By Jae-Ha Kim
Chicago Sun-Times
September 28, 2001
Urban Vision Entertainment presents an animated film directed and written by Yoshiaki Kawajiri.
Based on a novel by Hideyuki Kikuchi. Running time: 105 minutes. Rated R (for graphic violence).
Opening today at the Music Box Theatre.
With his waist-length black hair, dark somber eyes and skintight outfit, the star of “Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust” looks more like a beautiful, moody rock star than the half man/half vampire bounty hunter he is.
Never mind that he’s a cartoon character.
In the latest chapter of this popular Japanese animated franchise, D–a tormented bounty hunter who is ostracized by both humans and vampires–promises a wealthy man that he will retrieve his daughter, Charlotte, from the clutches of the aristocratic vampire Meier. For $20 million. (Bear in mind that a new horse sells for $300,000 in this film)
The father accepts, but with one caveat: If the girl has been bitten and “changed” into a vampire, D is ordered to kill her quickly.
Japanese animation–or anime–already has a cult following in the United States. And musicians such as Matthew Sweet mainstreamed anime by including authentic anime in their music videos.
The animation in “Vampire Hunter D” is uneven, especially in the beginning, when the stiff drawings look only slightly more interesting than the Pokemon films. But as the movie gains momentum and the characters enter a more enchanted realm, the hand-drawn animation is sophisticated and so realistic you’d swear it was, well, real. At other times, such as when water trickles down lush landscape, the shots take on the majestic beauty of a Monet still life painting.
The film sets D up to be the hero, but the viewer isn’t wholly unsympathetic to Meier. His love for Charlotte is so strong that he steps out into daylight to protect her. She obviously wasn’t taken against her will, either.
“I would rather die than go anywhere without him,” she says. You’ve got to wonder who’s worse here–Meier, who is never shown hurting a human being, or D and another team of competitive bounty hunters who will do anything for money.
The plotline fails to fill in some holes, such as how Charlotte fell in love with a vamp. Is he a vampire gone good, like Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s ex-boyfriend Angel? Or is he pretending to be good to win her love? His actions suggest the former, but if that’s the case, then who are D and the other bounty hunters really fighting? They don’t seem to care as long as they can kick some supernatural butt.
A generally dark film full of beheadings and lethal slashings, there is a little comic relief in the form of a parasite attached to D’s left hand (giving new meaning to the phrase, “Talk to the hand”). As chatty as a Disney critter, it tosses off one liners like, “You’re not so bad after all. You just dress bad.” Luckily, it has the added bonus of being able to suck in evil spells.
