Vampire Hunter D

Vampire Hunter D (バンパイアハンターD Banpaia Hantā Dī) is a 1985 Japanese original video animation produced by Ashi Productions, based on the novels written by Hideyuki Kikuchi and illustrated by Yoshitaka Amano. It was one of the first OVAs released outside of Japan and remains a cult classic in the English-speaking world.

Dubbing History
The film was originally released in English by Streamline Pictures, and was shown on the fine-arts theatrical circuit in the US in August 1992 and later released on VHS on March 26, 1993. The film was also shown several times on American television during the 1990s, including on TBS, Cartoon Network and the Sci-Fi Channel. Vampire Hunter D is considered a flagship title for Streamline, and was marketed in the US as ‘the first animated horror film for adults.’

In 2000, Urban Vision Entertainment, the US production partner and distributor of Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust, re-released the OVA on a ‘Special Edition’ bilingual DVD on October 17 containing the original Japanese audio and a Dolby Digital 5.1 remix of the Streamline dub, as well as releasing dubbed and subtitled versions of the film on VHS.

On April 16, 2015, Sentai Filmworks announced their license to the film in North America for digital and home video release. The film was released on August 25, 2015 on Blu-ray and DVD with a new English dub. This redub has attracted some ire from some due to the cult status of the original dub, not helped by the fact that, unlike most Sentai redubs, the original dub is not included on their release.