Vampire Hunter D (1985) Blu-Ray

The year is 12,090 AD. Centuries after nuclear devastation, the Earth has fallen into a feudal darkness ruled by the Nobility — ancient, powerful vampires who treat humanity as cattle. Doris Lang is a young frontier farmer who is attacked and bitten by Count Magnus Lee — a vampire lord of enormous age and power. Marked by his bite and shunned by her superstitious village, she hires D: a mysterious dhampir, born of a vampire father and human mother, who roams the frontier as a hunter of his own kind. D is cold, almost inhumanly capable, and barely speaks. He is also, unmistakably, something extraordinary — even among vampires. The Count dispatches servants to retrieve Doris and destroy D. What follows is a dark, gothic action film set in a world where science and sorcery have become indistinguishable and the most dangerous thing on the frontier is the man you hired to protect you.

Vampire Hunter D is an 80-minute 1985 OVA directed by Toyoo Ashida, produced by Ashi Productions, and based on the first novel in Hideyuki Kikuchi's landmark light novel series — illustrated by Yoshitaka Amano, the character designer for Final Fantasy. The music was composed by Tetsuya Komuro of TM Network. The film was one of the earliest anime productions targeted explicitly at adult audiences and is credited as a pioneer of horror anime and the adult OVA market.

The original Streamline Pictures English dub — produced by Carl Macek in 1992 — aired on TBS, Cartoon Network, and the Sci-Fi Channel throughout the 1990s. Sentai Filmworks re-licensed the film in April 2015 and released a digitally remastered Blu-ray and DVD on August 25, 2015, featuring an entirely new English dub produced by Sentai's Houston studio.

Notable improvements in the Sentai release include corrected terminology — "dhampir" replacing the previous mistranslation "dampiel/danpeal," and vampires referred to as "Nobles" rather than "Aristocrats" — bringing both the dub and subtitles closer to Kikuchi's original novels.

The original Streamline dub is not included on the Sentai release.

Notable Staff & Voice Talent

Director: Toyoo Ashida (died July 25, 2011)
Screenplay: Yasushi Hirano
Original Novel: Hideyuki Kikuchi (Vampire Hunter D novel series, 1983–present; English license: Dark Horse Books)
Character Design / Novel Illustration: Yoshitaka Amano (Final Fantasy character designer)
Studio: Ashi Productions
Music: Tetsuya Komuro (TM Network)
Ending Theme: "Your Song" by TM Network

Japanese Cast:
• Kaneto Shiozawa as D
• Michie Tomizawa as Doris Lang (Sailor Moon — Rei Hino / Sailor Mars)
• Seizô Katô as Count Magnus Lee
• Satoko Kifuji as Larmica
• Motomu Kiyokawa as Left Hand / Narrator

English Dub Cast (Sentai Filmworks — Houston, 2015 — new dub, not included: Streamline 1992 dub):
• John Gremillion as D
• Luci Christian as Doris Lang
• Andy McAvin as Count Magnus Lee
• Tiffany Grant as additional cast
• David Wald as additional cast 

Blu-ray Features (Sentai Filmworks, August 25, 2015)

• Digitally Remastered Video — 1080p HD
• New 2015 Sentai English Dub (Streamline 1992 dub not included)
• Japanese Audio DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 / English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0
• Updated English Subtitles (corrected terminology: dhampir, Nobles)
• Note: Urban Vision Special Edition DVD (2000) bonus features — making-of, Amano gallery, Bloodlust trailer — not ported to this release

Spoken Languages: English (2015 Sentai dub) & Japanese Audio, English Subtitles

Edition Details

Japanese Title: バンパイアハンターD (Banpaia Hantā Dī / Vampire Hunter D)
Runtime: ~80 Minutes
Director: Toyoo Ashida
Blu-ray Release Year: 2015 (U.S. Release, August 25 — Sentai Filmworks / Section23 Films, digitally remastered with new English dub); Urban Vision Special Edition DVD October 17, 2000
Original Release Date (Japan): December 21, 1985
Publisher: Sentai Filmworks / Section23 Films
Rating: NR (content equivalent to 17+)
Region: Region A (North America)
Genre: Action, Horror, Science Fiction
Themes: Dhampir Vampire Hunter, Post-Apocalyptic Gothic World, Nobility Vampire Lords, Yoshitaka Amano Design, Pioneer of Adult-Targeted Anime

Media assumed VG+ unless otherwise noted.