Reaction & Review | Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust

Welcome, one and all, to an all new Reaction & Review. Tonight, ladies and gentlemen, I'm gonna be covering an animated film from 2000. That movie is "Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust".

Now, for those of you who may not happened to remember, a LONG time ago, I reviewed "Vampire Hunter D". It was one of my earliest episodes that I had done since doing this series, and I enjoyed that movie quite a bit. In fact, since the time that I reviewed it, I had found a physical copy of the movie on DVD with the original dub, because that was the version of the movie that I watched on YouTube back then. And upon rewatching it, I still, very much, enjoy it, even if the visuals are, admittedly, a bit dated for it's time.

So, now we have this movie that came out 15 years after the first movie. And, much like how I went into "Vampire Hunter D", I don't know a whole lot about this movie. I figured, maybe, that this thing was gonna be a sequel to the 1985 movie. And, I was partially right. This movie IS a sequel...just not to the 1985 movie. No, this movie is a sequel to one of the many D novels called "Demon Deathchase". Which I have not read, nor have I still not read any of the "Vampire Hunter D" novels since I did my review of the 1985 movie. So, any comparisons or plot points that may have happened in those particular novels are not going to be brought up here.

Now, beyond all of that, I don't know a damn thing about this movie. I haven't seen any trailers or clips, so I'm gonna go into this thing completely blind. And I hope it's for the best, because, like I said, I really liked the 1985 movie, and I hope that this movie is gonna be just as good, if not better, than what was shown in the 1985 movie. So, I may as well just quit stalling and see if this movie is any good at all. And the only way I'm gonna find that out, is if I shut up, and I push play, and I'm gonna do that right now. So, without further ado, it's time to kick back, relax, and check out "Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust".

15 minutes later

I just saw D jump over a bunch of giant manta rays that were made out of sand. That was fucking awesome, dude! Moreover, I'd also like to mention that I'm loving the art style in this movie, guys. It totally fits this kind of movie.

12 minutes later

So...this guy is dead now after his shadow was literally stabbed to death. That's...creative. I mean, it does suck that this guy is now dead, but I will say that the kill was sorta creative.

19 minutes later

You know, guys, out of all the ways I was expecting that scene to play out, I wasn't expecting that kind of ending for it. That was totally awesome.

15 minutes later

OK, I know this is a trivial point to bring up, but how long does it take for a vampire to completely die from sunlight? I ask this, because Meier's been out of his carriage for, like, a couple of minutes now, and the fact that he's still walking, weakily mind you, kinda makes me question how long the effectiveness is for the sun to completely kill vampires. I'm really curious about that now, as it's beginning to bug me a little bit.

20 minutes later

Guys, I'm really sorry that I haven't been saying a whole lot. I know that I should be talking more about the movie, but really, guys, this story is so fucking good that I'm totally invested in what's going to happen next! It really is that fucking good.

The Review

Well, guys, that was "Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust". Let me go ahead and the shut the movie off...OK. Holy shit, that ending. That ending was almost beauftiul. I wasn't expecting that at all from this movie, but holy shit, was it emotional. So...I guess, since I played my hand a little early, this movie was fucking awesome. And now, I'm tempted to go and find those "Demon Deathchase" books that I mentioned way early on.

But I suppose I should talk about the movie first. So, let's start this off by talking about the writing. Our story here is a very straight-forward story. So, this woman named Charlotte gets kidnapped by this vampire known as Meier Link. And D has been sent out by her family to retrieve her and get her back from the vampire that kidnapped her. On the same token, we also have another group of vampire hunters called the Markus Brothers. Who are also after the same thing, because Charlotte's brother was also the guy who hired them to get Charlotte back in one piece. So, it's sort of a race to see who can take down Meier first, while also trying to rescue Charlotte at the same time so that one of them can claim the bounty that was set for them by Charlotte's family. And I'm gonna tell you, guys, this story is gonna suck you in from the moment that the movie starts playing. It never slows down for anything irrelevant, and it just keeps going forward. Most of our characters are incredibly fleshed out. I think the only ones who don't get a ton of depth are most of the Markus Brothers. Most of them are just there for the sake of being there to help out with their mission. One of them named Grove can, somehow, turn into a ghost who can shoot laser beams from it's body. It doesn't really make a ton of sense as to how that all works, but it's not really that important in the long run. The only one of the Markus Brothers who does get any depth is Leila, the only female of the group. She really does get a ton of depth in this movie, as we see her not only helping out with her group, but also sharing a bit of character development with D. And it really is some fascinating stuff there.

Speaking of D, his character in this movie is not entirely character driven, but we do get a lot more depth from him when compared to the 1985 movie. In that movie, you didn't really know that much about him, up until the very end when they hinted at who he really was. We knew he was a dhampir, or a 'dunpeal' as it's spelled out in this movie thanks to the prologue, but his character was kept very much to himself. In this movie, it's explored a lot more, as we learn that, at one point, he saved a bunch of children that were kidnapped by vampires. And of the children he saved was this older guy, who sold him a horse. We also know more about his background, mostly thanks to the illusions that were going on during the final act of the movie. I won't go too much into that, because I really don't want to spoil this movie for you guys. While I'm on the subject of D, as I just mentioned, character wise, he doesn't really go through much of that in this movie. But I will say that his personality sorta reminds me of Clint Eastwood, at least when it comes to his Westerns. Where both of them don't say a whole lot, but they still come across as a badass when they need to be. Basically, I want you to imagine if you took Clint Eastwood, and you put him in a world where he was hunting vampires. That's who D reminds me of in this movie, anyway. In fact, as I was watching the movie, I really felt like I was, kinda, watching a Western film. Where it has a bit of a slow buildup, but it has a ton of payoff towards it's climax. And as some of you may know who have been reading my reviews, you guys know that I love Westerns. So, to see some of that in this movie is totally awesome.

I'm trying to think of anything that would be considered a negative, but there's, honestly, not a whole lot. I suppose there is ONE thing that didn't really make a ton of sense, at first, were the illusions. And these illusions take place during the final act of the movie. Now again, I'm not gonna spoil very much here, so I'll try to keep it brief. So, right before it starts off, we get to see Meier and Charlotte sharing character development together. And it goes off to where Meier says that he needs to take care of some unfinished business, that being killing D. So as he goes off to find him, he eventually finds D along the way, to which D states that Charlotte wants to escape from here. And despite the fact that we saw her a moment ago with Meier, she's suddenly very close to D, much to Meier's disbelief. And from there, the movie starts to fuck with your mind as you get hit with a ton of WEIRD stuff that happens almost every other sequence for, like, the next few minutes or so. And for a while, I was starting to question what was real and what wasn't. And then, eventually, the movie actually does stop with these illusions after D breaks free of it, before admitting to Leila that they were just illusions. Now I could obviously go into detail about what they were, seeing as how my summarization may not make a ton of sense to you guys reading this, but it does eventually make sense. It's just that when you first see this, you may start to question what the hell is even going on? And even I was stumped for a bit myself. However, as I just stated, I really don't want to spoil this movie for you guys. Because this movie is really that good. The writing is very sharp, our characters are mostly developed well, and even the stuff I mentioned involving the illusions is, honestly, just me nitpicking. So, to even call this a negative is just me stretching it to find something that would be considered a fault to the movie.

So, now let's get into the acting. Now, I opted to watch the English dub for this movie. And the dub here is, honestly, pretty good. Especially when you compare it with the "Vampire Hunter D" movie from 1985. Because upon rewatching that movie again, I noticed that some of the acting felt kinda stiff. What I mean by that is that some of the actors lines in that movie felt like they were all told in one sentence without any punctuation whatsoever. Basically I want you to imagine myself typing an entire sentence without any punctuation whatsoever with no commas or anything of the sort where no one is given any kind of breathing room to pause in one sentence so that they can give out some of their lines naturally. Yeah, it sounded like THAT. Now, I don't know if that was just a case of poor direction for that dub, or if that's just how some of the actors sounded naturally, but it was something that caught my attention upon rewatching it again. Thankfully, for "Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust", I didn't notice anything that sounded out of place with the acting for this dub. Just about everyone here sounds natural and comfortable when giving out their lines. I also didn't notice any cases of bad acting from this dub, so, at least, everyone here tried. And it honestly pays off really well. The acting here is pretty good, so I can, at least, say that this dub here works really well here.

What also works well here is the animation. My god, the animation, and art style, for this movie is absolutely amazing! But then again, one of the companies that helped developed this movie was Madhouse. And I've talked about Madhouse quite a number of times in this series. The stuff that they make, 9 times out of 10, looks amazing. And this movie is certainly no different. The animation here is fluid, and everything is animated very well. The art style is fucking fantastic across the board. All of the characters are designed really well. The color palettes are also used really well, too. The backgrounds look amazing and very detailed in certain shots, especially towards the final act of the movie, mostly involving the illusions. And as far as I could tell, there wasn't any CG in this movie. If there was, then what little is used here works rather well. Guys, I could be here for another hour discussing all of the awesome-looking stuff in this movie, however, I will just leave it like this. The animation, the art style, and everything else involving the look of this movie is just absoutely beautiful.

Sound-mix is mixed well for the most part. Music, in terms of the score, is awesome. A lot of it is very atmospheric, and, once more, it totally works for this kind of movie. I love, just about, everything involving the score for this film.

Ultimately, guys, when all is said and done, am I able to recommend "Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust"? Oh, hell yes, guys, this movie is amazing! I was sorta setting my expectations a bit high for this one, because I had heard nothing but positive things about this movie from a lot of people. And after finally watching it for myself, I can easily say that those expectations of mine sky-rocketed and it wound up being amazing in the end. If you are a fan of horror movies, and you're also into anime, I would highly recommend this without question. This movie kicked tons of ass, and I honestly prefer this movie over the 1985 movie, personally. Because while I still really enjoy the 1985 "Vampire Hunter D" movie, it is, admittedly, a bit flawed in a couple of areas upon rewatching it again that I already mentioned. This thing, however, was able to take those flaws and perfect it really well. This movie is just that amazing, and I'm incredibly happy that I finally got a chance to watch this thing. I also know that the movie is up on YouTube. However, I didn't have to worry about watching it on there, because I got to watch it on DVD for this series. Speaking of which, if you do want to watch the movie for yourself, there should be a couple of copies of it on YouTube somewhere. And if you liked what you saw, find a physical copy of it somewhere, whether it's on DVD or Blu-ray. It really is worth your time, unless you're not into horror anime. However, for me, personally, I can happily say that this movie is going to have a very nice spot next to the 1985 movie on my DVD shelf. Speaking of which, I kinda want to go back and rewatch the 1985 movie right now. So, I'm gonna go and do that next, after I'm done putting this review together.

Anyway, guys, with that, we come to the close of another Reaction & Review. Until next time, ladies and gentlemen, take care, and I will see you all later. Peace.