Reviews #28 and #29: Vampire Hunter D & Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust

This will be a two part review. Bloodlust is a sequel movie that is tied to the first, but doesn’t directly follow the storyline, so I will review them on their own, then give the “Vampire Hunter D” series an overall grade. 🙂

Vampire Hunter D Score – 9/10

In the far flung future (looking it up, it’s supposed to be 12090 CE, but to be honest it’s never said, and hardly matters), the world is in ruins, and vampires rule the night, leaving humans to a terrorized existence. A special class of men and women have formed to combat that menace, people called vampire hunters. A girl named Doris Lang is stopped by a vampire while out tending her far one day, a vampire named Magus Lee. Lee marks Doris as his own, but doesn’t take her yet. In turn, Doris finds a hunter to kill the count, coming across a mysterious man named D on the road that agrees to protect her.

Though short, the film doesn’t lack for characters. Doris’ brother Dan tries to help her and befriends D at the same time, the town doctor Fehring tries to help as well, believing in Doris where others don’t. The town mayor’s son, Greco, shows a lust for Doris and offers to help her as well, though he’s rebuffed. On the side of the Count, we meet his daughter Lamika, who tries to stop her father from taking Doris. There’s also a human with warping powers that serves the Count named Rei, along with other servants that work with him. All are developed enough to feel fairly realistic, though not all get enough time to be too developed.

• Produced – 1985 (JP) 1993 (US)
• Languages – English/Japanese
• Length – 80 min

Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust Score – 9/10

Bloodlust once again features D as the main character, but the visual acetic and tone changes greatly between the first movie and this. Still set in the same time, this time D is tasked to hunt down a vampire named Meier Link, a Baron that has stolen away a woman named Charlotte from her family. The family has also hired a group of other hunters led by the Marcus Brothers, giving the reward to whomever gets their daughter back safely, or kills her if she’s already turned.

The story perspective switches between D, the Marcus Brother group, and Meier and Charlotte. D’s story is more secondary in Bloodlust with development, though there’s more focus on his dhampir nature, being half vampire and half human. While the hunter group consists of Borgoff, Grove, Nolt and Kyle, the story only really goes into any detail with the lone female of the group, Leila. Both D and Leila’s main reactions revolve around the fact that Charlotte loves Meier, who is unwilling to turn her, instead wishing to escape with her to outer space to be alone and happy together.

• Produced – 2000 (JP) 2001 (US)
• Languages – English/Japanese
• Length – 108 minutes

Score for both Movies: 9/10

Both movies aren’t too squeamish about showing bloodshed (though they’re quite tame compared to my last review’s gore fest), but neither make the action the center piece. Instead, both the original and Bloodlust focus on character stories. The first movie touches primarily on what it means to be a vampire, a side D struggles with, as well as something Lamika can’t live without. The second movie plays up more of what love can mean, and whether it could ever conquer something so horrendously overpowering as the vampire curse. The first movie is more basic in its plot, but it’s also the shorter film, as well as the earlier. Bloodlust diversifies itself with the various characters and places, though it loses a little of the tightness the first film has.

The original Vampire Hunter D was one of the first major pieces of anime to be licensed over in the US (and other parts of the world), and its age shows in the graphics and music. Despite its age, it holds up incredibly well, looking more crisp than many older movie or shows. Bloodlust is much more the modern anime, crisper and cleaner in its graphics and with a more bombastic soundtrack and styling. Both hold up on their own, without one lacking because of the other, both in plot and production. If I could only recommend one I’d recommend the original, just for the sheer age and classic appeal of it, but if you have access to both, you can only gain from watching both. The Vampire Hunter D movies are both gems, vampire movies with style and soul. Few movies about vampires, anime or otherwise, have done them so well.

 

Review #27: Hellsing Ultimate (+Hellsing Ultimate: The Dawn)

Final Score: 9/10

This review will be a little shorter than others, but not by much. First thing’s first; Hellsing Ultimate is a “Re-make” of the original Hellsing, but in a rather loose sense. The first few episodes will be familiar enough to anyone who’s watched the original, but after that, things change quite dramatically. Alucard, Seras, Integra and Walter are all back and all main characters, but the plot that they get involved in and the villains they must get rid of are different by a wide margin. Where the original had vampires as the main opponent of the Hellsing organization, Hellsing Ultimate makes a larger role for the Vatican, as well as adding in Nazi.

Yes, the villains in Hellsing Ultimate are the Nazis.

When Hellsing first came out, it was a hallmark of how bloody an anime could be. Hellsing Ultimate takes that and runs with it even harder, using it’s stepped up production value to make the blood and gore even more visceral. The scope grows from small areas of combat into all out war, with an entire city burning and millions dying. The series still has vampires, but on a different scale, with different combat situations.

The anime is only 8 episodes, but each episode is about an hour long. This ends up making the series longer than the original, despite being less episodes. The increased length allows for more character development from all the characters, and Ultimate even includes an extra called The Dawn that is 3 episodes that look back at a few of the characters during World War II. Seras gets more development of her own, though in a lot different path. Where the original had Seras mostly facing the demon of becoming a Vampire and losing her humanity, Seras in Ultimate starts torn but grows past that and becomes a stronger character for it. Even Integra gets more into the action, being more than a distant figure.

There are a lot of things about the anime that are fairly ridiculous. Hellsing Ultimate takes nothing halfway, never makes logical explanations for the crazy things it adds in, and the nature of some of the action seems to be wild and unbelievable just for bad-ass sake. It mostly works for Hellsing Ultimate though since it never relents with its pace and action, in a way being similar to Gurren Lagann (which I promise to review one day). For a lot of the series, I found myself shaking my head in disbelieving, but I was never bored. The original lacked a sense of quickness and pulse pounding action, and Ultimate answers that call with more gusto than nearly any anime I can think of.

At the time of writing this, Hellsing Ultimate has only Episodes 1-6 available on DVD/Blu-Ray, as well as only the first episode of The Dawn. I ended up having to watch the last two episodes of each online, with no word on when Funimation will work out the licensing. That said, the first 6 episodes are worth the price of buying, and the moment the last 2 come out, I’ll get that disc as well. The blu-ray is wonderful, the graphics on both versions are a vast improvement over the original Hellsing, and the soundtrack is movie quality, epic in scale.

I went into Hellsing Ultimate expecting the same story as Hellsing with more flash and bling, What I got was something ENTIRELY different, and one of the most memorable anime I’ve seen in some time.

 

Review #26: Hellsing

Final Score: 7/10

Sometime in the modern world in England, there is more than the facade that people see. Vampires, those creatures that man has always feared at night, are quite real and mankind is not safe. Thankfully, there is an organization that is there to keep mankind safe, tasked with eliminating vampires and their spawn. Called the Hellsing Organization, the group is led by the Hellsing family, currently headed by Integra Hellsing. The group is made up of elite men and women trained to fight vampires and other supernatural spawn, but there’s a secret weapon as well; a vampire sworn to Integra Hellsing named Alucard.

The series opens with a group of police officers trying to find out what has happened with a local priest, and why people have been dying around him. A police girl named Seras Victoria finds all her fellow officers dead, the woman ending up running for her life and seeking refuge in a nearby monastery. This ends up being where the priest has been based out of, and he takes Seras to drain her blood for himself. Alucard appears and offers to save her by killing the vampire, but will have to shoot her as well to get to him. Seras would have to accept being a vampire if she wishes to live.

Much of the rest of the series explores Seras learning to live with her new life, all puns intended. She certainly never truly accepts her new life, despite others only seeing her that way. The rest focuses on Alucard and Integra, along with a plot introducing new vampires into England that are like nothing the world’s ever seen. The series is mostly action, avoiding a lot of character history (other than 1 episode) or development, excepting Seras in small part.

The series thrives in its action, having a good bit of magical fighting with Alucard and the vampires he opposes, as well as gun play from Alucard and Seras both. The opposing vampires are all unique as well, and the ghouls the vampires create make a nice zombie aspect for all the humans to fight. Seras is well developed on her own as well, seeming the most “human” in the series with her doubts and changes. The atmosphere of the series is also something that’s well presented, being dark but action packed, mirrored by a rock inspired soundtrack.

That said, there were too many holes in the series for me to really appreciate it fully. The action depends too heavily on things that are unexplained, leaving a sense of not understanding why certain things happen, which means that there’s a lack of a sense of flow to everything for me. Too many of the characters remained undeveloped and mono-themed, without any real sense of their being real, full people (or vampires). This is more of a problem than it could have been if it weren’t for many of the main characters being the main culprits.

The series is built for action though more than anything else, and despite occasional problems, the atmosphere and pacing of the series’ action makes for an interesting time. The focus on action could be a factor in forgiving the lack of depth, especially in concert with the short length of the series, and if one were merely looking for fighting with drama around that, Hellsing delivers with fewer flaws. I’ve seen series give action and development at the same time however, so it’s harder overlooking a short coming.

Hellsing is a single season series that has memorable moments, but overall lacks a depth that leaves it somewhat forgettable. It’s worth a cheap pick up, especially if you love vampires. It won’t be everyone’s favorite though, so go in with simple expectations.

• Genre: Supernatural/Action
• Languages: Japanese/English
• Length: 13 episodes
• Rating: R (Gore)
• Published: 2001 (JP), 2003 (US)

 

Review #25: High School of the Dead

FINAL SCORE: 9/10

Two quick notes before I go into things. The first is a technical note. High School of the Dead (from now on referred to as HSotD) is 12 episodes + an OVA (15 minutes long). The collection I have does NOT include the OVA, but I found it for $2 or something online. I’m including it in the review, but for how long it is, it’s fine to skip. The second note if that HSotD is the first part in a few horror/supernatural anime I’ll be reviewing in honor of the upcoming holiday (Halloween).

 

Set in “modern day” Tokyo, HSotD follows the lives of 5 high school students and a teacher from the same high school (which I believe remains un-named). Things start off normally, but things change with a suddenness that mirrors the suddenness of the troubles. What starts off as one man at the school gates turned into a zombie quickly and devastatingly  turns into the entire school becoming a battleground. As the main characters come together, they realize they have to fight to survive, eventually leaving the school to find if their families have survived as well.

HSotD pulls very few punches, in any regard, though it keeps all things barely “safe”. For action, that means that people are eaten, women and children are made into zombies, blood is thrown everywhere, and everything and anything is a weapon. The anime doesn’t make it a point to show heads bursting open or intestine being slurped like spaghetti, but it comes right up to that precipice. The action is somewhat sporadic, but it’s regular enough to be a real feature while still giving breathing room for personal issues.

Another area where HSotD keeps things barely safe is with the level of fan service. The show has little qualm about bouncing breasts, panty shots, skimpy outfits, or focusing on ANY of those at any time. While the series never shows sex, or even full frontal nudity, it comes as close as a show can without doing so. If such things bother you, it’s unavoidable, used to the point where it’s just as central to what the anime is as the zombie killing is.

With those points made, the anime is still one I would highly recommend, if only for the right audience. The anime is perfectly paced, moving along quickly while not feeling rushed. The visuals are wonderful, and I DO mean for more than the women; a lot of detail went into the environments, weapons and vehicles, along with everything else. The voice actors as a whole lacked for nothing, emoting well when needed and toning back other times. The music is heavier than many anime, adding to the adrenaline the series gives to help the tension.

The point off from my score is for those that would have problems with the bombastic nature of it all. The violence isn’t that much worse than other anime, though it’s worth noting going in. It’s a zombie series, there’s going to be some blood and death. Of more note is the fan service. It’s even so over the top that I think it’s worth staying away if you’re offended by it. For those that LIKE women running around breasts bouncing, wearing nothing but aprons and tank tops, it’s great, don’t get me wrong. I’m not very apologetic about my own liking of it. It’s an important note all the same, something that would very likely drive a more diverse zombie buff away, especially women.

That said, there’s still a more serious side to the anime, and in the end that’s what puts HSotD over the top for me. It’s rare to have a zombie movie or show that fails to use the zombie platform as more than just action, and HSotD is no different, looking deeply at how society would stay together, or not as the case may be. Families, law enforcement, government, even teachers and hooligans, everyone’s changed by the world wide zombie epidemic in the anime, and the series touches on all them.

I realize I have some reservations about how High School of the Dead carries itself, but it was fingers width away from a 10/10 from me, and that’s not something I give easily. As long as you go in knowing what you’re getting into, I can think of few more action packed, over the top, babe filled series.

• Genre: Horror
• Rating: R (Nigh nudity, extreme violence, adult situations, etc)
• Episodes: 12 + 1 OVA
• Languages: Japanese/English
• Released: 2010 (JP) 2011 (US)

 

Review #24: Brain Powerd

Final Score: 3/10

I’ve always tried to make it a point to cover the main plot points of an anime first, so that everyone could get a feel for what the series was like before hearing how it was. In a more broad way, Brain Powerd is no different, and I will. On the record though… if I tried to go fully into the plot, it would be a VERY long review. It’s not really that the plot is that deep, but it IS that confusing and muddled.

Brain Powerd (and yes, the missing E is on purpose) is set in a future Earth where the world is in turmoil after the discovery of a living alien space craft called “Orphan” by the world community. A group of scientists and helpers called the Reclaimers work aboard Orphan, using living robots called “Antibodies” to retrieve discs scattered from Orphan with the goal of reviving the craft. The Grand Cher (the Antibodies of Orphan) oppose the United Nations ship Novis Noah and their own Antibodies called “Brain Powerd”, a group opposed to the resurrection of Orphan since the ships escape from earth will suck all life from the planet. The main protagonist is Yu Isami, a former Grand Cher pilot and the son of the main researchers on Orphan that took a Brain Powerd and escaped. His sister (formerly Iko Isami but now known as Quincy Issa) works alongside Johnathan Glen to head the Grand Cher, seeking to eliminate the Brain Powerd in defense of Orphan. Yu is joined by Hime Utsumiya, a Brain Powerd pilot he met before leaving Orphan, as well as the other Brain Powerd pilots of Novis Noah and…

..Yeah, so, like I said, it’s complicated. The supporting cast is just as large, with oil barons, Japanese scientists, orphans and family on Novis Noah, all the various mecha and vehicle pilots, and so on. The show manages to stay focused on Hime and Yu for the most part, though it does a fair bit of focus on the Orphan crew as well. Brain Powerd doesn’t build slowly exactly, instead seeming to jump its pace around, sometime not developing plot at all for a few episodes, only to have it lurch along all at once. Some plots are added then forgotten, or never explained well, though with all the politics, backgrounds, motivations, technologies, and relationships the show adds and tries to make sense of, it’s hardly a surprise. It also makes the ending feel hastened, with all the tense building up leading to about 10 minutes of resolution that isn’t well explained OR resolved.

While a lot of the parts of Brain Powerd don’t work, the anime might have worked better as a whole if the production wasn’t so slipshod. For anyone out there that STILL thinks the American anime dubbing industry is bad, and that english voice overs are poorly done and inferior to the original Japanese voices, you probably last tried American dubbing with Brain Powerd. I’ve always made it a point to defend the high quality of the US voice over industry, but I readily acknowledge that many older anime lack that quality. Brain Powerd epitomizes such slipshod production, with ill timed emotions (or lack of), puzzling conversations that seem more to fit lip synching than made to make sense, and voice actors that seem uncertain how to make either work. Almost every episode has at least one point where I had to laugh at the absurdity, almost to the point where it was entertaining for the poor quality being funny.

To that end, the 3 score I gave it is somewhat deceiving. For an anime taking itself seriously, with drama and tension, Brain Powerd fails in my opinion. If you’re looking for a mecha anime with great action and drama, there are a lot out there, and a lot that do those things much better than Brain Powerd does. That said, there’s a campy absurdity to the anime that left me not hating it so much as just shaking my head in bemused wonder. Considering the it’s all available in one box set for a low price, there’s a part of me that wants people to buy it, to watch an older anime that shows that not all of the classic era of anime is made up of gems that newer anime could never match. It’ll certainly amuse some… but for the rest, skip Brain Powerd. The only power it’ll give your brain is a workout from the throbbing headache it gives.

• Genre: Drama Mecha
• Rating: PG-13 (Partial nudity and situational violence)
• Language: Japanese/English
• Episodes: 26
• Published: 1998 (JP), 1999 (US VHS), 2002 (US DVD)

 

Review #23: Pani Poni Dash!

Final Score: 7/10

If you’re reading this in the future, this review was done the same night as I wrote up review #22, Suzuka. If you haven’t already read that, go ahead. It’s on the same page, just one down. Go ahead, I can wait.

……..

Good? Good.

I wanted you to do that so I could explain just how polar opposite this series is from another series, and to be honest, it’s hard to think of many. The only connection really is the fact that both are set in high school, featuring students and their relationships. Past that though, while Suzuka is a series based around dramatic romance and sports, Pani Poni is based around… well, chaos humor. If you’ve never seen the series before, or anything like it, let me explain.

Pani Poni centers around the Peach Moon Academy, a high school in Tokyo, and more specifically on Rebecca Miyamoto, a 10 year old half Japanese, half American prodigy that graduated from MIT and decided to teach high school in Japan. While the series features teachers and students from 4 different classes, most of the series revolves around class 1-C, Rebecca’s class. A lot of the series involves treating Rebecca like an adult or a child, but just as much time is spent with aliens, the world ending, fighting ruffians with giant robots, exploring dreams, culture festivals, god cats with body heat, school trips… and more. Humor is everywhere, jumping from one thing to the other. No two episodes are alike in theme, and only the end really tries to connect episodes together. Thus, chaos humor.

There ARE certainly laughs to be had. Pani Poni Dash has a good mix of pop culture jokes, physical gags, fourth wall breaking, general high school humor, language humor, and so on. That’s actually why the series as a whole suffers for me however. Other series have mirrored PPD’s formula of non-stop random humor, but most (not all) seemed to have at least SOME consistency and coherency. PPD switches from serious manga art parody to chibi art to fourth wall breaking to eyeball monster without breaking flow, all while throwing signs with translations everywhere, putting characters in and out, and switching settings. This ends up allowing humor MOST of the time, but there was more than once what was happening went over me, or I didn’t get a reference, or things switched too quickly for me to understand.

Again, the series seems to revel in that quick, non-stop humor style, so I can only give so much off for it, especially since as I said, the series had more funny moments than not. The characters were all interesting, interacting well and making the most of their quirks and differences to make a lot of the humor around timing and relationships. While I missed more than one humorous reference (I’m certain), that’s another thing that I can’t blame the series on. The series avoids nudity and bloodshed, but anything else is really fair game, and PPD makes it a point to vary the humor as much as it can,

PPD is hard to put down and grab onto and talk about because of how it is. The chaos leaves each episode almost standing on its own, sometime even each scene, like a sketch show as much as a series. Taken like that, there’s a lot to like about PPD. I’ve tried to step back and look at the series as a whole however, which is the way I watched it, and as a series there were times I felt my interest wane as I felt lost in the onslaught. If you enjoy fast paced, non-stop humor that revels in irreverence, you could take my rating and up it to a 9, and likely love it. For everyone else, Pani Poni Dash is still worth a watch, and a laugh, if you can keep up.

• Genre: Comedy
• Rating: PG (Though a lot of references will go over kids heads)
• Languages: Japanese/English
• Episodes: 26
• Released: 2005 (JP), 2007 (US)

 

Review #22: Suzuka

Final Score: 4/10

Suzuka is as basic of a set up as an anime can get really, since it’s about high school students doing high school things, without any super powers, magic, or anything like that, which is something I said about “Listen to Me Girls” as well.  Unlike PapaKiki, which  focused on family life, Suzuka has two focuses; sports, and romance. The sports part is easy, since it really features more as a backdrop than something that is pushed as the selling point. The title character, Suzuka, is a high jumper that’s gotten national attention, and many of the other characters that take place in the plot have ties to track and field, especially running/sprinting. Even the main character, Yamato, ends up getting caught up into sports.

Still, every part of the anime, even the sports, is featured as a setting for teen romance. Suzuka is the main love interest, but over the course of the series, things constantly change and shift. More than one girl falls for Yamato, more than one guy interests Suzuka, and even the sub-characters get different love interests. That’s not to say every scene is romantic, or that there’s no action at all. The sports play a large part in keeping the series “action packed”, so to speak, and since Yamato and Suzuka both live in an dormitory complex owned and run by Yamato’s aunt and cousin, there’s a full apartment life to worry about as well. Still, even with things being joking from time to time, or switching to school or family matters. there’s not a single episode where feelings of love and romance aren’t at least touched on.

Now, my score is pretty low, but I want to get all the good out first, because in truth, there’s a lot to like about the series. The art is well done, and most of the characters are well thought out, acting in a realistic fashion at most situations. For the most part, this leads to a story that progresses at a good pace. There’s certainly plenty of change, keeping things fresh and new, and more than a few characters show a lot of sides before the series ends, rather than being shallow, sterotyped, one dimensional extras. In fact, looking over the entire anime as a whole, I really only have two problems.

It’s a shame those two problems are the title character and main character.

While a part of me feels bad giving such a blow to a series’ likeability almost purely off two characters, the fact of the matter is the anime is about them above all else. Not a single episode goes by where one or both of them aren’t forefront, not to mention their relationship. It feels like the entire series is built around wanting to make the viewer wish the two together, to sympathize with them and want the ending to be them happily ever after (spoiler, they DO end up together at the end. big surprise). Maybe they make a cute couple, maybe they both have things about them that make them stand out. I still just can’t stand them.

While it isn’t uncommon for a male main protagonist in anime to be clueless and klutzy, there’s usually a well meaning core and selflessness that tries to shine through that redeems them. Yamato has SOME good intention in him, but it’s overcome too much by a laziness and single mindedness that leaves him doing the wrong thing just as often as right. Suzuka on the other hand plays the text book tsundere (look it up), acting violent, arrogant, and bossy through most of the series, even in the face of the few honest good intentions of Yamato. This makes for a majority of the series being Yamato being liked by others, being told by Suzuka she doesn’t like him, and Yamato repeatedly trying. While I realize the point of the tsundere archetype is to have true feelings masked by anger or denial, it still ends up feeling less like a tale of true romance and more like obsession overcoming genuine dislike, wearing it down in the face of everyone pushing the relationship (even others that have feelings for Yamato).

As I said before, the sad thing is that so many of the other characters have a lot of personality, and even Yamato and Suzuka show interesting sides from time to time. Still, the series is about romance, and more specifically the romance between the two. That romance, and how it’s treated, put me off the series. Maybe others will care more for them, in which case the rest of the series makes it worth a watch. I had enough of a dislike that I’d have a hard time watching it again though.

• Languages: Japanese/English
• Genre: Sports/Romance
• Rating: PG-13 (More for feel than any violence or sex)
• Episodes: 26
• Published: 2005 (JP), 2007 (US)