Of the list of well-known mythological creatures, vampires seem to be the most mysterious, most alluringly beautiful existences conceived of and written about, and so it is hard to imagine that the anime industry seems to have major issues turning out a vampire title that actually captures these aspects in any sort of interesting way. Yet I could count on one hand the number of vampire anime I have seen that broke the level of average, and cut that number in half when limiting to those that could not have worked just as well without vampires in them at all. However, those few titles that are left have left quite an impression on me, and the powerful and intriguing Vampire Hunter D- Bloodlust is no exception.
The plot is somewhat standard fare for supernatural movies. Far in the future, vampires have been hunted nearly to extinction. A girl has been kidnapped by one of the few remaining vampires, and her family hires many different hunters to kill it and retrieve the girl. One of these hunters is D, himself a rare half-vampire half-human existence who has been alive for hundreds of years. He has faced discrimination and hunts for much of his life, but has also earned a reputation for his power and efficiency. He takes the job for double what he was originally offered; an opportunist in earnest. Along the way, we meet another set of hunters, the Marcus Brothers, who compete with him for the prize of returning the girl. We see them at times when they support and care for one another, and at times where they act downright sadistically towards the vampire and D. One fantastic point about the movie is that we see all the characters at their best and worst, and grow to accept each of them for who they are, and notions of good and evil become subverted fairly quickly. From D to the brothers, to the vampire and the girl and every other creature that goes bump in the night, we learn their motivations and empathize with the actions they take, even the ones that are seemingly impossible to stomach.
Another high point is the landscape and environments rendered. Rather than any abstract form of beautiful, the world of Bloodlust is painstakingly detailed, with majestic towers and decayed ruins, and particularly a number of fantastic bridges and one haunting staircase surrounded by floating candles. For an older work, the world is a marvel to behold, and even fleeting scenes in mundane deserts and forests are given a large amount of attention for the sake of world building. Additionally, the idea of a “distant future” is fully embraced, with advanced technology and crumbled remnants of a time much like ours. Every aspect of the world pulls us in and demands our attention and appreciation, even while remaining in the backdrop, never becoming relevant to the plot. This extends to the character designs, as well as their various powers and abilities. From a terrifying old man on a unicycle to the vampire’s cape suddenly taking the shape of a wing, the characters all leave a visual impression of some kind. Their powers are also memorable, particularly a werewolf-looking man with a set of enormous jaws on his stomach. Along with that come iconic weapons such as steel bolts, sickles, and D’s extremely thin curved blade. These sorts of details make the otherwise mundane fight scenes feel loved by the animators, who gave each character a trademark, something to call their own.
Bloodlust also takes a moment from time to time to allow us to appreciate the world while not having to think about any sort of plot whatsoever. In one scene near the beginning, D is chasing after the vampire’s trail, which leads him to a desert. As he begins to progress, a number of giant sand creatures jump out one after another, arcing through the sky in front of him. D, after thinking for a moment, jumps from one to another, eventually making it to the other side of their migration, where he continues on his journey. This scene will serve no future purpose, and has absolutely no relevance to any other scene. However, the sweeping desert, followed by the majestic sand creatures, is well worth the stop, and easily fits into the movie’s hour and forty minute runtime without making it seem any longer than it needed to be.
And for its length, {Vampire Hunter D} knows exactly what it wants to accomplish, with no extra side plots or explanations of the technology or magic at play. The characters are given motives and depth, but make do without us fully understanding their powers. In that sense, it functions well as a character study while keeping our perception of the power and mystique of vampires intact. Any more explanation and they would seem too much like normal humans, with only skin color and plot relevance to differentiate. The plot is not even at the center of the work, and so it was a smart choice to keep things from functioning exclusively to drive the story.
Because the most memorable aspect of the film is by far the theme of belonging. D, himself the product of the love between a human and a vampire, cannot fully understand what would compel humans and vampires to love one another. Within the Marcus brothers (not all real siblings), there is a girl who has been cast into the life of a hunter by her tragic upbringing, and in their group she found the means to live her life enacting revenge on the vampires. She slowly learns what life is like for D, living eternally as a hunted outcast, both among vampires and among humans. And eventually she even grows to understand the vampires themselves, and how there exists a line between killing for sport and drinking blood from necessity.
But when we ourselves look to the characters’ words to understand their loneliness, Bloodlust has pulled a fast one on us, the same one that The Godfather and Goodfellas pulled on us years prior. Despite what they say about their lives and motivations, every character in the movie has killed many people to get to where they are. When we see everyone in a very human way, we miss the aspects of them that everyone else fears. Unfortunately, this can be taken to somewhat out-of-character extremes, such as D’s occasional gentleness or the persistence that one vampire takes towards not committing any sins. It can feel at times as if we are led to empathize with them by removing reasons to feel anger towards them. The most tragic kind of bond we can have as viewers towards the characters is justifying their choices while being ever cognizant of their past and their devastating potential towards one another. It would have been better to interweave these two aspects to serve as a constant reminder of this tension.
Another minor point is that D, while certainly remaining mysterious and intriguing enough as a character, can feel to be a bit too perfect at times. He rarely loses in his fights, and despite being a loner of many centuries, he knows exactly what to say in social situations. He follows up on promises made over the course of 90 years, promises made during a job that should mean nothing in particular to him, made to people that should mean nothing in particular to him. At the very end, one line is given as a possible explanation of his overwhelming power, but it seems more like a deus ex machina sort of plot point that would only be relevant in a longer series. That said, we also get many moments of weakness for him, and for once the notion that sunlight is a vampire’s enemy is not left out of the equation, even for a half-breed like D. He also has moments of clear growth and emotional development, so it is even plausible to some degree that this job does mean something beyond the money to him. Certainly, the narrative compels us to believe that everyone found some sort of personal epiphany as a result of the actions that transpired, and certainly everyone is faced with a situation that directly challenges the views they may have had since they were born.
These growths add another layer of meaning onto the solid foundations of a great vampire story, all of which is supported by great design, music, and good narrative sense. Earlier, when I said that I was not counting shows that could have not had any vampires when counting good vampire shows, to still include this may have been cheating on some level. Truth be told, with its strong fundamentals, Bloodlust could have been a very strong and thoughtful story without vampires at all. That said, it was completely memorable for the vampires and their place within the story, and their presence allowed us to explore an expansive world from deserts to mountains to towns, villages, homes, castles, and every corner of spiritual significance. When I finished watching it, I was struck by the overwhelming urge to go back and reread Dracula, something I have not felt since high school. Given this urge in spite of my recent lack of interest in Western literature, that certainly overqualifies it as a vampire story to me.