Topic: Vampire Hunter D- The inspiration for Castlevania?

[VampireHunterM]

(the original film, not Bloodlust) I was always convinced this must have served as an inspiration for Castlevania in general. There's the half vampire son of Dracula,D, who struggles with his dark side, and actually resembles Alucard, a female vampire/werewolf hunter who uses a powered whip, and other similarities. This came out in 1985, a year before Castlevania. Any thoughts?

[fallenangel86]

i never saw this, but from i can make of images on the net, you're comparing d to what alucard is now. the original design for alucard looked like black and white horror movie vampires, with the short-ish hair slicked way back, and a major widows peak going on. he also didn't have an appearance in the series until the 3rd(numbered, actually 6th overall) game. gonna say d himself had no impact on the series, unless he directly inspired igarashi/kojima, years later, to make alucard look like that.

[DragonSlayr81]

It's been discussed before. IGA basically said that, NO, VHD most likely DIDN'T inspire CV originally. But, he DID admit that D was somewhat of an inspiration for HIS(IGA's) depiction of Alucard.

[darkwzrd4]

Whether it inspired CV or not is up for debate.  Regardless, it may have had some kind of impact.  If the 1985 movie didn't the books could have.  The books, from I can tell, were written in Japan in the early 80's or earlier.  The original appearance of Alucard may not of been influenced D's appearance in the movie, but the VHD books and CV videogame series have some very similar elements.

I actually recommend reading the books.  I enjoy them, however I should warn you that they are for mature audiences only.

[Abnormal Freak]

Another thing is Sonia Belmont looks a lot like Doris Day, so Konami definitely took that character design from the movie. And yeah, SOTN Alucard's design is definitely inspired by D (more so Yoshitaka Amano's drawings than the anime--which is interesting considering I find Ayami Kojima's style kind of similar to his), so it was an obvious intention for them to be sort of parallel characters.

Originally Alucard in Castlevania III was inspired by the title character Alucard in the 1943 movie Son of Dracula, Universal's official sequel of sorts to Dracula.

[Clara E. Leet]

I always believed that it did have some sort of impact.

And in any case, VHD is a great series to follow if you're a CV fan. The video game kinda sucked, but both movies and the book series are incredible. The books have recently been published in English, and I think they're up to book 10 if not all 12 by now.

[Abnormal Freak]

I got the first book and, while I enjoyed reading it, never did finish. I'm not big into reading.

And yes, both anime films are fantastic, though I keep waiting and waiting for the Japanese language version of Bloodlust. A lot of people like to say, "What's the point since it was originally in English?" Sure, the English version was completed first, but the script was written in Japanese and then translated and Americanized. The English dialog and voice acting suck balls, and Urban Vision have been saying for YEARS that they're releasing a special edition of Bloodlust with the Japanese voice track. Still hasn't happened.

[Reinhart77]

In Reply To #7

yeah, i got the book too and never finished reading it.  i read it very slowly and savored every word of it, but eventually stopped reading it.  then i lost my place and much later started to read it from the beginning.  it's too bad, i'm just so much more likely to spend my time doing something else than read a book.

[Clara E. Leet]

Yeah it took me forever to get through the first book as well. Just don't have time for a lot of free reading these days.

I wanna start up the second one and read through that so I can get to the third one, though. The third one is the one that Bloodlust is based off of. And there are rumors that a third movie will be based off of the 7th book.

[darkwzrd4]

Let me set the record straight.  As far as what actually happens in the story, the books are better.  The movies, while based of volumes 1 and 3, are very different from the respective books.  Especially, in regards to bloodlust and volume 3, "Demon Deathchase".  The books have more violence, sex, more complete stories.

Also, in my opinion, the first movie sucked.  Then again, maybe that's because I had already read the first book and had very high hopes for a movie that was truly spectacular.

As far as the voices in the movies, I think the voices for D and his left hand in Bloodlust were more acurrate in regards to the book than the first movie.

[Abnormal Freak]

So in the third book, Left Hand is a sniveling fat guy who wimps out of everything and is basically only there for lame, non-funny comic relief? I only compare between the two films, and in both the Japanese and English language versions of the first film, Left Hand is a wisecracker, but he sounds quite malicious and so forth, and isn't such a coward. I can't stand the English Bloodlust version, at all, especially all his dialog. The original Japanese dialog, which I've read snips of translations of, make Left Hand out to be more like in the first movie (and I believe he was voiced by the same person).

As for the first VHD flick being different from the novel... Again, I didn't read the whole thing so I can't accurately compare, but VHD '85 as a stand-alone movie is downright phenomenal in my opinion. One of my favorite films ever. So much mood and coolness, and the Japanese version is so much better, especially considering Magnus Lee doesn't talk at the beginning when Doris runs into him, which makes that scene so freaking eerie.