Lady Death

I must say that I was sort of thrilled when I found this animated movie by sheer luck on Amazon. I had been reading the Lady Death comics back prior to 2004, and then stopped, and gotten out of the loop, so I had no idea that an animated movie was in the works. And by sheer luck I happened to come across it, so of course I bought it to see what it was.

First of all, if you are familiar with the art style found in the Lady Death comic books, be warned that there is an Anime/Manga style influence to the art style in the animated movie. This might not sit well with just anybody, but personally, I found it to be alright. Although the original art style would have been (and is) better. However, I will say that in itself, then this particular art style was alright, and there were some nice details and appearances to some of the damned legion that were seen in Hell.

The story, quickly summarized, is about Hope, the daughter of Matthias, who finds out about her father's dark and unholy secret. Burnt as a witch, Hope calls out to her father and ends up in Hell. Here she sheds her identity and becomes Lady Death, hellbent on taking revenge on Lucifer, the Lord of Lies.

Right, well the storyline itself was simple and easy to follow, and would be a great introduction to those not having read the comic books. Was it impressive? Well, yeah, if you haven't already read the comic books. If you have read them, then this approach to the story of Lady Death is sort of a mediocre one.

If you watch this animated movie, forget what you know from having read the comic books, and just watch this for the entertainment. It have what you need in an animated movie; demons, carnage, Hell, and scantily clad women.

First of all, I'd like to tell you that I'm into comics, anime, animation and such stuff. It is true that everyone has his own preferences, but you can trust me on this movie. I'll be objective. To begin with the story - it's OK. Follows the story line of the comic books as far as I'm familiar with them. But the animation... Well, it's not actually terrible, but it's definitely cheap and mediocre. It would be a lot better if they didn't try to imitate the anime style and sticked to the original comic book style drawings. If we pretend not to see the rare sloppy effects like fire and lightnings you could tell that the movie is made about 10 years ago and even more. Looks a little bit like the original Vampire Hunter D from 1985. Take a look at Heavy Metal FAKK 2000 for instance - 4 years ago they made a movie that looks a hell lot better! In addition to this the voice talents do nothing remarkable, the music is nothing special. So all in all - it lacks atmosphere. I watched it, but I cannot tell I really enjoyed it. It just does not capture you. There's plenty of blood and violence, but that does not impress me at all. May be it will be shocking for someone who was never watched more mature oriented animations and sees animated blood for the first time (is there anyone around?), but I don't think this is the audience for this movie. So they could add a little nudity and spice to it. The chicks around Lucifer were quite tasty, and hell, we have Lady Death herself! There are few sexy looks, but that's not enough. Instead of Bill Brown's music I think it would look better on a hard rock / heavy metal soundtrack. All in all - the movie isn't that bad, but if you want something better take the original Heavy Metal, Heavy Metal FAKK 2000, Ralph Bakshi's Fire and Ice or Wizards maybe. And of course - Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust

Although not the best Anime I have ever seen but I enjoyed Lady Death.

I have never read the comic book and just saw this at the video store and decided to give it a chance.

The animation was OK, I got the sense of the 80's anime from it which is what set it off for me. Why everyone else hates that is beyond me.

Character development was fine. I like how they brought the transition from Hope to Lady Death around. for you who don't like it, obviously wasn't paying attention. Lucifer tells you how it happens, and she used his words.

Creamtor was a nice mentor/soldier for her. his dark bruiting style was perfect for this kind of movie.

I think everyone here who has bashed this needs to take another look at it and reconsider. cause everything people have bashed this can be said about everyones favorite anime Vampire Hunter D

There's really no way to beat around the bush in saying this, Lady Death: The Motion Picture just plain sucks. Aside from the fact that the main character is a well endowed blonde running around Hell in a leather bikini with occasional spurts of graphic violence, the movie seems to have been made with the mentality of a 1980's cartoon based on a line of action figures. The bad guy himself even talks like a Skeletor wannabe, has the obligatory inept henchman, and lives in a lair that looks to have been patterned after the domain of the villain from the old Saturday morning Blackstar cartoon. Just don't expect any humor other than the sometimes howlingly bad dialogue. At other times it feels like the kind of anime tale better suited to hentai, yet there is no sex, no tentacle rape (Thank goodness!) and very little sex appeal, this despite the physical appearance of the title character. There is simply no adult edge to this material, unless you count the half-naked heroine and bloody deaths. Essentially, what we have here is a feature length episode of She-Ra, Princess of Power, but with skimpier clothes and more gore.

I am a huge fan of the comic book series, but this movie fell way below my expectations. I expected a Heavy Metal 2000 kinda feel to it.....slow moving, bad dialogue, lots o' blood.....but this was worse than anything I could have imagined.

The plot line is almost the same as the comic, but the good points pretty much stop there. The characters don't have the energy or spirit that drew my attention in the comic series. The movie only covers a small portion of the comic, and the portion used is more slow and boring than later parts. The focus in the movie is on the insignificant events instead of the more interesting overall plot of the comic book.

With the right people working on this project, it could have been amazing. Sadly, it wasn't that way, so now there is yet another terrible movie that few will see and even fewer will love. My copy will surely collect dust for years until I finally throw it out.