Many years ago some friends of mine rented an unusual looking video tape in the small anime section of my local video store. With an open mind, I decided to stay over and watch this film. I was not that big a fan of anime at the time and had only seen a few of the more popular films, like Akira or 3X3 Eyes. As the movie started, I was completely drawn in. To this day, Vampire Hunter D stands not only as one of my favorite anime movies, but favorite overall films ever.

Vampire Hunter D tells the exciting tale of an adventurous Vampire Hunter by the name of D. Our hero, D, travels around the world, as so it would appear, searching for vampires in need of extermination. Upon arriving in a small town, D encounters a girl named Doris who was bitten by a vampire who inhabited a nearby castle. D then decides to help Doris and kill the nearby vampire, who goes by the title of Count Magnus Lee. However, after biting Doris, Count Magnus Lee now has the intention of marrying Doris and then kidnaps her. It is up to D to save Doris from the haunted castle of the blood sucking count and finish the ancient vampire off. D is not alone on his quest however. He has what can almost be called a sidekick in his hand. D's hand is alive and can talk and do many other things that help D along his quest to slay the evil count.

Throughout the story, you learn a bit about D's heritage, vampires and many other things that really add to the story's depth. Overall, I felt that story wise Vampire Hunter D is a very well executed adventure movie that seems more like a science fiction or action movie out of Hollywood then your standard run of the mill anime.

D, our dark, brooding, dhampiric hero.	D's hand, a sarcastic, symbiotic sidekick.

The character designs in Vampire Hunter D are great and really fit the feel of the film. From the dark and evil looking creatures that inhabit the castle of Count Magnus Lee to D himself, they all fit the feel and environment of the film nicely. There are no characters or backgrounds within the film that seem out of place or mismatched with what is already there, as is the case in a lot of other animation, both anime and standard cartoons.

As far as the animation quality goes, it is fair, however, not spectacular. It generally runs smooth throughout the entire movie. However, there are several exceptions where it seems like a frame or two of animation has been skipped or where you have my personal pet peeve in animation, a still object just being slightly moved (like, for example, when you have a still picture of the character's face and only the mouth moves). Thankfully, this is not common throughout the movie and scenes of this nature are few and far between.

The music in Vampire Hunter D is good, however, not really memorable or outstanding. While it fits the feel of the movie very nicely, there isn't anything bad (where it does not fit the mood) nor spectacular about it. Overall, a nice job was done, but it is nothing to write home about.

In all, Vampire Hunter D is an excellent movie, not just in the realm of anime, but in films in general. It has a definite sprit of adventure that crosses both the action and fantasy / sci-fi genre. I highly recommend Vampire Hunter D to fans of any of those genres. It is a fantastic film that really surprised me.

--DragonmasterDan

Distributor: Streamline Pictures, Urban Vision
Creator: Hideyuki Kikuchi, Epic / Sony Inc
Released: 1985

Plot: A+
Character Design: A
Animation Quality: B
Music: B
Overall: A