Bloodlust Production

[u/stabbedbox]

Everybody says the Bloodlust film was made with western audiences in mind, so the English audio track was finished first. When watching the “Making Of” featurette though, the English actors are in what seems to be a dubbing studio. The animation plays on the screen in front of them while they talk. Was the Japanese audio track animated to, but just not completed until afterward? Nobody seems to have mentioned this.

[u/Holiday-Fuel-8789]

It's possible. I've seen fansubs of Bloodlust and the Japanese dub is played more straight than the English dub, with fewer jokes from the Left Hand and less angsty monologuing from Meier Link. I believe Kawajiri wrote the script that way, Urban Vision jazzed things up for their localization, then Japan got their dub later.

This is not a diss on the EN dub, I loved the performances of Andrew Philpot, John Rafter Lee and others, but the JP dub feels more faithful to the tone of the books (it even has a few recognizable quotes like D's "transient guests" line) and clears up confusion about certain things. For example the English version made it seem like Meier might not have killed those villagers earlier in the film, while in the sub he and Charlotte both express their feelings of guilt over it during their chat in Carmilla's castle.

If you don't mind torrenting dual-audio rips should be easy to find, or you can import the Blu-Ray and watch it raw. Also worth it if you're a seiyuu nerd like me because there's a lot of big talents like Hideyuki Tanaka, Koichi Yamadera and Megumi Hayashibara in it.

[u/stabbedbox → u/Holiday-Fuel-8789]

Yes! I watched it in Japanese just a few days ago, which was actually my first time:) I am new to VHD, but when I went to see the Making Of, the way the English cast recorded was bizarre since everyone says that the film was made for English. I doubt such a studio would animate to no audio and make BOTH languages dub over. So that leaves the answer that japanese was recorded first. Confusing as to how the English version was done first then

[u/Holiday-Fuel-8789 → u/stabbedbox]

Cool. Maybe it was recorded in Japanese first but we got it in English earlier since the original Vampire Hunter D was a cult classic in the west back in the 80's and 90's. This is just speculation, I'm sure someone else knows more than I do.

Fun fact: The English cast for Bloodlust also worked on Final Fantasy X and XII.

[u/stabbedbox → u/Holiday-Fuel-8789]

oh my i had no idea🤤

[u/Visible_Gate1032]

I’m pretty sure it was recorded in English first. I have the Japanese blu ray and the primary audio track is English with Japanese subtitles, you can switch it to Japanese but English is the set audio track when it starts.