The Vampire Hunter D movies were adapted from the novels by Hideyuki Kikuchi; the original was released in 1985 and was one of the first anime to be released outside of Japan. Although the animation is of the old style as in there is not a lot of detail in the characters expressions; the plot is simple like that out of an old western. Where the lone hero rides into town and the lead female needs saving, then she inevitably falls in love with the hero, the hero has some sort of inner turmoil and can not love. Despite the simplicity of the plot and the old fashion drawing, this movie is still a hit and to this day remains a cult movie.
Bloodlust was released in 2000 and was written and directed by Yoshiaki Kawajiri (who was also responsible for Ninja scroll) and was based on the third novel, the plot is more complex, “D” even has competition from other vampire hunters. The animation design and the detail are much better than the first, showing how far anime and the techniques used have come since 1985. And you would expect nothing less from Yoshiaki Kawajiri. All in all Bloodlust, though a good movie in its own right tends to be, as unfortunately happens sometimes when one anime is made off the back of its predecessors success, more a showcase of the animation crews abilities and as such lacks the dark atmosphere that the original had in abundance.
The old vs. new debate which one is better I would say the old is better in this instance. Now don’t roll your eyes and say I knew you were going to say that; there is ‘new’ anime out there that does surpass the original hands down, but this time is not the case. I would recommend that you definitely watch the original and if you have some free time to enjoy good anime artistry I would recommend watching Bloodlust because it is a good movie. So for all of you out there that pass over old anime just because its old; new is not always better you really should give the old ones a chance as they just might surprise you.