A wasteland of crumbling cities stalked by lizards. The film is packed with cool environments, rendered skillfully by the background artists. Just as D is the gunslinger who must live and die alone, he is also the masterless ronin whose successes heighten his own loneliness.įor me, the world of "Vampire Hunter D" remains its strongest trait. It's a potent device that further connects the story with Westerns and even samurai dramas. By hunting vampires across the planet, D is hastening his own obsolescence. As powerful as they might be, they are relics of an old world that is halfway in the grave already. As we learn at the end of the film, vampires are on the verge of extinction.
Even more than the vampires, the combination of gothic architecture, sprawling technology, and freakish monsters is likely the single most influential aspect of "Vampire Hunter D."ĭespite its indulgences, "Vampire Hunter D" takes care to preserve the thematic heft of the vampire archetype. Kikuchi simply takes for granted that since D is the coolest person alive, he must live in a world that lives up to his billing. No explanation is ever given as to what made the world this way. The characters ride on cyborg horses, vampires exhibit psychic powers, and the landscape overflows with crumbling buildings and rusted metal. It's a post-apocalyptic Western, set in the year 12,090 AD. But "Vampire Hunter D" isn't just a Western.
0 kommentar(er)
