41 of 43 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Hiding in the Shadows, December 6, 2002
In 1966, the Yokota Air Force Base in Japan is busy with the tense job of supporting the U.S. war effort in Viet Nam. Suddenly, in the surrounding town, several suspicious suicides have been reported and students at the base school are behaving strangely. Enter Saya, a mysterious swordswoman who works for a secret organization dedicated to hunting down Chiropterans - demons who subsist on human blood and are the basis for our legends of vampires. All we know is that Saya is 'The Last Remaining Original' and that her powers are considerable.
Disguised as a schoolgirl, Saya investigates the school and discovers the presence of three of the horrific creatures. In the middle of the school Halloween party, Saya desperately tries to hunt them down and kill them before they can escape or enter hibernation. If unchecked, the creatures could endanger not only those at the base, but the entire war effort.
'Blood' is beautifully made, with a careful blend of three-dimensional CGI work and classical anime illustration. This is an experimental approach that, for the most part, works quite well, heightening the viewer's sense of realism. The film gains its noir effect from very skilled use of light and shadow, and has surprising color range for having very little direct light.
Both plot and characters are minimalist in style. Nothing is allowed to interfere with the steady increase in tension and pace of action. Thus, the feature length film seems to run by like a single episode of other anime. Even so, the work is so atmospheric, and Saya so strong a character that it develops surprising levels of meaning. I picked this up expecting a pleasant vampire concoction, and I feel I got much more than that. Worth looking for.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
31 of 38 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Blood the Last Vampire, January 16, 2002
Wonderfully done graphics, really good shading and so forth.
As far as the plot goes it might as well be a situation of, Plot? Oops, did we need one of those?
Your more or less dropped into the middle of the story and then bounced from scene to scene so quickly you're still trying to figure out what was happening in the last one. Unfortunately, you never do. The only piece of evidence that even corresponds with the title "Blood the Last Vampire" is a little folder thingy but even that's pretty sketchy. Mostly you just run into some pretty fun slice and dice scenes with Saya *the supposed last vampire, or "origanal" as she is referred to all the time (I kept saying, the origanal of WHAT??)* kicking some...creature ass. That's another problem, you never find out exactly what she's killing and why and then combine all this along with Saya 's last scene and it turns out to be one of those movies that will leave you with a "Huh? Did I miss something here?" kinda feeling.
The only reason to buy this movie is for the graphics, but otherwise don't bother. Go buy Princess Mononoke or something with a halfway decent plot!
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Good, But Not Great, March 15, 2002
What struck me most about this film when I was watching it was how much better it _could_ have been. I found myself just enjoying the animation and the horror aspect of it, but disliking the lack of back-story and in-depth characterization. In short, this anime looks amazing at times, but it's rather shallow. It seems like the people who made this were more interested in making a good-looking anime rather than a well-written anime. For instance, most of the time the characters remain silent and do battle against each other. You'll find yourself wanting to know _why_ they're doing this, but they never tell you. Why is Saya fighting them? How did she get involved with this? What are her feelings about doing this? Just who are they? Since hardly any of the characters reveals his or her emotions about certain things, they'll start to resemble nothing more than cardboard cutout, static characters. They're only there to move the story along. This anime has too many questions and not enough answers.
Another negative point is the ending. I felt like they were trying to put some vague concept behind it... Something about war? What does vampires vs. demons have anything to do with the battles between men? It feels like the ending just got tacked on to make it seem like it's "deep" although it's actually not. You can't have a deep movie without knowing the characters, which we don't. It just doesn't work.
It's sad... If the makers of this anime would have just added, say, 20 more minutes and put in some back-story, characterization, anything that would have shown what made the characters tick, this film would be excellent instead of just merely good. Don't get me wrong, though, this is still an incredibly enjoyable film for anime and horror buffs. Like I said, the animation is incredible at certain times, and the demons look excellent. The way demons should look. The classic horror element is there too... Frightening monsters popping up out of nowhere to disembowel a hopeless victim. At the current price I can easily see buying this to add to your anime/horror movie collection. It's just that if you're looking for a well-done story, you're not going to find it here. If you're looking for eye candy and something to watch come Halloween, then by all means buy this.
Now, about the DVD extras: Like the amazon.com reviewer above said, the included making-of documentary just rambles on, and on... Why do we need a 20-minute documentary for a 45-minute short film? About halfway through the documentary, I started thinking to myself: "All right, I get it... They used COMPUTERS. Sheesh." That's the gist of the entire documentary. They used computers to animate the backgrounds. Big yawn. So, basically, the documentary isn't exciting... It's like a one time viewing thing. Although they do show the teaser trailer they did, which includes scenes that I guess were later cut... So that's pretty cool. The only other extras on the DVD is the official trailer, a rather short (why does everything have to be short except for the documentary?) image gallery, and a couple anime previews... Yawn. Nothing spectacular here.
Here's the quickie rundown:
Pros:
- Extremely well done animation in certain places.
- Very well done action scenes.
- It's a basically good horror flick.
Cons:
- Almost no back-story.
- Almost no characterization.
- Too short. They should have added at least another 20 minutes to flesh it out some more.
- The documentary doesn't have any major replay value, as with the other extras on the DVD.
- The ending just doesn't work in my opinion.
Overall:
Even with all the shortcomings, "Blood: The Last Vampire" is certainly worth buying. I just feel that's it's too shallow, but it's eye candy... Eye candy is fun. Hey, I like it. This anime is good, but not great. 3/5 stars.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
![[Start the discussion]](http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/x-locale/communities/discussion_boards/start-new-discussion-sec._V192250339_.gif){kind=small}
