The distant future. Vampires rule the night, but their numbers are dwindling. With huge bounties on their heads, a new class of warrior has emerged... The Vampire Hunters. Mercenaries with no home to return to, no fear of death, and no sympathy for the endangered species that still poses a threat to humanity. One hunter is unlike all the others... Born from the unholy union of a human woman and an ancient Vampire Lord, he is a Dunpeal, trapped between two worlds. At war with himself, feared by all, tortured and alone, he is D.
When a young girl is kidnapped from her home, her family offers him 20 million dollars to bring her back, dead or alive. The catch, however, is that he’s not alone. Competing for the girl’s bounty is the Markus family, a formidable faction who would just as soon share his trail as kill him in his tracks, even as their target, the Vampire Lord Meier Link, hires a band of demons to ensure his safe passage to a mysterious castle in the north. It’s anyone’s game in this deadly demon deathchase, but as the bodies continue pile up, there’s no turning back for any of them.
It’s easy to tell from first glance that this movie bears a massive visual upgrade from it’s predecessor. Originally bearing the same title, called “Bloodlust” in the west to avoid confusion, this installment opens on a shot of the moon before immediately pulling back, passing through a landscape full of dilapidated gothic architecture and giant crucifixes, using the perspective of passing objects to immerse you into this world before you even realize that you’ve taken the plunge. It never lets up from there, delivering a world full of depth and attention to detail. Outside of the action, every single frame is a masterfully hand-crafted painting, with open landscapes conveying a sense of loneliness in all directions, and interior shots showing every single pebble and torn/scarred design that’s faded with time. We’re treated to several set-pieces throughout the story, and every single one of them is simultaneously alive with life and fading with forgotten history.
The action itself is fast, well paced and engaging, with nearly every encounter offering some kind of contribution to the plot, whether it’s an important revelation or the demise of a character. Those characters are also primarily responsible for keeping the action from getting repetitive, as each one... Human AND demon... Offer a different weapon and combat style, or even a different power, and while they can feel a bit gimmicky at times, it still works really well when each character is given at least one moment to shine in combat. The settings are vastly imaginative, stretching the limits of several different genres(Most notably gothic horror, wild west and dystopian science fiction), and they never miss an opportunity to explore the fascinating world that author Hideyuki Kikuchi created to suit his seminal character. They might not all work for you... If you’ve read my Sands of Destruction review, you can guess how I take to the whole Sand Mantas thing... But there’s no room for complaints here.
Much like the world they inhabit, character's have highly detailed designs, far removed from the largely copy/paste facial templates in most anime today. They each possess their own unique facial features, with everything from their jawlines to their cheekbones receiving equal attention, some more relaxed than others, some more exaggerated than others, and this is largely due to a change in direction. Madhouse put this film's production almost entirely in the hands of Yoshiaki Kawajiri, a man whose previous works(such as Wicked City and Ninja Scroll) had already proven far more successful in the west than in their own home country due to their intense, gritty nature and eclectic structure, frankly like nothing that we had seen before from the world of animation at the point. With Bloodlust, he decided to try and appeal to us deliberately this time.
In an era where hand-drawn animation was experiencing it’s last gasp of wide spread relevance, Kawajiri went all out with painstakingly realizing his vision, with only the barest hint of CG quality-control accompaniment that most viewers probably wouldn’t even notice at first glance. A slightly more interesting detail I noticed, however, is that while Kawajiri may have been playing to the teenage edgelords of the west, it looks(to me at least) like he was also playing to the sensibilities of their parents. First of all, while the first movie may have contained some sexual tension, rape references and a couple of gratuitous nude scenes, Bloodlust is almost devoid of fanservice. The dynamic between the two main characters is engaging while also respectful and platonic, and there are only three characters who wear any kind of revealing clothing... A tree monster, a dommy mommy vampire ghost, and a dude. Honestly, though, considering the fact that the novel featured a gang-bang scene that even Stephen King would have had second thoughts over, I’m gonna say less is more in this case.
What’s more surprising is the over-all lack of blood and gore, at least for the first four fifths of the film. Yes, I said earlier that bodies pile up throughout, but when you’re killing demons and freshly turned zombies, you don’t need much blood to get your point across. Don’t get me wrong, when a human character is killed you DO see their bloody body in often graphic detail, but it’s usually in fleeting shots, and they quickly cut back to the action. I can think of two reasons that Kawajiri might have taken this approach... Either he did it to appeal to western parents who are happy to take their kids to R rated movies as long as the content isn’t too explicit(minimal gore and no boobs) or he did it so when the movie finally DID start to pour buckets of blood on the audience towards the ending, it would feel more visceral in contrast. Either way, not gonna lie, smart move.
Kawajiri’s efforts to appeal to the west didn’t stop there, however, as basically the entire audio side of the film was recorded in California. It has an entirely American musical score, sound mix, and English voice cast. The first trailers were shown at American film festivals, followed by the film itself(albeit in only six theaters). For it’s original Japanese theatrical run, it was shown in English with Japanese subtitles, and while a Japanese dub was eventually created, the film is in an unusual licensing situation where the sub version cannot legally be released in America. Hence why I’ve never seen it.
As for the English dub? Or, you know, the original track that I’m just going to call the dub for my own comfort? Strap yourself in for this, it’s gonna get weird. Andy Philpot is an actor with a small resume... He hasn’t done much since this film, Ninja Scroll and Final Fantasy... But he does a perfectly acceptable job playing D, a character who normally wouldn’t be much of a challenge, but he puts forth commendable effort nonetheless. John Rafter Lee wasn’t much of an actor outside of his role as Meier Link, having built most of his career off of audio books, but his cadence is equal parts intimidating, noble and tragic. He's everything you'd want out of a smooth-talking bloodsucker with an exotic accent.
Wendee Lee and Mary Elizabeth McGlynn have somewhat smaller roles, and they do fine, despite their characters being on the more forgettable side. There are numerous small roles by noteworthy names such as John Dimaggio, Debi Derryberry and Dwight Schultz. Mike McShane plays several roles to near perfection... You can't even tell they're the same guy... And then you have Pamela Adlon. If you had a strange reaction whenever the leading female Leila spoke during this film, and you were like “I swear I recognize her...” Try responding to all of her lines by saying “Dangit Bobby.” Yes, that is Bobby Hill. Okay, maybe that’s not fair of me, when she has a resume so long it has it’s own Wikipedia page separate from her own, but let’s be real, she’s Bobby Hill.
She does a fantastic job, of course. Everybody in this movie does, even Mike McShane when he's playing my least favorite character. There is not a single performance in this dub that’s anything less than good, but unfortunately I can’t say the same for the script. Don’t get me wrong, it’s nowhere near as catastrophic as the original dub of the first movie, so it didn’t share in the honor of getting a 2015 redub, but it’s still a little hit or miss. Most of the dialogue works really well, especially when it’s establishing dynamic or strengthening bonds between characters, but it can also come out a little awkward at times. The first interaction between D and Link felt over-written. There’s an exchange between Leila and Kyle before they part ways in town that is just full of WTF. There are also moments where it seems like there were too many lip flaps or uncomfortable silence for the director to handle, so the actors were just told to improvise. Demon Benge and the leader of the Barbaroi are prime examples, but D’s possessed hand can be downright annoying sometimes.
It’s a good dub over-all, which is good, because we’re not getting the Japanese version anytime soon.
One of the first things you’ll hear about this movie is that it’s superior to the first one, and while I may personally prefer the first film for nostalgic purposes, it is objectively true. Having said that, if you think that means it has any more depth than the first one, or that the story structure is any more normal, think again. It shouldn’t be much of a surprise, as both films were based on novels by the same author, but neither one has a particularly complex plot. Much like the 1985 film, the plot of Bloodlust pits the title character against an old, solitary vampire lord who turns a female character he wants to marry into a McGuffin for D to try and retrieve. There are several differences, obviously, but that is the basic core of the story. There really isn’t any depth to be found outside of the occasional rumination on what it means to be a dunpeal, either. The structure isn’t as repetitive as the first movie, but much like Kawajiri's other works, it feels really sequential, and its method of constant jumping between action set pieces makes it feel more like a five-episode OVA strung together than a film with a proper three act structure.
Bloodlust isn’t better than it’s predecessor because it has intelligence or depth, but because of its execution. The first film was a clusterfuck of different subplots haphazardly running into each other, characters from the book who were jammed into the story despite their presence and identity never being established and ideas being brought up out of nowhere because frankly the novel didn’t explain them very well either. Bloodlust knows how simple it is, so it keeps things simple. Rather than trying to present a complex horror story, it’s more of a pure action movie with horror flavorings. Much like Mad Max Fury Road, the plot is thin, but it’s still propulsive. The pacing is great, the action never gets stale, and exposition is kept to a minimum. We find out all we need to about the world through subtle environmental clues, and we find out all we need to know about D in some of the coolest ways possible. I think the only long-winded monologue in the film is used to reveal D’s history and mysteriously ageless nature in fairly badass fashion.
Speaking of the cast, the characters have comprehensive motivations. They’re either likable, or they have a really cool design, or both. Everybody serves their part in the story, and nobody causes any real issues or overstays their welcome... With the exception of D’s possessed hand, who I just do not like in either movie. His origin is never explained outside of him being a parasite, but I kind of don’t care either way, because he’s pretty annoying. He tends to ramble, adding words to elements of D’s character that should have been delivered with more subtlety. He played a major role in the first film, but here? I mean he DOES stuff, but nothing that required him to be sentient. Or talk. He didn’t need to talk. Nobody asked him to talk. They could have replaced him with a Miroku hand, and all for the better. Still, his actor does a fantastic job, so it’s excusable.
Bloodlust isn’t perfect, but honestly, it feels like one of those movies that manages itself so well that even the stuff I don’t like is still awesome. It knows it’s strengths, and does whatever it can to accentuate them. It knows it’s weaknesses, and finds ways to make the most of them. Even some of the more famously cringey moments, like Borgav’s lengthy joke about the owl and the squirrel, yeah, I eat that shit up, and the movie would feel lesser without it. The mispronunciation of Dhampir as Dunpeal kind of drives me nuts, but I still wouldn’t trade it for anything. This movie never refuses to try exploring any idea that it has, source material be damned(who wants to watch a guy get eaten by ants anyway?), and it does it all with a perfectly cinematic grandeur. I don’t know if I’d recommend it as a Halloween movie, but any other time of the year? Hell yeah.
Vampire Hunter D Bloodlust was originally available from Urban Vision Entertainment, but those old copies are way out of print. I still have mine, it’s by far the oldest DVD I currently own, and it still works just fine. For the rest of you, the film was recently rereleased on Bluray by Eastern Star, and while I’ve heard troublesome things about it’s picture quality, it’s probably better than nothing. The original novel, Demon Deathchase, which was actually book 3 in the Vampire Hunter D series, was available stateside from Dark Horse, but now is pretty hard to find outside of Kindle downloads. If you’re of a mind, there’s a Playstation game as well, it’s basically a cheap clone of Castlevania, but I guess it’s worth seeking out.
So, funny story about that Urban Vision DVD. I don’t know if this is the case with newer releases, but the original version came with an odd special feature... A top ten countdown, voted by fans, of their favorite scenes in the movie. I'm not making that up. I have never seen another movie flex that hard. It's like “Yeah, you just finished crying over the ending, but wanna see it again? We know you do.” BTS’s Butter feels humble compared to this, but in the words of Kid Rock, it’s not bragging if you back it up. This movie backs it up. Bloodlust is awesome, it knows it’s awesome, and it’s proud of the fact that it’s awesome. It celebrates it’s 20th anniversary this year, and for a movie that relied so hard on visual spectacle, it still holds up, partially due to Yoshiaki Kawajiri’s brilliantly insane direction and cinematography, partially due to the fact that it came out right before CG and digital painting took over the medium, and it presents the absolute best of a technique that’s largely lost to time. Again, it’s not a perfect film, but it wouldn’t be as beautiful without it’s flaws.
I give Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust an 9/10.
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