringing over Anime to the West).

But we're not gonna talk about that movie. No, we're gonna talk about the second one, which came out in 2000. I have no idea why this movie was made other than fan demand was at least part of the reason. Also, apparently the producer used his ties to some American Companies to help with the movie, so much so that the movie was not only released in America before than in Japan, but to the point that even when it was first released in Japanese cinemas, the Japanese Dub wasn't even ready. I kinda like that, as it's sorta the studio's way of saying "Thanks!" to their Americans comrades (For the record, I watched the Japanese dub anyways, but trust me, the sheer presence of John DiMaggio did almost make me watch the English audio... until I realized I recognized almost no one else, whereas the opposite was true for the Japanese Dub. Sorry John, but you're still awesome). Either way, let this bloody party begin!

Story:

One thing I do like about this movie is that even though you don't need to know a damn thing about D's world to see this movie, it doesn't explain much of anything about said world. You get a small opening text crawl and that's about it. Hell, D himself is treated as having been around for a while already. In fact, chances are, this was probably just another day in the job for him.

Either way, the movie is good at world building, but in subtle ways. For the most part it just lets the ambience set the mood; in in general this isn't a very wordy movie. The whole world looks like if Mad Max met The Walking Dead, which is certainly nice.

There's also a lot of clever misdirection in play. At the start of the movie, you think it's gonna be just some standard rescue the princess kind of movie, but then the halfway point hits and you realize something is off, which leads to a great plot twist in the third fourth of the movie that I won't even dare spoil.

My only issue with the plot however is the final twist that comes right after the previously mentioned one. It honestly came kinda out of nowhere and seemed to be there mostly just for the sake of having a final fight against a true villain. It's thematically appropriate, I guess, but not particularly satisfying.

Characters:

Thankfully the cast is great. D himself is the main character, but honestly, he doesn't get much focus. I think this is for the better, as he's probably the least interesting of the bunch. He's a stoic, impossibly badass Bishounen. Gee, haven't heard that before (For crying out loud, his Left Hand literally has more personality than him!).

But as I said, he is not the focus, everyone around him is. The Marcus Siblings are a joy to watch. Each of them has their own distinct personality and quirk, and overall you get a general feeling of unity and companionship out of them. Leila ended up being my favorite due to getting the most focus, but Grove I also quite liked.

But of course, the true spotlight of this movie belongs to Meier Link. This guy could've so easily been a generic villain, yet they avoided that. He instead comes off as someone who almost hates the strain his immortality has put on him and only wants to achieve happiness. When you get right down to it, he's less so a villain and moreso an antagonist.

The only character I didn't care for is Carmilla, who's apparently a movie-only character. She's just so... dull. I sincerely couldn't care any less for her than I already do. Not helped that she comes right out of nowhere in the film's final act.

Animation:

This movie is freaking gorgeous. I don't even know what else to say, it just is. To go slightly deeper, every shot is perfectly on-model, the movement is extremely smooth, the fight scenes are wonderfully fast-paced, and overall it perfectly conveys the movie's gothic atmosphere. If there was any animated work that came close to portraying an animated version of the classic Horror movies, whether it is the classics like Dracula and Frankenstein or the ones by Hammer, this would be it.

Sound:

Similarly, the Soundtrack is fantastic. Every song complements the scenes perfectly. I particularly love how the songs for most of the movie are filled with tension; some of the ones towards the end feel almost triumphant in the way they sound. That said, I have absolutely no idea what to think of the Ending theme "Tooku Made".

Voice Acting:

For the most part, the cast is comprised of some of the biggest talents from the 80' and 90'. Tanaka Hideyuki as D is... interesting. He's actually D's second voice actor, and he was likely only hired since his previous Seiyuu, the late Shiozawa Kaneto, passed away. As such, you can tell Tanaka is trying to get a similar feel to Shiozawa's voice, though you can tell the difference due to Tanaka simply having a naturally lower voice than Shiozawa. He's not exactly who I would've chosen to play D (That would've been Yamazaki Takumi), but I think it overall works out.

That said, the Late Great Nagai Ichiro did come back and he's as great as always as D's left hand, bringing a lot of humor and personality to the role. However my favorite performance belongs to Yamadera Kouichi as Meier, who did an absolutely outstanding job, especially in the film's climax.

The rest of the cast is pretty good as well, just to list a few; we have Hayashibara Megumi, Fujiwara Keiji, Soumi Yoko, Otsuka Hochu, Shinohara Emi and Otomo Ryozoburo, a Seiyuu whom I wish I had more experience with. Overall, the cast is pretty damn great.

Overall:

So all of you might be asking something right now: Is this better than From Dusk Till Dawn? Nah, not even close to that masterpiece. But it's still a great movie. I don't know what awaits D in the future, but if it's anything like this, I'd be more than willing to see more. At the very least, I can say it's the best Vampire Anime movie, even if there's not exactly much competition for that title.

Final Score: 10/10