Blood: The Last Vampire

Since this movie was short, I will make my review just as brief:

It felt like I walked into the theater 15 minutes late, then part way in I forgot I had to be somewhere and had to leave 15 minutes early.

The animation and art design is quite nice, but the lack of character development and very minuscule plot left me feeling so bewildered and confused - I still don't understand why this was apparently so popular at the time it came out.

Blood: The Last Vampire represents something of a departure for Production I.G., and for anime as a medium, not in terms of plot or characters, but in terms of production. Traditional animation techniques were replaced completely by digital animation, whilst the character designs lost the standard "clean and simple" line structure that has been a mainstay of the animation field for many years. In addtion to these, the movie was also a departure in terms of audio, in particular because of it's dub, and also because of it's target audience (more on these points in a bit though).

But is is any good?

The story is a ... fairly straightforward tale of violence, with vampires, girls in sailor-fuku, and big things with wings thrown in for good measure. Blood is nothing if not direct with it's approach, something which I applaud as the penchant for anime has often verged on the melodramatic, and one needs only to mention a fight from DBZ...

Plotwise this is actually a rather enjoyable romp in the realms of fantasy action. Being an original concept, rather than a remake/re-envisioning/adaptation/copy, the writers had the advantage of being able to tailor the plot any way they wanted to, and with director Kitakubo Hiroyuki having artistic license with the material, it's only natural that Blood has an experimental feel to it at times. The story moves along from start to finish at a fair clip and, whilst there is very little in the way of background detail, what information is imparted to the viewer is done so in the same direct manner I mentioned earlier.

There isn't really any beating about the bush here, which is refreshing to see, however the movie does have some problems here and there with it's plot, the main one being that it simply peters out instead of reaching a proper conclusion. This can give the movie an unfinsihed feel, and can make the viewing experience unsatisfying for some people (although I don't see it as a problem - explanation later on).

As I've mentioned already, Blood was made using techniques that were a clear departure from standard anime practices, but what does that actually mean anyway?

In the simplest terms, Bood is a visual feast. The use of digital animation over tradition cel based methods means that the movie can run at a higher speed than normal. The result of this is that the animation is far more fluid than it would normally be. Likewise the "rough and ready" design of the characters, in particular the adoption of rough lines over smooth with character features and clothing, adds a far more natural element to the overall product. These two factors, when coupled with the movie's low-level of lighting and muted colour palette, produce some startling on-screen effects, in particular a kind of natural "motion blur" (ask me if you want an explanation).

The movements of the characters and the Chiroptera are extremely natrualistic, far more so than one would expect. The use of rough lines also manages to convey a depth of emotion from the characters that is just not possible to achieve with clean, simple lines. Terada Katsuya, the chief character designer, explained in an interview that the use of rough lines in the movie was to reflect the fact that there are no clean and simple lines in real life. The movie uses this fact to provide characters that have some of the most expressive features I've seen in anime.

The other area of departure was in the movie's audio department. Blood, unlike other anime before, was made to have an English dub with Japanese subtitles (making it the first anime to do so). Production I.G. had made their target audience the Western anime markets and they had to make the movie appeal to Western fans. Ironically, the dub is also one of the reasons why the movie became a hit in Japan. Most Japanese fans found it a novel experience to watch an anime that was clearly Japanese, but in English with subtitles.

Aside from the dub, the sound effects were truly astounding. The various crashes and bangs, the sickly, fleshy noises, the whines and screeches, and more besides, are all lovingly realised. The atmosphere is positively littered with noise of one sort or another, with no scene being truly silent (even though it may initially sound that way). This lends a depth to the overall atmosphere of the movie, and highlights the fact that whilst Saya may be fighting otherworldly creatures, the rest of the world is proceeding as normal.

Musically the movie is actually pretty good. What music there is, is often atmospheric, but muted to a degree so that it doesn't impact too much on the scene. This is a pretty effective way of heightening the tension, and whilst it's nothing new in terms of visual media, it's nice to see the technique used to good effect here.

Blood: The Last Vampire may be a visual and aural triumph, however this has come at a cost. The characters are individuals to a tee, however they are also one dimensional. The movie is very short, so there is little room for character development in any way. The viewer is given some hints about Saya, but these are nowhere near enough to satisfy the diehard character junkie. Everyone else though, will simply ignore this in favour of watching some great action.

I, personally, think that Blood: The Last Vampire is one of the unsung heroes of modern anime. Not only does it have some of the best action available in the medium, it also pioneered several techniques that have become standard practice in the industry. The movie has received phenomenal success both in Japan and abroad, garnering numerous awards and accolades along the way.

That doesn't mean that you'll enjoy it though.

Because of the problems it has with it's characterisations, and the story that doesn't really go anywhere, it would be easy to say that this movie is nothing more than a glorified advert for the manga and light novels. This is a justifiable perspective, however I think that rather than focusing so much on those issues, one should simply watch this as if you were watching Die Hard, Lethal Weapon, any Schwartzenegger movie, Rambo, etc. This is actually the best way to fully appreciate the movie in fact, as it isn't meant to be a cerebral effort, but an entertaining one.

If you haven't watched Blood: The Last Vampire, then you may be missing out. This is an iconic anime that pushed the boundaries of the medium, as well as reminding Western studios and critics that anime was coming of age. I found this to be a most enjoyable fantasy action romp that didn't require any deep thought or introspection. In the same direct manner of the movie, it did exactly what it set out to do.

It entertained me. Nothing more, nothing less.

This is a great anime for vampire lovers. The ending as is to be expected is pretty open-ended, although Blood+ can give you an additional fill if you want.

Over all this OVA excells. The story is so well-written, it might not have that much in the way of character development due to how short it is, but the way they present the vampires is very believable, the director himself stating how he wanted to present vampires as in-between evolution, something few anime do, or overdue as is the case of Trinity Blood, where there is evolution, but it is accompanied with near magical powers. Blood ... has none of this. The transformations are gruesome, and the end result a bat-like creature not unlike the one found in Batman. This is why the story and animation are great, they pull out all the stops to present this version of chiropterans (vampires) as something that might indeed exist.

The main character is silent, so in terms of sound there isn\'t much to say about her, but the screams of the chiropterans can be to some bone chilling, and the dialogue wastes no time ensnaring you in the story, with pretty well cast voice actors, and an ocassional scene thrown in to leave you confused and wanting more, you\'ll know when and if you have seen it, particularly towards the end.

Excellent story, inspired artwork, great battle scenes and loads of vampire goodness make this a must see for anyone into vampire or horror anime

One of the most impressive animated films in 2000, garnering a Grand Prize at the Japan Media Arts Festival, Blood: The Last Vampire is a beautiful dark anime that is lauded for its extravagant production values. But, of course, when the animation studio has the caliber of Production I.G.

In the beginning, we are introduced to Saya on a deserted train. She sits very still, unmoving. Then all of a sudden, the train stops and the lights go out. What follows next is a one-minute action sequence that is guaranteed to take your breath away and give you an idea just how bloody marvelous this film ... is when it comes to top-notch animation quality. And as though recognizing that this is, in fact, the film's main draw, the makers do not scrimp and we all get treated to fabulous shots that are pure animation genius.

Story-wise, the film falls a bit short. We don't get to find out what Saya's real nature is or why she does what she does. Admittedly, the film does not explain a lot of things about itself. Much is merely suggested and audiences are often left to speculate and figure things out for themselves.

Because of that, the entire film feels like an hour-long teaser trailer. A beautiful, 2D-3D film quality, mind-blowing trailer, that is. And in a way, it is only just a trailer, as more of Saya's story is expounded on in a later spin-off series, Blood+, another Production I.G. masterpiece.

All in all, Blood: The Last Vampire makes for an entertaining visual dessert. All sweets and sugars but very little body. I kind of like it because of that.

I apologize to "die hard anime fans", but this movie was awful.
The visuals were amazing, a lot of action, which I liked, however the story severely lacked in substance. The plot consisted of a few vague concepts, open-ended and confusing statements, and gallons of blood. We never get any insight on what the main character is, or why she did what she did. I thought it was really good (aside from the voice acting) up until the ending. It was extremely short and ended quite abruptly. I honestly thought the ending credits were a delayed beginning credit sequence. I was expecting much, much more. ... Hopefully blood + isn't as bad, and hopefully it clears up the millions of questions this movie raised.

After purchasing this I was a little dissapointed that it was only 45 minutes. But it really does have a lot of material in it.

But it feels more like a single episode of an anime. You don't really get to know the characters. You get to see some cool fighting. And get a little background information.

The animation is great. It looks really cool and works well for the story. The music goes well too.

One feature to this movie I thought was interesting was the voice acting. The movie itself is in English and Japanese. And the cast is mixed of English voice actors as well ... as Japanese. So there is no debate on which is better dub or sub, because this movie is dub and sub combined.

As a story it is alright, mainly because we don't get much detail. But the Blood The last vampire story is actually spread out through different medias. Video games, Novels and Manga.

We have the Manga and one of the novels. We just need the rest of the novels and the video games here in the USA.

I recommend this for people who want an awesome looking anime vampire movie, but not much story.

Blood: The Last Vampire feels more like an extended one off episode of an anime, as opposed to a feature film. It's short running time (48 mins) basically ensures that there is not a lot of time for character development and plot development.

Blood: The Last Vampire is particularly noteworthy for two things; being an anime filmed almost entirely in English, and being completely digitally animated, a groundbreaking new way to animate when this came out in 2000. It even lead James Cameron, of Titanic and Avatar fame, to say "The world will come to consider this work as the standard of top quality in digital ... animation."

Essentially, Blood: The Last Vampire boils down to two things; action and animation. As alluded to earlier, the plot in this movie is razor thin and merely exists as a means to get one character into another fight scene. You almost have to view this as a prologue of sorts to a larger story, one that does continue in other mediums like manga and video games.

Lucky for us, as a short, strictly action based movie, Blood: The Last Vampire manages to be compelling largely because of the aesthetics and animation. The movie is set in the American Yokota Air Base in 1966, amidst nervousness over a war in Vietnam. Our protagonist is Saya, a vampire-human hybrid os sorts tasked with killing Chiropterans, bat-like vampires that feed off of human blood. Quite literally, that is the entire plot. Even the number of characters with significant roles is kept to a bare minimum, outside of David, a member of Red Shield organization he and Saya work for, and a school teacher who gets to see all the carnage of the fights before her eyes, we really don't get to know anyone. Even Saya and David have precious little information about them revealed.

But the film is really a sight to behold. The digital animation allows complex movements to be animated much better than traditional cel animation. Camera tricks usually reserved for live action films are used here, and everything has a fluidness and crispness that makes the action scenes extremely enjoyable to watch. The world itself we're thrust into is darkly gorgeous, too, full of grey and brown and muted lighting, the 60s setting combined with the darkness gives off an air of dystopian-esque retrofitting, even though it is not strictly a dystopian movie.

And so, for a little under an hour, we are treated to a bevy of gruesome action scenes that work to impress us visually as well as impose a sense of dread. They do that admirably. Even though we don't get to know Saya and David all that well, we still find ourselves cheering for them in their struggle, the knowledge that these Chiropterans are bad imparted to us by the gruesome ways in which they kill people. This is truly a movie of actions speaking louder than words. Luckily for us, the action is fast, fluid, and exciting, and rarely feels over-the-top or unnecessary.

Combining the great artwork with a great sound department also allows the dark, fearful atmosphere to escalate. While the voice acting isn't anything to write home about - Saya is very monotonous (intentionally) and David doesn't show too much emotion either, the creepy noises of the Chiropterans, the gruesome sounds of battle, and the eerie music all lend to the atmosphere. It's not exactly a horror movie; the action is too rampant for that, but it all helps to escalate the already dark mood that the animation sets.

While Blood: The Last Vampire isn't a deep film, or one with a great plot or cast of characters, it offers a bevy of gorgeous thrills and chills wrapped up an a very aesthetically entertaining setting. It is strictly a no holds barred, non-complex action film and nothing more, but for what it's worth, it plays that part well.

7/10

You know, during my time doing these reviews I've looked at both Blood+ and Blood-C. Both of which had a lot of issues, but I felt were decent enough overall. The odd thing is that I've never seen the movie that inspired them before. This is one of those rare cases where the anime film wasn't based on anything but had a manga, light novels and several anime based off of it. Of course, that doesn't mean it's necessarily good. It might be. It could also be rather dreadful or decent enough like the anime it spawned. Only one way to find out, this is ... Blood: The Last Vampire.

We open our story with Saya working hard to hunt chiropteran because... she can? It's never really explained. She's sent to a school on an American base where chiropteran are suspected to lurk and that's where the story elements mostly end and it becomes a long string of action sequences. This film does present some interesting ideas, the issue is that they aren't quite there. The chiropteran seem like an interesting monster, but you don't learn anything about them except that they feed on humans and can shapeshift. The organisation that Saya is working with seems like it could be really interesting, but you don't learn anything about it, it's just vaguely mysterious. It's hinted that Saya has some connection with the chiropteran, but there are no details or clues about what it could be. What little plot you get is kind of a standard monster hunting story.

The characters aren't very well developed in this either. Saya is just an archetypal action girl with unclear motivations. David is largely a blank slate character. He supports Saya in battle, whether it's due to some sense of duty or a connection with her is never clear. Most of the remaining characters show up for one or two scenes before disappearing from the film. Except for the Nurse who pretty much just exists to get rescued.

The art is pretty good. There are a lot of good details in the backgrounds and the chiropteran do have interesting designs. The action sequences are well paced and intense as well. Of course, the blood in this works nothing like real blood, that seems to be an issue with the whole Blood franchise. The facial expressions are also off, frequently looking nothing like the emotion that's supposed to be being expressed.

The voice acting is one of the weaker elements. Part of the problem is that they did a lot of the dialogue in English. Which makes sense in the context of the story but neither Kudou Youki nor Nakamura Saemi has a great sense of the language. You can tell they're really trying, but a lot of the dialogue frequently sounds kind of stilted like they're reading from a script and there are some lines where you can just hear them struggle. Kudou Youki only has noticeable problems with more complicated words like "jurisdiction" or "investigate." Nakamura Saemi doesn't fare that well and just about every English line she gets sounds really unnatural. Then you have Joe Romersa who, although he has no problems with the dialogue, is just awful when it comes to acting. The music, on the other hand, is fairly well done, although it's nothing special.

The yuri factor is a 1/10. There's no yuri in this.

My final rating for Blood: the last vampire is going to be a 4/10. It's not a bad film and it obviously has some good ideas. However, the ideas aren't quite there and the execution is riddled with problems. It's kind of enjoyable in a generic action film way, but there's very little in terms of substance.

I had to stop watching about 5 minutes into the movie due to the terrible english voice actors. There is no japanese dub of this movie also, so I had to drop it altogether.

"Blood: the Last Vampire" is a good old fashioned horror/action flick... though it's only 50 min long, which is pretty darn short for a movie. Not that it's a bad movie at all. It fares pretty well despite the length, with no glaringly big flaws to pick apart.

Being an action heavy movie, the action is obvious a very important aspect, and it's something that "Blood: the Last Vampire" delivers on all accounts. The action is fluid and bloody, fast and furious from beginning to end, with very little respite in the middle. The thickly atmospheric direction is brilliant at times, especially in the opening scenes. ... The artwork is fittingly dark and generally good all round, though the drawing of the characters themselves weren't so hot.

In a break from tradition, "Blood" mostly uses English voices as it takes place in a US base. However, the original language being in English doesn't appear to have stopped the English voices from sounding lacklustre like it generally does on a dub.

It seems like a lot of people feel very much let down by "Blood: the Last Vampire", and that's probably because of the story. The main storyline in this movie is very simplistic, and mostly self contained, but it does drop tantalising hints regarding a much bigger mystery that this movie is only a small part of. Could they have revealed more by making the movie longer? Perhaps. But then again, a longer movie might not be able to incorporate enough information to make this movie complete, and you would end up with an even less standalone work that's neither here or there. As it stands, I didn't find the presence of a couple of loose ends bothered me *that* much.

Admittedly, though this movie managed to do quite well what little time it has, I did find it slightly lacking because it's so short - if you saw it at a cinema, you'd probably ask for your money back for only getting to see half a movie. Outside the cinema though, you could do a lot worse than spend 50 minutes watching this.

This title comes from the Production I.G studio (Ghost in the Shell) so guess what? It looks and sounds great. It is probably worth checking out if you get the chance just for the lush visuals. It doesn't really seem like a real feature film though. It's only 40 odd mins long. There's no real plot, there's no attempt at developing any characters with any real depth, and there's absolutely no human emotion to be found anywhere. It hints at some kind of religious and political subtext but it never attempts to really explore those avenues. There is obviously a wider story going on underneath ... but you won't find it in the film. Apparently there's both a manga and anime series so maybe those ideas are explored within those. They certainly aren't here. It's literally 40mins of someone running around chopping up demons with a sword (and at one point a spade). Let's be honest. A bit of mindless eye candy can be a lot of fun. Oh yeah, some of the English language voice acting in places is terrible too.

As a proper film this probably deserves 5/10 just about. If you want 40mins of straightforward gorgeous looking action as distraction this will fit the bill. If you're an animation enthusiast or a student of cinema then technically there's a lot to be admired here and it really is worth checking out just for the 5 star animation and visual style. I believe a certain Quentin Tarantino visited the Production I.G. Studio to learn about the techniques used in this film. He was obviously impressed as he personally asked them to do the anime segments in Kill Bill. You can see why.

Blood: The Last Vampire- just given the title, this movie carries with it the expectations, anticipations, and cultural osmosis of many years of cinema, anime, and literature from the vein of the blood sucking creature for which it's named. Everyone has heard of the mystical vampire- and we have had a cultural fascination with them for nearly 200 years- since John Polidori's "The Vampyre" was released. There's something enthralling about the sanguineous, and its association with the occult, something we just can't get enough of.

In 2000, Production IG went out on a limb and produced an anime original story about a vampire who fights ... and kills insane, frenetic, bloodthirsty beasts called Teropterids. Nearly invulnerable, impervious to bullets, crushing, and concussive forces, the Teropterids are a formidable foe that can only be killed by one means: the blood of a vampire. The story takes place on halloween, 1966, in a US Air Force base in Japan and the high school for the kids living there. What happens on this night is something they'll never forget... unless they're told to, that is.

The animation for this movie is near exceptional. Easily one of the better animations of the late 90s and early 00s, rivaling FLCL in quality- and as an original, did not benefit from the budgets that many contemporaries had. It has some of the best usage of 3D CGI Production IG's ever done, even better than in the Ghost in the Shell series, and the characters move with great fluidity and detail. Everything is very crisp and smooth, and the dark, subdued palette of blacks, grays, and red give it a sort of neo-noir feel.

What's even more fascinating about this incarnation of Blood is the audio.
This movie is unique in several ways- definitely a first out of many anime I've ever seen- in that it has dual audio. This movie was never originally fully in Japanese, nor an English dubbed original. It was something of an experiment to feature both Japanese and American characters who spoke their respective languages (and for a handful, both)- and an experiment that works to great success. The voice acting is handled very well, and it's not just Japanese VA phoning in some bad engrish, nor is it American VA taking a stab at Japanese phonology.
It's a true dual effort- with Japanese people voicing their language, and Americans doing theirs. As an anime watcher, I've long wanted to see a show where the voices were handled this way. It's utterly silly to think that an anime can take place in a country like Germany or England and every NON ethnic Japanese speak perfectly inflected Japanese. Blood: The Last Vampire takes a very sophisticated approach to this issue, and benefits greatly from it, while making it a rare and unusual example of the medium.

The story and characterization are sadly lacking in this, though. Where Blood+ had 50 episodes to build up characters and motives, in Blood: The Last Vampire, we're thrown immediately into the action. The movie is only 45 minutes long, but there's some real tension in the story, and some great action with the appropriate gore to match the crimson tone it sets for itself. At the same time, the motives and origins are muddled, and there's a distinct lack of a central antagonist. The characters themselves names' are recycled in Blood+, but this story has no bearing on either it, nor Blood C.
(The reader may be aware of the series Blood+ or Blood C- which are related, but this was the original version before the manga was written, which would then be adapted into the popular Blood+). It serves best as a standalone bloody action romp involving some familiar but different characters.

Blood: The Last Vampire has a lot to offer in a little package- excellent animation that's held up very well, a mindless but fun action plot, and some very unusual, but well executed, voice acting. For anyone that's seen Blood+ and wants a little more, one can't go wrong with this.

I watched the movie out of curiosity after reading some interesting background on how the movie is a critically acclaimed one and how the series Blood+(2005) and Blood-C which is about to be aired on TV at the time of the review's writing traces its roots on it.

The story is about a girl named Saya, she has a very serious face that always looks angry, she wields a katana, and that she uses it to slash-to-death the demon-like creatures called "Chiropterate." What is more intriguing about her is that she works as an operative to a secret agency which locates and hunts down those demons. ... The setting is in an American Air force based in Japan and its surrounding civilian areas sometime in the 1960s. Little time is wasted in introducing the main plot as it begun with Saya successfully hunting a Chiropterate in an underground train and the revelation on how the creatures have infiltrated the surrounding civilian areas, her job is to find and kill them before they could cause any more deaths. What follows is a search-and-destroy mission that spans a couple of land marks such as the local school, the US Air force base, and the town along the vicinity. The ending leaves something for the viewers to ponder about as it has many questions unanswered given the very short runtime of the movie.

Animation is probably the highlight of this movie, it is a year 2000 animation but clearly it’s a class on its own during that time. The environment is very detailed and simply breathtaking, potentially rivaling even today’s best animations. The lighting effects are very well done and tiny details such as grain-like substance and motion blur in several fast moving scenes added even more impressive effects. The character designs somewhat resembles that of the original Ghost in the Shell movie, which gives this unique and detailed facial expressions that really describes what the feelings of the characters are and added the much needed seriousness as what the movie is all about. Other notable features of the animation are the smoothness of the character movements, the environment, and that of the transition scenes in general. The action scenes are also impressive looking, notable because on how the environment changes so much from being neat and tidy to a messy place due to the destructive effects of the fights. The debris, scratches, the blood-bathe, and other elements that make the place really looks like a fight did happen there are present.

Sound effects are something the movie isn’t shy showing off. The soundtracks on the background is astonishingly good and convincing, especially since one of the setting is set on a Halloween Party complete with American music bands playing music appropriate for the occasion, it feels very American which is an added bonus to the viewers. Other sound effects such as shouts, screams, sword slashes, falling cabinets, and monster howls are also very well done; I personally got goose-bumps just from hearing the characters scream like there is no tomorrow for them. One of the important highlights of the movie is the dubbing which has both Japanese and English voice actors on it, so in effect the American characters really look like Americans because the dubs are obviously done by American voice actors, makes you think it’s done with western audience in mind while still feels very Japanese.

Character is something the movie didn’t really focus on. The movie revealed nothing much about the main character Saya aside from the few things hinted on the movie, more so on the other characters which are not really that many by the way such as David which pretty much her companion in her mission, and the school nurse which has a vital role on the story. However, I like how everything flow smoothly, I can say that the producers did a good job in making an interesting movie that focus on its presentation and story, and not much on the characters.

Blood: The Last Vampire is really a surprised find. The movie has an interesting plot accompanied by outstanding animation and sound effects that are truly impressive. My overall impression of this anime is that of very positive, this despite the relative shortness of the movie and lack of any character development as it didn’t really take away the enjoyment that I have in watching it other than the fact that I want more. I would recommend this to anyone who likes watching movies with supernatural and horror genres, as well as to anyone who simply wants a good anime to watch.

This Anime wreaks of win...

From the delicious, and I mean delicious (If you\'re a chiropterin) character animation, to the sensational audio, this anime appears as if it is a comic, not that I read comics, just I heard that they say "in a flash" a lot during regular volumes...

The story is an Anime story that brings up a lot of questions that don\'t get answered, this is the best way to make an Anime, and adds to fan support, that\'s why FLCL\'s so great, because it makes no sense at all...

Overall, I\'m smelling win, and this win, is like no other,

If Blood : The Last ... Vampire were a pair of socks, I wouldn\'t need foot powder when I\'m in my 40\'s and about to take a nap...

If you don\'t see this, it\'ll be like when the Wicked Witch of the West got splashed with water, your world will be exactly as she describes it, but for longer than the time it typically takes for a witch to melt...

Also, if you watch this series, I guarantee that you will enjoy Saya\'s pure win, it is like no other win, because it is not based on typical female "features" (featurez)

Okay, watch it or I\'ll have to get the banhammer... 0_0

This movie was alright, but I was a little dissappointed when I saw this on TV because I didn't know at the time that this forerunner of Blood+ only had three of the main characters from the series and they were VERY different. WHERE'S HAJI?!?! was my exact thoughts throughout the entire movie. But that aside, it was pretty good, the art reminded me alot of Ghost in the Shell and the dubbing was decent if I recall correctly. My only other negative comment is that the movie was a bit on the short side and it could've been a lot better if it was ... a little longer.

Excuse me, I don't usually write in English. If you want you can read my review in Spanish.

When someone intends to immerse themselves in the Blood franchise, it should be noted that the starting point is found in the 45-minute medium-length film directed by Hiroyuki Kitakubo (Roujin Z, 1991; and Golden Boy, 1995-1996): Blood: The Last Vampire ( 2000). At the time this film triumphed, winning awards at film and animation festivals and praise from numerous fans and some critics. Part of this success was due to the fact that it was a film designed to reach foreign audiences, with attractive plot elements for a ... non-exclusively Japanese audience and the filming practically in English. But its success also lay in the use of digital animation for various stages of the production process, such as coloring. At a time when anime was changing traditional methods for digital ones, it made it stand out among the majority, especially since the result was much more spectacular.

Unlike other works in the same franchise, Blood: The Last Vampire can be classified as a simple introduction to its universe. In fact, very brief because it barely provides information on who the secret organization, Saya and the Chiropterans, would become. In simple terms, it is an action movie with horror elements that is about a powerful vampire slaying evil beings that threaten the human species. Nothing more. It could almost go through a chapter of some action series without much pretense because it is, from the point of view, basic even for the action cinema of that time. It hardly has a minimal context capable of answering the viewer's questions about the key elements of the narrative.

However, outside of its excellent production we can point out more than one notable trait. One of them corresponds to its atmosphere, characterized by being gloomy and dull. The weak lighting, the brown, gray and black colors, the pale skin of the characters, the dominance of the night or the last moments of sunset, the silence or the cold demeanor of Saya. All the elements contribute to leaving this feeling that the whole is quite gloomy. A merit that is rare in Japanese animation, where even in horror works there are too many flashy and extravagant facts. Although what is most striking is that it is subtle in limiting dialogues and prioritizing silence, demonstrating that he knows how to communicate without words. An example is the scene in which Saya expresses compassion for the monster, since she is dying and she prefers to kill him using her blood.

Another highlight is, of course, the action. Despite lacking the distinctive disproportion of the more violent anime, Blood: The Last Vampire is characterized by confrontations with monsters in which the action is gory and agile. He would have said fleeting, but Saya's fighting is complicated due to the lack of an effective weapon. A fact that, by the way, gives tension since Saya is not exactly a weak girl. Not having her sword in good condition and having to take care of a hostage, Saya experiences various situations where she is on the ropes. My biggest but, however, is that there are no great encounters. It all comes down to enduring and slowly damaging the monster while she waits for her new weapon to be brought to her. Mind you, the moments when she carries out her execution are incredible. See when she kills her prey on the train, with the lights flashing and the camera thrown.

Unfortunately, the good points I've just listed and explained don't excuse a big problem with the movie: the characters. The protagonist, Saya, is the biggest drawback because the character is dry and cold. At no time does she open herself to the viewer, but she limits herself to fulfilling her mission and looking for a way to carry it out. We know that she is characterized by being lonely, surly and antisocial with those around her, but at no time are the reasons behind it explored. Obviously, the subtext gives us to understand that her character carries an internal conflict related to the fact that she is the only one of her species and with her distance between her and us. In fact, the brief relationship between Saya and the nurse brings out this problem a bit because of the way he interacts with her in the midst of danger. However, the conflict finally remains in the shadows and the image that remains of this relationship is that of a woman who is screaming and another who tries to get rid of the first. There is less to speak of enemies because of the very "bright" hole in it. They could be replaced by other monsters with the same attributes and there would be no difference. Beyond suggesting a certain desire to survive, I find no question linked to these. The only credit I can find is her gruesome design, which illustrates how she is a creature less than a vampire.

You can read my review here: https://elarmarioanimados.blogspot.com/2020/10/resena-blood-last-vampire.html

Blood: The Last Vampire (2000)

I see what they wanted to do, a darker setting with a schoolgirl, fine. It was awful, it had no soul whatsoever and felt so rushed it may as well have not been produced.

The art is fitting with its age and is pretty decent. The sound isn't bad either.

The characters are soulless and have no meaning, it tries to cover so much so quickly that honestly, it sucked. If they didn't try to build the world and give it reason and just let it be action then it would have been fine, but this way made it a worthless ... use of time.

3/10, The looks and sound are decent for its age, otherwise, it was pointless.

Rate a 5
English dubbed (note: English dubbed version contains some Japanese audio. It is embedded into the story that is why.)

Story
Bland. Does not build on tension. Only found one or two scenes to have light scares. Action focused not as focused on character build.

Art
animation/art fine. The dark touch applied to the art works well with the light horror concept.

Sound: a small annoyance with language change out but once you understand the plot it has to be that way.
...
character: limited to all players. The only player that i felt had a good character profile is the witness. The witness mind you was a semi minor character.

Ending remark: Light based horror flick on vampires. Blood portrayal was not realistic which kind of destroyed the mood. Characters decisions made in the film were somewhat perplexing. If you don't care as much on plot and want a cheap thrill check it out.

Review:
Story/Plot: Narrative-wise, this short film doesn't go anywhere, and the plot is very miniscule as well. Instead of finishing off with a proper conclusion, it dwindles down and comes to a complete stop. This left me very confused at the end. What was up with that twist at the end? It ends up feeling largely unfinished. Nothing is really explained, thus we don't know what drives the characters to do what they do, like Saya, who just seems to be killing demons just because she can. Rather weak in this department.
Characters: It suffers from the same thing the story does: The duration of the film. ... We aren't given enough background information, or more information in general, about any of the characters. All of them are flat and one-dimensional, even Saya, who's the main character and the one we are given the most information about. This also means that there's no room for characters to develop or for the audience to care about the characters.
Visuals: Now we're getting into the real meat of this film! The art style is unique and stands out a lot amongst the average anime. It looks really damn nice! It utilizes rough lines as opposed to smooth ones, and combines them with other features, most notably the desaturated color palette and its low level of lighting. This creates some very pleasing shading, too. Not to mention the CGI in this film is mind-blowingly good. For something that came out in the 2000's, the CG holds up better than most anime today. The backgrounds and the movement of CG objects look fantastic! The animation, dear lord the animation! It's of exceptional quality, as expected from Production I.G! Tons of astonishing sakuga, very expressive character features, graciously smooth character movements and action sequences, and stupendous visual effects like the motion blur make this a true feast for the eyes! Definitely the highlight of this film!
Audio: The dubbing, to my surprise, was really damn good! English has never sounded this good in an anime's original audio! The sound effects, like the animation, are top-notch. The music is also a treat. Mmm, exquisite.

Overall: Blood: The Last Vampire is a film that although lacking in depth, is an anime that you definitely shouldn't miss out on. It along with other anime like FLCL, helped anime take a step forward in animation quality. Those looking for a short, action-packed, high production quality film that doesn't require deep thought will love this wonderful film; while those looking for something with more meat and less sweets probably won't enjoy it as much. 6.69/10, rounded to 7/10 for MAL score!

Τhe blood franchise is either hated or loved by the anime community. And while some of it's titles are not so strong like the Blood C anime and it's movie that came after, ''Blood the Last vampire'' is probably the movie that even non fans of the franchise liked. The story is indeed interesting and because is the first entry of the series you don't need to watch any of the other anime of the series in order to watch this. It introduces you to Blood universe resembling more on Blood plus's though than Blood C's. The concept is the same a girl named ... Saya is fighting a non-friendly to humans species named chiroptera. The movie is mostly a fight between her and those creatures so you expect only to see action, action and action. Which is exactly what this anime gives. So don't expect any deep story but an awesome fighting anime. The only thing I didn't like was the ending which was kinda rushed and the length of the movie which was too short, not even one hour long. The art was simply flawless it reminds us why Production IG is considered one of the best animation studios in Japan. With it's dim drawings the anime gets you right into the dark world of Blood and with it's flawless animation it delivers amazing action scenes and fights. The sound section was remarkable. This anime is mostly voiced in English because some of the heroes are supposed to be Americans. And while the Japanese voice actors have a terrible history about terribly spoken English in this anime the results are wonderful. The voice actors are speaking English so fluently that initially I thought that I was watching the English dub of the anime. From the protagonists to the sideshows, either in English or Japanese language all of the voice actors were amazing. This proves how professionally this anime was made in all of its sections. About the characters I can't say much because due to the anime's short length the characters have no time for development and whatsoever. But you won't watch this anime for it's characters anyway (we have blood+ for that) but for it's awesome fights, so I don't believe any serious damage was done there. And also David from Blood+ one of my favorite characters in anime was playing a big role there so I believe this was a really good reason to give in the character section an 8. Summarizing, ''Blood the Last Vampire'' was a really well-made anime, with a rather interesting story and amazing fights. Due to its really short length it's watched really easily and I don't believe that you will have a bad time watching it.