![]() The Ageless: It's ambiguous in the first novel, but becomes less so over time: half-vampires don't really physically age.While D's thoughts on Dracula aren't especially known in the OVA, it seems he has some level of respect for his father, in contrast to the novels where he has absolutely nothing positive to say about the Sacred Ancestor. In the 1985 OVA, D harshly rebukes Larmika's words about the strong preying on the weak, stating that the Sacred Ancestor never believed in such an ideal. Adaptation Relationship Overhaul: Downplayed.Born from the union of a human woman and the Sacred Ancestor himself, D is on a never-ending journey to find the man who created him and cut him down. Impossibly beautiful, dark, mysterious, and blessed with god-like martial prowess ( among other things), he is the worst nightmare of the Nobility. Who can truly say? Maybe the new movie on the way will provide some answers.The man, the legend, D is the eponymous vampire hunter and main character of the series. Maybe he kills to make the world a better place. One thing is certain: he does not kill his chosen prey for the common reasons that other men do: money, power, prestige, or even love. Perhaps he instilled in his son the need to always protect those who are weaker than he from the many predators that this world had to offer (as a nobleman who felt a genuine, if patriarchial, concern for his people, it is not impossible that this would be so). Perhaps his father saw how the vampires were changing the world and not for the better. The big question regarding D is why? Why does he do what he does? I'm not sure that he actually killed his father, as his conversation with Count Lee's daughter would seem to disprove. By personal choice, he has cut himself off from all emotional ties to the people around him who, I'm fairly sure, will die long before he will (consider the comment regarding Doris' confession of love: "I know."). His terse dialogue makes Eastwood look as talkative as Groucho Marx. In the other, he is hated for his chosen profession. In one, he is barely tolerated out of necessity. A half-human, half-vampiric descendent of the legendary Count Dracula himself, he is a man of two worlds, yet not truly a part of either. If movies do indeed have a Tarot deck, as Stephen King suggests in "Danse Macabre", then D falls under the Eternal Loner (which also applies to such cinema protagonists as Eastwood's Man with No Name in the Sergio Leone spaghetti westerns and Lee Marvin's Walker in "Point Blank"). ![]() D wants.well, what does D want? Of all the characters in this story, D is the most enigmatic. The Count's time-twisting underling wants to go beyond his current station as loyal henchman. His daughter wants this marriage to be stopped. Count Lee wants to marry a bride to pass the time. Doris wants revenge on a personal level and safety for her village on a community one. ![]() Just like in the real world, everybody wants something. Evil is not portrayed as monolithic (if anything, it's shown as just amorality cubed) nor all humans automatically "good guys". The one thing I appreciated about this film was that no one in it is a cardboard cutout. Vampire Hunter D is the best example of such storytelling that I have seen in any recent fantasy piece (animated and non). One of the things I have learned to appreciate in my ongoing exploration of Japanese Anime is it's willingness to tell a reasonably adult, well-thought-out and plotted story.
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