Dracula Sovereign of the Damned

Dracula Sovereign of the Damned

1980

Director- Minoru Okazaki

           

     It doesn’t get much more eclectic than this; an anime adaptation of Marvel’s 1970’s horror comic Tomb of Dracula. As an adaptation goes, it’s actually pretty good with most of the characters from the series making an appearance and most of them looking like they did in the comic though it tries to cram several years’ worth of stories into 90 minutes and, being a Japanese adaptation of a Western comic, is a little weird at times.

           

    The movie starts with a coven of Satanists trying to summon Lucifer  in order to offer him a bride. Instead, Dracula shows up and impersonates Ol’ Nick and takes the girl, Dolores, for himself.  The Marvel Dracula looked rather Satanic with his mustache, pointed ears and cape, so I can see how they would be fooled.

            

    The Satanists realize too late that they’ve been had and the real Lucifer shows up and helps them plan their revenge, which culminates in killing Dracula’s new born son, Janus. Then God steps in, brings the kid back to life, except fully grown and in a super hero costume, and sets him to work to hunt down and kill his father, Dracula. 

    

    Drac however, has a showdown with Satan and loses his vampire powers and then has to set out on a rather humiliating quest to get them back. My favorite part is when Drac, after becoming a human, realizes he hasn’t eaten in 500 years, but has no money for food and has to mug a couple for money to buy a burger. Oh how the mighty have fallen!

            Old school anime fans will love this as it has the look and feel of old Robotech and Voltron cartoons (it was distributed in the States by Harmony Gold). You may recognize some of the American voices, most especially Dan Woren (Roy Fokker in Robotech and Jagi in Fist of the North Star), Edie Mirman (Miyra from Robotech) and Richard Epcar (Batou from Ghost in the Shell) as the voice of Satan himself.

            

    Weird and fun I highly recommend it to old school anime fans.

Pretty faithful transition from comics to anime, at least as far as the character designs go.