Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust (Anime Review)

I seem to be in a minority of people who enjoyed Van Helsing. It wasn't a good film by any means, it was silly beyond belief and verged on being an outright parody at times. Those criticisms hold true even among those who enjoyed it, but perhaps the greatest problem was how it played everything as a joke. Where am I going with this? Well, Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust offers a glimpse into that film if it were done well.

The two share more than a few general story elements. Each hero is a damned if noble figure who is clearly a part of a bigger story, vampires are the main enemies and there is a frequently hostile relationship between two of the main hunters. Some monsters show signs of nobility, and there's enough blood on display to rival Sleepy Hollow. The main difference is that whereas Van Helsing was steam/gear/spindle/stuffpunk, Bloodlust is post-apocalyptic cyberpunk. 


Synopsis

Set in a world where a fragmented human civilization has been forced to content with supernatural and mutated creatures, D serves as a bounty hunter. A half-breed, the dhampir is oathbound to hunt and destroy all vampires in his path, and one new case has taken his interest. A young human woman by the name of Charlotte has been kidnapped by Baron Meier Link, but seemingly without any intention of turning or feeding upon her. D takes the job at a high price, and is forced to contend with both a group of rival hunters and ghosts of the old world in pursuit of his quarry.


The Good

Perhaps the most interesting part of Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust is how it's treated as just another job for the hero. The events are certainly exceptional, the outcome for many characters is tragic and many wonders show up on screen. Yet, D himself treats this as if it's nothing out of the ordinary, and with a dispassionate expectation at every turn. While in the hands of a lesser screenwriter this would make the world seem boring, it instead accomplishes the exact opposite. 

D's mild surprise at finding certain relics, his familiarity with lost elements and easy readiness to brave all sorts of dangers makes it clear that this is just another day at the job for him. The world is one of technologically advanced bunkers, parasitic sentient lifeforms and scattered settlements relying on fragments of bygone ages. His treatment of them makes you often wonder just what could show up next at any point. If this sounds odd, just think of Dredd for a moment. The film sees two highly trained police officers take out a massive drugs ring, combat internal corruption and rack up a massive body count across several firefights in the line of duty. Yet nothing about this suggests this is out of the ordinary for Judge Dredd himself. This helps to better implicate what sort of world he's in without specifically highlighting it, and the life he leads.

To continue the Dredd comparison for a moment, D himself is something of a static character but that plays to his strengths. He's professional, quiet and distant, often having his actions speak for him. Yet he is not simply a blank slate, and much of his impact on the story stems from how his decisions have changed the lives of others. Whether it's a quiet scene conversing with a rival hunter about fate and eventually fulfilling a promise decades in the making, or the stories stemming from past missions in rural towns, these moments are used to give him some much-needed substance. As such, while his persona and behaviour does not change, he manages to escape the boredom which so often comes with such heroes, and instead has a legendary quality to his actions.

What is most surprising is how streamlined and briskly paced the story behind Bloodlust truly is. Every ounce of fat in any scene, any moment which seems unnecessary to the story has been repeatedly trimmed away, until you're left with a film which never drags. The closest it comes to this is in a few quieter moments, but these serve as both a break between several intense fights and for some much-needed development among its side characters. This could have so easily backfired in so many ways, from the film's focus never staying on a single location to rarely pausing to fully expand upon characters or scenes. Yet it manages to overcome this hurdle by having small but quite meaningful moments peppered throughout the film, hinting at greater stories we never fully see. It's something that Yoshiaki Kawajiri's best films often benefit from, and it means that you have the relentless rush of a popcorn film but an experience which always stays with you. It works, as even the disposable cannon fodder characters stay in your mind until the film's end.

Still, you might be wondering about the actual fighting in this vampire hunting OVA. My answer - Do you really need to ask? The fact Yoshiaki Kawajiri's name is attached (the same guy behind both Ninja Scroll and Highlander: The Search for Vengeance) should tell you all you need to know. The animation is almost unnervingly fluid, and the fights never make the mistake of repeating themselves. When a fight turns into a sword duel atop of a carriage moving at full speed, it pulls out all the stops. You will have the scene go through every possible stunt, attack and engagement possible without upstaging later fights, so the film can move onto something new. Each is visually distinct, and the film constantly changes gears to offer you something new at every turn. It even tries to find new ways to keep having older characters use their abilities in entirely new ways, preventing fights from becoming repetative.

Most prominently though, the film is ultimately extremely beautiful. Even in its bleakest moments, there's a sense of real wonder to the world. The sheer attention to detail with character designs and locations gives it a sense of truly being lived-in, with patch-jobs or personal modifications. You can honestly pause the film at any point in any number of scenes, and suddenly spot a dozen new details you otherwise would have missed. This only further supports the visual storytelling and strengths of Bloodlust, and gives you more of an incentive to pay close attention to the environments.


The Bad

The difficulty in citing Bloodlust's problems is that you can all too easily criticise it for things it was never trying to accomplish. Only touching on certain historical details over fully explaining them is certainly one point, but as is D's relatively static development, or the high body count. You can certainly level criticisms against them, but usually such "flaws" exist in service to another cause.

However, the true failing of the film above all others lies in its villains. It's not that Meier Link lacks pathos or a personality, or that his mysterious patron doesn't have a story behind them. It's just that the film never allows them a chance to properly take advantage of them. Much of the story uses them as a vehicle to drive the story forward or, in the later stages, as a direct threat over full characters. Link certainly gets a few moments where these shine through, but while they are well executed these are just that, moments within the story. Another character does comment on the world's history and offers a few interesting bits of information, but by the end they simply become something for D to fight as the proverbial final boss of the work.

What's more, the age of Bloodlust's source material has a frustrating habit of shining through at the worst times. The repetition of D's nature as a half-breed (and its irksome mistranslation as "dunpeal") comes up too many times by far within the script, and certain character moments have a dynamic which veers close to cliche at key points. Some of this can certainly be put down to the original story but, given the liberties Bloodlust was allowed to take, several of these seem like they should have been easy to fix. As a result, the story can appear ill conceived during the first act, which can definitely put off audiences.


The Verdict

On the whole, Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust is a damn good outing. It's not nearly so substantial as other outings, but Kawajiri has always excelled at giving something enough substance to keep you engaged, while maintaining everything else on style. Even if you're an adamantly opposed to the bloodsuckers in all fiction, this is one of the few exceptions where it keeps their more cliched qualities just out of focus enough to keep offering fun new things to offset them.

Even at the few points where Bloodlust has slower moments, the atmosphere, animation and implications usually win out. As frustrating as it can be for it to not better expand on certain world-building details, the glimpses are enough to still make it quite engaging. Especially when it comes to the hints of what sort of society the vampire's once ruled. So, if you have the time and a few quid to spare, definitely give this one a watch.

Verdict: 8.2 out of 10