Oh ho ho ho. Just because I’m not being forced to watch specific anime any more doesn’t mean that I won’t be watching any more crap. That said, the crap is still going to be crap that there’s some kind of reason to watch, rather than being crap because they are eminently forgettable, eminently disposable filler. And besides, it’s more fun to write about a really bad show is bad rather than trying to figure out how to find something to say about something like uh, E’s Otherwise.
In the case of Dracula: Sovereign of the Damned, you’ve got a lot of your standard “bad anime” concepts. The animation is pretty bad (albeit not yashigani bad or anything) with static establishing shots that are held for what feels like an endless amount of time. There was obviously zero research done, as Boston looks like I dunno, Stockholm or something. There are plot elements that are wildly out of place, like the above disco vampires or the whole “Dracula in looooooooooove” plotline. There are next to no transitions as the movie instantly advances a year or switches to New York City.
But most importantly in any truly bad bad anime, Dracula: Sovereign of the Damned has an amazingly terrible dub. The level of acting in the dub is like, Mystery Science Theater 3000-level bad. Again, watch the above video with Stan Lee, Vampire Hunter, emo Dracula in Love and Disco Stu and the random vampire lady. I swear that this is totally the dub and not like some parody fandub. Purists may slag on watching current dubs rather than sticking to the subs, but nothing these days is remotely on this level.
So, is this some sort of dracula retelling with a bit of the most dangerous game mixed in, or am I just imagining something much better than this?
Not even remotely a retelling. It’s SUPPOSED to be a Toei-Marvel Comics collaboration, but what it turns out as…yeah.
burn baby burn, Disco inferno?
where is my flamethrower?
I didn’t even need to click on the video. This one gets flogged on an annual basis at AWA. It’s usually introduced with the tagline “Dracula eats a hamburger.” I’m not sure which is worse- this anime or the Frankenstein one. Whoever wins, we lose, I guess.
This is hilarious! Stan Lee, Vampire Hunter is awesome.
“You will join me as a hunter wose whole life is dedicated to hunting Dracula down and liquidating(?) him!”