Back in 1985 the Anime world introduced us to the derranged gumbo of influences that made up the utterly bonkers concept behind Vampire Hunter D. To put it simply, D was a Dhampir (vampire daddy, human mommy) who rode around a fantasy/horror/western/sci-fi Earth in the year 12,090 AD hunting bloodsuckers while wearing possibly the world’s most impractical hat. However, while most vampire hunters in popular culture in the pre-Wesley Snipes Blade era of the 80s were tweed clad professors, D rocked up to fight on a robot horse with an impossibly long sword in one hand and the sentient face of a parasitic creature in the palm of the other and while the plot of Toyoo Ashida’s crazed epic was hardly anything to write home about, the unhinged world building made the thing constantly fascinating to watch.
But while I wouldn’t describe Vampire Hunter D as the best Anime of the 80s, it’s striking lead character and batshit world building meant that it was one of the few examples of Japanese animation that truly warranted a sequel to explore the insanity more. Well, in 2000, we got one – and better yet, it was directed than none other than Yoshiaki Kawajiri, a man well versed in freaky world building…
Wherever vampire shenanigans bare their fangs, you can bet that legendary Vampire Hunter, D, will soon be riding into town in order to clean things up for a price and this time he’s being hired by the wealthy John Elbourne to rescue his daughter, Charlotte, from the clutches of Baron Meier Link, a vampire nobleman who has kidnapped her for possibly nefarious reasons. However, while D accepts the job to either bring her back alive, or execute her if she’s been turned, Elbourne’s son takes out an insurance policy in the form of hiring the Marcus Brothers, a gang of roughneck siblings who drive around in an armoured vehicle, slaying bloodsuckers with their myriad of special abilities.
However, while the Marcus Brothers and D inevitably butt heads, the Dhampir soon starts to bond with the only woman in the group, Leila, as the two are forced to save each other’s lives when Link recruits members of the monstrous, mutant race known as the Barbarois to watch his back as his carriage races to his destination.
However, after varnish battles and run ins, D starts to surmise that things aren’t quite what they seems and Link’s intentions with Charlotte may not be as nefarious as we first thought. Could it be that the kidnaped woman actually came willingly and that the fanged Baron actually has feelings for this woman that go way beyond draining her blood like a human pouch of Capri-Sun?
The existence of D himself is proof that such a wholsome union can occur, but all the Marcus’ give a shit about is getting paid, but while the hunters fight among themselves, will Link abd Charlotte find that more threats await them at their destination: The haunted Castle of Chaythe.
Attaching Yoshiaki Kawajiri to a Vampire Hunter D sequel may be the Anime equivalent of snaring Sam Raimi to direct Spider-Man or Peter Jackson to helm Lord Of The Rings as it truly seems to be a union of filmmaker and project that’s just so right it positively hurts. For those of you who aren’t familiar with Kawajiri’s output, they often contain insanely visual worlds packed with creepy superpowers, forbidden romance, tragic characters and some of the coolest fucking action sequences ever seen in the medium. Be it the supercool secret agent vs. demon stylings of Wicked City, or the utter knockout period fantasy, Ninja Scroll, Kawajiri’s deft hand at awesome setpieces and frankly flawless character design means that he’s perfectly suited to take on Ashida’s notoriously crazed universe while putting his own stamp on it.
I have to be honest, Ninja Scroll is only a sword’s width away from being the greatest Anime I have ever witnessed (nothing beats Akira, sorry guys) and so I was pumped to see what Kawajiri was going to do with it; but while it simply isn’t a patch on Scroll, it’s still a satisfyingly wild ride that gives it’s lead character the more time in the sun that he deserves. It’s OK, Dhampirs can handle the sun. Straight away Kawajiri dives into what he does the best: creating an array of characters chiefly memorable either for their painfully cool abilities or their immaculate design and then have them slaughter the utter shit out of one another until we get to the finale. But while Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust certainly has more than its fair share of unforgettable visions, it just isn’t as well balanced as his earlier masterpiece. The problem is that while Ninja Scroll balanced it’s fantastical cast and their visually stunning abilities perfectly, D gives us so many funky concepts and relentlessly awesome beings, it ends up feeling a bit like Darth Maul in The Phantom Menace where you want some of the more awesome players to get more screen time. Take the villainous werewolf character who not only surprisingly noble and loyal, but when he transforms he grows a giant wolf mouth out of his stomach. Why? How? What’s his story? But in order to keep things moving the dude doesn’t even get to have an onscreen fight scene with D and the movie is practically heaving with side and supporting characters that keep distracting you from the main plot, who never get a chance to shine.
Still, it seems odd to complain about a movie that gives you too much to chew on and while you’ll sometimes drift away from the main plot to contemplate why that one dude was constantly riding a unicycle or how that frail Marcus brother can attack people with with own ghost after shooting up like a junkie, the film manages to include a bit of substance too.
While the film is mostly all about the genuine bonds that can form between humans and vampires, it also has some rather moving things to say about it’s monosyllabic hero too that involve his long legacy of heroics. At one point where the movie swings more over into western territory, D is saved from a gun totting sheriff when a local old timer recalls that D himself saved him back when he was a child and during the final coda, he visits someone’s grave and is recognised by that character’s granddaughter who thanks him. It’s certainly more moving than the third act which starts to get a little scrappy when all the remaining characters are battered by hallucinations caused a final big bad the movie suddenly drops in our lap in its final twenty minutes. However, how many vampire movies do you know that end with a gothic castle collapsing to reveal a rocketship that will hopefully escort the human/vampire lovers to a vampire refuge located in space? Yeah, didn’t think so.
While not his most accomplished work, Yoshiaki Kawajiri takes to the world of Vampire Hunter D like he was born to it and adds a bit of gravitas to ground the world of Toyoo Ashida’s fever dream original just enough to give it some clout.
OK, so The chatty parasite in his hand is still a mystery to me, but for sheer style and gorgeous design ethic, this new incarnation of the titular vampire hunter is definitely carrying some big D energy.
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