(2000)
Dir - Hiroyuki Kitakubo
Overall: MEH
Spawning manga sequels, a video game, three light novel adaptations, and two separate anime series in alternate timelines, the initial Blood: The Last Vampire is oddly uncompelling for something with such a rich franchise following in its wake. Hiroyuki Kitakubo's direction is effectively stylish at times, creating artful transitions and maintaining a flowing enough pace, all things considered. It is more the story itself that does not gain any interesting footing or follow through enough with the elements it offers up. Acting more like a teaser than anything, the forty-eight minute length is ill-suited considering how little is done with it. We are introduced to a mysterious, demon-hunting society and given a brief glimpse into but one of their missions before a character that was barely established takes over as narrator and the credits role just as quickly as we got in. As the set pieces are nothing more than a brooding, enigmatic young woman being highly proficient with a katana against generic monsters and schoolgirls sporting sharp teeth, it is hardly offering up any wheel-inventing concepts. Its fine, just barely warranting the deeper dive it was inevitably given.
(2000)
Dir - Yoshiaki Kawajiri
Overall: GOOD
Fifteen years later, a sequel was finally unveiled for 1985's rather landmark anime Vampire Hunter D in the form of Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust. Based off of the third novel Demon Deathchase in Hideyuki Kikuchi's series for the character with a new creative team including director Yoshiaki Kawajiri, (Wicked City, Ninja Scroll), the story pits D not only against a more benevolent, vampiric foe, but also his bodyguards which include a werewolf with a mouth in his chest, a shapeshifter, and a shadow sorcerer. On top of even that, a competing group of mercenaries with their own superhuman skills are after the same prize and it all ends up going down in a haunted castle so elaborately mammoth that it can only result in lifelong wet dreams for any Gothic undead fan. The design work is exceptional here and the settings and numerous battle sequences are consistently inventive and beautifully done. While most of the characters are present to merely showcase their individual quirks, the main ones are given plenty of backstory to raise the stakes and make for a more compelling ordeal than just a bunch of gory, over the top monster throw-downs.
(2009)
Dir - Kazuyoshi Katayama
Overall: MEH
An adaptation of Yūji Iwahara's manga series of the same name, the full-length, anime film King of Thorn, (Ibara no Ou), takes considerable narrative liberties with the plotline, including a different ending amongst other things. Directed and co-written by Kazuyoshi Katayama, it carries quite an ambitious arc and is exquisitely animated and designed. After an intriguing set up, the second act is straight-forward and ultimately the most rewarding as a group of survivors try to simultaneously outrun and make sense of their dangerous, thorn and monster infested surroundings, with more layers being pulled back as to each of their purposes in some kind of post apocalyptic, virus-infected conspiracy. Sadly, the last section of the movie spirals into mind-melting extravagance and becomes annoyingly impenetrable. Characters keep hallucinating, re-living flashbacks, or not doing either for all the viewer can decipher. It rapidly bounces between such topsy-turvy situations with incessant expository dialog dumps that only make things more ill-defined. In a more surreal context, this could have been rewarding instead of merely looking quite fantastic yet also being hopelessly challenging.
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