AniInterview Sorry, this movie sucks

CrawlerChunky In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

StyleSk8r At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

Sarita Rafferty There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

Tweekums This film is set in the distant future in a world where vampires exist but their numbers are dwindling thanks to the actions of the Vampire Hunters.When Charlotte, the daughter of the wealthy Elbourne family, is apparently kidnapped by the vampire Baron Meier Link her father hires vampire hunters to bring her back. One of the hunter is a dhampir, a half vampire, half human hybrid, known as 'D'. His chief competition are the Marcus brothers who work alongside a woman called Leila who has personal reasons for hating vampires. As the story progresses they will get into numerous fights against a variety of demonic creatures as each is determined to rescue Charlotte and collect the reward. It was never going to be easy but things get even more complicated when it becomes apparent that Charlotte left with Meier of her own free will because she is in love with him. As well as seeing various fights we learn of D's past and just what motivates Leila. It is also clear that not everybody is going to survive.This is an exciting vampire anime. There is lots of action; this is well animated with plenty of proper movement… no need to worry about various ways of depicting action that are relatively static that are all too often employed to save on the animation budget. The characters are interesting; it was more nuanced than just having evil vampires and heroic humans… Meier is surprisingly sympathetic given that he is introduced as the villain. The film had a good look; lots of greys and browns and characters that looked fairly realistic for an animation. I must admit that when I picked this up I was a little disappointed to find it was dub only but when I started watching that didn't bother be at all; I think the voice cast did a fine job. Overall I'd certainly recommend this to fans of anime and vampires.

Irishchatter So after watching the 1985 version of Vampire Hunter D, I began to watch this one. I have to say I was really disappointed with this as a sequel! There was no flow to the story, the new characters were really annoying and the animation was giving me a headache. I just think they needed to give Vampire Hunter D a sequel because they thought the first one wasn't as popular as it should. In my personal opinion, I thought the first movie had the scare and dedication in it whereas this sequel had absolutely nothing for me to enjoy watching it. I don't think this should have a IMDb rating of 7.8 and 62% positive mega score. If I was IMDb, I would give this a 5.2 rating and no mega score. Although the bonus is that this wasn't nominated or had won any awards. Really, it doesn't deserve anything in my opinion, I'm giving this a 1/10 rating. Disappointing...............

Rectangular_businessman I must confess that I never understood all the hype about the original "Vampire Hunter D" movie: In my opinion, that movie was boring and poorly made, having very bad animation (Even for the time when it was made) clichéd characters, a generic plot which failed to deliver any sort of entertainment…Fortunately this new animated film(done by the same director of "Ninja Scroll") success in every single aspect where the previous "Vampire Hunter D" anime film failed: The animation is good, the designs are cool and stylish, the characters are interesting and better developed (Not like the annoying cardboard characters from the other movie) being also highly entertaining from the beginning to the end. The music is more than adequate, fitting very well for the atmosphere of each scene, capturing all the Gothic-western and post apocalyptic elements from the story.Even when the plot isn't something incredibly deep or complex, it still works very well.Personally, I think that this movie is much better than the other "Vampire Hunter D" movie in every single aspect. I highly recommend it.

The Emperor's Bride I bought a DVD of this movie a few years ago when it was on sale in a local store, even though I didn't know anything else about it than what I'd read from the blurb. My initial reaction to this film was that it was boring, disappointing, and clichéd, and I just didn't like it one bit. So I just hid the DVD in a secluded corner because one look at the cover made me remember that I'd wasted money and a little over an hour of my time for something that failed to entertain me.Nearly two years later, I had a sudden urge to watch the film again. Strangely enough, I really liked it this time. I don't know what had changed, but my opinion of it isn't as harsh as it originally was anymore. I guess I just learned to appreciate things I'd overlooked the firs time I watched it. Or maybe it just took some time for it to grow on me.So, anyways, this movie is based on Hideyuki Kikuchi's series of novels about a brooding half-vampire, half-human vampire hunter known simply as D. Set in a time thousands of years ahead in the future, the lonely rider D hunts down creatures of the underworld for a fee in a world once ruled by a race of elite vampires, who have originally overthrown humans after a nuclear war swept the earth but are now falling into extinction, thanks to merciless hunters such as D himself. The plot isn't hugely original. In fact, it's nothing anyone familiar with half-decent modern vampire fiction hasn't already heard a hundred times. The deadpan D - and a rivaling group of tough vampire hunters - is hired to chase down a powerful vampire by the name of Meier Link, who has kidnapped a human girl called Charlotte. Halfway through the hunt, however, D begins to suspect that the girl has ran away with the vampire out of her own free will, though this doesn't stop D from carrying on with his mission. Enter sword-clanging, gore, big-busted anime babes, monsters, and endless musings about the existential anxiety of being a blood-lusting vampire.Though I quite enjoyed this film on the second viewing, the plot still failed to impress me. However, the charm of this movie isn't in the plot, but in the exquisite animation, and in the "mythology" of this movie. If anyone ever said that combining Western, Gothic horror, Science Fiction and Fantasy was impossible... well, they were wrong. Not only does Vampire Hunter D bring all this sub-genres of pulp fiction together in a convincing manner, it also manages to do it entirely without the aid of parody or self-irony. That's a real achievement, and I failed to appreciate it on the first viewing.I think there is a lot of potential in the whole concept of Vampire Hunter D, though the plot of this particular film is overdone. I gave it quite high a rating mainly because of its visual merits. However, of they ever decide to do another as beautifully animated film based on the series, I'd be sure to check it out.