Why no new Vampire Hunter D movie?!?!?!?

[Primal]

Long time lurker newbie here.

I thoroughly enjoyed the 2 VHD movies and was wondering why a new one wasnt in the works? Or is there one that I'm not aware of?

There is so much source material for a franchise that it flat out sux to see very little news regarding this. /images/graemlins/sad.gif

On a side note...are there hardcovers of the VHD novels?

[StudioZEL]

As far as I'm aware, the VHD movies didn't do especially well in Japan, despite the success of the light novels.

[Njr Scrawl]

Arguably both VHD OVA & movie are done as works of art more than gripping stories from an epic.

The OVA's (mediocre) animation was an early OVA & exercise in gothic victorian style storytelling using established characters in a futuristic horror-sci fi setting.

The movie is definitely artistic & is more refined in style, its almost a living work of art, the animation is so perfect.

Neither VHD is meant to be like Hellsing (say), or horror for its own sake.

[Legion]

I think they were hoping to make more novels into anime, but I don't think Bloodlust did well enough in Japan to make it feasible.

[Primal]

[ QUOTE ]
Wrath of the Njr said:
The movie is definitely artistic & is more refined in style, its almost a living work of art, the animation is so perfect.

[/ QUOTE ]So true...which is why it's sad more arent being made. /images/graemlins/sad.gif

I wonder how well it did in the U.S. DVD market. I need my VHD fix dammit!

[kakugo]

The Kyuuketsuki/Vampire Hunter D OVA's "mediocre" animation ranks as one of the earliest OVA's in existance (alongside Megazone 23 and a bunch of lolita-themed hentai titles), and is still one of just a handfull of feature length movies to be released direct to video in Japan. I understand it's no Robot Carnival or Neo-Tokyo, but if anyone can point out a horror/action title with better animation from 1985, I'd love to check it out. /images/graemlins/sdsmiley.gif Director Ashida Touyo's proven himself to be capable of pretty much perfect animation a year later in his Fist of the North Star movie, which - love it or loathe it, has animation far more refined and experimental than what you saw in the weekly TV series, despite being based on similar character designs and even re-doing some sequences shot for shot.

Kawajiri Yoshiaki's Vampire Hunter D, meanwhile, is probably the last and most beautiful piece of cel animated art the world has ever seen. My biggest problem with the film is, quite simply, it's not a horror film at all. It's an epic fantasy with horrific elements, but it's much closer to something you'd expect from Studio Ghibli than the violent, unrelenting and unpredictable films Kawajiri made beforehand, like Wicked City and Demon City Shinjuku, both of which have a much more sinister tone than Vampire Hunter D/Bloodlust. I like it, but I don't think of it as a horror film, which is what I was expecting and hoping to see when I watched it for the first time... took a while for me to appreciate it for what it was, rather than what I thought Kawajiri would or could do. It also doesn't follow the novel very closely, something you could accuse the OVA of doing as well, but particularly in the vastly different endings they basically become totally different stories, whereas the OVA's script just felt like an attempt to simplify the book and make it more palpitable in an all too brief runtime.

Nope, neither Vampire Hunter D anime did shockingly well in Japan, though they remain very popular internationally. Assuming Kawajiri wants to do another, it could happen with considerable international co-production. Kawajiri's adapted Darkside Blues, Wicked City, Demon City Shinjuku and Vampire Hunter D, so clearly he's very interested in Hideyuki Kikuchi's novels as source material for his films, and it's possible he'd want to take a shot at adapting a second one - infact, the villains in his own Jubei Ninpouchu/Ninja Scroll were basically pulled out of the first Vampire Hunter D novel (though the OVA changed them in to something completely different), so he's used Kikuchi for inspiration even in unrelated projects.

For better or worse, Kawajiri's turning Highlander in to an anime for now. I'd love to see more Vampire Hunter D animation myself, but Kikuchi himself has mentioned that we'll probably be seeing a Hollywood film and a comic book first. I see the former as fairly unlikely for a multitude of reasons, but am (morbidly) curious what may come of the latter.

Vampire Hunter D - the movie, at least, did VERY well in the US, and even had a limited theatrical release, something usually only afforded to titles expected to sell in huge numbers (like Appleseed or the Fullmetal Alchemist movie, for more recent comparisons) due to the shocking cost of getting an actual film print. And it was at least in part targeted at the international market from the start, since much like the original Ghost in the Shell film, it wouldn't have had the funding to even get made without a considerable investment from English speaking anime distribution studios, who were willing to co-produce the title with an understanding that they would get the English language rights in return.

[J-Syxx]

Iczer One came out in 85' and I thought that had pretty decent animaiton. I don't know if the verison of VHD I watched last was as cleanly remastered, so maybe I can't make a fair comparison.

And I think you can call the movie you are referringto as Bloodlust, since it was made with the US audience in mind to begine with. When you say movie people will just think of the movie version of the OVA.

[aquapermanence]

[ QUOTE ]
Dinco said:
Iczer One came out in 85' and I thought that had pretty decent animaiton.

[/ QUOTE ]

That's one that came to my mind as well. Others (from 1986) that I recall having notably good animation include Gall Force Eternal Story and Maris the Chojo.

[kakugo]

In Japan, the 1985 OVA was called "Kyuuketsuki Hunter D" (Kyuuketsuki being the Japanese native term for 'vampire'), though it did have an English language title card in the video itself.

The 2000 movie was released in Japan as "Vampire Hunter D", with the title spelled out in Katakana before the start of the film itself, and also had an English language title card. The subtitle 'Bloodlust' was tacked on by Urban Vision, and if anything the subtitle "Demon Death Chase" would be more fitting, since that's the subtitle of the book it was based on. Still, I tried to point out when I was talking about Ashida's OVA and Kawajiri's movie in my post... if anybody here is confused, I could always edit my post? If not, I'll leave well enough alone.

For the record, the OVA was never released theatrically, though both the US and German masters were telecined from what look to be 35mm theatrical prints, complete with 'cigarette burn' reel change markers. At the end of the R1, there's even a brief add stating that the OVA is "now available on VHS", making me think that a theatrical screening was planned for Japan but never actually happened.

As far as the Kyuuketsuki Hunter D OVA being properly mastered: no, not at all. /images/graemlins/sdsmiley.gif The R1 was taken from a theatrical print, and is missing a few frames worth (no more than a second or two total) around reel changes. The colors are awful, with skin tones being a nasty orange-red, the black levels fluctuate all over the place, and the print is so dark you can't tell that the animation really wasn't all that bad to begin with during any of the night scenes. I can't blame Urban Vision too much, since I'm convinced they were handed the same master that was used for the none-too-impressive VHS and LD transfers when Vampire Hunter D was released by Streamline in the early 90's. (It too had the mystery VHS ad at the very end of the tape.) Urban Vision performed an IVTC to make it progressive, but didn't do it 100% peoperly: the English credits were edited on video, and as such are not progressive to begin with. It's presented with the original Japanese stereo track and a new (but somewhat poor) 5.1 English upmix.

The Japanese DVD, now out of print, isn't all that much better: it splices the reel change overs from a non-theatrical print, which totally screws up the 3:2 pulldown patterns, if you're in to IVTCing anime on the fly. It's unedited, however, and includes the missing reel change frames, shows <span style='color:#dddddd;background:#dddddd'>Count Lee's face getting squashed during the finale,</span> and doesn't feature any new credits. No advert for the VHS release, and the only audio track included is the original Japanese stereo track. The print is poorly centered, and has too much of a blue tint to the image (grass is more blue than green, and flesh tones aren't quite 'right'), and while it's more stable than the R1, it isn't much brighter. It's also very noisy, with slightly worse edge enhancement than the R1. It may well be the old LD master, I'm honestly not sure.

Finally, there's the German DVD, which is still in print last I checked. It's a DVD-9, and features a brand new telecine for the OVA from what looks like the same theatrical print used for the R1 DVD (minus the advert). The color correction is worlds better than the R1 and Japanese DVD's, though unfortunately the brightness is a touch too high, causing blacks to become dilluted and it turns red blood a sort of neon pink. There's no edge enhancement whatsoever, no noise reduction, and the detail and grain looks like natural film. It should have been the ultimate transfer... but, the clowns who put the DVD together cropped it to 1.78:1 (thus losing about 30% of the picturwe at the top and bottom), making all that new detail and beautiful color correction virtually pointless. Ashida approved the matted ratio, but I certainly don't: heads and feet are cropped out regularly, and had this actually played in theatres, maybe I'd forgive it. Adding insult to injury on this disk is that it has a (well done) 5.1 Japanese upmix, and also includes the "original mono Japanese audio". Well, the OVA was originally mixed in stereo. So... yeah. Great job, OVA Films.

I've only seen Iczelion so far, which was one of the sequels to Iczer-One which was released from 1985 to 1987. Assuming Iczelion is any indicator, I'd hardly call it a horror show, but I'll be sure to take a look at it none the less.

[kakugo]

According to ANN, the original Gall Force was a theatrical movie, and Za Choujo was also a 45 minute OVA, while Iczer One part 1 was just 30 minutes. Also, as you pointed out, they came out sometime after the Vampire Hunter D OVA*, and the fact that I can't get a date on WHEN in 1985 the OVA was released is chafing me something fierce /images/graemlins/depresse.gif. I'm very curious how much budget was alloted to the production of the OVA, being not only one of the first non-adult OVA's I can find (Megazone 23 came out in March, and remains the earliest confirmed not-hentai OVA date I can find), but also being full length. The overwhelming majority of OVA's past and present are between 30 and 60 minutes, and it's rare to find one any longer regardless of when it was produced. Even Kawajiri's Youju Toshi/Wicked City (1987) was set to be a 60 minute OVA, and was then upgraded by the producers to an 80 minute feature film... without an increase in funds. It's entirely possible that Vampire Hunter D was similarly shafted in the production, but the staff involved wasn't as good as hiding their constraints as Wicked City's was.

I'm not saying the Vampire Hunter D OVA is a stunning and fluid masterpiece, I'm just pointing out that the standard to which 80's OVA's could reach simply hadn't been established yet. Besides, I've seen stuff produced in the 90's that looks far worse than the Vampire Hunter D OVA. I think THE most wretched thing in existance is a toss-up between Riki-Oh 2 and the Star of David 3... either one of them shows what a masterpiece an under-funded OVA from 1985 can be. /images/graemlins/sdsmiley.gif

[Thanatos]

I could be wrong, but I think ANN is incorrect about Gall Force. I think it's widely considered to be an OVA. Every release of it has been in full frame and other than ANN I've never heard of anyone referring to it as a theatrical feature. Any proof it was released for Japanese theatres in mind?

[kakugo]

Gall Force could well be an OVA. I don't think anyone ever said ANN was perfect, handy though it may be.

On the other hand, the Vampire Hunter D '85 OVA was edited for a theatrical release, and that never happened - at least to the best of my knowledge. If there was no intention for a theatrical release, why on earth would they have put reel change marks on the master print? And clearly there is a telecine ready film print to this day if Germany could do a film to PAL remaster.

Either way, I'll stand by Vampire Hunter D having come out before any higher standard was set down, and at the very least having adequate animation quality for a mid 1980's OVA. Now, if I could just find a damn release date...

[Njr Scrawl]

[ QUOTE ]
aquapermanence said:
[ QUOTE ]
Dinco said:
Iczer One came out in 85' and I thought that had pretty decent animaiton.

[/ QUOTE ]

That's one that came to my mind as well. Others (from 1986) that I recall having notably good animation include Gall Force Eternal Story and Maris the Chojo.

[/ QUOTE ]

Area 88 OVAs started in 1985 &amp; Dirty Pair:Affair on Nolandia OVA, both of which are good animation. (Re-mastered DP:AoN R2J this month IIRC!)

[Chiyosuke]

[ QUOTE ]
Kakugo said:
I'm very curious how much budget was alloted to the production of the OVA, being not only one of the first non-adult OVA's I can find (Megazone 23 came out in March, and remains the earliest confirmed not-hentai OVA date I can find), but also being full length.

[/ QUOTE ]

Slightly off topic and I hope I didn't read that wrong, but the honour of earliest OVA goes to Dallos... /images/graemlins/happy.gif

- Lemar

[kakugo]

If off topic, it's something I didn't know before - well, that beats out the Wonder Kids' Lolita Anime by a full 2 months.

Affair on Nolandia and Area 88 are both good points. Neither are feature length (70+ minutes) unfortunately. Also, without a damned date on VHD (anyone?), comparing what, exactly, came before it is becoming pretty difficult. Equally, Vampire Hunter D '85 may have had a comparable budget to other (shorter) 1985 OVA's... unfortunately, I don't know for sure, and can only base this assumption on what the director has produced elsewhere.

Either way, I'll stop defending it. I'll not argue it's the pinnacle of 1985... just that it's not mediocre, is all. /images/graemlins/wink.gif

[Njr Scrawl]

For older series Anime - A Guide to Japanese Animation (1958 - 1988) is a good buy. Its a Protoculture Addicts publication &amp; goes through all years, listing movies, OVAs &amp; TV series in each year chronologically giving a release date &amp; a description.

[Thanatos]

Area 88 Acts 1 and 2 were released as a movie in Japanese theatres. Act 3 was released as an OVA. The VHS release had each act as a seperate OVA with seperate OP/ENDs, but the later Japanese DVD release restores the original edit of Act 1-2 movie and Act 3 OVA.

[Primal]

What're people's impressions of the Dark Horse VHD novels?

[mcarocks2003]

[ QUOTE ]
Thanatos said:
Area 88 Acts 1 and 2 were released as a movie in Japanese theatres. Act 3 was released as an OVA. The VHS release had each act as a seperate OVA with seperate OP/ENDs, but the later Japanese DVD release restores the original edit of Act 1-2 movie and Act 3 OVA.

[/ QUOTE ]

Actually this is the wrong way round. Area 88 was released as an 3 episode OVA then then first two parts were edited together for a theoretical release where credits, previews and some very minor scenes were all cut. I also have an old issue of Animeage from 1985 to prove this.