Blood - The Last Vampire

Rating:
Summary: Decent anime movie
Review: I watched Blood the Last Vampire for the first time recently and found it to be certainly interesting but lacking in some areas. A lot of people complain about how short the film is, but I think the real problem is the story. There is a lot that is left unsaid... and a lot leaves you wondering.

Usually, I like having some things left upto the imagination, but in the case of Blood, i felt that more should have been said about the backstory... it's very ambigious (you never really quite know what the monsters are ... you don't know why Saya is working with the government... and there are many other such examples). After watching the movie, I read the summary that was given for it and both my mother and I said out loud, "Oh... so that's what that was about?" I think we learned more backstory from the summary than from the movie itself.

Still, Saya is an interesting character and I found that I liked her. She has the quiet, elegant grace that you'd expect of the last member of the race of vampires. But, I wanted to know her better. You don't learn about her, about the person she is, her motivations... you just get what you see and I didn't like that.

The graphics are beautiful. I have to say there were parts where the planes and background looked real. They alone make the movie worthy of being watched.

Overall, I'd say that this isn't the best anime movie I've seen. I wouldn't ever consider it a classic like Princess Mononoke. But it is worth a look. Give it a try. If it's your kind of movie, you'll love it. If not... you might find it's not worth watching mroe than once.

Rating:
Summary: Brilliantly flawed
Review: This is a fantastic movie. The artwork and animation is wonderfully saturated with color and fluid movement. Unfortunately, the story of Saya and her mission are nonexistant. We a treated to a glimpse of her mission, but we are never fully brought into the univers in which this story inhabits. Too many unanswered questions, but it is still a great watch

Rating:
Summary: An amazing accomplishment
Review: Yes, people will tell you the film is far too short and perhaps Saya's character is underdeveloped. However, don't let them fool you. This is a stunning accomplishment within the genre of anime. I have only seen a few anime films in my time and amongst my favorites are Princess Mononoke, Vampire Hunter D, and just recently Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust. This film is definitely on par. The plot is terrific, compelling, fascinating. The animation is almost unparalleled as far as I am concerned. For those who have witnessed Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within (another amazing film in my opinion) and perhaps others, you can truly appreciate digitally rendered animation. Not that Blood.. has an identical look or feel as the Final Fantasy film, but the potential of digital animation is truly astounding and is represented well in both films I think. Until I read the Amazon review of Blood..., I didn't realize that the film was a mixture of digital and traditional, hand-drawn anime. What an astounding combination. It is truly a beautifully rendered film on many levels. However, be warned, it is relatively short and will leave you frustratingly hanging in the worst way. But maybe there is hope for a sequel? At the very least...rent it!!!

Rating:
Summary: Great Dark-Themed Animation/Horror-Action
Review: Although there was easily enough concept to generate a full-length movie, the under-one-hour running time doesn't deter "Blood: The Last Vampire" from being a fine slice of horror animation, and turning out alot better than many far better-known, live-action vampire movies. Set in Japan at an American military base, during the VietNam War era, the lead character is a young female vampire named Saya, working with the military authorities, seemingly very grudgingly and reluctantly, to battle against other vampires who feed on mankind. A blend of traditional and computer-generated animation with great visuals (and leaning toward a more photorealistic style than most animation), Blood raises many more questions than it answers and doesn't even attempt to explain the meaning behind much of what is going on (beyond vague inferrals that can be gotten off facial expressions and the like); therefore I feel it would be far preferrable to use this midlength film as a launching point for further movies (or a Japanese TV series that would become available over here by packaging 3 or 4 episodes at a time onto DVD) than by leaving it finished where it is. Further installments could even follow through the years right up into modern-day and possibly beyond, maybe working in a number of real-life events. Unfortunately, there wasn't enough time to fully develop the characters, but Saya herself is given the most chance to gel as an individual, and given time in further entries could become one of anime's great characters. There are some terrific action sequences, and one especially poignant, quite subtle brief scene that follows a hellacious battle between Saya and a monsterous adversary tha is so well done that it positively begs for both follow-ups and more backstory to build on the hints of what we're witnessing here. Thanks to plentiful sequelization in the movie field (not a bad thing, in my opinion) there are very few non-sequelized films that not only Could use a sequel or 2, but really require it. "Blood: The Last vampire" is one of them. Even alone and of short length though, this is a great movie, one that will hopefully help bridge the worlds of horror and animation (Japanese animation) in this case) and bring fans of each into the other's realm for a wider range of what each field has to offer.

Rating:
Summary: Great but not the best
Review: This anime had some VERY nice art work, however the story lacked A LOT. It had a great story line but what it didn't give you is details as to what was going on. It's fairly hard to understand what the movie is about. I'd reccomend renting it first if possible. If you're an anime ocllector for art work I definately reccomend getting this then.

Rating:
Summary: Not worth the time.
Review: I've seen over 300 anime & OAVs & this one is nothing special. The animation alone was, well...annoying. Lineless 3DCG & lined cell art go togeather about as well as two nations at war. They used that obnoxious method of animating over live action, just like in the animated Lord of the Rings, only instead of having a creepy feeling to it, it feel more like a movie than animation, & that's bad. The color & texture are good; like the road & wood, etc. The character designs are overly realistic & very hideous. The story was really boring & it ended too quickly. It was like a short crossover of Eko-Eko & Vampire Princess Miyu, only dull & pointless.