Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #10661 in DVD
• Released on: 2001-09-17
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
• Formats: Anamorphic, Animated, Dubbed, PAL, Widescreen
• Original language: English, Japanese
• Subtitled in: Japanese
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 69 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
Blood the Last Vampire brings a moody atmospheric quality all of its own to the Japanese 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 her killings, to pose as a new pupil at an American school on an air force base. The Vietnam War is underway, but this does not concern her--she is involved with a far older war. All we ever find out is that she is not quite human, and that two of her schoolmates (and a whore in the mean streets adjacent to the base) are something yet again. Much of what ensues--gore and metamorphosis and nightmare chases--is all the more confusing for being seen through the eyes of a schoolteacher who never learns very much. This is a dreamlike film which does not have to make entirely literal sense, far more so than the creator's more famous Ghost in the Shell. It is also a memorable stage in the development of digitised animation. --Roz Kaveny

Special Features
16:9 Anamorphic Wide Screen
English
Japanese
Region 2
Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround English Japanese
Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround
Original Japanese Trailers
Image Gallery
DVD ROM
Manga Previews
Web Links
Danish\English\Finnish\Norwegian\Portuguese\Swedish

Synopsis
On an American military base in Japan, a new kind of vampire emerges: Teropterids. They are monstrous shape-shifting creatures that can only be killed with special swords. A mysterious girl named Saya is the last "original," the only person capable of dealing with the menace of these monsters. Posing as a student at the base's school, Saya races to hunt down the beasts before they turn an ordinary Halloween bash into a bloody massacre. Production IG, known for their pioneering digital effects, describes BLOOD: THE LAST VAMPIRE as a full digital animation movie, which means that even though many sequences were animated using pencil and paper, the artwork was digitally scanned. Inking and coloring were completed by computer, as were several other special effects. Hiroyuki Kitakubo was chosen to direct the project because of his digital experience (he oversaw the movie sequences in the GHOST IN THE SHELL game for the Sony PlayStation.) The film is also notable for the participation of screenwriter Mamoru Oshii, who helmed GHOST IN THE SHELL and has written a novel that takes place in BLOOD's universe. Despite its resemblance to BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER, BLOOD succeeds in creating its own gloomy, chiaroscuro world.

Customer Reviews

Good but HOW long?
Let's start on a positive note. This film looks great, is interesting, dark and broody, and makes good use of what it's got. But let us not beat around the bush about the problem with this film. It is short. VERY short. The product description lists the film as having a 69 minute run time but I put this on at 11.30 last night and it was over by 12.15.

I'd hate to tell people not to watch this, because it really is a good movie, but be aware that when I say it's short, it is indeed short.

Poor
OK, first of all, what is with some of you people and your grammar? Are you still in primary school or what? But anyway, this anime is poor when compared to greats such as Akira (which actually has a plot, unlike this film). The animation is excellent, the film LOOKS fantastic. However, this 'ancient immortal vampire' leading character is about as interesting as sitting in a dark room. The only characteristic she shows that is remotely fascinating is her strength, other than that she is useless! Constantly being battered in the few fights she is in, the hype she is given at the beginning is overestimating the character. This film is just boring and doesn't really have much of a point to its existence, do not buy it. If you're looking for a good vampire anime, look at Vampire Hunter D.

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.