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Vampire Hunter D Directors: Carl Macek, Toyoo Ashida Number of Items: 1 Picture Format: Academy Ratio Format: Color, Animated, Dolby Audience Rating: Unrated Running Time: 80 minutes Studio: Urban Vision Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1 Region Code: 1 Product Group: DVD Release Date: 2000-10-17 Buy from Amazon |
 "VERY COOL MOVIE..."I first saw Vampire Hunter D one random Saturday evening on TV in 1995 and loved it. I couldn't believe that I was actually getting to see an anime flick on `mainstream' television; it was the coolest feeling, and the best feature-length anime film that I had ever been exposed to at the time. In addition to the action, adventure, mystery and suspense in the film, I especially enjoyed the themes of mixed-race heritage that this film explored. I had never witnessed a work of animation that so intriguingly dealt with the societal complexities of being biracial. D (the main character) was `vampeel', meaning he was half-human, and half-vampire. D's dual racial heritage allowed him to function in daylight, while retaining the supernatural powers that full-blooded vampires enjoy; in other words, 'vampeels' like D enjoy the best of both worlds. However, it is D's constant inner-battle between his vampire and human sides that force him to stay away from humans (to avoid temptation) and to battle evil by slaying vampires. D is a lonely figure. The vampires in the film are cast as an evil, yet noble race in a twisted sense. Count Magnus Lee (the supreme villain) is a gray-haired, `Blake-Carrington-from-Dynasty-type' vampire who is supremely powerful. His daughter Ramika is a spoiled, pretty being who thinks she's a full-blooded vampire, and is proud of it. Lee's deadly foot soldier Reiginsei (and I mean deadly) longs to become a vampire in order to attain a status of nobility in his own right. Doris is a human who has become Count Magnus Lee's object of affection to the endless disgust of Ramika who feels humans as mere mortals are beneath vampire nobility. Doris hires D to help her defeat Magnus. The battle that ensues between D, Magnus, Reiginsei, and others is utterly engaging. Vampire Hunter D makes for a great story indeed. Now it is 2001, and a sequel to the original Vampire Hunter D entitled Bloodlust has been finally scheduled for release this fall. I highly suggest you see this film for the first time, or reacquaint yourself with it now. As far as `Bloodlust' is concerned, well...see you at the theatres! Thanks for reading! C.H.R.  "Good Heavens"I received this DVD as an unexpected gift, and since I am a fan of anime and manga I was looking forward to watching the movie. I watched it with some friends, and I can tell you that it is the most pointless, rambling, and unenjoyable anime I have ever seen. I didn't mind the dated style of animation, nor the gratuitous blood and bouts of nudity, or even the American voice dub, but the story just keeps going on and on with no point whatsoever! Save your money for just about anything else. "The first anime I've ever seen."All right, let's get to business. For one thing, this is the first anime I've EVER seen. And after that, I liked anime sense. Sure the quality is bad, and maybe the background is always a dark color. But, it's a classic, and rightfully so. It totally deserves the 5 stars. Make sure to buy this, you won't regret it. D is really an interesting character.... "Vampire Hunter D - The Anime that started it all!"No, I do not mean this was the first Anime movie or anythinkg like that. I mean this is the Anime that started my interest in the genre. **MILD SPOILERS** D is a half human half vampire warrior who travels and huntd down his own kind. He has a talking hand (freaky). He ends up protecting a young girl from the evil vampire Magnus Lee. She ends up being kinapped and D has to enter The House of Lee to save her. In the process D goes up against vampires, some ghouls and many other creatures leading up till the climatic end. I definately suggest getting Vampire hunter D. I am gonna give it the ol' 5 stars. If I could Give it more belive me I would. Oh this one is DEFINATELY NOT FOR CHILDREN! "WATCH THE JAPANESE VERSION. IT'S BETTER THAN U.S. VERSION!!"Vampire Hunter D is one of my all time favorites and I was accustomed to listening to the American translation of this film before I bought the dvd version with the Japanese translation. The original Japanese audio gives a few more interesting features to this story. In the U.S. version Count Lee sites on his throne talking to himself in a misty room seeming to telepathically know that Lameeka and Ray Ginsay failed to kill D. But in the Japanese version the mist in the room turns out to be some sort of an entity that the Count speaks to and the mist actually told him about Lameeka's and Ray Ginsay's failure. In the U.S. version Ray Ginsay seems to be a very selfish character wanting to kill the count for the sole purpose of having his power near the end of the film. But in the Japanese translation it is shown that his reasons for killing the Count isn't totally selfish but partly an act of revenge for the death of his colleages that lost their lives trying to kill D for the Count. He isn't as bad as the U.S. version makes him out to be.( Notice also he saved Doris' brother from falling to his death. It makes more sense.) Also , in the U.S. version , in the scene where Ray Ginsay accidentally killed Gimlet (the thin man with the blades on his feet) he doesn't seem to care that he killed Gimlet but instead is soley conscerned that D got away. In the Japanese version you get a sense that there seemed to have been more feeling toward his accidental killing of Gimlet. So when the Count kills Ray Ginsay you feel kind of saddened by his death because he is depicted as being a more nobler character than in the U.S. version. Also , in the U.S.version , Doris tells the town officials that if D fails to kill the vampires she would leave town and never come back and her brother strongly stands beside her but then in the next scene we see her brother crying seemingly from fear of leaving town and being shunned by people. But in the Japanese version Doris doesn't say that she would leave but she says she would kill herself if D failed and her brother responded in shock to what she said. So when we see him crying he is crying from the sadness of possibly losing his sister forever. Why they took these aspects of the story out of the U.S. translation I don't know but they actually seem to give some of the characters a deeper dynamic making the viewer enjoy this film even more than we already do. So get the special edition dvd of Vampire Hunter D with english and japanese translations and see for yourself. It brings a new light to this already classic anime. |
