Blood: The Last Vampire
Comments: 11
Watched “Blood: The Last Vampire” last night and was both impressed and disappointed. The film contains some astonishing visual effects, but these don’t always integrate well into the mix between ‘traditional’ cel animation and the CG shots.
The most effective use of the mixture of these two styles was the opening sequence where we see Saya on the Ginza Line as it approaches Asakusa. Never mind that the Ginza Line is never this empty, the sequence is brilliantly cut and delivers a real jolt. “Almost Hitchcockian,” as one review has it. (John G. Nettles has a perhaps too-enthusiastic review on Pop Matters.)
The main action takes place on and around Yokota Air Base, and consequently more than half of the film’s dialogue is in English. I found myself wishing they’d spent a little more on native-language script writers and less on the CG imagery, but this is a minor quibble.
I thought the vampire/military imperialism connection was a bit muddy, although you have to respect any film which doesn’t spoon feed you these days. In this regard “Blood” is notable for what it omits: principally any back-story, which we’re left to ponder for ourselves.
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Posted to Film • 2002.11.30 (Sat) • 16:23
Comments
Posted by Gregory 2002.11.30, 23:49
I thought Blood was soso. I had a friend who raved about it, but for some reason it didn’t quite click to me (though it was quite well animated).
The one I just saw that blew me away was Hoshi no Koe (a review is here). If you can, try and find the director’s version.
Posted by Jeff 2002.12.01, 08:11
The problem with Blood is that it’s meant to be an introduction to a story continued in a Playstation 2 game - so the movie really doesn’t have much of an ending, nor does the plot get very far. It is pretty good for what it is, though, and it’s definitely nice to look at. I’m not usually a huge fan of dark, brooding anime, but I was fairly impressed.
And I’d second the recommendation of Hoshi no Koe…it’s a beautiful story and a brilliant piece of work.
Posted by Jasperre 2003.01.12, 01:02
i have to agree, i bought blood today and was quite impressed with it, yet i thought it didnt quite have the feel as some of the other, more depth manga films have, like Akira. Also there was an issue with the lenght of the film, i was dissapointed that there was only about 40ish mins of it, they really could have made the story line go alot futher,
Over all great potenial, but the story line seemed rushed, and could be built on, but overall, a nice piece of manga
Posted by John 2003.01.16, 13:31
Blood: the Last Vampire was brilliant ,but flawed. The animation was truly exellent. The problem occurred that the movie seemed to end in the middle. As if, they had run out of money in the budget.
The lack of background on Saya makes one think and consider the lonliness and anger that exist within her. This duality makes one hope for a sequel.
Blood was an excellent half a movie.
Posted by Robert 2003.01.21, 07:52
I think Blood The Last Vampire is a great movie one of the best looking animes Ive seen so far the only thing is the story left you hanging and a lot of questions unanswered. Is this just one part of a bigger series or was it suppose to be that way ? If it is the part of a series were can i find the other parts if any one knows these answers help me out send me an email.
worm28364@yahoo.com
Posted by Rein 2003.12.29, 17:51
Despite the obvious lacking in plot, Blood: The Last Vampire is a stunning visual masterpiece; the animators really beat you over the head with their technical acheivments! Like the conformist that I am, I agree with everyone that the plot was lacking in some degree, mainly because of the short time span of the film. I really didnt think about the absence of plot substance though, especially when I was viewing a beautifully drawn girl wearing a school uniform raunchingly slaughter demonic foes, blood spatting everywhere.
Whats more important is that I found an excellent music video, created by NHMK studios, that plays footage of Blood to a KoRn song. Its really quite good, even though Im not a big fan of Korn.
Heres the URL: http://www.nhmk.com/dl.html The music video is in the 2001 list and is in the second box. Enjoy!
Posted by Manny Marcano 2004.01.04, 16:39
The date is January 4 2004. I just bought, Blood: The Last Vampire on dvd yesterday. I have watched it twice since, and I think it’s really great as far as anime goes. I was really impressed by its stunning visuals. But I do agree with everyone else, the story went by really fast, and there was not any in depth story-line or depth in the characters either. I think I got the story good enough, but I just want to clear up a saying. What did David mean when he called Saya the last true original? Does it have someting to do with her blood being mixed with vampire blood? Please email me with the info. I have posted it but just in case it’s n.romano@earthlink.net. Thanks guys. Oh could you leave your email if you respond, maybe we could chat on other anime.
Posted by Blood fan 2005.05.23, 03:21
I can’t see how any of you can be so negative about such a brilliant peice of work such as Blood. What you may not know, which I highly doubt you do, I was up all morning getting the 411, is part of a series spaning over teh anime, a video game, and several manga’s. It is quite an exquisite peice, and I have seen screenies of the game, and it looks pretty good. Good luck dropping the $70 plus shipping from japan if you want the game, though.
Posted by Skawesome 2005.06.15, 15:28
It’s easy to see how one can be so negative about such a brilliant peice of work: a feature film shouldn’t require an video game and several mangas to be understood. If it were a series, fine, it wouldn’t have to be complete, but this was a movie, and movies tend to stand on their own. Honestly, if Blood would have had a “to be continued…” screen at the end, I would have been much happier. As someone else said, it was a great half a movie.
Posted by Dante85 2005.11.06, 20:13
Well for you all who think the movie was short, apprantly the imported version has 20 more minutes of film. Guess they cut out some stuff from the US’s version. Haven’t seen it myself so I can’t really say what was cut out if if it really is longer.
Posted by tank 2006.03.26, 07:42
The is continued by an anime series called blood plus, this is just for anyone who doesnt know about it.
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