He
stalks his prey in a post-apocalyptic landscape and his wardrobe is very High Plains Drifter, but you cannot get
much more gothic than the protagonist of Hideyuki Kikuchi’s franchise of horror
novels, manga, and anime. From the standpoint of the ancient vampire “Nobility,”
he is a particularly dangerous hunter, because as a half-human, half-vampire
dhampir, he is practically one of them. In fact, he has quite an illustrious
lineage, but that will only be hinted at in Toyoo Ashida’s anime feature Vampire Hunter D (trailer here), which screens as
part of the ongoing Goth(ic) film
series at the Metrograph.
It
is the year 12,090 AD and humanity is not doing great. The spawn of the few
humans who survived the nuclear Armageddon live under the heel of the undead
Nobility, who trace their blood line back to Dracula himself. Ten thousand-year-old
Count Magnus Lee is especially powerful, but he is prone to boredom, so he
decides to take pretty young orphan Doris Lang as his bride. Having marked her
with his fangs, he leaves her to twist in the wind for a while, but she manages
to recruit “D” to hunt the Count and hopefully free her of his influence.
Naturally,
the town shuns Lang and her young brother when they learn she is marked, except
for Greco Roman, the lecherous son of the sheriff, who hopes to exploit her
condition. (The jerky Roman is suspiciously like Gaston in Beauty and the Beast, but he predates the Disney character by six
years.) D is a tough customer, but he rather rashly lets the Count’s various
mutants and familiars get the drop on him. Fortunately, he is supernaturally
difficult to kill.
Hunter D was one of the
first successful crossover anime films and it still holds up quite well, even
though subsequent mature anime releases dramatically upped the ante in terms of
violence and supernatural horror. Watching it thirty-some years later is like
going back to basics. Anti-heroic good dukes it out with arrogant evil in a
savage wasteland that really feels very 1980s, in a good way. Plus, longtime
illustrator Yoshitaka Amano’s design work is truly archetypally iconic.
Frankly, you will recognize D, even if you are completely unfamiliar with the
franchise.
Ashida
maintains a brisk pace, showcasing a number of pleasantly gory fight scenes. Screenwriter
Yasushi Hirano’s adaptation of Kikuchi’s first novel hits enough traditional
vampire bases to satisfy western audiences, while introducing a good deal of
the distinctive series mythology. Yes, there is even some brief fan service for
horny teens.
There
are western and science fiction elements in Hunter
D, but it is still a natural fit for a gothic film series. Those blood
moons and creepy castles still set quite the macabre mood. Nostalgically
recommended for anime, horror, and spaghetti western fans, Vampire Hunter D screens twice tomorrow (12/8) as part of Goth(ic) at the Metrograph.
