VampireHunterD

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I know very little about the original, but the remade version (Bloodlust) is good. It's very stylish, and even the American voice actors weren't too bad (in particular D himself, thankfully. Our prize DVD was a dub ;_;).

Nope, the version released in Japan was dubbed :) Let's just hope they don't start picking up that idea for other releases... --K

Sorry, are you saying that the only version around is in English?! Ours was a region 1 DVD, anyway... - SunKitten

Yep. When it came out in Japan, it had the same soundtrack you heard (presumably with subtitles). There is no Japanese spoken soundtrack. --K

: So the stuff the parasite hand said was all intended to be there? Oh well... - SunKitten

Addition: http://www.altvampyres.net/vhd/d2ej.html has the differences between the original (!) English and the Japanese version - SunKitten (yes, I'm hooked)

Err... I'm really confused now. I was sure this was released in English in Japan so what on Earth are they fansubbing :/ --K

To horribly complicate things - it's english, but they decided to translate it to japanese (presumably because mainstream market in japan likes dubs) - and so fansubbers are translating it back again. Some people really like to listen to japanese and read english text, I guess. --Vitenka

: And of course, it's a version of a Japanese novel... >.< - SunKitten

Ah. Could be that the fansubbers really dislike the original translation, then. Dunno, from the little hunter I saw, it seemed decent enough. but then fansubber shave to be a little unhinged, or they wouldn't be doing it at all ;) --Vitenka

The plot - this is the future, where vampires are a dying breed but still present on earth. Vampire hunters are basically bounty hunters. The eponymous D is a 'dhampir' - a half vampire, who is 'despised by vampires for his profession and by humans for the blood in his veins', to quote from the back of the DVD. Meier Link, a notorious vampire, has kidnapped a human girl called Charlotte Elbourne, and D is hired to get her back, or to kill her if she has been changed (i.e. turned into a vampire). The girl's father also hired a group called the Markus Brothers, a team of more normal vampire hunters, equipped with a massive tank and various cool-looking weapons. D has a sword and a cyborg horse, and an extremely annoying parasite that manifests itself as a face in the palm of his left hand.

The story is not entirely predictable. It's an extremely stylish film, with incredibly detailed and very impressive backgrounds on every shot. The art is by YoshitakaAmano?, and is very pretty.

: There was a dire PlayStation game based on this. The plot is as you descibed, but it really wasn't very pretty... -- Xarak

What was the name of the spirit controller that was part of the Markus brothers team? I think he was one of the cooler characters (which is saying something in an anime like this ^^;) --K

Grove. He didn't get that much of a look in, actually - SunKitten

: True. Cool character though... --K

See http://www.altvampyres.net/vhd/ for lots and lots and lots of information, and also pictures and texts, about the 1985 film, the recent film (referred to above) and the books.

[Volume one translated].
SunKitten enjoyed it, despite knowing the overall plot. Some of the phrases are a little odd, presumably the result of translation. The author is clearly fond of D, but that's more or less forgiveable :) Volume 2 is out in September and 3 (on which the recent film was based) in January 2006.

OP = SunKitten
CategoryAnime, CategoryBooks