#5
In the year 1999, a nuclear war ravaged the earth and nearly brought everything to extinction. From the shadows, the vampires led by the Noble Ancestor rebuilt the world and enslaved the surviving humanity. in the year 12,090 A.D. the Noble Ancestor has vanished, the mighty vampire empire has crumbled, and humanity is slowly retaking back the planet. Unfortunately, there are still tons of despotic vampires running around as well as all of the monsters they brought back into the world roaming the lands, so people have to rely on hunters to get rid of these problems. The most powerful hunters are vampire hunters, and even among them, the beat are dhampire, the offspring between a mortal human and vampire, who obtain the awesome powers of a vampire but none of the weaknesses. Unfortunately, dhampire's are hated by both sides of their lineage with humans distrusting them due to their monstrous natures, while vampire's see them as filthy bastards that sully the noble vampire houses.
Doris Lang is the daughter of a former werewolf hunter who runs afoul of the vampire Count Magnus Lee who gives her the "kiss of nobility" in order to enthrall her and force her to be his bride. Not wishing for this awful fate, Doris attacks hunters on the road until she meets the titular vampire hunter D. Agreeing to help her, D has to deal both the village politics who are split on whether to help Doris or leave her to her fate since no one wants to incur Magnus Lee's wrath. On the opposite side of the conflict, Lamika, the count's daughter, is opposed to the marriage with this filthy commoner and the mutant hunter Rei Ginisei is only helping the count for the promise to become an immortal vampire. D faces enemies on all sides, and even finds a few unlikely allies. Yet who is the mysterious D, and what's up with the talking hand and the fact he seems so much stronger than a mere dhampire should be?
Okay so let's just get the main thing out of the way here and explain why I went for the original film over Bloodlust. There are a couple of reasons. First, pure nostalgia as this film was my first real introduction to the franchise known as D and I honestly like the production values despite how dated they are. Secondly, I feel the first film has a better story structure and does more to really emphasize the strange world these characters live in, especially since it follows the lore and mentions the series framing device better. Third and finally, I appreciate the fact the first film is a very faithful adaption of the first book, whereas Bloodlust takes the premise of the novel its based on and changes around a lot of things for better and for worse.
I'm not the world's biggest vampire fan, but I love the story angle the VHD series takes on with a former vampire empire and D searching for his father while hunting down the last of the corrupted nobility. The film does a fairly excellent job of adapting the first novel pretty faithfully with a only a few minor moments removed or changed and some of the character designs not quite matching up like the fact Doris' design in the books is closer to Amano's interpretation of Maria from FFII instead of the hokey blond pigtailed girl in the film. Likewise, Lamika is actually meant to be the blond and more regal looking figure instead of the sea green haired dominatrix she looks like. The one nice thing about the films is that they do remove the flavor text that often falls into Mary Sue territory concerning D such as the fact that he's so beautiful everyone is attracted to him regardless of gender or sexual orientation. On the other hand, the films tend to underscore how monstrously abnormal D really is and by extension how overpowered vampires really are in this narrative.
I also just love some of the background creatures and looks to the world which fits more into what the novels are going for. D storming Magnus Lee's castle filled with strange monsters and weird technological feats is actually pretty well done. While the original dub is laughably bad, I can forgive it since it was the kind of dubbing I grew up with. None of this is to say I don't love and appreciate Bloodlust, but the first film feels like an actual story, whereas the second film is more of an excuse plot with some gorgeously animated action sequences.So the first film leaves you with a little more content to chew on after the credits roll whereas the sequel doesn't.
Overall, check out either film, but honestly I would suggest reading the novels the most because the series is pretty fantastic despite D's Mary-Sueish characterization.

Coming up: It's just that he was all alone. Always by himself. Never anyone to share the game. A man who lived in dreams—that's who he was.