There is just so much movie here. For some it may be too much. But in the same secretly sarcastic way most telemarketers say the phrase, the title of this one is particularly apt.

Ok... Let's be honest. It cannot be the best movie but is quite enjoyable. The movie has the potential to develop a great plot for future movies

The movie is wonderful and true, an act of love in all its contradictions and complexity

The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

I first got into Japanese animation (Anime') when I was a freshman in high school 16 years ago. During the summer of 2001, I got swept up in an Anime' binge. "Vampire Hunter D" (1985) and its sequel "Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust" (2000) were amongst some of the earliest Anime' features I ever watched."Vampire Hunter D" is a staple of my movie collection, but I haven't seen "Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust" in quite some time. I just got done watching it today. This film is routinely regarded as a superior sequel to the 1985 original, which was an Anime' adaptation of the Japanese sci-fi/horror novel series created by Hideyuki Kikuchi.One of the reasons for the success - even if the film is uneven in some spots - of "Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust" is due to its director, Yoshiaki Kawajiri, who also directed the classic Anime' films "Ninja Scroll" (1993) (my favorite film from the man) and "Wicked City" (1987), the latter of which was also an adaptation of a work by Hideyuki Kikuchi (which I've also read). Kawajiri is a master Japanese animation craftsman, as well as being notorious in the Anime' industry for making films that were explicit both in terms of extreme violence and sexuality/nudity."Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust" has a lot of gory violence in it, but there's no sex in it whatsoever - showing that Kawajiri is exercising some restraint here. This film looks gorgeous, and has a sci-fi, neo-Gothic look and tone to it. Like the first film, the sequel "Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust" combines horror and science fiction with some elements of westerns and supernatural fantasy - though this actually becomes more apparent in this film than its 1985 predecessor.The film series, like those of the books, is set in the not-too-distant future where supernatural beasts like werewolves, goblins, demons and of course, vampires, rule the land. Humans live in fear of what lurks outside their doors at night, but there's one who fears none of them: D, a half-man, half-vampire hunter known as a "dunpeal" ("dhampir" to the rest of us).In this film, a beautiful young woman named Charlotte Elbourne is kidnapped from her bedroom one night by the extremely powerful nobleman bloodsucker Meier Link. Charlotte's family offers a massive bounty to bring her back at all costs - alive or dead. So D takes up the offer, but he's not working alone. The notorious Marcus Brothers - Borgoff, Kyle, Nolt, and two hangers-on including the psychic Groove and the orphaned Leila - are also out to collect the bounty, though circumstances force D and at the very least Leila to form an uneasy alliance to stop Link and rescue Charlotte.This is a sumptuous, gorgeous-looking Gothic Anime' feature. I'm glad that the strong visuals - which remained etched in my mind since I first saw the movie back in high school - still hold up after all these years. In fact, I remember the visuals and some of the set designs as being the strongest visual element from this picture, and the one thing that I remembered most about it. (And upon my viewing today, I thought I realized a visual reference toward the end of the film to Elizabeth Bathory, the so-called "Blood Queen of Hungary.")Though the film falters in some spots with regard to the action scenes and some of the characters, I still thoroughly enjoyed "Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust."8/10

I suppose the appeal here is the extravagant imagination surrounding a very simple core, chambara blown into vampire opera. Overall it isn't much to my taste. The imagination strikes me as arbitrary and shapeless, one minute we are in a hillside nature fighting zombies, the next in a desert with giant mantas flying out of the sand. I get more enjoyment from inhabiting an internally shaped world. Bladerunner instead of Dune.It has no limits to its fantasy, literally anything happens, and yet very simple limits to its story: forbidden love and revenge both tied to damnation. A Byronic antihero with a sword is our navigator. I find that it takes more work and more imagination in trying to envision ambiguous story limits, showing how this world is otherworldly and eerily cosmic. Mulholland Dr. instead of L'Ange.What's interesting is that the villains here embody all the structural elements missing from the actual fabric of the film. One of them can move in shadows, weaves illusions out of fabric and is himself that fabric of nothingness; in a marvelous scene he traps our hero inside an actual fabric. Another can take apparently any structure. A third creates illusions out of peoples' memory, and is also herself a spectral entity made up from illusion.So we have an unfathomable world where unfathomable beings embody extreme structural powers, a strange thing that ever so slightly charms.

D is one cool dude, and he lives in a really cool world. It's a far-out universe full of weird-looking monsters (including vampires, of course, but also werewolves, some lady that turns into a tree, giant stingrays that fly over deserts, zombies, and other freaky creatures of the night). It's a world full of imaginative settings and locations, and of cool-looking weapons and technology. The whole thing is like what you get if Blade was cross-bred with Book of Eli, and it's awesome that way.Above all, the movie runs fast, loaded with great-looking action, fights, and great visuals. The film is never dull, it's never repetitive, and it's rarely clichéd (not even by anime standards). I've always found it to be a perfect mix of style and excitement, the likes of which is pretty much on the same level (though not nearly as shockingly graphic) as Kawajiri's past work with The Ninja Scroll.Above all, I think this tale of Vampire Hunter D is pretty decent. The older film from 1985 is a little more intimate in a way, but Bloodlust broadens the scope and scale tremendously. It includes a pretty big cast of cool characters, some of which are not what they initially seem (the film's ending does a decent job of challenging the notion of good and evil in spite of this). It's a twisty and action-laden plot with bounty hunters and monsters galore; maybe nothing terribly deep, but it is a fun thrill ride, and I think it's really cool stuff.This film uses great-looking animation, with smooth and refined movements, well-detailed backgrounds, and some really neat light and shadow effects. Character designs are top-notch. Most everything else features good-looking designs too. Voice-acting (for both English and Japanese) is decent. The music score is okay, but has some strong moments too.Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust is still one of the coolest and funnest anime films I've seen, and should be a must-see for fans of the medium.5/5 (Entertainment: Perfect | Story: Very Good | Film: Very Good)

I must confess that I never understood all the hype about the original "Vampire Hunter D" movie: In my opinion, that movie was boring and poorly made, having very bad animation (Even for the time when it was made) clichéd characters, a generic plot which failed to deliver any sort of entertainment…Fortunately this new animated film(done by the same director of "Ninja Scroll") success in every single aspect where the previous "Vampire Hunter D" anime film failed: The animation is good, the designs are cool and stylish, the characters are interesting and better developed (Not like the annoying cardboard characters from the other movie) being also highly entertaining from the beginning to the end. The music is more than adequate, fitting very well for the atmosphere of each scene, capturing all the Gothic-western and post apocalyptic elements from the story.Even when the plot isn't something incredibly deep or complex, it still works very well.Personally, I think that this movie is much better than the other "Vampire Hunter D" movie in every single aspect. I highly recommend it.