Vampire Hunter D DVD
Vampire Hunter D, 1985, is one of the first anime films released outside of Japan and remains a cult classic in the English-speaking world. Billed by the Japanese producers as a “dark future science-fiction romance”, Vampire Hunter D is set in the year 12,090 A.D., in a post-nuclear holocaust world where a vampiric Nobility terrorizes human peasants.
While making her rounds, the whip-wielding seventeen-year-old Doris Lang, daughter of a deceased werewolf hunter, is attacked by Count Magnus Lee (named for the eponynmous “Count Magnus” of a short story by M. R. James and Hammer Films’ famed vampire actor, Christopher Lee), the long-vanished vampire lord said to be over 10,000 years old. Out of sheer boredom, Magnus intends to make Doris his new zombie-like vampire bride, marking her with a telltale bite. Doris later encounters a reticent and mysterious horseman, D (the first wandering hunter she has been unable to drive away or defeat), whom she hires to protect her from the vampires.
The young hunter girl becomes enmeshed as the pawn in a conflict between Count Lee, his daughter Ramika, the mutant servant Rei Ginsei — and Greco Rohman, the town mayor’s son who wants the feisty Doris for himself. When Doris is kidnapped by Count Lee, D battles his way into Lee’s gigantic fortress to rescue her. Ramika’s loyalties are torn when she becomes disgusted with her father’s lack of “nobility.”
A long rescue with episodic battles ensues, as D races to defeat the count in time to prevent Doris’ transformation into a vampire. At first, it seems Count Lee is too much for him; however, D prevails. With the count defeated, the castle crumbles, and D escapes with Doris and her brother Dan. D sets off under a now clear blue sky. Doris and her little brother wave him off as D looks back briefly and smiles. He then rides off into the sunset.
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