Forum - View topicREVIEW: Vampire Hunter D Blu-Ray
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Fronzel
Posts: 1906 |
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Wait for the Bloodlust Blu-ray instead.
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PurpleWarrior13
 Posts: 2035 |
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I enjoy this film. It's not great, but it's a nice piece of retro campy fun (and I really wish it's original, far more fitting, dub was included). D is a pretty cool character, and I'm really interested in reading the original novels. They're probably much better, and I really hope the material gets a better adaptation. Bloodlust is a better film, but I still think the character can get better treatment.
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Key
Moderator
 Posts: 18508 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
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The problem with that, PurpleWarrior13, is that the character really doesn't get better treatment in the novels. I've read four of the novels in all - the first two and a pair in the double-digit volume numbers which form a two-volume arc - and the characterization of D never expands much. I wasn't exaggerating when I said that the movie actually gives D more personality than the books do.
Anyway, I may or may not also review Bloodlust, as I already have the DVD for that one but never had one for the first movie. (That's the main reason why I picked up its BR.) |
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Kikaioh
 Posts: 1205 Location: Antarctica |
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The OVA is campy (and D is really cool), but I consider it generally pretty bad, esp. compared to Bloodlust (which is one of the best anime movies ever created). My memory's a bit vague, but the one moment from the original OVA that killed it for me was towards the end during a wagon scene, when various characters all coincidentally show up at the same spot. It just came across as a sloppy and immersion-crushingly convenient way to tie up loose ends, which is one of the main reasons I didn't consider it at all that good. That said, I can see how viewing it back in the day might have been memorable if you picked it up at a local comic book shop and watched it with pizza and good friends, but outside of something like that I can't see this work as really enjoyable by itself.
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pachy_boy
Posts: 1341 |
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This movie was a real P.O.S. when I saw it, the kind that made me angry for wasting my time watching it (the X-1999 movie was painfully similar). Even though I heard Bloodlust was more widely favored, I had avoided seeing that for so long because that was how much the first movie left a bad taste in my mouth. It wasn't until by chance I read a customer review saying that Bloodlust had more story and point to it and wasn't as over-the-top with its violence (certainly not to such tasteless levles) that I finally twisted my own arm into giving it a try--and boy was the difference like night and day and a huge breath of fresh air. Still waiting for my copy of the blu-ray for that one.
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Gina Szanboti
Posts: 11626 |
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Wow, that was a surprising factoid. VHD seems like it was eons ago, while Rider feels much more recent. If I'd have had to guess blind, I would have put D in the late 80s (probably when I saw it on SciFi) and Rider a decade later. 
It really has been eons since I've seen D. What I mostly remember about it was a lot of entrails spilling out everywhere.  I probably should watch it again sometime. Maybe do a double feature with Bloodlust.
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PurpleWarrior13
Posts: 2035 |
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Fair enough, though I think the character might actually be more effective better if more of him was left mysterious and to our imaginations. |
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walw6pK4Alo
 Posts: 9322 |
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I saw Bloodlust first sometime back in 2002/2003ish, and VHD85 soon after. The friend I watched them with was definitely more excited about Bloodlust, and I agree, it's just simply more fun to watch unless you're aiming for that mid 80s not-quite-expensive-looking feature that VHD85 offers. Maybe if it had come out two years later it could have been a widescreen feature with a higher budget, but the BD makes it look as good as going to see it for probably another decade.
Now, I am more curious about how Bloodlust's BD turns out because Justin mentioned that the transfer and production on that thing aren't perfect. |
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Key
Moderator
Posts: 18508 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
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I don't recall what he said on this. Did he say there were issues with the Japanese BD or with the (much earlier) American DVD, the latter of which I have? |
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Lord Geo
Posts: 2700 Location: North Brunswick, New Jersey |
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Pretty much, from what I remember reading, VHD:B has never been given a BD release before, Discotek's is the very first one, and the movie itself was a weird cel/digital mix that essentially made it impossible to properly make the movie shine in HD as much as it should; it's not an upscale, but it's not a complete remaster either. In the end, the BD for the movie is apparently still better than the original DVD on the whole, but the difference in video quality isn't quite as stark as Sentai's VHD BD is, which was a proper remaster. |
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TurnerJ
Posts: 483 Location: Highland Park, NJ |
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I was never a fan of the Streamline dub, so I welcome Sentai's new effort. David Wald is especially good as Count Lee. I also liked the use of accents in this one. Giving the Count and Larmika upper-class accents is appropriate for their status. For me, this new dub enhanced the movie.
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Key
Moderator
Posts: 18508 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
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Hmmm, that's giving me a bit more incentive to get the BD (which comes out tomorrow as I write this) and give it a look-over, then, since I have the DVD to do a proper comparison. |
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dtm42
Posts: 14084 Location: currently stalking my waifu |
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Yeah, I found Bloodlust to be far superior to the 80s original. That said I saw VHD very early on in my time as a fan (holy crap, it's been a decade), and I'm overdue for a rewatch. A BR does sound pretty tempting, especially since I have more disposable cash than usual right now.
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yamiangie
 Posts: 465 |
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He's not supposed to be a dynamic character that changes much, but I'm not sure that anyone he meets really changes for the better after meeting him. It doesn't help that the plot of most books is everyone wanders around tripling into each other periodically why looking for the Vampire. Though Twin Pale Knights sort of proves at this point D with personality is just bizarre to see. |
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JaggedAuthor
 Posts: 981 |
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I was always unclear on why people enjoy this film so much. When I got into anime in the late '90s, this was one of the titles everyone recommended, and after seeing it on Sci-Fi's Saturday Anime, I was less than impressed. I always chalked its success in the U.S. up to the fact that there wasn't a lot of commercially available anime at the time of its release. Granted, I also thought Akira, Ninja Scroll and the original Ghost in the Shell film were overrated, so maybe I'm just difficult to please.
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