Edit: [ Sorry everyone, I'm not sure why my review is infested with links to largely irrelevant searches ]
Blood for me was one of those films you pick up because you're in town, it's cheap, and you have no sense of control. Five minutes and seven pounds later, you own another DVD to cram somewhere onto your bulging film shelf.
I'm not sure to this day why I picked it up; I have a loathing of vampires that borders on the maniacal and yet, when I secluded myself in my favourite armchair with a few snacks and a drink, I was captured from the first moment to the last (although I did spend a few minutes screaming to the effect of "Is that all?!") Blood: The Last Vampire is a breath-taking film from one of the masters of anime (I don't care how many people try to call it 'manga'; manga style animation is called anime,
animation, anime, got it?). Without revealing too much, nor just retelling the story as some reviewers have done, I will settle only for saying that it tells the story of the steadily more overt actions of a small group of vampiric creatures called Chiroptera. Aiding the human government (well, one government anyway) is the "last" true vampire, Saya. For some reason I always want to call her Saya Williams, but that's not her name. Saya is portrayed as a believable vampire, which I think is why I like this so much and hate other vampires. Where other vampires are laugh-a-minute mischievous fools or in-your-face manic depressives; Saya is just a quiet girl who prefers to keep what she is to herself. When surrounded by humans she will act human; when surrounded by chiroptera she turns in to a killing machine.
To ask if I enjoyed this vampire film is to ask if women love naked lesbian mud wrestling. They do, but they'll never admit it to your face. From start to end you are sucked into the gritty world of pseudo-demons and teenaged katana-wielding vampire girls and, if you're not careful, you might just end up run through with said katana on the subway. The story is fantastically woven throughout if you have a mind that constantly operates to the highest rev count possible, or if you watch the movie a few times. Admittedly, huge chunks seem to go missing at the most inexplicable times. Drama strikes though, and Blood is only 45 minutes long, which should honestly be a crime in this civilised world. I quite happily would have watched for another 45 minutes; another hour, another two hours. I might even have watched for the rest of my life if someone hooked me up to a Galaxy chocolate IV drip.
The 'special effects', or in this case the animation was simply top-notch, second to none. Appleseed and Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within both feature just as brilliantly rendered backgrounds and foregrounds, but are also both CG animated. Blood is not CG animated, and thus gets extra Kudos Cookies.
Now, I'm no expert on sound in film, but this is where I have to make one niggling little fuss. The film as I watched it seemed very quiet (then again I had my sound turned low because of my neighbour), but for some unknown reason scene changes would result in a cacophonous escalation in volume, more often than not when a plane was shown. This drastic change in volume really should have been caught out, as the last thing I want is to be straining with my ear jammed against the TV speaker only to have my eardrum ruptured by another bloody jet taking off.
The DVD's special features are rather generic; making of featurette, image gallery, original Japanese trailers and those accursed "manga previews" with their over-the-top use of obnoxiously loud F list bands that seem to think mixing metal with hard trance is a good idea. It is not, people. It truly is not.
Nonetheless Blood: The Last Vampire is a brilliant take on a vampire world that you can actually believe in. It is just as multi-layered and 'real' as our own world, not even requiring much in the way of a suspension of belief. Blood is definitely worth checking out if you're interested in any of the following: - vampires (whether you love or hate cliche vampires, of which there are none in Blood) - anime - manga - blood (had to) - brilliant films
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Production Year: 2000 - Horror - Director: Keenen Ivory Wayans - Original Language: English - Classification: 18 years and over - Starring: Carmen Electra, Anna Faris, Kurt Fuller, James Van Der Beek, Keenen Ivory Wayans
Blood the Last Vampirebrings a moody atmospheric quality all of its own to the Japanese ... more
animated film tradition. In a few short enigmatic scenes, we learn of the young girl Saya who is working for nameless government agencies and is sent, after one of ...
Postage & Packaging: £1.21 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
At the Yokota Air Force base in Japan, a nervous American military is on the brink of the ... more
Vietnam War. But a greater threat exist within the walls of the heavily guarded compound: Vampires. A team of top-secret undercover agents dispatches a mysterious...
Blood the Last Vampirebrings a moody atmospheric quality all of its own to the Japanese ... more
animated film tradition. In a few short enigmatic scenes, we learn of the young girl Saya who is working for nameless government agencies and is sent, after one of ...
Postage & Packaging: Free! Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours...
At the Yokota Air Force base in Japan a nervous American military is on the brink of the ... more
Vietnam War. But a greater threat exists within the walls of the heavily guarded compound: Vampires. A team of top-secret undercover agents dispatches a mysteriou...
Postage & Packaging: £0.00 Availability: 3-5 working days
Advantages: 2 good and 2 great episodes, excellent visuals, extensive selection of DVD extras, decent English-dub Disadvantages: Episodes and extras not quite as strong as in Volumes 2 & 3, a little heavy going for some tastes
![Blood - The Last Vampire [2000] [DVD]](http://picnicb.ciao.com/uk/78542213.jpg "Blood - The Last Vampire [2000] [DVD]")
Mar 18th, 2007
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