Touching the night talk, every day nonsense and game-related farts, ghost things, new things.
Photo/Xiao Luo
When I visited a video website the other day, a high-definition version of an old theatrical version of the animation was pushed to my homepage. I clicked in, I wanted to drag the progress bar to look at it casually, but I didn't expect to be out of control, and I couldn't stop at all.
It was Vampire Hunter D, which was supervised by Yoshiaki Kawajiri in 2000. I also went back to my Douban page and found that the first time I watched it was in 2014, and it had already been praised in the short review. 7 years later, I can't remember the plot clearly, but I know that in terms of pictures, "Vampire Hunter D" is definitely a collection of contemporaries. Kawajiri Yoshiaki's repressive lens language is matched with the gorgeous characters born from Amano Kitaka (who is in charge of the illustration of the novel version), and the delicate hand-drawn texture of the year... Visually speaking, this theatrical version is simply the last carnival of the celluloid era.
The shots that appeared this month are so classic that even people who haven't seen the theatrical version will most likely see it in some places. Because the novel began serialization as early as 1983, it is rumored that the image of Hunter D inspired the game "Castlevania" series and even the comic strip "Knights of the Royal Church", but it is difficult to determine
Amano's illustrations combine the charms of the East with the beauty of the West, and it is most appropriate to express this Kind of Japanese Gothic story. The 2000 theatrical version has done its best in the degree of restoration of the painting style
As mentioned earlier, elements such as retro, gothic, and steampunk are my aesthetic weaknesses, and I always look at them more when I walk by. However, whether it is animation, film or video, or games, I do not meet one who loves one. At best, these elements have been thriving, always popular, wide-ranging and easy to make a good first impression; at worst, they have been used too much, and if they can't make a personality, they can only be ignored.
The art of "Vampire Hunter D" belongs to the kind of magical works that are not only very distinctive, but also absolutely outdated in the present. Although the main characters and buildings are all permeated with a 19th-century aristocratic style, the story actually takes place after a future nuclear war. The vampires inside inherit the ancient characteristics of longevity, fear of light, fear of crosses, and master lost technologies such as spaceships and space stations...
It sounds like a mix and a match, which is quite outrageous, but when a particularly decent gothic space stands on the screen, the picture shocks me tremendously. This shot, which looks like it can cause the background artist to lose his hair, may also appear two or three times. When the protagonist walks in the desert, from the hat to the cape to the horse, it is all retro, and the wreckage of the building that is half-buried by the yellow sand and looks modern creates a very desolate effect, which complements the lonely atmosphere that the whole story wants to express.
Anyway, I have never seen such a gorgeous and treacherous space station in other works
In contrast, some of the more popular vampire-based films and television works, such as "Twilight" and even "Discover the Witch", make me feel that something is not quite right. Aside from the story Mary Sue, I always feel that the modern setting greatly weakens the charm of the subject matter, and apart from the layers of fantasy skin, it is fundamentally not much different from other soap operas.
I've wondered why the worldview of this kind of story is often related to the retro setting to be the most "flavorful". Probably because the period itself had two faces: on the one hand, the gorgeous architecture, decoration, and the red tape of the so-called superior; on the other hand, the barbaric development of science, medicine, and the extremely dirty and harsh living environment of ordinary people. Backgrounds such as these, full of contradictions and contrasts, are probably the best stage for such gorgeous and bloody creatures as vampires to operate.
As for games that focus on vampires, I find Vampyr more interesting in terms of worldview alone. This game has many disadvantages to play, such as unreasonable design of teleportation points, small maps are better than nothing, when the old good guys have a very limited skill growth in a week, weapons are mostly weak and some feel less suitable for people. However, its story is a good expression of the contradiction in the identity of the protagonist: they are reduced to catching rats in the gutter to drink blood, but also try to maintain the appearance and thinking of decent people; a doctor who works to save people, the quickest way to become stronger is to suck blood and kill people, and the design of the boss battle is visually pleasing enough. These points should be enough to make it stand out from the massive vampire and Gothic themes. Of course, Mrs. Timtrescu, who has recently been very popular in Resident Evil: The Village, is also a very powerful design.
Vampire's first boss battle came unexpectedly. Although it was beaten badly at the time, the big cross in the boss's hand and the vine-like blood flowers of the AOE exploding on the ground were still very shocking
Personally, I would love to play more of these genres and styles of games, after all, they will at least be a visual feast. However, as I said just now, it is not easy to make this kind of subject matter outstanding. We can only keep looking forward to this.