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Because "Vampire Hunter D" was released amidst a blossoming season of bloody, sexy Anime' films, it has earned a small cult following in America. As a fan of Anime', I know that Japanese animation is not all that welcome in American mainstream cinema because of the stigmas that are attached to it. "D" fits in with the eldest category: it's not short of graphic violence and gore, and there's some explicit nudity to boot. "Vampire Hunter D" is certainly one of the better Anime' flicks to be released during the 1980s, when most Japanese animation films were either relentless bloodbaths, borderline pornography, or both. Who can truly say? Maybe the new movie on the way will provide some answers.In the 13 years before Wesley Snipes would pick up a sword and proceed to slice and dice the undead that frequented blood-soaked raves in 1998's ultra-cool "Blade," the eponymous character "D" of "Vampire Hunter D" was slicing up vampires and other horrors on the Japanese countryside. Maybe he kills to make the world a better place. One thing is certain: he does not kill his chosen prey for the common reasons that other men do: money, power, prestige, or even love. Perhaps he instilled in his son the need to always protect those who are weaker than he from the many predators that this world had to offer (as a nobleman who felt a genuine, if patriarchial, concern for his people, it is not impossible that this would be so). Perhaps his father saw how the vampires were changing the world and not for the better. The big question regarding D is why? Why does he do what he does? I'm not sure that he actually killed his father, as his conversation with Count Lee's daughter would seem to disprove. By personal choice, he has cut himself off from all emotional ties to the people around him who, I'm fairly sure, will die long before he will (consider the comment regarding Doris' confession of love: "I know."). His terse dialogue makes Eastwood look as talkative as Groucho Marx. In the other, he is hated for his chosen profession. In one, he is barely tolerated out of necessity. A half-human, half-vampiric descendent of the legendary Count Dracula himself, he is a man of two worlds, yet not truly a part of either. If movies do indeed have a Tarot deck, as Stephen King suggests in "Danse Macabre", then D falls under the Eternal Loner (which also applies to such cinema protagonists as Eastwood's Man with No Name in the Sergio Leone spaghetti westerns and Lee Marvin's Walker in "Point Blank"). D wants.well, what does D want? Of all the characters in this story, D is the most enigmatic. The Count's time-twisting underling wants to go beyond his current station as loyal henchman. His daughter wants this marriage to be stopped. Count Lee wants to marry a bride to pass the time. Doris wants revenge on a personal level and safety for her village on a community one. Just like in the real world, everybody wants something. Evil is not portrayed as monolithic (if anything, it's shown as just amorality cubed) nor all humans automatically "good guys". The one thing I appreciated about this film was that no one in it is a cardboard cutout. Vampire Hunter D is the best example of such storytelling that I have seen in any recent fantasy piece (animated and non). One of the things I have learned to appreciate in my ongoing exploration of Japanese Anime is it's willingness to tell a reasonably adult, well-thought-out and plotted story.
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