Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust

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!

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.

I stumbled across this anime in a social network. The story is simple, with somewhat of a twist, but effective in the end. The main character, 'D', albeit simple as well, remains effective within the storytelling. Main 'Antagonist' and his motives were actually unexpected. Look, I watched this movie while doing a pelotón workout. But I had to stop and finish it the way it was intended. The real protagonists of this movie are the art with its hyper stylized gothic characters and architecture, the voice acting is amazing, and my god, the animation; I was not expecting animation of this quality from what is now a vintage movie. Geez; I can only hope they do produce a sequel or a TV series based on the original source material.

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.

I won't go into the storyline of this movie because that has already been sufficiently described. I wanted to comment on the animation and the plot...both of which, I thought, were excellent. I would have given the animation much more than five stars if I could, as it is some of the finest and most flowing I have seen in a very long time. As a piece of eye-candy, "Vampire Hunter D - Bloodlust" will not disappoint. I was enthralled right from the beginning. And straight through to the end, every attention has been paid to making the action as smooth as silk and the characters as beautiful as they get. The movie is enhanced by a truly spellbinding and, in some places, creepy soundtrack, making it an all-around captivating experience for the senses. Now, very little is perfect in this world, and this movie does have its faults. For example, the plot feels a little shallow in some places if you stop to think about it, and some characters are introduced much too quickly with little explanation to their background. But then again, it wouldn't be anime if they explained everything, would it? The character styling is also very, very typical of anime, but I personally found this to be an appealing quality...the character styles are embellished to an amazing degree that is not seen in other animes such as "Escaflowne" or even "Ghost in the Shell". Overall, this is an excellent movie, and a surprisingly long one as well. Don't think too hard about the plot...instead, sit back and let it wash over you. I would highly recommend seeing it at least once...a vast improvement over the old "Vampire Hunter D" and a worthy addition to any anime library. Not suitable for young viewers - definitely for mature audiences due to graphic depictions of violence.

All-time great anime movie. DVD visuals very high quality, almost as good as BluRay. One star removed for DVD audio: voices are very soft compared to sound effects, making it nearly impossible to set the volume in a way that one can hear the voices without the sound effects being almost deafening. Still definitely watchable tho and a great experience. I was watching this for the first time this way and was glad I did. Reminds me of the kind of stuff I would have watched as a kid back when this first came out, except this is more mature with some disturbing scenes, particularly near the end. Those don't ruin it tho, and it's still a great, great movie. I could see this being someone's favorite movie of all time. Definitely a great nostalgic watch at a time in my life when I no longer stick with much (even short) content from beginning to end, tho I had to break my viewing of this up into multiple sessions as well tho that's mainly a personal issue tbh.

I perchased Vampire Hunter D. Bloodlust from SeattleGoodwill. Fast shipping, came on 18th and was due to arrive on 25th. Disc is practically brand new, box and box art are very good condition, the disc is NOT a duplicate or bootleg (is sliver backed) and it's picture quality is actually very good! I'd say, DVD version is better than Blu-ray even! (Linked a short video.) Good price too. Thank you Goodwill:)

Vampire Hunter D - Bloodlust - is what an anime horror, action, adventure, vampire story should be. A twisted future, with swords and guns, ruins and rockets, vampires and things that go bump in the night. The setting is an Earth in the far future. The very far future, an Earth that is just starting to recover from the past, where vampires are starting to die out. The focus of the story is a vampire who has fallen in love with a human. Now they wish to escape from everything that hounds them - the changing Earth, the girl's family, hunters. Great artwork, good character design, good flow to the story - everything you could want in a movie. Even a cool twist at the end. The English caste voices are supplied by such greats as Wendee Lee, Debi Derryberry, Dwight Schultz, Mary Elizabeth McGlynn and Michael McShane. There seems to be no Japanese sound track. In fact, it seems there may never have been one. The disc has a few extras, such as a Behind-The-Scenes featurette, trailers and storyboard to feature comparison. But the treasure of the disc is the anime, so get it new or used. Great for anime lovers or vampire lovers.

Got the blu-ray copy. Looks amazing. Hidden gem anime film

Good greetings fellow amazon shoppers. Thy wilst give a short review on thee product in which thy hast brought. (this is now in present English) Vampire hunter D Bloodlust is an anime worth buying. The voice dubbers are superb, reason being is that it was first recorded in english. The plot's stroyline is strong and will keep viewers interested. The animation is smooth and very effective when it comes to detail. This is a sequel to the 80's Vampire Hunter D but you needn't watch it to gain an understanding of this film. As for the book that relates to this film it doesn't rely heavily on the plot however the film in itself tells a story of its own. Yes as the name implies it's about vampires and dhampirs (dunpeals) but these are no camp actors or characters (interview with the vampire, van helsing)but it gives in to a vampires true nature and has a few new twists aswell. This is a film that adults or mature teenagers should really (exuse the pun) should really sink there teeth into. The special features should keep rookie animators interested if not entertained. Hope thy hast help thou in reviewing this product. LUGIA FLYHIGHT

One of the greatest anime of all time. I can’t recommend it enough.

This is a classic anime for all collectors. The blu-ray version is great. Thoroughly entertained!

Pas de sous titres en français ou version française