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
Style Over Substance 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 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...
She's the last original Your basic vampire is perfectly suited to anime -- beautiful, seductive, and opulant.
Well, most of them, anyway. Things are a bit different in "Blood: The Last Vampire," an anime movie that bravely throws out most of the vampire preconceptions, as well as plot exposition. It's not a total success storywise, but it's an effectively dark, moody piece of bloody action.
As the movie opens, we see a mysterious young girl, Saya, on a train. When the lights go out, she savagely attacks a man at the other end of the train with a sword.
It turns out the man was a Chiropteran -- a sort of bat-vampire. When her coworkers arrive to clean up the mess, Saya learns that the Chiropterans have infiltrated the general public -- and she has to go undercover at a girls' high school near an American military base. She isn't happy about it, but goes anyway.
Saya begins snooping around for evidence of Chiropterans, and finds it -- a pair are disguised as ordinary high school girls. But when she corners them, a timid nurse accidentally gets involved in the bloodbath that ensues -- and a deadly cat-and-mouse game between the mysterious Saya and her monstrous prey.
"Blood: The Last Vampire" is one of those movies where the plot isn't the overwhelming force. In fact, the actual story isn't much -- it feels like tuning into an episode of a weekly TV show, without much explanation for who Saya is and what is going on. And after the first third, the movie is pretty much entirely devoted to "Saya hacks and slashes her way through the school while the nurse screams a lot."
But the visual presentation is stunning -- every scenes is saturated with shadows and vague, pale light. And while many scenes are quiet and almost motionless, the action scenes explode with kinetic energy, splashes of gore, and occasionally a raging fire. And when Saya jumps into action, the entire world seems to speed up into a blur of violence and splattered blood.
One thing you have to say -- there are no stereotypically pretty, European vampires here. There's only Saya -- a cold-eyed girl who looks like Angelina Jolie's gothy baby sister -- and a lot of grotesque bat creatures, with huge muzzles and big claws. The most "human" person here is probably the timid nurse, but we never really get to know her until the end.
"Blood: The Last Vampire" isn't too worried about having a plot, but for splattery action and fast-moving vampire battles, it's a dark diversion.
Why don't you get ti? All right. This movie should not be viewed as a stand alone movie, but as the prequel for the anime ,Blood+, which uses the same charachters and plotlines but takes place in modern times. Hope that helps explain the "underdone" look of the film.
Do You Like Blood? If you've been watching the Blood + seires on Adult Swim then it's only fair to warn you that this Saya's a little different from the one we all know and love. This movie is fast past and very exciting. You may want to rent it first but I can't imagine anyone not liking this film. Storyline is good and Grapgics are great. There aren't any Chevaliers or mention of them but the story's still good.
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