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by
Tom Dunlavy
Tom
is a moderator on the AnimeInfo.org
message boards, contributing writer for the AnimeInfo.org
Tribune, and a worker for the Anime Central registration
staff. He enjoys most anime, but usually anime involving
technology (including series such as Evangelion, Outlaw
Star, and Cowboy Bebop). Though Tom is mostly on the
sidelines, he steps in for commentary frequently.
---
It
is a time of darkness and terror. Humankind is afraid,
afraid of the vampires that prey upon them. The vampires
are few in numbers, but are still feared. It is fear
which breads the need for the vampires to be hunted.
Though, that is not to say that a vampire and a human
can never fall in love. Meier Link, one of the most
feared vampires in the land, has supposedly kidnapped
Charlotte. "Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust" begins
with a hunter making a contract with Charlotte's father.
The hunter's name is D, and he is not an ordinary man.
D is what they call a "dunpeel," or a half-breed
between a human and a vampire, and he has the reputation
of being the best vampire hunter around. So, the viewer
might wonder why every man in town has D in the crosshairs
of a rifle while he makes his contract. It is because
he's a dunpeel, and there is a stereotype throughout
the movie, causing everyone to fear him, simply because
of his vampire ancestors. "Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust"
portrays the cultural barriers and certain degree of
empathy that surround stereotypes, causing the viewer
to think twice about every stereotyping again.
Cultural
barriers are found all around daily life. Vampires are
seen as monsters, cold, and devoid of emotion. And the
people who have been changed, or bitten by a vampire,
can't understand humans because their nature is now
to drink the blood of humans, causing them to behave
like beasts. Meier Link is feared by humans, because
of his violent past, and because he's a vampire. Humans
fear D because one of his parents was a vampire. The
humans see that Meier Link has kidnapped Charlotte,
when in truth, she went with Meier willingly. The cultural
barriers cause everyone, including D, to think she has
been kidnapped, because the thought that she wanted
to be with a vampire is just too far fetched. The perception
that the humans, and hunters, hold is what makes the
love between Meier and Charlotte forbidden. The barriers
among these different groups cause the stereotypes evoking
the various negative behaviors seen throughout the movie.
A
stereotype is a fairly solid belief. It is a belief
that a person has held for so long, that they support
it to the point of being irrational. Leila, a hunter
in the Marcus Brothers group, is badly injured in the
pursuit of Meier Link, as they have also been hired
to rescue Charlotte. D bandages her wounds while she
is unconscious. When she awakens, and sees D before
her, she immediately feels her neck for bite marks.
In obvious fear and panic, her stereotype of dunpeels
is apparent, she sees them as bloodthirsty, and that
they can never be trusted. The hatred Leila holds in
her stereotype is clear by the way she addresses D.
She immediately says, in a tone of scorn, "hey!
hey!!" Leila continues by telling D what he can
and cannot do, and addresses him as "Dunpeel,"
drawn out to sound like she is disgusted to even say
it. Later on, D is in a small town, purchasing a new
horse, because his previous one was killed. The town
has a racist sheriff. Leila, still holding contempt
for D, mentions to this sheriff that there is a dunpeel
hunter in town. The sheriff immediately responds with
shock, and disgust "What dunpeel hunter?"
The sheriff and his deputies confronted D, who had just
purchased a horse from an old man, he was still in the
man's shop when they approached. "Freeze! Put your
hands where I can see them! now!" The sheriff said,
him and his deputies all pointing guns at D. "Sheriff,
he paid good money for that," the old man said.
The sheriff proceeds to shove D's money off the table
on to the floor. "What are you doing?" the
old man asked the sheriff. "Take your money and
go! We don't want you here! We don't sell to dunpeels
in this town! Understand? Understand me dunpeel?"
The behavior of negative stereotypes is most apparent
in this scene. The sheriff does not even attempt to
know D, nor would he want to. He simply addresses D
by what he is, a dunpeel, and uses a tone of voice that
makes it as derogatory as he could possibly make it
sound. He even says everything as if he were talking
to someone who didn't understand English, or was too
young to understand anything beyond very short sentences.
The language of stereotypes is often insulting or belittling,
as the sheriff demonstrates. The extremity to which
some people take stereotypes often leads to the realization,
on the part of others, that it's childish, and they
begin to empathize with the mistreated individual, or
party.
Empathy
helps to get others to understand the party that's being
stereotyped, and often helps keep situations from spiraling
down further. In the same scene where D is trying to
purchase the horse, the old man selling the horse gets
in an argument with the sheriff. The old man tells a
story about when there used to be vampires and dunpeels
in the town. He tells that many of the children in the
town were kidnapped and the people of the town hired
a vampire hunter. And that the hunter returned the children
of the town, and killed many vampires. But also tells
that when the hunter returned to the town, he met hatred
for being a dunpeel. The sheriff commiserates with the
townspeople of the time "Can't say I blame them
for that." The old man draws a large gun, aiming
it at the sheriff, understanding that it was the only
way the sheriff would listen. The sheriff calls the
man an "old fool." To which he responds, "I'd
rather be an old fool than what you are sheriff."
The old man has sided with D, understanding that he
wouldn't want to be treated like that. And he continues,
"Get on your horse stranger." D replies, "Thank
you." The old man continues again, "No. It's
only fitting that I thank you. It's the least I can
do. I may just be an old fool now, stranger, but I could
never forget a face like yours. And I'll never forget
what you done for me back then."
Everyone
is amazed to find out that the man they're pointing
their guns at, is a man that has killed many of the
vampires they persecute. And, in a way, being forced
to empathize, their stereotype is somewhat shattered.
"Yeah, that's right, I was one of them kids. And
I always felt bad about that. The way you was treated.
How nobody stopped ya, nobody thanked ya- instead you
ignorant bastards ran you right out of our town."
The old man has always had this eating away at him,
ever since he was a child. And being able to feel that
pain, in a way, has enabled him to understand, and remove
himself from the stereotype that plagues the minds of
so many others. From a different perspective, Meier
Link wonders if anyone does empathize with his situation.
He thinks, "When the last vampire is extinct, who
will mourn our passing? Will she? Will anyone? Can anyone
understand this pain, this loneliness?" But the
cultural barriers prevent many people from understanding,
as he wishes. D has already come to a conclusion on
his place in life. When Leila and D are stranded together
in a heavy storm, Leila is forced to empathize with
him. She asks why D continues with his line of work
as a hunter. D responds "Because I'm a dunpeel,
I don't get to have a life, not like you." Leila
is in shock, she looks at D, not having realized that
he has known all along how bleak his life is, and how
matter-of-fact he expressed it. She looks off into space,
understanding a little more about what it must be like
to be a dunpeel, to not be able to have the choices
that so many others have, just by being born. Empathy
for D goes a long way for making his character true
to the nuances of communicating with stereotyped parties.
Stereotypes have always been around. The United States
dealt with it concerning African Americans, to name
a single example. When one group starts to see the other
group as not being equal, treating minor differences
as reasons for not liking, that is when a cultural barrier
is formed. The barrier leads to a stereotype, hardened
by time and a lack of empathy. When empathy comes into
play, it causes an individual's ideas in their stereotype
to fall apart, to a certain extent, or it prevents stereotyping
all together.
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