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| Blood - The Last Vampire | 
 enlarge | List Price: $19.98
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Avg. Customer Rating:  (based on 241 reviews)
Sales Rank: 37658
Category: Video
Actors: Youki Kudoh, Saemi Nakamura, Joe Romersa, Rebecca Forstadt, Stuart Robinson
Director: Hiroyuki Kitakubo
Publisher: Manga Video
Studio: Manga Video
Manufacturer: Manga Video
Label: Manga Video
Format: Animated, Color, Dubbed, Ntsc
Languages: English (Original Language), Japanese (Original Language)
Media: VHS Tape
Running Time: 48 minutes
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 7.3 x 4.2 x 1.1
UPC: 660200407834
EAN: 0660200407834
ASIN: B00005KA8J
Release Date: July 31, 2001
Theatrical Release Date: August 17, 2001
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Description
As Japan's first fully-digital-animated-feature film, Blood: The Last Vampire is unlike anime features of the past. While the character designs and backgrounds were created using traditional drawing techniques, these elements were painted, compiled and filmed using computer technology. The process was enhanced by the inclusion of digital lighting effects and revolutionary computer generated models, plus a variety of innovative camera techniques. The highly technical standards used in the film also extended into the musical score and sound effects which were mixed in Hollywood, CA. A 'first-time' for an anime film, Blood: The Last Vampire features a number of American characters with more than ninety percent of the film's dialogue written and spoken in the English language. The leading role of Saya is voice acted by Youki Kodoh (Snow Falling on Cedars). The cooperative planning behind Blood: The Last Vampire was supervised under the direction of the acclaimed Japanese animation director Mamoru Oshii. Under a study group called 'Team Oshii', the majority of the creative staff where the same artists instrumental in the development and production of the smash Japanese animation masterpiece Ghost in the Shell. The film was directed by Hiroyuki Kitakubo who startend later, alternate versions of two of his classics, Baseball and Football and A Place for My Stuff.
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
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| Customer Reviews: Read 236 more reviews...
 I can't speak Japanese January 5, 2009
The CGI graphics are wonderful but no one tells you before you rent the movie that more than half of it is in Japanese and there are no subtitles. I became lost as to what was really going on. My advice, if you want to see it buy a copy on dvd so you get subtitles.
 Vampric Anime December 21, 2008
There's some pretty bad vampire anime out there and there's some very good...and then there's this movie.
The original voice acting is good, the animation is fine, the look of the characters is....different. I liked it, but I realize that not everyone does. I love how uh, BAMF, the main character Saya is. She kicks vampire-butt and takes names. She has a super cool sword. She is emotionless and jaded.
This movie is not the best, in terms of anime, vampire anime, or the "series." I _love_ the TV series and the different mangas are at least interesting. I do think I would have been jaded and not liked this movie as much if I had seen the it after the TV series. But it is a good movie and I certainly don't feel like I wasted my time.
Short but sweet... August 3, 2008
BLOOD: THE LAST VAMPIRE tells of the horrific events which took place in a U.S. military base in Japan, just before the Vietnam War. It seems that the populace of Yokota Air Base is unknowingly suffering from a series of vampire attacks. Unknowingly, because the victims then show up as suicide casualties. So in comes the mysterious Saya, who works in concert with a covert government agency in hunting down these vampires, which are actually blood-sucking demons called the Chiropterans. Posing as a high school girl, Saya begins to nose around the base's high school, even as everyone else prepares for the big Halloween bash. More the lethal slayer type than a detective, it still doesn't take too long before she and her samurai sword stumble into something...
BLOOD: THE LAST VAMPIRE is a wicked cool anime, running at 48 minutes, which I like to pop in the player whenever I've got a dull hour to kill. This film, which came out in 2000, has a couple of things going for it. First off, the film looks amazing. The animation is absolutely state-of-the-art and about as seamless a marriage I have seen of 2D and 3D graphics. The film right away establishes an ominous mood, which it then refuses to relinquish, much credit to the brooding soundtrack. The action sequences are dynamite stuff, excitingly presented. From the moment the lights dimmed on the subway train and Saya exploded into action, I was friggin' wowwed. The shaky cam technique used at times during these action sequences is pretty effective. It doesn't hurt that the Chiropterans are imposing, scary looking things. To see a tiny high school looking girl tackle these beasties (and then relentlessly dispose of them) simply adds to the cool factor.
Her handler claims that Saya is the "only remaining original," and I guess he means she's the last vampire. But then the story doesn't delve into that very intriguing tidbit. I guess there just wasn't time for the film to drop some background 411 on Saya. What we do learn is that she's sullen and stoic and very determined. She's aggresively anti-religious. She's disdainful of people. But she carries out her missions with a grim relentlessness and a no-nonsense air. And, when she springs into action, she makes you forget that her character is pretty one-dimensional.
There's really not much of a set-up. The film plants the viewer smack dab in the thick of the plot, which I kind of like since it lends a more pronounced sense of immediacy. The movie being only 48 minutes long doesn't really bother me, although, yes, that doesn't really give the movie a chance to develop the story or its characters, who do come off as shallow. The main characters seem to be Saya, the agent David, and a plump, good-hearted school nurse in peril. It's kind of refreshing that our surly heroine refuses to be solicitous of the very frightened nurse; instead, Saya gets extremely annoyed with her. That's our Saya!
The brevity of the running time makes it seem more of an expanded episode to a series than an actual film. Then there are the unaswered questions. Just what exactly is the deal with Saya? We are clueless regarding her motivations, how she hooked up with the agency, why she can't kill humans...When she offs the last demon at the airfield, what was up with what she did afterwards? An old photograph near the end does flesh out her background some...And I don't really understand the relevance of the pre-Vietnam War backdrop (is it some kind of metaphor?). Not having all these questions answered doesn't bug me too much, but I can dig that it frustrates folks.
There's a decent amount of gore and blood splatter here, a tiny lacing of profanity, and even a brief nude shot of a suicide victim in a bathtub. So, no, this isn't for the really young 'uns. Concerning special features, the 21-minute-long "Making Of" segment is pretty dry, because it's so technically driven, focusing as it does on the CG effects. But, hey, if you're a CG freak, this might be right up your alley. There's also the theatrical trailer and a photo gallery.
Meeting Saya in BLOOD: THE LAST VAMPIRE is like briefly spending time with a stranger. You learn some stuff about the person, but not too much. You're made privy to the surface gloss, the public face, but that's all. For a span of forty-eight minutes, Saya lets us into her chaotic, violent life. But then she goes away, leaving us with the same impression we had when we first saw her - that of a sword-slinging enigma. In a weird way, that's kind of neat.
 Style Over Substance June 21, 2008
Though visually arresting, this short feature offers more style than substance, and like much anime, is limited in terms of character and narrative development. Fun for tweens and teens only.
Blood: the great disappointment March 3, 2008
As a fan of the anime episodic, and anime in general, I was really looking forward to seeing this film, however I was sorely disappointed. Not because Saya, David, and Louis are portrayed differently than in the show -- I expected that, and I enjoyed seeing these characters in a different light. As mentioned by others, the promotional materials on-line and the box both promise a run time of 83 minutes, but that's a lie... they appear to be counting all the bonus material, including trailers. Also I found the animation quite distasteful, the story to be completely lacking, and all of the secondary characters to be uninteresting or even annoying. A lot of people gave this movie great reviews, and I really wanted to, but after watching I couldn't help but feel a bit like I'd been robbed. After finishing the film after barely twice the length of a single episode of the show (with all the commercials removed), I literally went back and watched the whole thing again on fast forward and checked the menus thoroughly to see if I had somehow missed some of it. Sadly I hadn't, but I still feel like I did...
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