Vampire Hunter D
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The character of D is a dhampir (mistranslated in the films first as dampeal, and later as dunpeal), a child of a vampiric father and a human mother. He is the host of a sentient parasite, which appears as a face in his left palm, enjoys annoying D to no end, and can suck in massive amounts of matter. D rides a horse with mechanical legs and wields a long-bladed sword and wears the mystical blue pendant. He hides his face with long hair and a wide-brimmed hat.
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Animated movies
Vampire Hunter D
The first film is set some 10,000 years in the future in the year 12,090 A.D. where a vampiric nobility terrorizes human peasants. A young girl, Doris Lang, is attacked by Count Magnus Lee, and later encounters a mysterious horseman, D, whom she hires to protect her farm from the vampires' predations. Unable to provide monetary recompense, she offers her body to do with as he pleases, but he refuses, yet decides to assist her because not only is he a Dhampir, he is a gentleman to boot.
When Doris is kidnapped by Count Lee, D and Doris' little brother Dan travel to Lee's gigantic fortress to rescue her. During the rescue, it is revealed that D is the son of Dracula.
The novel this anime is based on has recently been released in English on June 2005 due to popular English demand.
Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust
The second film, Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust, is set 2000 years after the first film which would be in the year 14,090 A.D. Bloodlust, directed by Yoshiaki Kawajiri is widely regarded as being the cinematic superior of the two due to advanced animation techniques, better voice-acting, and a better soundtrack. The second Vampire Hunter D movie (VHD2000; Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust in the USA) is based on the third of Hideyuki Kikuchi's series of Vampire Hunter D novels (殺妖行).
In this film, vampires are a dwindling breed, and one of the last, Meier Link, has kidnapped a human girl, Charlotte. Her father hires D to find her. He also hires the Markus brothers, Borgoff, the leader of the group who battles using a special repeating cross bow that he wears on his glove. Nolt, a behemoth of a man who fights with an enormous hammer. Kyle, who battles with a special pair of bumerang like blades that spin on his fingertips. Grove who battles as a spectre like being after given a special shot. And Leila, the only woman of the group who, while not a member of the Markus family, fights along side them using one big ass pistol. In a touching scene in the movie she tells D, who has buired himself after suffering a heat syndrom attack, that she became a Hunter to avenge her parents who were the victums of vampires. In this same scene she forms a pact with D that if either one of them survives, the surviver can bring flowers to the others grave. D agrees because, as he says, because he is a "dunpeal" he doesn't get to have a life like she doe's. The two parties race inexorably toward a final confrontation with Link, but not before battling the mutant Barberois -- mercenary bodyguards and warriors with mystical powers led by a strange old man who moves around on a unicycle. In time its revealed that Charlotte is in love with Meier and they travel to a "pathway to the stars" where they can love each other without being shunned and harmed by humans. As the story ends, all the Markus brothers, except for Leila, are killled, and D is forced to fight Carmilla, the ghost of a long-dead vampire Countess who tries to re-animate her physical body by draining the blood of Link and Charlotte. Her character is based around the myths surrounding the Countess Elizabeth Bthory. At the movies end, some years after the events of the castle, a funeral is held for Leila who decided to settle down and end her job as a Hunter. D arrives at the funeral and is greeted by Leila's grandaughter and is invited to stay with them for a while but D recligns saying that he simply came to "repay a favor to an old friend, who feared no one would mourn her death." The girl thanks him for coming and D replies by smiling gently at her. As D leaves his left hand comments on how he wasn't such a bad guy after all. He just dresses bad.
Notes
The name of the head vampire in the 1985 movie, Count Lee, was of course named as an homage to Christopher Lee who played the role of Dracula in a long series of Hammer Films.
External link
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- Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust Official Website (http://www.vampirehunterdbloodlust.com/)
- The Vampire Hunter D archives (http://www.altvampyres.net/vhd/)
- DHpress Books (http://www.dhpressbooks.com)ja:吸血鬼ハンターD