Before the 1970s, most Japanese animation was stuck under the shackles of "children's cartoons", and the general audience of Japanese animation at that time was also young children. Like the "Pleasant Goat and Gray Wolf" series and the "Bear Haunting" series that we are now familiar with, because of the cute cartoon image and easy-to-understand plot, the main audience group is also preschool children. It is not that there is anything wrong with this, but animation as a comprehensive art form, its birth is earlier than the film, and if the animation that has developed for more than 100 years will not continue to develop and continue to this day if it stays under the label of "children's things".
If you mention who changed the Japanese people's perception of animation at that time, it is necessary to mention an important animation director, Yuji Tomino, whose name may be relatively unfamiliar in China, but in Japan, Tomino Yuji can be called the director who has the greatest influence on Japanese animation. His Mobile Suit Gundam series was a watershed moment, changing the main audience of Japanese animation to teenagers and youths. Under the guidance of Director Yuki Tomino, the Japanese animation industry has flourished in the decades since the 1970s, also thanks to Japan's mature animation grading system, and the audience is no longer limited to teenagers, but also youth-oriented animation and adult-oriented animation.
Yoshiaki Kawajiri is a master of Japanese adult animation and is also known as one of the "spokespersons for the aesthetics of Japanese violence". There is no shortage of blood-curdling desire and violence in his works, but under his lens, these and elements have a different kind of elegant and romantic beauty. He once said that the three anime "Beast Guard Ninja Wind Post", "Monster City" and "Vampire Hunter D" are his three most satisfied works, and the DVD of "Beast Guard Ninja Wind Post" has sold more than 800,000 copies in North America, and in 2006, it was directed by American cartoonist J. Lee. Torres adapted the manga and began serialization; Monster City also caused a movie-going boom in Hong Kong, with Hong Kong directors Tsui Ke and Mak Tai Kit adapting the anime into a live-action film in 1992.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > Vampire Hunter D: The '85 anime version has a polarized reputation in Japan and North America</h1>
The "vampire", a supernatural creature that exists in eastern European myths and legends, has become a classic "matrix" in the field of artistic creation under the adaptation of novels, movies, dramas and other different artistic carriers in the past 100 years. The image of this pale- and black-clad aristocrat who sucks human blood and lives in a castle deep in a remote forest has been deeply engraved in the memory of generations. Combining gothic elements, religious atmospheres and romantic magical creations, vampires gradually break away from the shackles of time and enjoy the enthusiasm and dedication of fanatics from all over the world.
In 1983, Japanese writer Hideyuki Kikuchi created the novel Vampire Hunter D, which is still unfinished today and has been adapted into various forms such as anime, games, and manga. In the 1985 novel Vampire Hunter D also ushered in its first animated adaptation, and the vampire hunter named D also showed his animated image. Compared with the popularity of the original novel, the 1985 version of the animated film "Vampire Hunter D" did not perform well in Japan, and the animation production team made D a western cowboy image "cloaked in a vampire hunter". This sharp sense of contrast is certainly not bought by the audience, and even the original writer Hideyuki Kikuchi has publicly expressed his dissatisfaction with the animation adaptation.
"The East is not bright and the West is bright", the 85th edition of "Vampire Hunter D", which failed miserably in Japan, has been sought after by countless people on the other side of the ocean. In 1992, the North American market introduced the 85th edition of "Vampire Hunter D", which was broadcast many times in major television stations in the United States, and Vampire Hunter D has also become a classic image of vampire hunters in the minds of a generation of Americans and has influenced it to this day. We can still see the shadow of Vampire Hunter D in many European and American vampire movies today, and the 85th edition of Vampire Hunter D is also called "the first adult to horror animation film" in North America.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > Yoshiaki Kawajiri's Vampire Hunter D is a masterpiece that will go down in the history of human animation</h1>
Although the reputation of the 85th edition of "Vampire Hunter D" is seriously polarized in Japan and North America, fans who have read the original novel have said that the D in this version has not met the expectations of him. Finally, in 2001, a new version of "Vampire Hunter D" adapted by Japanese adults to animation master Yoshiaki Kawajiri was born, and under the supervision of Yoshiaki Kawajiri, who pursued magnificence and extremes, D finally moved from the novel to the big screen. This poor hunter D who has chased vampires all his life, his handsome face, the shiny cross-shaped sword on his back and a dark trench coat, this classic screen image has become the "male god" in the minds of countless people.
Yoshiaki Kawajiri's version of Vampire Hunter D is selected from the third volume of the original novel, "Demon Hunt", and the beginning of the film begins with the rich family Charlotte being kidnapped from the home by the vampire Marel, and Charlotte's father hired D and Max brothers and sisters to rescue his daughter. But as the rescue progresses, the truth of the matter slowly surfaces, Charlotte is not forcibly abducted by Marell, she fell in love with the vampire Marell, and finally chose to elope with Marell and flee with the ideal country of "Night Capital".
Yoshiaki Kawajiri, a representative of the Japanese aesthetic of violence, takes his style to the extreme in Vampire Hunter D. He presented the audience with a visual feast, the lively fight scenes gave the audience a real sensory enjoyment, and the "scarlet flowers" that bloomed on the tip of the sword also gave the violent aesthetics belonging to Kawajiri Yoshiaki.
The steam chariots and large-caliber rifles used by the Max siblings and the shiny cross-shaped swords used by D were blazing on the screen, and the collision of the hot and cold weapons of the positive and negative factions on the screen also made the audience addicted. While maintaining sensory stimulation, Kawajiri Zenaki maintains a balance between beautiful pictures and smooth plots, neither making the audience feel uncomfortable with violence nor feeling abrupt about the plot, which is the "magic" of Kawajiri Zenaki.
Behind Yoshiaki Kawajiri's violent aesthetic, if there is no sophisticated and smooth picture and rigorous and smooth plot to promote, this "Vampire Hunter D" will not be regarded as a classic. Behind the gorgeous picture is more than 70,000 original paintings, because the scenes in "Vampire Hunter D" are mostly wild scenes, and the difficulty of making the original paintings is also multiplied, sometimes it takes more than two hours to just one original painting. It's hard to imagine that this animation was a work from 20 years ago, and in that era when CG animation was not yet mature, these exquisite and gorgeous backgrounds represent tons of original manuscripts of the original artists behind them.
Hideyuki Kikuchi, the author of the original novel, is said to have confidently entrusted the adaptation to him after reading Kawajiri Zenaki's script once, giving Kawajiri Zenaki a great deal of room to play. In order to meet the limitations of the film's capacity, and to take care of the audience who have not seen the original work, Kawajiri Yoshiaki has made many changes to the original work. At the end of the film, he also added such an "orthodox" vampire as the final boss, which retained the complete story framework of the original work and also made the film lean towards the "mainstream" vampire movie.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > written at the end</h1>
Animation as a mainstream art media since its birth in the past 100 years gradually to everyone to show its unique charm, it is not just an age group or a group of specific groups of art carrier, the real animation is suitable for all ages and anyone to appreciate and praise. Yoshiaki Kawajiri's Vampire Hunter D, a work from 20 years ago, can transcend the barriers of time and borders even today, and accurately express its main theme to the audience, which I think is the charm of classic animation.
We are in the era of the rise of Chinese animation, and in recent years, there have been many high-quality domestic animations that are touching and gratifying. Although there is still a certain gap between our animation and the developed countries of animation, I think that in the near future, our Chinese animation will also usher in our own "Miyazaki Hayao" and "Kawajiri Zenaki".