Blood - The Last Vampire

Amazon.com

Saya, the last true vampire, battles the bloodthirsty demons attacking an American base in Japan during the Vietnam War. Much of the story takes place during the late afternoon and evening, and the artists use shadows, reflections, and light with exceptional skill: the look of the film is more interesting than the underdeveloped story. Saya wields a deadly sword and pursues her foes with chilling ferocity, but she's silent and sullen and fails to develop as a character: the viewer has no idea how she views her deadly occupation. Albeit a visually striking film, this dark, violent work fails to live up to its billing as "Japan's first fully digital animated feature film": the three-dimensional objects and effects are digital, but the two-dimensional characters are hand-drawn. Nor is the film really "from the creators of Ghost in the Shell." Blood came out of a group that Ghost director Mamoru Oshii organized to encourage young talent, but he didn't direct it. And at 48 minutes, it's very short for a feature, although this edition includes a rambling 21-minute making-of film and a 3-minute trailer. It seems unlikely that Blood "will transform Japanese animation," but other artists may use its visual style to tell more compelling stories with better-developed characters. Unrated; suitable for ages 17 and up for profanity, brief nudity, and considerable violence. --Charles Solomon

Customer Reviews:

Great prequel to the series "Blood +"-but you must keep that in mind when watching.......2007-09-09

Saya is a vampire exterminator during the Vietnam war. She is for the most part controlled by an organization called Red Shield to carry this task out.There is not much character development because she has been suited to that purpose only. But, she is also the last vampire herself. So, a little twist there. It is a short film, about 45 minutes. So I personally wouldn't spend much money on it-maybe rent it if you're able. Unless you are a fan of the series and collect the DVDs, then it would be worth it.

But, this film is detrimental if you are a fan of the series "Blood +"-which is presently airing on Cartoon Network on Adult Swim. They are showing episodes from about episode 24 on-the previous ones can be found on online sites such as Veoh and YouTube.

In conclusion, if you are intrigued by this movie or by the series, they are necessary bedfellows to make the story complete. I would suggest that one see this movie first so you can see Saya evolve from a vampire(chiropteran)slaughtering machine, into a gentler, more likeable character. If you go the other way, you might be totally turned off by this movie, as it would be showing a much uglier side of Saya after you've grown to like her.As an extra note, a chiropteran is actually, technically a bat in real life. So, the vampires could be viewed as bat-people, which is not a far departure from the popular idea of vampires.

If you are an anime fan, I would highly recommend this film, at least to see it, but not necessarily buy it only because of the short time span. And if you are a fan of the series, you would want to add it to your collection. You just have to be prepared to see a Saya you're not used to. This is also the first film of it's kind, with the integration of CGI into the traditional animation style-so anime buffs will want to see it for that reason as well.

Blood - The Last Vampire.......2007-09-07

Great movie, Digitized anime looks awesome, just that it is really short.... about 45 min. long. Still worth seeing though.

Nice movie, but feels like a teaser.......2007-04-09

Blood - The Last Vampire is a riveting and involving piece of anime; probably one of the best I've seen in terms of artistry. The animation isn't as fluid as, say, Steam Boy or as technologically groundbreaking, but it uses shadows and sound to get some great suspense going. That said, a nicely tuned TV and audio equipment is a must with this movie.

I was supposed to give this movie a 4-Star rating, except for one thing: story, or the lack of it. As a feature film, Blood - The Last Vampire felt more like a teaser than anything else. Little plot, but lots of action, intrigue and excitement. What's more, the video promised a running feature length of 85 minutes...the movie is only about 45 minutes long. The rest is a behind-the-scenes look at the movie.

Good but not great.......2007-03-04

At around 45 minutes, Blood - The Last Vampire is an anime that could have been something. The story introduces the main character, Saya, quickly and gives very little history about her. You're given a little action right from the start then story begins to unfold, but it is never fully developed, leaving you with a bunch of questions. The last 15-20 minutes are filled with more action, but once its done, your left wanting more. The animation itself is great, but again, seeing what the animators are capable of makes you wish the film was longer. If your an anime fan, you should see it, to at least appreciate it for its merit.

I hope this is the last vampire.......2007-02-11

There is better vampire flicks out there. To be honest this is the worst one I ever saw. The first problem has to be the animation. Rarely does animation play a factor with me, because if the animation is great but the story and characters are weak, then the animation is the least factor. But the artwork in blood is so ugly, its seriously painful on the eyes. Those have to be the ugliest characters I have ever seen. The character development and plot was very weak due to the movies length. The action scenes were nothing special. There's lots of blood and some gory deaths. However I would say at that the most this is good for a rental. If you must see this, then you should purchase this as cheap as possible. Nobody should pay more than 5 bucks for this. If you want to check some anime vampire anime. Then I recommend these way before this.Hellsing, Vampire Hunter D and Vampire Hunter D Bloodlust.

Essence of Anime: Blood the Last Vampire

Average customer rating:

She's the last original

Essence of Anime: Blood the Last Vampire
Director: Hiroyuki Kitakubo
Manufacturer: Manga Video
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B000S1MMA2
Release Date: 2007-09-04

Customer Reviews:

She's the last original.......2007-09-05

Your basic vampire is perfectly suited to anime -- beautiful, seductive, and opulant.

Well, most of them, anyway. Things are a bit different in "Blood: The Last Vampire," an anime movie that bravely throws out most of the vampire preconceptions, as well as plot exposition. It's not a total success storywise, but it's an effectively dark, moody piece of bloody action.

As the movie opens, we see a mysterious young girl, Saya, on a train. When the lights go out, she savagely attacks a man at the other end of the train with a sword.

It turns out the man was a Chiropteran -- a sort of bat-vampire. When her coworkers arrive to clean up the mess, Saya learns that the Chiropterans have infiltrated the general public -- and she has to go undercover at a girls' high school near an American military base. She isn't happy about it, but goes anyway.

Saya begins snooping around for evidence of Chiropterans, and finds it -- a pair are disguised as ordinary high school girls. But when she corners them, a timid nurse accidentally gets involved in the bloodbath that ensues -- and a deadly cat-and-mouse game between the mysterious Saya and her monstrous prey.

"Blood: The Last Vampire" is one of those movies where the plot isn't the overwhelming force. In fact, the actual story isn't much -- it feels like tuning into an episode of a weekly TV show, without much explanation for who Saya is and what is going on. And after the first third, the movie is pretty much entirely devoted to "Saya hacks and slashes her way through the school while the nurse screams a lot."

But the visual presentation is stunning -- every scenes is saturated with shadows and vague, pale light. And while many scenes are quiet and almost motionless, the action scenes explode with kinetic energy, splashes of gore, and occasionally a raging fire. And when Saya jumps into action, the entire world seems to speed up into a blur of violence and splattered blood.

One thing you have to say -- there are no stereotypically pretty, European vampires here. There's only Saya -- a cold-eyed girl who looks like Angelina Jolie's gothy baby sister -- and a lot of grotesque bat creatures, with huge muzzles and big claws. The most "human" person here is probably the timid nurse, but we never really get to know her until the end.

"Blood: The Last Vampire" isn't too worried about having a plot, but for splattery action and fast-moving vampire battles, it's a dark diversion.

Blood - The Last Vampire (UMD Mini For PSP)

Average customer rating:

Some good news, some bad news.

Blood - The Last Vampire (UMD Mini For PSP)
Director: Hiroyuki Kitakubo
Manufacturer: Manga Video
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: UMD for PSP

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ASIN: B000A158SS
Release Date: 2005-08-23

Customer Reviews:

Some good news, some bad news........2005-10-20

I bought Blood: The Last Vampire because I'm not a huge Anime fan, but really appreciate this movie's beauty and story. Seeing it on DVD, I knew the video would look great on the PSP screen, and for that most part, that's true. Also, the movie is about 45 minutes long, so the PSP is a great outlet for it as opposed to a painfully long feature film (I prefer to watch TV shows and shorter films on the PSP because I rarely have long spans of time to devote to PSP-filmwatching).

The bad news is related to the video quality itself. The studio converted the video to UMD as a matted-widescreen version (not sure of the technical term), so when you first play it, you get a small widescreen picture with "black bars" on ALL FOUR SIDES. You must use the "Zoom" option under the PSP display menu for the picture to fit right. A minor annoyance, but worth mentioning.

Also, the black-level is washed out. I've found that watching the UMD at the lowest brightness setting on the PSP screen is most accurate color-wise, but with such beautiful animation, it's sad to see the contrast couldn't be nudged up some. I don't know if this represents studio laziness, but I understand this is common on UMDs.

Ultimately, entertaining and a great flick for the UMD format, but not perfect.

Average customer rating:

Blood: The Last Vampire [Region 2]
Starring: Youki Kudoh , Saemi Nakamura , Joe Romersa , Rebecca Forstadt , and Stuart Robinson (II)
Director: Hiroyuki Kitakubo
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B00005MAGM

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