Every once in awhile you come across a movie that really excites your creative mind.  There is something refreshing and different that really sticks with you long after you watched the movie.  Recently, I have watched the original Vampire Hunter D, and I was immediately immersed in this post-apocalyptic world.  The anime classic has inspired many sequels, including Vampire Hunter D Bloodlust, which I saw first.  This anime highlight is going to be about the 1980’s classic Vampire Hunter D and the 2000 anime movie Vampire Hunter D Bloodlust.

Vampire Hunter D (1985)

The original Vampire Hunter D has a fairly typical storyline.  A young woman, the daughter of a werewolf hunter, catches the eye of a womanizing vampire noble who becomes obsessed with obtaining her as his next vampire bride.  The young woman, Doris, enlists the help of a vampire hunter, known only as D, to stop and kill the overpowered noble vampire.

Now despite this archetypal storyline, what I really liked about this story is how the familiar and the strange mix in this.  The story takes place thousands of years in our future, and we see a devastated post-apocalyptic landscape which is visually stimulating and intriguing to see.

Yet even in this interesting landscape, there are very familiar creatures like vampires, werewolves and even Lamia from Greek mythology.  This mixture of the common supernatural creatures we love to read and watch stories for, and a dystopian, futuristic feel really makes this an entertaining movie.  The noble vampire’s castle looks like a typical count Dracula castle that you would see in a familiar vampire story with its severe European turrets, but on the inside is an interesting hodge podge of strange creatures and a network of modern steel pipes.  There are times when the houses and rooms look almost space age inside (like the electronic sliding door in Doris’s home and the pulse like guns used).

I think this play on old and new really could be seen so well with D himself.  He’s dressed like he’s from medieval times and carries a sword, but he rides a completely mechanical horse.  This juxtaposition is what made the movies so creative and thought provoking, and I loved this fresh take on a vampire story.

The scenery makes you wonder what happened in this world, and how things came to be how they are.  There is a scene when D falls down to the lowest levels beneath the main villain’s castle.  He finds himself in a subterranean cavern where we see what looks like the remains of a subway station and an overturned trained festooned with skeletons.  This decaying remnant of the past really got the creative juices in my mind going as I began to wonder where exactly this was, and what had happened.

Vampire Hunter D

D is quite the enigmatic character.  He’s silent and stoic which makes his character highly mysterious and intriguing.  You want to know more of who he is especially after you learn that he is a Dhampir, which is a child born of a union between a vampire and a human.  His vampire blood makes him strong, but it also can make him dangerous.

What I liked about D is that we see the internal struggle he faces as he deals with the dark legacy and powers that he received from his father as well as the creature that he has attached to his hand.

Not much is mentioned about D and his past in the original movie, but there are a lot of hints.  It is interesting that he choose the profession of Vampire Hunter when he is part vampire himself and it makes you more interested to know his past.  He doesn’t say much in this film.  You’re not going to get some grandiose monologue about his philosophy and his past.  That would not fit his character, but the little he does say and more importantly how he reacts is what attracts you to his character.  To me, that is good story telling.

Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust

Now I saw this one before I saw the original Vampire Hunter D, and no you don’t have to watch them in order.  I actually liked Bloodlust more.  What I liked about Bloodlust is that we get to see more of the dynamics that exist in this post-apocalyptic world between humans, mutants and supernatural creatures like werewolves and vampires.  The audience also gets to see more of D’s back story on how he is the son of Dracula and a human woman.

This story focuses on a noble vampire Meier Link who has absconded with a young human woman, Charlotte.  Her father hires D and another group of hunters to hunt down the vampire and bring back his daughter.  Meier has enlisted help of his own from the Barbarois, a group of mutants and a werewolf to protect him and Charlotte on their way to their final destination.  You later learn that Charlotte left willingly with Meier as she loved him, and he her.

This puts D in a moral dilemma: does he follow through with his mission, even though he begins to see more and more that the love between Meier and Charlotte is very real, or does he help the lovers escape?  I think his internal struggle is more apparent in Bloodlust because he has to make that choice, and that is where his parentage really plays a role in his struggle.

I loved the drama in Bloodlust, and I feel like D was more of a dynamic character in it.  I also loved his growing relationship with Leila, one of the other hunters hired to find Charlotte who hates vampires.  It starts out rough, but then a begrudging amount of respect grows between them.

Overall, I really loved these two movies, and I was really moved by Bloodlust.  So if you want to see something that really gets your mind working, and meet such a fantastic character like D, then you should check out these two anime movies or read the novels by Hideyuki Kikuchi.