(Okay, deep breaths..)
Brief plot summary: Doris is getting sucked on by a vampire named Count Magnus Lee. She hires a vampire hunter named D to kill the count and save her and her younger brother Dan. D, who is half vampire and has a sarcastic demon living in his hand (yes, you read that right. ^_^), agrees to help Doris for reasons of his own. For goodness knows what reason every single male in the movie (well, except her brother, who spends his time mimicking D and actually being kind of cute) is attracted to Doris, and more than half of them try to rape her/suck her blood, whatever.
And she's not even pretty!!! In fact, if you watch the scene on the road where she attacks D, she would have to go down as one of the ugliest females I've ever seen in an anime. The only reason I can think of for everyone chasing her around is what she wears. I mean, if you're going to wear a "skirt" that shows off half your panties (and the other half whenever you do your little running/jumping thing, which is often), and a leather top that's skin-tight and slit down that low, you have no right whatsoever to look surprised when you get propositioned.
Then, D refuses to take advantage of her, so she puts on this stupid little robe and goes and sticks her neck in his face, even though she knows darn well that he's half vampire! What does she think the poor guy's made of, stone? He has to practically throw her across the room to get her off of him, and all she can do is say he can suck her blood if he wants to, and flash him! AAAARRRGH!!!
I have to say that I've seen some pretty horrible examples of women in the movies, but I can't think of a single one who is worse than Doris. She's obviously had at least a little experience with weapons; at the very beginning she seems almost competent, and she still has her father's sword (he was a werewolf hunter). But instead of actually doing something to help herself (even running away!!), she parks herself by the side of the road and waits for someone to come along that may or may not be willing to help her (if they ever actually show up!!), and knowing up front that she had nothing but herself to pay with. I am absolutely disgusted by the way she puts everything in D's hands; he's a total stranger, what if he had attacked her or Dan instead of trying to help???
The only thing that keeps me from being completely blinded with rage at this movie's portrayal of women is Lady Lamika. She's Count Lee's daughter, and very proud of her lineage (the House of Lee is descended from Count Dracula). Yes, she's an evil bloodsucking demon, but she still has standards, darn it. She's absolutely horrified with the notion of her father bringing Doris, a commoner and a human, into their House, and she's willing to go to great lengths to stop him. Lamika would do anything to preserve the honor of her House; in fact, at the end, she commits suicide to preserve the shreds of honor that are all that's left after her father's final actions.
While I may not agree with Lamika's choices, I have absolute respect for her motivations. She thinks first and foremost of her family and its honor, and she herself will always take second place to that. While she's not precisely good, she has a very noble heart, and without her help the "good guys" would have lost. (Let's face it, between a "hero" who's getting smacked around and chewed out by his own dismembered hand, and a "heroine" who probably needs help figuring out what shoe goes on which foot every morning, they need all the help they can get.)
