November 16, 2009 12:00 AM | by 
Vampires. The sexy dead. Before young girls in their teens corrupted vampires into emo love interests, vampires were cool. They were sexy, scary, alluring and down right evil. Western movies don’t have the monopoly on Vampire flicks. In fact Japan does a darn good job of freaking people out with its own versions of animated vampires. So I present to you readers, five animated Vampire movies to eat popcorn to.
Blood: The Last Vampire
Before someone comments, yes, I do know there is a live action version of this. You shouldn’t watch that version. Watch the animated one. It’s much better. Believe me.
The basic rundown is that vampires are hiding in plain sight, and this ‘Japanese school girl’ has to kill them with a big sword. Except she does this at a military base in Okinawa. More specifically the high school on the military base.
Words of Advice: Don’t see the live action version.
This is about as ‘old school’ as you can get. Made in 1985 it details what the world will be like 9,000 years in the future. A world full of vampires. If you can get past the slightly aged look of the animation, and the really funny retro hair styles, the story is quite good. This is what the third Blade movie should have been like.
Words of Advice: Play a drinking game with your friends. Every time someone laughs because of how goofy the animation is, they take a drink. Also, you get to slap them.
Did I happen to mention that the Vampire Hunter D stories were actually a set of books? Well someone happened to make another one of those stories into an animated film. It’s gothic, it’s got modern animation, and it’s very dark. As dark as you’d expect from a distopia future full of vampires.
Words of Advice: If you spend more than five minutes trying to find the Japanese language track, you have to take a drink. He he he he.
She’s a vampire princess who protects the people of Kyoto from evil demons. Try and not laugh at the outfits she wears. It hurts her feelings. While these are not your ‘typical’ vampires or demons it does give you a good idea of what the Japanese feel on the subject. Especially if you can visualize ninja + vampire = awesome.
Words of Advice: If you’re going to watch this watch the more modern TV version. Its darker and makes a lot more sense.
I always love Japanese animated movies that how what life is like in the west. Especially when it’s dealing with dead NASA employees and weird vampire cultures. Though a bit dated, this movie has the guts to show you evil vampires. None of this weak or cute ones. No, these vampires have bad ass powers which they love to use.
Words of Advice: Come for the vampires, stay for deaths.
Take one part Western vampire myth, mix with one part Japanese animation, throw in a bit of undead Nazi army, and you have a damn fine show. Hellsing chronicles a mysterious organization that protects England from vampire and evil demons. Besides having a very strong story backed up by a long running manga, it also features damn fine animation and awesome music. You’ll also probably like the fact that everyone in England speaks Japanese.
Words of Advice: If you watch one show on this list, watch this. While the 13-ep series is good the 6 part OVA Hellsing Ultimate, not quite finished yet, is better. Far better. Though the TV series does feature some emo punk vampire kids, but they get their heads exploded.