Last week, it was announced that our favorite dhampir D would be coming back in a new series that has now been titled “Vampire Hunter D: Resurrection“. The series is being co-produced by Japanese studio Digital Frontier (Resident Evil: Damnation) and Unified Pictures. The series is also being brought to life with the assistance of Hideyuki Kikuchi, the author of the Vampire Hunter D novels, and Yoshiaki Kawajiri, the director of the 2001 film Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust.
Anime News Network caught up with Unified Pictures’ Kurt Rauer and Scott McLean to discuss the upcoming series and some interesting bits of information came out.
The duo explain how the show might be released, stating, “…[We] presented the idea of using VHD as a springboard for animated feature television. And when I say that, it means to me, at least, high quality, one-hour dramatic series with a season-long arc. So the easiest thing is to say, think of it as an animated version of a Game of Thrones.”
The team also explain that they will not be using the novels as the source for the show:
The idea is to take the universe and to draw out of the universe, arcs. We have the ability to adapt novels and there may be storylines in there that are supportive of that, but I think that we go into it with a much more open mind. I think that what led us to believe that feature TV is the right way to go is the fact that the universe is so well described. George Martin’s universe is fairly well put together. You could take and make feature TV out of Dungeons and Dragons or Dragonlance universe, you can do the same thing in the Star Wars universe, because it’s so well thought out. Outlander is another version of that, where it’s very well described. Because of the scope of the novels and the detail in the novels, that’s what led us to believe it is an evergreen version. If we were to do a dramatic one-hour and it isn’t purely going to be trying to adapt a novel. I think that they’ve had a difficult time–I think Bloodlust was successful, but somewhat compromised, because they were trying to fit so much into a two-hour time frame.
You can read more at the link above. Also, an official website has been launched, although you can only submit your email for updates or link to various social networks.
Alright, who’s excited for this? As a big fan of the films, I’m really hopeful that this is going to be something very thrilling! I always felt like Vampire Hunter D was an anime-version of Castlevania, which is one of the things that hooked me into it. If they can keep that gothic vibe going, I’m going to be all over this.
