Vampire Hunter D (1985 film)

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Vampire Hunter D
Directed by	Toyoo Ashida
Distributed by	Streamline (1985), Orion Home Video (1985), Urban Vision (Current)
Release date(s)	1985
Running time	80 minutes
Country	Japan
Language	Japanese
Followed by	Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust
IMDb profile

One of the first anime films released outside of Japan, Vampire Hunter D (吸血鬼ハンターD) 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.

Contents 1 Plot 2 Differences between the novel and movie 3 Trivia 4 Link 5 See also

[edit] Plot

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. In an homage to the Spaghetti Western film, 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.

For all that it's a Japanese action/horror story, Vampire Hunter D follows a standard format of the western genre, echoing such stories as Shane: a mysterious, lone, laconic hero arrives on horseback and takes on the job of protecting a homestead from some menace; the woman of the house falls in love with him, but her love is never (physically) returned. And when the job is done, the mysterious hero rides on, never to be seen again, but always remembered.

[edit] Differences between the novel and movie

There are several, and they are significant. Overall, the novels provide a far richer backdrop for Kikuchi's tales, giving extensive history and lengthy explanations for disparate elements of the universe cobbled together from technology, superstition, history, occult beliefs, and legends, sewing them together to form a vast and surreal world. The first novel provides far more plot elements, with more characters, and covers a larger expanse of territory than the movie adaptation.

In the movie, the very capable hunter Doris is reduced to a feisty but inept stereotype who is wholly dependent upon D for salvation. In the book, D has respect for both the girl's bravery and her prowess with a whip, as well as the phenomenal strength of will she displays by being able to move after being bitten as opposed to being in a trance-like state. She's a match for any human hunter. In the movie, Doris gets no battles, other than a bloody opening sequence, in which she makes a fatal mistake, and she deals with Greco by giving some forceful retorts. In the book, she smacks Greco down, and even survives a battle with the formidable mutant, Rei Ginsei. In the novel her initial offer of sexual favors as payment is treated as a matter of pragmatism upon the frontier (as she has little money or other means payment), without the stigma implied by the movie. In the novel, D initially declines her offer, but near the end he kisses Doris in response to her advances, when a relationship has been established between them. The romance between D and Doris is far more developed in the book and almost reciprocated, with Doris taking initiative.

In the movie D is almost completely stoic and seems sexually repressed. Unlike the novel, he makes no errors in judgment or battle, and is loath to resort to his vampiric side, resisting it almost to the point of death. Novel D is willing, if reluctant, to use his vampiric abilities to get out of trouble; that Left Hand chooses to needle him about using them against the snake women/Midwich Medusas indicates what a sore point it is. But his vampiric side and his sexuality are strongly linked, and in both formats it takes force of will to resist the temptation to bite Doris.

In the book, Dr. Fering's character and relationship with the Langs is further developed, and he spends more time helping them. He also explains to Doris (and in doing so the readers) that in the seven thousand years in which vampires ruled over man, human DNA was altered so that when a human comprehends the effect of a deterrent (such as garlic or crucifixes), they forget about it. Consequently crosses do not appear as jewelry or on buildings in the books, as they do in the movie.

In the book, the only ones besides Dan and D to ever know that Doris was bitten were Dr. Fering, the mayor, Sheriff Dalton, Greco, and Greco's thugs. Dalton threatens Greco and his friends that if anyone spreads word about Doris' being bitten, "I'll throw you in the electric pokey." We also learn that the sheriff is trusted by Doris, and was thrown into his prison prior to Doris being placed in the asylum.

Rei Ginsei's character was almost entirely altered, as was his ethnicity and sexual orientation. In the book, he's Japanese and a smooth operator, attracted to both Doris and D implying he is bisexual and he tries to rape Doris and propositions D, offering him both power and companionship, but is coldly rebuffed. His mutant power of warping space within his body, however, remains the same. In the movie Rei's character was combined with that of Magnus' werewolf servant, Garou, who has no lines and only makes a brief appearance in the initial scene. His death was altered for the movie, coming from Magnus, rather than D. His three companions were transformed to monstrosities: Gimlet was changed from a mutant with superhuman speed to a glider who laughed; Golem from a large man to a true giant; and the spider-controlling Chullah (not named in the movie) from a hunchbacked human to a spindly-limbed green humanoid. In the book D kills them and cuts off Rei's hand in the same encounter, following Dan's kidnapping. In the movie D kills Chullah and Golem while leaving the castle, and shortly thereafter Rei accidentally kills Gimlet with his shrike-blade while chasing D.

Rei does not rescue Dan in the book, and apparently intends to kill the boy when he kidnaps him.

The Time-Bewitching Incense becomes a candle capable of paralysing anyone with vampire blood. In the book it was originally a substance that was hard for vampires to manufacture, and turned day into night and vice versa. Rei's instructions were, because D does have some ability to withstand sunlight, to light it near D and put it out quickly to confuse his body, thus weakening him. The Incense was given to Rei by Lee directly rather than by a servant.

In the movie, Rei kills Greco outdoors, whereas in the novel Greco is killed by a more active Larmica at the asylum.

Ramika's (Larmica in the novel) lineage is altered: In the book she is a vampire, but in the movie she is revealed to be a half-vampire like D. In the book she has blonde hair and Doris has black hair; the colors were reversed for the movie. Their outfits also were changed for the movie: in the book, Doris normally wears jeans and a shirt instead of a short tunic, and Larmica wears dresses of various colors (white, blue, and black are mentioned); one dress is said to be of medieval styling.

The lamia-like Three Sisters, or Snake Women of Midwich, appear more prominently in the book, with significantly different results. The Midwich Medusas, an ancient trio of demons predating vampires, are famous for their attack on Frontier village of Midwich and have the powers of a succubus. In trying to subdue D, they are instead ensnared by his own formidable powers of seduction, and turned into lovestruck (though short-lived) allies.

In the book, D's pendant neutralizes the technological defenses of the Nobility, whereas in the movie, it repels many of the demons living within Lee's castle.

Dracula's nature, and why the vampires respect him so much, are also explained more within the novel. D even quotes his father as warning of the Nobles' downfall. Dracula apparently did not believe in exploiting humans like mindless cattle, something Magnus Lee has forgotten, and for which D takes him to task.

[edit] Trivia

• Larmica, also translated as 'Ramika' is a version of the name Carmilla, taken from a nineteenth-century fictional female vampire villain from the story "Carmilla" by Sheridan le Fanu.

• The movie is considered to be one of the most revolutionary releases in all of Japanese animation history, mostly due to the impact it incurred as one the first of its kind to be released outside of Japan.^{[citation needed]}

• Garou is the French equivalent of 'were' in werewolf (the full term is loup-garou)

[edit] Link

• Vampire Hunter D at the Internet Movie Database
• Vampire hunter D at the Anime News Network

[edit] See also