there's nothing quite like a gory anime . really , and this is the truth , no other genre in film gets away with such violence without a word being said in the media about it . with anime , a common shot is watching a body getting quickly cut in two , and the rest of the insides falling out seconds afterword . this is a standard practice in anime , or at least the half dozen or so titles that i've seen . vampire hunter d is a gory , gory film . if they ever made a live version of the film , it would be banned in several countries and given a rating somewhere below xxx . it's not that it's gore is unique - it's just like other gory animes - but this one was supposed to stand out because of the complexity it's story , characters , animation , etc . . . it really didn't . it was disgusting and gruesome , which overshadowed the story , what little of it there was . it seems that in the not too distant future vampires and evil control the world , because god knows that our local police force just can't seem to get a handle on vampires in the movies . one evening , a blond peasant girl , drawn to look 17 and innocent ( a foreshadow that we will see her naked , i guessed early on it would be in the shower or in a rape scene ) is out fighting evil in her local forest preserve when she stumbles onto the private property of a ten thousand year old vampire ( insert strom thurmand joke here . ) of course , he never put a ? no trespassing ? sign on his yard , so one can't really blame her , but he's upset anyway and demands retribution . she gets the obligatory bite on the neck ( aren't there other places to get blood from ? it seems like a bite in the elbow would do well enough . if it's good enough for doctors to draw blood from , then why do vampires stray from that sight ? ) to fight the spell , she enlists the help of a mysteriously tall , dark and handsome vampire hunter ( you guessed it , his name is d ) . the vampire hunter is torn between fighting vampires , being attracted to the 17 year old peasant girl and finding reasons not to talk too much . you see , like all heroes in these kinds of stories , he's a brooder , who's sole purpose in life is to remain really , really silent . when he speaks , it's in cliches . heroes like this are bad when they're live , even worse when animated . later the vampire hunter storms the castle to meet the big bad vampire , who wants to marry the peasant girl because he's bored after 10 , 000 years of living ( the only clever vampire insight made in the movie ) , will vampire hunter d rush to save her in time ? will we see blood and intestines spattering on every place imaginable ? in it's defense , the animation , when focusing on being original rather than recycling anime slicing , could at times be original . the talking hand was clever - and i think the inspiration for a skateboard-related logo . and that's the best defense i can think of . i understand that vampire hunter d is supposed to be a fave among anime fans , but i really don't see it . it's an excuse to watch blood dripping from teeth , blood exploding out of eye sockets and horses necks , and most importantly , like all violent anime , it is an excuse to see animated breasts . why ? what is the point of that ? maybe i have to understand the genre and look past the obsessive gore and mysogny . i'm not a prude , i just don't think it's warranted . it puts itself so far out in front of the movie that everything else gets lost . is there a neccesity in seeing a 17 year old in the shower ? of course not ? it's done for shock . it's tasteless and despicable .
