In the distant future, D, a half-vampire with a demonic hand, is hired to retrieve a girl taken by a powerful vampire. A group of bounty hunters is also on the trail and D will have to defeat them as well as various monsters if he is to succeed.
Quick Review: A sequel (that’s overly close to being a remake) to 1985’s Vampire Hunter D, Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust’s animation is a vast improvement on the original’s. There are still far too many scenes where nothing moves except a character’s eye or mouth and backgrounds are often static. But for anime, it looks good. The drawings are lush and show some real artistry.
The story is a mix of Clint Eastwood westerns, Blade, and Dracula. The vampire wants the girl to be with him forever, but Blade (I mean D) is going to stop that, as is the crude and vicious bounty hunter gang. The problem with the film is that these characters range between vile and bratty. Only the vampire lord Meier and his Antebellum-like love interest are in any way sympathetic, but the film hardly spends time with them. Instead we are treated to scene after scene of deeply unpleasant people fighting monsters. Why should I care if they get hurt? Action films need to make me care about the people struggling or it’s just all meaningless motion, but these are not people to care about. In fact, I’d much prefer they all die so the nice vampire can get away.