Vampire Hunter D

Summary: >

Around the hear 12,000 AD, mankind lives in fear of the supernatural. Sometime in the 21st century a nuclear war nearly erased all life on earth. From the ashes arose the vampires, who resurrected the earth but forged it in their own image. And in such a world humans are little more than cattle. However the vampire cast is also in it's slow decline. Thousands of years of rule have left the vampires in stagnation, however still in absolute authority. From the years of eternal boredom, count Magnus Lee decides to have a bit of "fun" from time to time by toying with human females. This time the recipient of his attentions is a girl named Dorris.

Dorris decides to hire a vampire hunter in the hopes that he can kill the count and dispel the curse of the vampire bite. Dorris met many vampire hunters until she finally came across one unlike all others: a vampire hunter known only as "D".

Although seemingly quite strong, hopes for Dorris look grim considering that the count is thousands of years old and more powerful than most any normal vampire. It seems unlikely that a half breed human/vampire such as D would be able to defeat such a foe. D decides to take the job anyway. As many dangers await D he finds many traps and obstacles to overcome. But D also has a heritage that makes him the greatest threat that the count has ever faced. The clock is ticking. Will Dorris be free of the curse, or will her soul face eternal damnation?

Thoughts: >

Vampire Hunter D is a classic for many reasons, but for people in America, it's significant as one of the very first anime titles that ever made it here. How much you get out of this title has a lot to do with how receptive you are to classic anime titles. Vampire Hunter D is typical of the "horror" genre with vampires and isn't particularly deep. If you compare to other titles of the day however, you can see why the reception for this is generally positive.

D is the honorable silent type, but also fairly baddass. Few titles of this kind ever got the balance of character attributes right so that a character of this sort is as likable as D. The rest of the characters are more of the standard cannon and not particularly of interest, but not terrible either. The story is decent but not really involved. Basically D and the count's minions fight at various points until the final showdown, but the difference between this and many titles is that even the servants of the count have reasons for what they do, and are by no means mindless.

Good action, fair animation. The soundtrack is well composed although nothing stands out well enough to own it (believe me I know). It's a decent enough watch, but I'm not sure it should be sought out aside from historical reasons, and being influential. If you're into classic titles I'd say this is highly recommended as you'll be more receptive to the methods this one employs.

Screen Caps: >