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VAMPIRE HUNTER D: BLOODLUST

Alan Elbourne hires D (Andrew Philpot), the half vampire bounty hunter with the chatty left palm. His sister Charlotte (Wendee Lee) has been missing for two days. Vampire Lord Meier Link (John Rafter Lee) is the prime suspect in the apparent abduction. The Elbournes agree to pay 20 million dollars to D to return her or kill her mercifully, if changed into a vampire. Getting to Charlotte won't be easy - there's competition. The hunting Markus Brothers, highly skilled warriors that travel in a customized tank, have already been hired by Elbourne as insurance. Plus, Link is guarded by a trio of powerful demons, and the country they're traveling through is full of other supernatural dangers. Link's massive castle is guarded by deadly sentry lasers and other traps. But after D and the Markus' manage to get through his defenses, Link flees the castle.

Catching up with Link's coach, D suspects Charlotte may have gone willingly. But until he knows for sure, the chase is on. Link heads for the far off castle of vampire Queen Carmilla, where he believes they'll find safe haven. The road there is fraught with danger for everyone, and Carmilla's castle turns out to be the most dangerous place of all.

This is one of those rare foreign films that make you glad they've been dubbed into English, as the draftsmanship of the images is so incredible that you'd hate to be distracted by having to read text. Every frame is a glorious illustration come to life. The voice actors are above the usual level of talent hired for such things, and the U.S. soundtrack was personally supervised by director Yoshiaki Kawajiri (LENSMAN, NINJA SCROLL) at the Skywalker Ranch. The soundtrack is nearly as amazing as the visuals almost too amazing. With all the cracking 5.1 effects and a fantastic soundtrack by Marco d'Ambrosio (HAIKU TUNNEL), some of the quieter dialogue is tough to pick out.

Urban Vision's deluxe DVD gets the royal treatment, their most ambitious release so far. It comes in a special red keepcase with an outer slipcase, and includes a nice selection of standard extra features (except subtitle and language options, conspicuous in their absence). A 22-minute making-of featurette goes behind the scenes, starting with the concept, but taped mostly during recording of the English dub. There's also a curious "Fan Favorites" section that presents the results of a web poll to determine favorite scenes from the film.