a5c7b9f00b When a girl is abducted by a vampire, a legendary bounty hunter is hired to bring her back. In the far distant future, vampires rule the night. But because of the fearless bounty hunters, their numbers dwindle. One such is D, a half-breed born of a human mother and a vampire father. He is hired by a father-son team to retrieve Charlotte, a lovely young lady, who was abducted by the vampire Meier Link. However, they also hired the Marcus Brothers for competition. In a race against time and across the lands, D and the Brothers fight their way through demons and monsters to save the woman, and slowly begin to suspect that she wasn't taken against her will...and that another threat looms in the distance... Alright, so once more there's yet ANOTHER anime film with tons of hype around it... And once more, why did I bother to believe the hype? Just like with Ghost in the Shell ( which is just an average movie ) I was prodded to death to check out the " Amazing " Bloodlust movie only to be treated to substandard animation with too much of an oldschool style for my enjoyment. What we have here is a horrible mess of a movie, which more or less is just really a ripoff of the first one with a slightly different setting. Personally I didn't see much to gain from this movie, and it proved to me that once more the anime world is crowded by a bunch of fanboys that really don't know good film. This movie was something outside of the anime genre, it'd be collecting dust in the b direct to video section at your local movie store.<br/><br/>I'd also like to point out that the retarded idea of having a guy die, turn into some super hero spirit to kill vampires, and then be brought back to life is the most ridiculous and stupid idea ever.<br/><br/>** out of ***** The original, Vampire Hunter D (1985), was a decent action anime movie. D is a mysterious but ultimately flat character, and there was a tiny twist at the end (explaining why D was chosen as his name), but ultimately it was a pure action movie. Simple plot and simple characters to show off a series of amazing anime battles and to show off D as a Gothic superhero.<br/><br/>But the sequel, Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust (2000), was thoroughly amazing.<br/><br/>It kept the amazing anime battles, going even further with unique abilities and effects that only anime could easily show. It kept D as a Gothic superhero. But it added a unique plot, perhaps riffing off Romeo & Juliet, but with a lot more to it than that. Around that plot it built a human story, about love and racism and the difference between loneliness and solitude, about friendship and real loss. And it introduced and developed a wide range of interesting characters. It did all that without detracting from the action and while maintaining a great pace.<br/><br/>And right where you'd think such an ambitious movie would falter - tying it all up appropriately at the end - it really hit the mark. A truly satisfying ending - not too happy, not too sad; not easy to anticipate in full, but not unbelievable in the context nor a 'wake up from a dream' twist that's actually just a write-off; and ties up a number of strings related to plot or character development.<br/><br/>And one thing that's easy to escape notice: despite D still being the same, flat, 'does nothing but fight' character, that character feels well developed in this movie. How? Cleverly managed through the way the other characters and the similarities and differences in the various relationships kind of tell his story for him.<br/><br/>An exceptional movie. The animation is rich and densely detailed, the characters well defined. Yes, there is. It also has the ending theme song "Tooku Made" (Far Away) performed by the Japanese pop band 'Do as Infinity'. According to Discotek Media's Facebook page, this audio track is exclusive to Japan as the Japanese license will not allow the Japanese language to be released anywhere outside of Japan. The original language of this film is English.