Anime Spotlight: Vampire Hunter D

Not only was Vampire Hunter D one of the first anime released in the U.S., but it was also the first I had ever seen.  Without getting too nostalgic, I had seen VHD on a UHF channel in Chicago that had broadcast anime late Saturday nights, sometimes uncensored even.  It was great, because I not only got to watch something  that was considered one of the first and best of its kind, but I also felt like I was getting away with something.  There was cursing, it was gory, and it had nudity.  I was like a kid in a candy store, if candy stores had excessive gore and animated topless women.

New Genre Spotlights

To add to the confusion, we’ve decided to alternate our actor and director spotlights with a genre spotlight.  So every third month we will spotlight a different genre.  This month we are going with “anime”.  Dating back to the sixties, and perfected in the eighties, anime is a true art-form that we’re recognizing this month with, Akira, Fist of The North Star, Vampire Hunter D, and a surprise fourth film, so surprising, even I don’t know what it is.