Vampire Hunter D (2000)

When the soothing comfort of sunlight starts to fade, beings of seraphic beauty become the undisputed masters of the night, instilling fear in every living creature. Water turns into ice before these blood-sucking monsters, and their victims realize that this uncanny chill is the harbinger of their inevitable demise. Fortunately, the number of vampires is dwindling thanks to the dauntless bounty hunters who track down and slay the near-immortal predators.

One night, tragedy befalls the Elbourne family as their daughter, Charlotte, is abducted by Meier Link, a revered vampire lord protected by an army of monsters. To save their beloved Charlotte, her family recruits the Marcus Brothers, a group of vampire hunters known for their ruthlessness; and D, a sword-wielding dhampir—a half-vampire, half-human who has the strengths of both species and the weaknesses of neither.

The hunters rush to rescue Charlotte, but if her abductor decides to turn her into a vampire, they should eliminate her. Moreover, their mission must be completed before Meier reaches the impregnable vampire castle of Carmilla and takes Charlotte out of humanity's reach forever.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

D Main

Tanaka, Hideyuki Japanese

Link, Meier Supporting

Yamadera, Kouichi Japanese

Leila Supporting

Hayashibara, Megumi Japanese

Left Hand Supporting

Nagai, Ichiro Japanese

Marcus, Grove Supporting

Seki, Toshihiko Japanese

Elbourne, Charlotte Supporting

Shinohara, Emi Japanese

Carmilla Supporting

Maeda, Bibari Japanese

Caroline Supporting

Soumi, Youko Japanese

Marcus, Borgoff Supporting

Yara, Yuusaku Japanese

Benge Supporting

Fujiwara, Keiji Japanese

Maruyama, Masao Producer

Yamamoto, Mataichirou Producer

Kawajiri, Yoshiaki Director, Storyboard, Screenplay

Kawamura, Kenichi Episode Director

Reviews

Nov 17, 2024

Chrast

Recommended

The aesthetics the story the characters, everything is a masterpiece as long as vampires, a gothic style and tragic storytelling are among your preferences. The first movie was really good but had it's weird bits, goofy disgusting or straight up annoying enemy fodder designs, a weird progression to the plot and the aged animation were very noticeable. Here everything is fixed and not just that but take to a completely new level. Cleaner designs, with much less needless techy sci-fi nonsense, enemies and all characters in general were really interesting and unique. Just an absolute masterpiece, the movie that would come out if what I ... and possibly many others love was put together in the best way possible.

Reviewer’s Rating: 10

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Sep 16, 2024

Hooded-Writer

Recommended

This one movie single handedly proves that if you want an amazingly well animated movie, you come to Madhouse. Granted even though it is an OVA the fact that it was released in 2000 and looks as well as it does with animation as smooth and realistic, is absolutely phenomenal and the animators deserve oh so much praise.

The score and ambience is a perfect example of dark vampire aesthetic, it is dark, bloody, gore, scary, romantic and sad at the same time and it is truly amazing and deserving of the title Vampiric and should be how most vampire movies must be made (eat your ... heart out Twilight).

Linking back to the ambience, it is truly amazing direction and story. Being able to switch from a graveyard, rotten monster city, desert with giant sting rays, beautiful daylight springs, rainy forest, back to a Wild West town and then finally a giant scary Victorian castle. It is truly an amazing feat that I don’t think will be replicated easily.

I only watched the dub but plan on watching the sub as well, but from the dub alone the voice acting is phenomenal, the fact they got John DiMaggio to do 4 different voices in the dub is truly a talent of him and the voice acting director. But every other character really gave performances that felt perfect for the characters and perfectly expressing them in situations. Yes left hand is sometimes annoying sometimes but I don’t think it’s fair to say he completely ruined the experience of a near perfect movie.

It is a truly phenomenal movie with amazing art, music, story and acting, it is almost impossible to hate this movie so do yourself a favour, and if you haven’t already, watch it. And if you have, watch it again, and if you’ve watched it already 3 times. Watch it a fourth and study it. And if you have? Buy and read the manga.

Reviewer’s Rating: 10

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Mar 5, 2024

Haustlaufivindi

Mixed Feelings

What would happen if Sergio Leone, in collaboration with Luis Bunuel, filmed in animation form a book by Stephen King, written by him in the mid-1980s (during the period of Stephen’s severe drug intoxication), where the main character would be Zorro, fighting vampires in the Wild West? The result would be surreal trash, but decadent, aesthetic trash. It would be "Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust", or something very close to it. As much as I, to put it mildly, am not close to the stories of Kikuchi Hideyuki, how secondary the plot is, how vulgar the characters are, how intellectually and morally powerless the narrative is, ... so much captivating the decadent aesthetics of this anime are. Just as sweetness can be found in pain, so in the destruction of ethical and aesthetic beauty, in decay, one can find decadent pleasure like "Belle De Jour". Perhaps this is what catches “Bloodlust” - the visual aesthetics here are extremely consistent with the ethics of storytelling. It has a peculiar “beauty of ruins”, a borderline sadistic pleasure of destruction, the withering of goodness and beauty. It fascinates, just as a poisonous snake fascinates its victim, just as the viewer is fascinated by the animation of a bouquet of roses withering as Meier approaches to take Charlotte to the “underworld.” The animation, I note, in “Bloodlust” is amazing. The references to Leone's western film aesthetic are animated masterfully, D against the backdrop of a full moon looks as good as Zorro against the setting sun, and it all comes together with a gothic design fused with art nouveau. Eclecticism? Definitely, but it works in "Bloodlust", paired well with an equally eclectic narrative. We can say that this anime is an empty shell, a pretty rotten one, but you can’t deny its visual peculiarity.

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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	Poll: Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust Episode 1 Discussion ( 1 2 ) Karikaturata - Jan 16, 2010	83 replies	by TheVistrian »» Nov 22, 11:50 PM
	Miss this old look KasutoroSama - Jan 21, 2022	4 replies	by _Sanchay »» Sep 11, 9:09 AM
	Full soundtrack available online AcbSnakeDemon - May 14	1 replies	by Ristic17 »» May 15, 9:09 AM
	Is this similar to Dune? AcbSnakeDemon - Apr 20	7 replies	by AkiraMiyazaki17 »» Apr 24, 4:10 AM
	What happened to the Vampire Hunter D series we were promised? AnnaSartin - Jan 23, 2015	16 replies	by AnnaSartin »» Mar 31, 4:16 AM

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