Audience reviews
20 · Sample from the first available page, separate from the total number of ratings.
DanteDemonZ
For one of the classic anime movies, Vampire Hunter D looks more significant than it is. Visually, it impresses. The gothic art direction, bleak landscapes, and Yoshitaka Amano’s designs give it a striking, enduring identity. The atmosphere is strong throughout, capturing a lonely, decaying realm of blended science fiction and horror at its best.
Unfortunately, the aesthetic outshines everything else. The writing is blunt, the dialogue often cringeworthy, and the mood inconsistent. The gothic horror story undermines itself with awkward pacing, abrupt tonal shifts, and moments of unintended comedy. Scenes intended for tension or tragedy land as absurd, with sudden deaths, exaggerated villainy, or poorly timed interruptions breaking immersion.
The characters suffer the most from this. Dori…
Read at the sourceKaname94
Without EXTENDED knowledge of the background this anime just happens. Scenes without connection, sentences without weight, action without deep motives. The worst of Berserk outclasses this in about every aspect. Have you seen extremely poor video game/manga adaptation before? No? Look no further this is it. Whom to recommend?
Kids? Cannot due to gore and nudity...
Young adults? Maybe, but even there, most anime contains far more weight, hype, character.
Perhaps with time it was tuned too well with later coming shows, but this anime itself today is unwatchable at best.
Do yourself a favor, there are plenty other anime out there. Do not let over the 7 score fool you~
I have not logged in for ages, did so now only to help others to avoid the mistake I did as a horror/anime/gore/mystical/vam…
Read at the sourceLemmy7003
I went into Vampire Hunter D with a lot of hopes. I’d heard about the film for years, and there are few things that get me excited then some weird-ass, edgy as balls vampire slaying action with some delightfully 80’s style. And whilst I got some delicious art and at least a bit of fun action, Vampire Hunter D fell way below my expectations, falling into a lot of the problems a lot of anime just seem to naturally have.
First, I’ll start with the good stuff – generally, this film looks great. It’s opening scene, in particular was fantastic – the dark, grassy fields, the legendary reveal of Count Lee, and Doris slaughtering the monster attacking her horse. It’s all fantastic and set my expectations really high for the rest of the film. The general design of the film is really well made, even…
Read at the sourcezetsushiki
My friend introduced me to Vampire Hunter D. Apparently this is some kind of classic, so I decided to check it out. He is a huge fan of this but I didn't even know that this movie existed in the first place.
The art for this movie is pretty great especially for a 1985 film. Someone into today's anime may not enjoy this one though, but I'm used to the art style as I watched the old animes from the 80's before, like Ranma 1/2. The animation is very fluid, colors are nice to look at. Probably not the best art if you compared it to today's standards for anime. It also contains some nudity. ( Cover your eyes, children! )
I think what drew me in the most would be the story. It was very interesting to watch, and I could feel the horror and suspense as I watched it. Plot may be difficult to unde…
Read at the sourceFAKEANIMEGIRL
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So I was unexpectedly a big fan of the 2000 Vampire Hunter D movie, which surprised me with its unique and highly atmospheric setting backed up by beautiful art and a heavy Gothic tone. It might've etched its way into my top five anime movies, and it became a given I'd have to see this one as I was desperate for anything more. My hopes weren't high thanks to the awful poster currently on MyAnimeList, but fortunately the movie has more things in common with what I liked about the 2000 movie than things that separate it.
This 1985 adaptation of the novel series is distantly connected to the 2000 one due to the fact that Vampire Hunter D is basically an anthology series. I was initially worried…
Read at the sourceFiviG
*If you are thinking about watching Bloodlust consider watching this first!*
I don't say that because there is any continuity to the movies, there technically isn't as far as i know. But watching this before Bloodlust allows you to get a better sense of the main character D. This is important because fast forward 15 years (real world) to when Bloodlust is made and D is still the same age just doing another job. It's kinda crazy but if you accept the internal logic of the movies, watching both movies (starting with this one) is a better experience than just Bloodlust. In doing so, you can really look at the D movies as episodic adventures in the same story.
So, this movie serves to give the viewer some background information on D, that the viewer can then take into Bloodlust. And because…
Read at the sourceLuquillo
Along with Akira, Vampire Hunter D is one of those old anime titles where its popularity is based pretty much on one thing and that's nostalgia. When nostalgia runs wild it can definitely cloud one's honest judgment. However, Vampire Hunter D does a decent enough job backing up why it's an entertaining film; but to claim it as one of, or even the greatest of all time in terms of sheer quality are heavy exaggerations and thrusts one towards complete madness. The works of Miyazaki and Satoshi Kon are tough as hell to compete against and this is more of a fact than opinion.
The movie does have one big thing going for it which is style. I like the mix of sci-fi with the classical Transylvania setting; to include the monsters and flesh eating beast that roam the country sides devouring live st…
Read at the sourceaniman095
Exciting, thrilling, mysterious.
This rather old movie, is definitely a masterpiece for it's era. Taking into consideration it's age, you simply can't attempt to compare it to mordern animes, by those standards it falls rather short. But, if you judge it according to the standards of the time it was made, you find a fast-paced filled with action and horror that can easily outmatch many horror movies, be it animated or acted.
You also find in it many aspects of horror, that are fairly common in movies and series following the same genere.
Although to tell the truth, the story had such a fast pace that all the critical scenes didn't have much impact; but at this point one can't do much about so it's best to enjoy it.
Visually, it obviously had a very old style of animation, but neverless…
Read at the sourceliteraturenerd
Overview:
Time to look at a 1985 classic that made a huge impact on the popularity of anime in the US. It is the height of the Cold War and Reagan is in the White house. This was before Akira and Ghost in the Shell and besides Speed Racer and Astro Boy, Americans had no idea what anime was. All of a sudden we Americans see a cartoon with ultra violence, tits, and crazy steampunk nonsense that is never explained. We take one look at this incoherent acid trip and go...FUCK THIS IS AWESOME! This was the birth of the teen and older anime community in the United States. This is Vampire FUCKING D!
Plot and characters: 5/10
The plot is that 10,000 years the future, vampires have taken over the world and human civilization is a mixed up mess of modern technology and 1800s Romanian peasantry. Wh…
Read at the sourcekekekeKaj
Originally a series of novels about a vampire hunter who is half vampire himself, Vampire Hunter D's first transition to the anime world takes the form of this self-titled OVA from 1985. At the time of writing, the ever reliable Wikipedia describes this OVA as "a cult classic among English-speaking audiences". Amidst the lavishing praise - the effect of which is spoiled somewhat by the clumsy prose - there's a bit which notes that the OVA featured "memorable voice acting performances in both English and Japanese". Now, aside from struggling to recall anyone lauding the original "Vampire Hunter D", I've also watched "Vampire Hunter D" in dub myself, and the only way I would describe that dub as being "memorable" would be to couple it with an adjective synonymous with "shit".
Despite being…
Read at the sourceShura-shurato
One of the Movies from the 80´s considered as cult and its definetly not your everyday anime to watch, and its SCARY as hell at some points if you are quite familliar with vampire stories.Personaly i choose this over the bloodlust version because i like the oldskool art, unscensored violence and the animation in sketched and books is just brilliant, and for this im looking for the older audience. and D itself was one of anime's all time fav heroe's. The music is sometimes repetitive but it has good opera music with violent scene´s and the best of all: IT WAS FULLY HANDDRAWN!
Read at the sourceMadTitanProd
Vampire Hunter D is part of my collection and is also one of my favorites. (I’d go with VHD1: 9.1 VHD2 9.0 for those wondering). The main character, Vampire Hunter D, highlights and stars in this 1985 classic that is set thousands of years in the future where Vampires once ruled man, but now are being slowly erased.
The animation is done with very dark brooding colors. Backgrounds in many scenes are just black. The characters even sometimes don dark apparel in the blackness making where you watch it so important if you want to see the 80s anime artwork and character design. This makes it tough to see if you aren’t watching at night with the lights off (my personal recommendation). It really does a great job of setting the mood, however, with creatures coming out of the darkness that have…
Read at the sourcebarcaman101
A thoroughly enjoyable movie from start to finish.A beatiful girl called Doris is biten by the count,a vampire over 10,000 years old who wants her as his wife,when all seems hopless a mysterious stranger riding on a horse appears.He is D,a half vampire ,half human{dunpeel}who is a vampire slayer.Now i know what your saying sounds cliche!! well the story although quite simple{which isnt a bad thing } entails some fantastic elements,such as awesome fight scenes with lots of blood and gore.The characters are also very well done with demons of varied abilities.The animation was nice,dated which some or most might not like but it didnt bother me.The character line-up for this movie is also quite good and realistic in their attitude.All-in-all a very entertaining show
Read at the sourceComposerLOST
If you read the book, and you're looking for a good adaptation, don't bother with this. The plot for this movie has been changed a lot from the book, and the art and music don't make up for it.
If you haven't read the book (you should), then really, DON'T watch this. If you haven't already enjoyed the real story, this wouldn't even have the appeal of being loosely related to that.
I highly recommend the second movie Bloodlust, as it captures the essence of the series much better, and is a better movie overall. The original movie is entirely skippable, as the second movie is quite self-contained.
Read at the sourcevalarclan
First off I do not like vampire stories.
I just have a hard time buying into the idea of them.
Sesame Street's "The Count" ruined it for me I think.
That or Count Chocula....
But the idea is interesting....
Style dated...
but there are other anime's of more interest.
That is not to say I would refuse to see it with friends if they wanted to see it.
Heck, at least its not a DBZ show!
Read at the sourceatsarmo
From start to finish this movie is a true miracle. Vampire Hunter D is a movie that if you consider your self a fan of anime you must see to be credible. The monsters, the gore, the story, the atmosphere, the themes, the setting...all done so wonderfully.
The art is amazing, though dates, nobody can deny this hand drawn gem. The way shadow is illustrated is so uniwue and japanese you will think your mind is playing tricks on you and hallucinating. The cross hatch work is something that is so hard to replicate.
D is a great character too. Watching him interact with this bleak, evil, daunting, and demonic world of the future is so good for some reason. I don't know, maybe it is just a nice shot of the 80s for me when I watch this but it is truly my favorite vampire flick ever. I have seen…
Read at the sourceVenneh
Title: Vampire Hunter D
Novels, Manga, Anime: Vampire Hunter D was originally a series of seventeen novels written by Hideyuki Kikuchi and illustrated by Yoshitaka Amano (famous for his work on character designs and the logos for the Final Fantasy series) starting in 1983.
Vampire Hunter D was adapted into two separate media; manga and comics. The manga was an adaptation in which Kikuchi hand-picked the artist, Saiko Takaki, began running in 2007, was licensed Stateside by Digital Media Publishing, and is currently ongoing. The comic, whose rights were acquired Devil's Due Publishing (the parent company of Digital Media Publishing) in July 2008, is known as Vampire Hunter D: American Wasteland, and will be written by Jimmy Palimotti (known for writing the Sci-Fi series Painkiller Jane an…
Read at the sourcezaburai
Well to be honest this "classic" certainly dosen't live up to itself and i will explain why.
Story: Your normal boring vampire story, vampire wants to kill me so I will get a vampire hunter eh boring. It mixes up things with the vampines but overall the story is very bland and boring
Art: I didn't mark it down because it was old but because it is so dark and blue? Yes blue, I have to say sometimes it is hard to see anything as the screen is so dark.
Music.......was there any as I didn't hear any.
Character: practically no character development, the characters are pretty forgetful.
If you are thinking of buying this for a fiver don't!! save that fiver for some good anime not this dribble.
Read at the sourceJTurner
VAMPIRE HUNTER D has always been a cult favorite of many Anime fans dating all the way back to what historians would call the "dark days of Anime". Back then, Anime had limited exposure to American audiences, aside from the occasional showing of children's cartoons often mangled and edited. But with the release of Katsuhiro Otomo's controversially violent but nonetheless brilliant AKIRA, an interest in edgy, darkly animated, gritty features from the Land of the Rising Sun was ignited, and so it followed with several titles imported. This low-budget animated direct-to-video feature from 1985 was one of them. Based on a book by renowned Japanese Horror author Hideyuki Kikuchi sporting smoky-hazed illustrations by Yoshitaka Amano (who would later gain cult status for his work on the classic F…
Read at the sourcePhill-z
I own every Vampire Hunter D light novel. I've read all of them at least three times (it's really easy they're only about 200 pages) So when I saw this movie I spent a good portion of my time going ".......what?"
Story: The story is ok. I felt they spent too much time focusing on the story when it would have been much better for them to use the story to transition the action scenes. They make it a little less complicated than the book, but not to the point where it really detracted from it.
Art: The art is VERY old-school. You have to get over that very quickly or else you're not going to enjoy this anime at all. That old-style seemed so uninspired to me, it wasn't trying to be incredibly original and it wasn't.
Sound: With the old-school art comes the old-school sound effects..again g…
Read at the source