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Ooops, #latergram! I was supposed to post this yesterday:

!WARNING! *SPOILERS*


I do not know how to put spoiler tags in place. There are no spoiler tags. SCROLL AT OWN RISK.
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Today I opened my mailbox to find the long-awaited redub of the original Vampire Hunter D film by Sentai Filmworks! I was so excited, I squealed and jumped up and down! I pre-ordered it shortly after attending Anime Expo, where the Vampire Hunter D anime series that was rumored to be in the very early stages of production was announced to be officially in the works.

Here are my thoughts on the re-dub:

Most of the voice actors in the cast are people I've not heard of, except vaguely through friends that pay VERY close attention to the industry. I'd heard of Luci Christian, but John Gremillion's voice was new to me. I point him out, of course, because he is the voice of the title character, and one of my favorite anime characters.

As far as the ENGLISH DUB VOICES go, I was a bit disappointed in a few.

Although Lamika's and Count Magnus Lee's accents in the original dub were, shall we say, a little exaggerated (and in the case of Lamika, tended to deviate between a Bela Lugosi-like Transylvania and Soviet Russia), I felt that Lamika's fit the character's proud, willful personality as well as the character design. The new voice actress, Brittney Karbowski, plays Lamika like a bitchy little barbie girl. She talks too fast, the voice doesn't match the character, and she goes in and out of a bad British accent.

Rei Ginsei is one of my favorite characters in the OVA, the book, and the manga. He's the most relatable, he has the best lines, and he balances humor, "freakiness" (for lack of a better word), and "seriousness" (also for a lack of a better word) perfectly. His voice in the original dub, I thought, best personified his character. It wasn't too deep, it was sly and slippery, slithering like a snake through the speakers and lurking into your ears. I liked it. The new voice, is a little too gruff and flat. It's like a stick in the mud, versus something that has a great range and a lot of personality. *Side note: I'm going to be using the word "personify" A LOT*

Now for D's voice...I wasn't necessarily disappointed, but I feel that John Gremillion played D a little too seriously. D isn't necessarily serious or intense, as much as he is stoic and cool-headed. Additionally, Gremillion's portrayal of D makes him sound much older, say mid to late 30s/ early 40s, when I assume, based on D's appearance and the age of Doris Lang the "love interest" (17), that he is meant to be in his early to mid 20's (at least in appearance). The best voice of D I've heard to date is Andrew "Andy" Philpot from the second installment of Vampire Hunter D, the Bloodlust film. I wish he would have reprised his role, I even tweeted Sentai Filmworks multiple times upon hearing a leak of information about the upcoming redub back at the beginning of the year. This is not to say that the original OVA dub's Michael McConnohie, a voice over legend in his own right, was a bad choice. He was okay. It's hard to describe his voice, but it didn't sound too old, too deep, too aggressive, etc. He was calm, but when D was in a situation that required him to "break character", as far as his composed nature was concerned, he could do so seamlessly and convincingly. Examples of this include the first exchange between D and Rei Gensei in front of Doris' house, as well as the scene where Rei Gensei "slays" D. Those reactions were convincing enough to the viewer to get the point of what was happening across, without compromising the integrity of D's character (not sure how well I'm articulating this). Fun fact: at times, Gremillion's voice sounded kind of like Liam Neeson.

Doris' voice...I'm not sure really. I like Luci Christian, but I feel her voice was a bit sloppy to say the least. Like Lamika's original voice, it tended to deviate. It would go from a comedic Lolita from a slice of life anime to a tom boyish voice reminiscent of Caitlyn Glass's portrayal of Haruhi Fujioka from Ouran High School Host Club, of course, a bit more feminine. In certain parts, tho, it reminded me of the original dub's voice actress. They do sound somewhat similar. Slightly.

Dan's voice, I found UTTERLY ANNOYING AT FIRST. The second time, it grew on me a little, but I feel like it didn't really change. It was another voice actor doing the same thing. Both voices have an over-exaggerated Southern twang. The thing that irks me is, people complained about the over-exaggerated accents, surprisingly not so much the Count and Lamika, but the that of the human main characters and the townsfolk i.e. Doris, Dan, etc. But, personally, I found Dan and Greco, ESPECIALLY GRECO, to be WAY over the top Westernized in this new release. Greco went from an inappropriate, unplaceable accent to a highly HIGHLY country droll. It even sounded like it was a black voice actor. Which isn't bad, it's cool (see Jet from Cowboy Bebop played by a black guy). But in this case, it just seems unfitting.

D's Left Hand is the foil to his character. In the past two installments, the voice has been an old man with a funny voice. That is to say, there's a familiarity and comfort-level between D and Left Hand. They banter, they're playful with each other. Despite when Left Hand messes with D, he doesn't ever intend to hurt D, nor does he resent D. In this dub, though, not only do they try, rather unsuccessfully, to use the same distorting voice effect as the original dub...but the voice sounds creepy and sinister. The tone is not so much a humorous or light-hearted foil to D's tormented, stoic nature as it is a supporter of the, I hate to say negative, but, negative aspects of D's character. It agitates his demons, what torments him, in a resentful way, versus a playful way. At the very least, it doesn't feel AS playful. I don' like it as much as the OG voice.

The Three Sisters voices were okay. The effect/voices from the original dub were more eerie and haunting, fitting the characters and the music.

Count Magnus Lee's voice was PERFECT! His accent was on point, his tone was similar to that of his original voice, which I liked, almost like D's calm and composed nature, but mix in some arrogance. He definitely had a commanding, charming, alluring, I don't really know what, but he had something! And it worked for me! Additionally, and I guess from here, I'll just jump right into

DIALOGUE:

The dialogue changes fixed some things, i.e. :

-mentioning of "nobles" and "transient guests"
-"dhampiel" to "dhampir" FINALLY!
-D's speech to Dan in the cart while they're in town is better articulated/timed
-some characters are given EXCELLENT LINES, for example, Count Magnus Lee and D I felt had the best lines

Some of these gave more background to an OVA that I believe was not only a fair stand alone piece, but also true to the book for those of us who have read Kikuchi sensei's works or Saiko Takaki's manga.

Other things, were either muddled or made awkward i.e. :

-"You're not the hunter I'm looking for" OOO STAR WARS PUN!
-"Leave the sword and take your fancy costume" I get it, but it still sounds funny
-"Saddle tramp", "yellow-bellied", etc. outdated Western terms? The setting may insinuate that things regressed to a frontier -like state, but I doubt many old times phrases would return...at least not that accurately
-the Sanguine moon scene, was already a bit of an innuendo for periods, but by calling it a "red moon", "woman's moon", and mentioning that it happens once every month...just, why? It was so sophisticated and cool-sounding...and you had to go and make that not-so-subtle joke. UGH!

All in all for ENGLISH DUB VOICES and DIALOGUE...the remaining minor characters and Greco, who was only briefly mentioned, I feel were decent. They weren't that important before anyway, at least not as much as they were in the book. Although, I am super happy they changed the voice actor/dialogue for the Sheriff at the little meeting in town with Doris, Dan and D, because in the original dub, the Sheriff's "Oh my God!" is laughable.

ANIMATION!

The first thing I noticed about the new release. The remaster is BREATH-TAKING! Similar to my only real issue with the VHD manga series, the original OVA was very dark, and at times, it was hard to follow the fight scenes or differentiate terrain/points in the setting, which is a shame, because I think that the original OVA pays the best homage to the world Kikuchi Sensei created in the book. The landscapes are beautiful to say the least, and in addition to the more interesting plot (FUN FACT: Meier Link and Charlotte are essentially Edward and Bella before Stephanie Meier. Someone should copyright law her a**...), I would argue that the remaster bumped up the 1985 OVA a bit to almost be on equal footing with the landscapes people rave about in Bloodlust (as far as accuracy and detail are concerned). I definitely enjoyed the animation much much more with the face lift it was given. It was almost like someone put it through photoshop and just brightened up the exposure or whatever and then defined the lines (I can't think of the real names of those features right now). I hope cels of the remastered material come up...if that's a thing! I don't know if remasters change everything to digital/CGI nonsense.

EDITING!

Some of the transitions looked different, i.e. the fade out versus sharp cut after Doris embraces D. The pans were more precise, sometimes it felt like the "time-killing scenes" (you know the ones: three minutes of Doris walking, three minutes of D riding his horse and showing up his suave hair) were shortened. Idk, the OVA felt shorter this time around, I don't think it is tho.

USE OF MUSIC:

Tetsuya Komuro's music is pretty good for that time period, and I loved the eerie, haunting, sci-fi atmosphere he created. They messed with the music. They repeated some songs where I don't remember them being repeated. They cut some songs short, which, to me, felt anti-climactic (maybe that's not the right word) or just...awkwardly silent and slow (even tho this plot moves relatively fast)

THE SUB:

I hadn't heard the Japanese Sub until this new release came out, but I would say, while I can't speak to the sub as well as native Japanese speakers, I don't speak Japanese, as an English speaker who watches many subs, I would say it's decent. The actual subtitles are...well...

Not too good.

INTERESTING THEMES ADDED:

-Doris offers to take her own life in the new release instead of leaving the village, her suggestion in the original OVA. YAY SUICIDE!
-Doris doesn't figure out that D is a dhampir until the count shows him being tortured by The Three Sisters, in the original OVA, she figures out along the way/already knows.
-Speaking of the three sisters, D calls them the "Lamia" and makes a reference to a servant-like monster that devours children from Greek mythology. They use the term "medusas" instead of "snake women" to describe themselves
-Lamika doesn't decide to go down with her father and the House of Lee on her own, upon finding out D is the offspring of the Sacred Ancestor (something that is not so plainly put in the original either. In this new release, Count Lee basically confirms it), she asks D what to do, since she looks up to him as a noble member of the family

ALL IN ALL, I would definitely watch it, depending on pricing, I would opt for buying it. It's worth having in your collection, especially if you are an 80s-90s or cel animation fan.